Archives: Timeline Express Announcements

Dr. Lena Prewitt joined the college in 1970 as one of the first black faculty members. Dr. Prewitt taught management had a lasting impact on many of her students.

On September 28th, 2018, Dean Kay Palan announced the newest addition to the Culverhouse campus, Hewson Hall. The building was named after distinguished alum Marillyn A. Hewson and will hold classrooms, large lecture halls, boardrooms and faculty/staff offices.

In 1924, the College of Commerce & Business Administration organized the first graduate programs.

After being hand-picked by Dean Bidgood to teach accounting, Paul Garner turned down the numerous offers from other universities to teach at the School of Commerce in 1939.

On May 14, 1949, Mr. A. E. Hohenberg of Memphis gave the principal address at the first annual Commerce Spring Frolics, and awards from various professional fraternities were presented. The night activities after the ceremony included a smoker in Morgan Auditorium, where professional fraternities presented humorous skits and Miss Executive Secretary of Commerce School was crowned.

In 1929 the School of Commerce and Business Administration become the 38th school to earn admission into the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Jack Fielden was named the third dean of the Commerce and Business Administration.

Serving as an interim dean while the search committee looked for a replacement for Jack Fielden, Edward Smith led the college into the 1980s.

Delta Sigma Pi originated at the New York School of Commerce in 1907. A local chapter had been active on the University campus for some time when the Alpha Sigma chapter was established in April 1926. Throughout the years, Delta Sigma Pi has continued to encourage the collegiate study of business and the tradition of presenting a key to the senior with the highest academic standing.

Launched in Fall 2016, the CREATE Path to the MBA was created for high-achieving undergraduate students majoring in traditionally creative disciplines, giving them the opportunity to complete coursework to earn an MBA from the Manderson Graduate School of Business in only one calendar year beyond the completion of an undergraduate degree.

The Commerce Club was established in the fall of 1922 by students and professor H.H. Chapman. The Commerce Club “sought to advance the purposes of the Commerce School by creating a spirit of good fellowship and a closer affiliation among students of the school.” The initial members held biweekly meetings and hosted business leaders and instituted the inaugural Commerce Club banquet for students, faculty, and alumni to meet and exchange experience and ideas.

On Commerce Day and the 32nd Anniversary of the School of Commerce, February 15th, 1952, the Commerce Building was renamed Bidgood Hall after esteemed Dean Lee Bidgood. Originally proposed in October of 1949, the request was met with overwhelming support from the entire university.

In the fall of 1928, construction was completed for the Commerce Building, the Commerce School’s first building, and opened for the fall semester. The Commerce Building was a dream of Dean Lee Bidgood’s and would later be named after him in 1952. The building originally housed 14 classrooms and multi-purpose rooms as well as 16 offices. The Commerce Building was dedicated on October 22nd, 1928 on the University’s Homecoming.

As enrollment increased, the need for more space became immediate and Dean Bidgood decided an expansion of the Commerce building was necessary. In September of 1939, the new wing of the Commerce Building held the business library, the Bureau of Business Research, a machine room for various bookkeeping machines and adding machines, and a break room used by faculty to write articles or books and to get away for a bit.

In the spring of 1951, a group of business statistics students created Chi Alpha Phi, an organization for students interested in the application of statistical methods in the various fields of social and physical sciences. This group served the University by undertaking feasible projects requested by faculty, administration, and the Student Government Association.

Catherine Miles was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in accounting at the University of Alabama. She first enrolled at the University in 1936 and pursued a degree in Home Economics. After completing the degree and some time in the work force, she decided to return to academia. She went on to get her Master’s and PH.D. from the business college which led her into a career in higher education as a professor and administrator. Today, her portrait hangs next to Vivian Malone Jones on the lower level of Bidgood Hall.

In November of 1930, Lee Bidgood and professor H.H. Chapman created the Bureau of Business Research as what Chapman described as “a vision of a state university as being a servant of the state – in providing inspiration and in being a service agency [for] making the state a better place in which to live.” The Center initially consisted of 4 main goals: Building research facilities, rendering aid to members of faculty, carrying on specific research projects, and acting as an agent in the dissemination of information to students and state citizens. The Bureau would later be renamed as the Center for Business and Economic Research.

In 1919, Lee Bidgood became the first dean of the College of Commerce and Business Administration.. Dean Bidgood served the boards of directors for many companies and worked on the behalf of civic and charitable organizations throughout his career.

To encourage interest in higher scholarship and college activities among commerce students, the Sigma Eta chapter of the Beta Gamma Sigma fraternity was established. The chapter was created largely by the efforts of Lee Bidgood, H.H. Chapman and Arthur Upgren and is recognized by the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business.

The National Accounting fraternity established a chapter at the Commerce School in 1948 with the goal “to encourage and foster the ideal of service as the basis of the accounting profession.”

Dreams of a new business library and computer center for the business college finally became a reality in 1994 with the generous donation of $4 million from Mr. Bruno and $3 million from Mr. Bashinsky, both non-alums from Birmingham. The new state-of-the art business library and computer center opened the doors to the $8.5 million Angelo Bruno Business Library and the Sloan Bashinsky Sr. Computer Center in January of 1994. Others who made a significant contribution to the new buildings include the Charles Anderson family, Dr. and Mrs. William R. Bennet, Emeritus Professor of Marketing (Tuscaloosa), and Compass Bank.

The Alpha Rho chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi was introduced to the University in 1924. The fraternity was originally created in 1904 at New York University and is considered to be the oldest of the professional commercial fraternities. Since their creation, they have continued to further the individual welfare of its members and annually award the most outstanding student in the commerce school with a loving cup.

Founded by Lee Bidgood in the early 1950s, the Alabama Business Research Council developed effective ways in which a work and research team can bring together, through cooperating studies, facts and materials which will be useful in formulating policies bearing on the solution of economic problems.