Borsting Is Named Dean of Business School at USC

Jack R. Borsting, who as dean of the University of Miami business school increased alumni and corporate contributions to the school tenfold, has been named dean of the USC School of Business Administration, effective July 1.

Borsting replaces Jack D. Steele, who abruptly resigned Nov. 1, 1986, charging that he had been asked to leave, mainly because of shortcomings in the business school’s fund-raising efforts. Doyle Z. Williams, the USC School of Accounting dean, has served as interim dean since Steele’s resignation.

USC denied Steele’s assertions, but the business school has had fund-raising troubles. In the first four years of a six-year drive, the business school has collected donations totaling about 40% of its $60-million goal, said Roger F. Olson, senior vice president for university relations and USC’s head fund-raiser. Borsting “is going to be a strong leader and a strong entry into our business community,” said Olson.

USC’s announcement highlighted Borsting’s fund-raising successes at the University of Miami, where he also was a professor of management science, and noted that “six endowed chairs were funded” during his five-year tenure.

The search for a new dean took nearly 17 months because the university’s first candidate was not interested in the job for largely personal reasons, said Cornelius J. Pings, USC’s provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. Borsting said USC first approached him about the post in late November.

Fund raising will be one of Borsting’s first responsibilities, Pings said. “I think there’s a real opportunity for them to pick up the pace. . . . I think the rate of increase there is one of the first things Borsting will review and be able to talk to us about within the year.”

Finding a new dean was particularly difficult for USC because the job’s long hours mean renouncing scholarly research and consulting work, said Edward E. Lawler, a business school professor on the search committee. “It’s not a situation where you can work three or four days a week and consult . . . It’s not a caretaker job. (USC) is a business school on the make.”

Borsting will oversee a 15% increase in the business school’s full-time faculty over the next several years, from about 115 at the end of this year, Pings said. Also probable is a slight shrinkage of the undergraduate business program coupled with an expansion of graduate and executive training courses, he said.

Borsting declined to comment on his plans, saying he needed to discuss the school’s needs with faculty, students and the administration.

Borsting said he now spends 60% of his time dealing with people outside the University of Miami, but pointed out that not all of that time was spent fund raising. At USC, he said, he plans to “build bridges” between the business school and the corporate community, including aerospace firms.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter brought Borsting to the Pentagon from the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, Calif., where he was provost and academic dean. He served as assistant secretary of defense through 1982, and was responsible for the Department of Defense’s management systems and for preparing its budget of more than $200 billion.