Two longtime faculty members have been named to endowed chairs in their departments, a tribute that reflects outstanding professional achievements and the confidence of the leadership of the School of Business Administration. Two other key faculty members have been appointed as directors of successful Business School programs – the Executive Passport Program and the Online Master of Accountancy Program.
Endowed chair appointments
Dr. Ted J. Surynt, professor of Information Systems, now holds the C.R. Lindback Professor of Business Administration Chair, and Dr. Mike E. Bitter, professor of Accounting, holds the Rinker Distinguished Professor of Accounting Chair. Both appointments were made by Dean Stuart Michelson.
“These teachers are celebrated in their fields and bring distinction to our faculty through their expertise, achievement and service,” said Michelson. “Their merit warrants the appointment, and I’m honored to confer the chairs to these outstanding professors.”
Dr. Ted J. Surynt
Surynt was associate dean for 14 years before returning to the classroom this year. For 15 years, he owned a software consulting business and was a systems engineer and corporate planning analyst for IBM. He has published numerous articles dealing with Information Systems issues.
Surynt joined Stetson in 1983, chaired the Department of Decision and Information Sciences and, as associate dean, helped create and manage programs such as Executive Passport and the MBA/MS Pharmacy program in partnership with the University of Florida. He has been named Professor of the Year twice, most recently last spring.
The Lindback Chair to promote academic excellence and outstanding teaching was established in the Business School some 25 years ago by the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation of Philadelphia. The Lindback fortune was built on the Pennsylvania-based Abbotts Dairies. C.R. Lindback was a Bucknell University trustee from 1937 until his death in 1950.
Dr. Mike E. Bitter
Bitter is a former senior auditor for Ernst & Young and CPA who joined Stetson in 1996 and has become a pillar of the Accounting Department. Earlier this year, he was named chairman of the M.E. Rinker Sr. Institute of Tax and Accountancy (Accounting Department). Bitter has published and presented numerous times in academic journals and professional gatherings and reviewed for the American Accounting Association and the Accounting Education Journal.
Twice in the last decade, Bitter has been named Professor of the Year, and he has received the Business School Award for Outstanding Service six times since joining the faculty – more than any other. He wrote the Accounting Department’s successful accreditation report last year. He serves on the University Athletics Committee and has served on numerous committees of the NCAA and Atlantic Sun Conference.
The Rinker Chair was established in 2002 by the Marshall E. Rinker Sr. Foundation, which has had a tremendous impact on the university and Business School with projects that include the Lynn Business Center’s Rinker Auditorium. A 1957-1986 member of the Board of Trustees, Rinker died in 1996. He founded Rinker Materials Co. which became Florida’s largest concrete producer.
New directors
The two new directors of established programs are Dr. Fred Augustine, Graduate Business Studies director, who has taken the Online MAcc Program under his purview, and Dr. Becky Oliphant, director of the MBA International Summer Program, who has added responsibility for the Executive Passport Program, a degree-completion program based at the Stetson University Center at Celebration.
Some 56 students from across the country are enrolled in the Online MAcc Program, which began in mid-2010 and saw its first graduates last spring. Augustine, a professor of Decision and Information Sciences and former chair of that department, came to Stetson in 1986.
In Executive Passport, there are 22 undergraduate students seeking to complete their BBA in the Saturday-only classes program established in 2005. Sixty-one bachelor’s degrees have been earned since it began, as well as eight MBA degrees. Oliphant is an associate Marketing professor who joined the faculty in 1996.
As my term as Dean of the School of Business Administration comes to a close, it’s fulfilling to reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the past three years.