VOLUME 12, NO. 3     MAY 1999

SIM celebrates its 50th

From left, Minasian, Schwieger and Onorato

t was a grand 50th anniversary celebration of WPI's School of Industrial Management. On March 2, more than 400 SIM graduates, their spouses, guests and WPI faculty attended a reception and dinner at Worcester's Centrum Centre, where they reminisced and celebrated the accomplishments of the school established as a partnership between education and industry back in 1949. Since then, more than 1,400 middle managers and future leaders representing nearly 170 companies from Central Massachusetts have graduated from the program.

On hand for the gala was one of the founders, Professor Emeritus Albert J. Schwieger, who at the age of 93 has lost none of the vitality he possessed when he headed the program from 1949 to 1972. "Fifty years ago the manufacturing community of central Massachusetts issued a challenge to the academic community to provide a program to train their future leaders," said SIM Student Council president Donald P. Pierson. "WPI answered that challenge."

The event also marked the retirement of Schwieger's successor, Nicholas L. Onorato, who stepped down after 27 years as SIM director and 44 years with WPI. President Edward Alton Parrish and Provost John F. Carney III noted that Onorato's retirement and the milestone anniversary was the end of an era. They said that since its beginning, SIM has been a leader in providing opportunities for lifelong learning and that its curriculum has evolved and expanded to keep pace with changes in the area's industrial base. According to Parrish and Carney, "SIM has the history and the expertise to educate the working professionals who will lead us into the next century."

John Minasian, incoming SIM director, used the occasion to look ahead. "The future of SIM offers many opportunities for expansion and growth," he said. "We need to revitalize our many existing business partnerships and re-educate our partners on the benefits of our program.

"Our goal is to double the size of the entering freshman class within two years," Minasian said. "We also want to expand our existing programs to serve more geographic locations near manufacturing and service sector providers."

Minasian told the group that additional courses will be added to the proven base of SIM's core curriculum (finance, human resources, accounting and planning) to support the needs of key growth industries. Other areas, such as information technology, health care, biotechnology, banking and insurance, will also be part of the program. "Within a year and a half we will introduce a new set of programs, building on our SIM core that specializes in information technology and information systems," he said.

"SIM's past is exceptional. Its present is unparalleled. Its future is assured and exciting," Minasian concluded. "We can build on the program's many years of success and take it to new levels of excellence in executive education."