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Former professor gives $100,000 to Business Honors Program

Tampa, FL (February 15, 2013) — The Business Honors Program at the USF Muma College of Business, the only program of its kind in Florida, recently received a donation that will further its mission of recruiting top high school students and providing them with exclusive educational opportunities and professional experience.

Former Management Professor Dick Dutton donated $100,000 to the program, saying he wanted to be a part of a new program that could use additional funding to make its mark on the university. He also said he was impressed by the Business Honors Program's selectivity and uniqueness. Dutton, who taught at USF for more than four decades, already had established an endowed scholarship in his name and said he enjoys investing in USF because he gets to meet the students who have benefited from his generosity.

"Education is one of the very few investments that disasters cannot remove," he said, contrasting it with the stock market or real estate. "Those investments are transient and a lot more fragile than we think."

Founded in 2010, the USF Business Honors Program provides top students with smaller classes and two-year residency in the Bulls Business Community, a living-learning program that strives to transform students into business professionals from their first moments on campus, while fostering friendships that will last a lifetime. Students in the Business Honors Program also take part in summer study abroad programs, garner knowledge from hands-on internships, design and manage service learning activities, and have the chance to take part in business research, an opportunity usually reserved for graduate-level scholars.

Business Honors Program Director Joni Jones said she believes Dutton's gift will help the two-year-old program move toward its goal of becoming one of the foremost business honors programs in the nation.

"This is the only honors program exclusively for business students in the state of Florida and my goal is to build this into an exemplary model that universities nationwide emulate," Jones said. "Because we have a lot of room to create something unique and exciting, and with the resources Dr. Dutton has provided for us, we can certainly make great strides in that direction."

Muma College of Business Dean Moez Limayem said the gift represents a great opportunity for a fledgling program with room to grow.

"We are excited to find the best ways that this donation will benefit our current and future business honors students," Limayem said. "Professor Dutton is an inspiration to all educators because he changed the lives of ßÙßÇÂþ»­ students during his decades of teaching here, and with his generosity continues to do so in his retirement."

Dutton, who will serve on the Business Honors Exceptional Scholars Award scholarship committee that provides $2,500 to one student who exemplifies the values of the program, said he is excited to see that forward movement firsthand. His relationships with students are what motivate him to keep giving, he said.

"Because the program is so selective, it really does pick the best and brightest," Dutton said. "When you put money into a program like that, the future investment and the benefits are guaranteed to be high."