by Gabriella DePinho & Joe Liggio Asst. News Editors

Ninety-one years after being founded, the Manhattan College School of Business has a new name.

The Manhattan College School of Business was officially renamed the O’Malley School of Business as part of a short ceremony hosted in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers this past Tuesday, Sept. 25. A reception where students, alumni and benefactors had the opportunity to celebrate the occasion followed the event in Smith Auditorium.

This all comes after a $25 million donation by Tom O’ Malley ‘63, a long-time benefactor whose name also graces the O’Malley Library, and whose financial contributions as an alum have gone towards Lee Hall and the Raymond Kelly ’63 Student Commons.

The occasion marks the creation of the first “named” school at Manhattan. According to College President Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D., it speaks to something important about the quality of education the school offers.

“It’s a way private institutions can say in a very succinct way, ‘we’re worth the investment of those who came through our programs,’” he said.

Donald Gibson, Ph.D., the newly appointed dean of the O’Malley School of Business, also felt that the name would bolster the reputation of the program.

“It’s very competitive among business schools, and having a name kind of indicates that you are worthy of receiving a good gift, and therefore you are in a kind of different level of business school,” said Gibson. “I think it helps us in terms of putting our name on the map in terms of ranking and that sort of approach, which again reflects back on the students.”

For O’Malley himself, giving back to his alma mater has always been important.

“Look, I had a good education here, and there’s a bunch of people here who actually graduated with me … they were just ordinary people and they had to hustle … they had to study a rigorous academic program, but they also had to have jobs at the same time to pay for it,” said O’Malley. “I think the success of America and our country depends on our producing people who come from an ordinary background and get the tools to rise up … So Manhattan, typically, over the past hundred years or whatever, has taken ordinary people, and given them the tools to really succeed.”

He continued.

“Manhattan is one of those things that is very good for the country. Why do you support a college? Because they did a good job for me, and they’re doing a good job for you guys,” he said.

The $25 million donation will be going directly towards the business school to decide how and where to best use the funds to bolster the programs and possibly create new ones.

Dean Gibson said, “I think with a gift of this type allows us to set some strategic priorities going forward, and I think a lot of it is enhancing current programs but also it opens up some opportunities for new programs. Real estate is one we’re really looking at and we’ll need to work on our technology so that it is up to snuff in terms of business and really support our faculty projects.”

The school received accreditation through the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in 2004.