FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - U. S. News & World Report’s "America’s Best Colleges 2002" ranked the department of management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at University of Arkansas as 28^th among the nation’s top public undergraduate business schools.

Daniel C. Ganster, Charles C. Fichtner Chair and chair of the department of management, said, "We believe these ratings are based on the scholarly reputation of our faculty. All of this has come about from a strong focus we have made in our departmental strategy to attract the best people and target our publications to the best journals."

  "In the last five years we have made significant advances not only in our presence in the top academic journals, but also in the visibility of our faculty members at professional meetings and on editorial boards," he added. "I attribute our success to the quality of the faculty we have hired in recent years as well as an increase in productivity among senior faculty who were already here. Several very successful placements of doctoral graduates in good schools also contributed to our reputation." 

Doyle Z. Williams, dean of the Walton College, said, "We are very pleased to have this recognition for the department of management and for the Walton College. Dan Ganster has done an extraordinary job of leading his faculty in their research efforts as well as in their work with students."

In the U. S. News & World Report 2002 report, the Walton College as a whole ranked within the top 40 of the nation’s public undergraduate business schools.

Ganster joined the University of Arkansas in 1990 after spending 12 years on the faculty at the University of Nebraska. He holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Purdue University. In 2000, he was appointed to the Fichtner Chair, which was named for the first dean when the school of business was established at the University of Arkansas in 1926.