Prof. Cal Hoyt appointed first dean of new Faculty of Business Administration

Prof. Cal Hoyt appointed to be first dean of new Faculty of Business Administration.

new Faculty of Business Administration is to be Prof. Cal Hoyt. Hoyt’s appointment was approved by the Board of Governors at Tuesday’s meeting. He will serve a two-year term beginning Sept. 1.

Hoyt joined Simon Fraser University in 1970 as a full professor of business administration. For eight years he was director of the much-heralded Master of Business Administration Executive Program. In 1970, when the former Department of Economics and Commerce was split, Hoyt became the first chairman of the new Business Administration Department. He has been in the post ever since.

“Business schools in Canada have a fair amount of catching up to do,” says Hoyt. “We are only just beginning to recognize the importance of management as a factor in the orderly development of our economy and business schools have a clear responsibility in meeting this need during the coming decade.”

Hoyt says faculty status should allow Business Administration to meet better the needs of students and the province as a whole, both through its research activities and its educational programs on and off campus. He says the department has been straining to meet the demands of a student growth rate which has risen as high as 24 per cent per year.

“As a faculty we will be better equipped to respond to student demand, while at the same time maintaining high standards. It should also assist us in seeking out top scholars at a time when professors of business administration are in short supply across this country.”

Hoyt says the new Faculty of Business Administration wants to build on the strong reputation already earned in business and academic circles. “The support of the business community, particularly companies such as Chevron which helped us establish our first endowed chair, has been critical to our success,” comments Hoyt.

Hoyt has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University, a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in business and economics from the University of California at Berkeley. A specialist in organizational theory and business policy, he has written on such topics as retirement practices and decision-making. His recent research interests focus on B.C. resource towns and manpower management.

Before joining SFU, Hoyt spent nine years at the University of Iowa, including two years as chairman of the Department of Business Administration. He also headed up an experimental program for students uneasy with traditional educational methods. As part of this work, he organized and directed a touring black theatre group devoted to the promotion of Afro-American literature.

Among his academic honors, Hoyt in 1960 earned a Ford Foundation fellowship which took him to UCLA and in 1966-67 a post-doctoral fellowship to the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At SFU, Hoyt has served on numerous departmental and campus committees. He has also been elected to terms on both the University Senate and Board of Governors.

Off campus, Hoyt has played an active role in the business and educational communities. He is currently a director of the Vancouver Board of Trade and he has served on task forces and advisory committees for a number of interests, including the B.C. Ministry of Mines and British Columbia Institute of Technology. He is also on the executive committee of the Canadian Federation of Deans of Business Schools.