ROBINSON'S REAL ESTATE DEPARTMENT
Capital, entrepreneurship, labor, and land have long been identified by economists as the four factors of
production. Yet according to Robinson real estate professor Joseph Rabianski, most business schools only
focus on the first three, leaving out what he sees as the glue that holds them together. Throwing down the
gauntlet to his students, Rabianski starts each course with a question, "Name one business that
doesn’t need land or space?" Rabianski says the answer is obvious. "There isn’t one."
Traditionally, business schools ignored real estate as an important discipline, placing more emphasis on
tried-and-true fields such as finance, accounting, marketing, and management information systems. But when
the economy began its downward slide and Wall Street found a new darling in real estate, business students
took notice. According to a recent Boston Globe article, students began demanding more courses in real
estate even at many of the nation’s most elite business schools. This does not come as a suprise to
Rabianski, who says that direct real estate activity makes up 18% to 20% of the gross domestic product in
the U.S.
However, despite the recent surge of interest, most business schools still view real estate as a specialty
area and offer just a few real estate courses as part of another discipline. But at Robinson the news is
quite different. Ranked among the top 10 programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, the
real estate program offers four degrees including an undergraduate, MBA with a concentration in real
estate, PhD, and masters of science in real estate. The masters of science program is accredited by the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, regarded as the highest international real state professional
designation available. "The college, which has one of the largest and few freestanding real estate
departments in the country, has been committed to the real estate curriculum since the 1950s, when Dean
(Ken) Black first decided that it should be its own department," says Rabianski who served as
department chair from 1978 to 1984 and again from 1993 until last June.
Today, the department is headed by real estate professor Julian Diaz, who recently served as the
college’s interim associate dean of MBA programs. Diaz says his experience in the Dean’s office has
prepared him to take the department to the next level. "I believe, now more than ever, that our
department has an opportunity to better marry the partnership between academics and industry." In
particular, Diaz plans on increasing the number of industry leaders in the classroom as both guest
lecturers and instructors. He has already created a partnership with the Atlanta chapter of the Real
Estate Investment Advisory Council on projects such as student competitions and a distinguished lecture
series. And he has committed himself to further engaging the department’s active alumni group, a longtime
supporter of the department.
But the one thing he says sets Robinson’s real estate department apart from others is the quality of its
programs and students. "The buzz in the community is that our students are extremely employable,"
says Diaz, who adds that nearly 70% of Robinson’s real estate students are already working in the industry.
"We know that much of that is due to the depth of our curriculum and the diverse expertise of our
faculty." The department offers close to 30 different undergraduate and graduate courses in subjects
ranging from property analysis and urban development regulations to real estate finance and appraisal
theory. In addition, the department’s seven full-time faculty have industry experience in various aspects
of the real estate industry including real estate law, investment, planning, appraisal, property management,
institutional investment, and development. Each is an accomplished researcher as well, with a range of
interests that includes spatial and urban economics, property and economic cycles and risk, property market
behavior and decisionmaking, international real estate investments, and real property valuation techniques
for retail, office, and industrial properties.
Looking back, Diaz says that he is proud of what the department has built over the past 50 years, and he’s
enthusiastic about the continued growth and impact the department will have on Atlanta and the industry.
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