When the doors of the then-Graduate School of Administration swung open in the fall of 1981, Nicole Woolsey Biggart was one of four newly hired faculty members who welcomed the charter class of 40 management students to UC Davis.

"I had just arrived from UC Berkeley with a doctorate in hand, and I was the same age as many of our students," Biggart recalled.

Twenty-five years la-ter, she is serving in her third year as dean of the Graduate School of Management. The school recently marked a quarter century of growth and accomplishment with a two-day Silver Anniversary celebration held at the Activities and Recreation Center Oct. 6-7.

The festivities began with a kick off luncheon attended by more than 160 students, alumni, faculty, staff, business partners, campus officials and friends of the school.

The speakers reflected on the school's history and plans for the future.Biggart recalled the early days and the ascent to become a nationally ranked business school in the short span of only 25 years.

"We were a start-up, and although we weren't quite based in a garage — it was the campus equivalent: a cramped space on the third floor of Voorhies Hall,"' she said. "We had IBM Selectrics, and when the first fax machine arrived — the size of a small refrigerator — it seemed revolutionary."

UC Davis Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw praised the school's role as a "connector" on campus and to the business world.

"The Graduate School of Management has become a catalyst for entrepreneurship and innovation, teaching us how to bring the research enterprise at this great university to the marketplace," she said.

California State Assemblymember Lois Wolk, who represents the 8th District that includes UC Davis, presented Biggart with an official resolution. "Through strategic planning, the recruitment of a stellar faculty and bright and enthusiastic students, and with a dedicated staff, you have reached great heights in your first quarter century," she read

The noontime program concluded with a talk on managing people by keynote speaker Bruce Bodaken, president, chairman of Blue Shield of California.

On Saturday, as the celebration continued, Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor of campus planning, noted that construction of a new home for the Graduate School of Management is expected to begin in 2007. The building will have a high-profile address adjacent to a new hotel and conference center and across from Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at the campus's new front door.

More than 230 people attended the Silver Celebration Gala on Saturday evening. The semiformal event, which featured dinner, casino gaming and dancing, was immediately preceded by a reception for alumni of the classes of 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001.

Each year the school's Alumni Association recognizes two outstanding graduates. Steve Spadarotto '96, senior vice president of operations for Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines and a member of the school's Dean's Advisory Council, was presented with the Distinguished Achievement Award. Jim Schaefer '90, director of winery operations for Beringer Blass Wine Estates, received the Outstanding Service Award.

Also honored were MBA students Paige Marino, Noel Fruchtenich and John Toney. Each year 5 percent of the school's annual fund is reserved for three fellowships, given to students who exemplify the Alumni Association's core values of passionate and energetic leadership, community building and service to the school.

From its initial 40 students, the school today enrolls 117 full-time MBA students on campus and 325 working professional MBA students at sites in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area as well as 170 undergraduates in its Technology Management Minor Program.

For 11 consecutive years the school has been ranked in the nation's top 50 MBA programs, the youngest and smallest in U.S. News & World Report's annual business school survey.

Marianne Skoczek is the staff marketing writer at the Graduate School of Management.