May 8, 2003 - Tourism, hotel and restaurant leaders vowed Wednesday that the University of Central Florida's Rosen School of Hospitality Management, now nearing completion in the heart of the nation's top tourist destination, will grow to become a leading hospitality training center. 

Located within minutes of International Drive and attractions on the southwest side of Orlando, the $28.1 million facility is scheduled to open next winter, educating future executives in hotel, theme park, time-share and restaurant management. 

With 800 undergraduate students, 40 graduate students and 23 full-time instructors right now on the UCF campus in east Orange County, the 20-year-old school expects by 2005 to have more than 1,100 students and 35 full-time faculty members. 

"The need for highly trained workers continues to grow," said Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World during a visit to the construction site with other industry supporters of the school. 

The 159,000-square-foot complex is near enough to major attractions and hotels to provide "hands-on experience" through internships as well as classroom instruction, said Weiss, a 1976 UCF graduate. 

Named for Orlando hotelier and millionaire philanthropist Harris Rosen, the school on Universal Boulevard is in the right place at the right time to surge in both size and stature, said UCF President John Hitt, surveying the dome-shaped future library. 

Cornell University has long been widely regarded as home to the nation's premiere hospitality school, but UCF should rival it in quality within five to 10 years because of its location and heavyweight backers, Hitt said. 

"Cornell is in Ithaca, New York. That's a wonderful place, but it's not a tourist destination," Hitt said, noting the Orlando school's financial supporters include industry giants such as Disney, SeaWorld owner Anheuser-Busch, Universal Orlando and Darden Restaurants Inc., the nation's leading casual-dining company. 

Former Cornell Professor William Fisher, now an instructor at the Rosen school, said UCF can shoot legitimately for "top tier" status within a matter of years, because it's located in the nation's largest hotel market on the doorstep of Disney, the largest single-site employer in the country. 

"This will help UCF move up in the standings," said Fisher, holder of the Darden Eminent Scholar Chair in Restaurant Management. Darden, which endowed the chair in 1990, is the largest private donor to the UCF hospitality school, other than Rosen. 

Darden donated about $2 million, and another $100,000 for the business school at the main campus in east Orange County. 

The Orlando hotel community has long had an extensive Cornell connection, with numerous leading hoteliers, including Rosen, holding degrees from the Ivy League school. Rosen, who donated $18.2 million plus land for the UCF school, is a 1961 graduate of Cornell's School of Hotel Administration. 

Founded in 1922, the Cornell school has 850 undergraduates, 120 graduate students and 60 full-time faculty members, nearly triple the number of instructors at UCF's hospitality school, which was established in 1983 in the College of Business Administration. 

UCF's school became independent in 2000, after Rosen pledged land and financial support for the rapidly growing school, which has seen its enrollment more than triple in the past four years. 

ROSEN SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT: 

Established: 1983 

Enrollment: 800 undergraduate students, 40 graduate students 

Faculty: 23 full-time instructors Degrees: bachelor's in hospitality management and restaurant management, master's in hospitality and tourism management. 

New campus: 9907 Universal Blvd. 

Classes begin: January 2004. 

Features: 20 classrooms, 2 food-service labs, training dining room, wine/beer demonstration lab, bar lab, 3 computer labs, 85 offices, performing-arts auditorium, library, bookstore, cafeteria, gymnasium, student recreation center. 

Future plans call for on-campus housing. 

Dean: Abraham Pizam. 

Key donors: Harris Rosen ($18.2 million); Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau ($5 million); Darden Restaurants ($2 million); Walt Disney World ($2 million); Universal Orlando Foundation ($1 million); Anheuser-Busch Foundation/SeaWorld ($500,000). 

Source: University of Central Florida 

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(c) 2003. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.