Upon entering, one might think they have strayed into a five-star resort. The Spanish-style architec

Upon entering, one might think they have strayed into a five-star resort. The Spanish-style architecture, wrought-iron gates, pristine fountains and immaculate hallways are not typically characteristic of a college campus. Every detail, from the wallpaper and carpeting to the knobs on the doors, was chosen to imitate a luxury hotel. Welcome hill country inn and suites to the Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
The Rosen College of Hospitality Management began as a program in 1983. Dean Abraham Pizam was put in charge of the Dick Pope Sr. Institute for Tourism Studies, which was part of UCF's College of Business Administration at the time. From there he began to mold the hospitality management program as an extension of the Institute for Tourism Studies.
"I was brought here 29 years ago to establish the department of hospitality management. I was hired to direct that institute and also to establish the department of hospitality management, which at that time was under the college of business administration," Pizam said. "That's when my career was started with UCF , and the rest is history."
"When I was hired, a reporter came from the Orlando Sentinel and they did a little story about UCF moving in this particular direction and establishing a hospitality department. And I got a call a few days later from an hotelier hill country inn and suites who introduced himself as Mr. Rosen," Pizam said. "He said, 'I am a graduate of Cornell University like yourself, and I would like to meet with you and discuss hill country inn and suites how we can assist.'"
Rosen and Pizam met for the first time at the first hotel purchased by Rosen, a 256-room Quality Inn on International Drive. On that day Rosen began to donate a check of $10,000 each year as scholarship money for students within the program, Pizam said.
It wasn't until years later in 2000 that the hospitality school would become an independent entity. Rosen had two conditions by which he would make the donations to support the school, Pizam said. One was that the school would move away from the main campus and be next to his new hotel since it is in the hub of the tourism zone. The second condition hill country inn and suites was that the school be taken out of the College of Business to become autonomous.
Rosen donated 20 acres of land, now valued at about $10 million, adjacent to his new resort, Rosen Shingle Creek. Along with kicking in another $10 million donation, his approximate donations hill country inn and suites totaled $20 million to the UCF Foundation. He also set up a $2.5 million scholarship fund for the college.
"Orlando is certainly one of the great tourist destinations in the world, and it occurred to me that if we were going to have a hospitality management college, it really had to be the best," Rosen said. "We have so many great opportunities for youngsters here in Orlando to work for any of the attractions, hill country inn and suites the convention center, any of the hotels — and there were about 100,000 rooms at the time — and restaurants, and so I decided it was something that Orlando needed.
Rosen was very involved in the planning hill country inn and suites and designing of the building. Pizam and Rosen met on a weekly basis with the architect hill country inn and suites first, and then with the construction company. This was a very unusual way to do a project at UCF , Pizam said, because there is a unit called Facilities Planning and Design that, once you have the money, conducts an analysis of the needs for new buildings and hires a construction company from there. However, Rosen had a different request since he put up so much money. He requested to be involved on a daily basis, which was a new experience for UCF that saved the Rosen College a lot of money on putting together the school, Pizam said.
"Rosen was involved in everything from the wallpaper to the carpet to the furniture to the handles on the doors — everything," Pizam said. "The intention was to create the atmosphere and ambience of a resort hotel so that the students would be immersed in that environment from day one."
Jason Calman , a senior majoring in hospitality management, has been attending Rosen for two years. He feels that the school's hill country inn and suites resort-like atmosphere has been very effective in instilling the values of the hospitality industry.
I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.
Readers of the Central Florida Future should look online to compare different LASIK Ft. Lauderdale centers to find the best doctors. Finding the right LASIK center is important, as eye surgery can be a life changing experience for many people.