The Washington Campus (TWC) is a non-profit, non-partisan, higher education consortium based in Washington, D.C. Consortium members and other partnering institutions include some of the world's leading universities and business schools. The Washington Campus was founded in December 1978 and held its first executive and academic programs in 1979. The lead founder of the consortium, L. William Seidman, was the former economic advisor to President Gerald Ford and the 14th Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The Campus' mission is to ensure that executives and students alike are given the opportunity to better understand the interactions of business, government, and public policy, in order to enhance their effectiveness as organizational leaders. With a variety of experiential programs and credit-granting courses, The Washington Campus is a unique organization that plays an essential role in management education.
Approximately 1,500 participants take part in programs with The Washington Campus each year. Programs are created for and attended by Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Executive MBA students, as well as graduate accounting and select honors undergraduate students. Students from other graduate and professional schools also frequently participate in Campus programs for academic credit. This includes both joint degree students (e.g., JD-MBA, MD-MBA), as well as students from medical and law school, and from schools and programs such as Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration, Master of Public Health and Master of Health Administration, Master of Finance, and many other specialty masters programs.
Consortium universities
The Washington Campus comprises 17 leading graduate business schools:
W. P. Carey School of Business – Arizona State University
Haas School of Business – University of California, Berkeley
UCLA Anderson School of Management – University of California, Los Angeles
Goizueta Business School – Emory University
Warrington College of Business – University of Florida
Seidman College of Business – Grand Valley State University
School of Business – Howard University
Kelley School of Business – Indiana University
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business – The University of Michigan
The Anderson School of Management – University of New Mexico
Kenan-Flagler Business School – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill D'Amore-McKim School of Business – Northeastern University Max M. Fisher College of Business – Ohio State University Krannert School of Management – Purdue University Jones Graduate School of Business – Rice University McCombs School of Business – The University of Texas at Austin Mays Business School – Texas A&M University And many other program partners worldwide
History
After serving in the White House as President Gerald Ford's Assistant for Economic Affairs from 1974 to 1977, Bill Seidman, along with other notable public policy officials and academic leaders, saw the need for current and future business executives to have a much better understanding of the dynamics of government and public policy, especially the impact on their businesses, industries, and on the economy overall. Business leaders needed to better understand the organization and function of government, as well as, the policy making process, in order to more effectively contribute their experience and expertise to the decision-making process. With the policy challenges confronting government officials, and the potential impact of policy decisions on the U.S. and global business climate and economy, the founders determined that it is critical for corporate leaders to engage in the process, inform the policy debate and understand the potential impact of policy changes on their own business sector.
Shortly after leaving his post at the White House, Seidman, along with colleagues from the Ford administration and other leaders in Washington set about organizing the foundation for the Campus. By the fall of 1978, the Campus consortium included nine member schools: University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; University of Michigan; Cornell University; Dartmouth College; Ohio State University; Grand Valley State University; the University of New Mexico; and Indiana University. The first Board of Directors meeting was held in 1979 at The Wye Plantation in Queenstown, Maryland. Since that time, the Campus has grown in size, membership and scope, and continues to add new universities to its consortium membership.