雷鸟折翼内幕：记一所老牌商学院的衰落

    尽管如此，这所学校的教学特色很快就遭遇到来自沃顿（Wharton）、哥伦比亚大学（Columbia）和哈佛大学（Harvard）等商学院巨头以及欧洲和亚洲学校强有力的挑战。

    说实话，雷鸟的声誉和底蕴或许永远也无法跟大牌商学院相媲美。即使在最辉煌的年份，它的录取率（通常徘徊在70％至80％之间）也远远高于主流商学院，后者的录取率不到20%。录取新生的平均GMAT成绩亦是如此——雷鸟的新生成绩通常在600分左右，比最好的商学院低100分以上，后者的成绩往往在700分以上（入学考试的满分为800分）。

    此外，雷鸟全球管理学院经常陷入无止境的转变模式之中。赫伯格于1989年接管这所学校时，迎接他的是“一个经典的转变”挑战。“刚来时，墙面缺漆、未修复的道路和设施老化等问题让我疲于应对，一时难以顾及其他，”在一次口述历史采访中，他回忆道。“教师有失水准，学生表现不佳。不少学生都在随波逐流，缺少雄心壮志。”

    当时，这所学校没有得到主流评价体系的认可，进而无法进入美国商学院排行榜。除了一个每年能带来30万美元收入的语言培训项目之外，雷鸟当时根本就没有在职高级管理人员培训项目。由该校委托的一项研究表明，雷鸟的毕业生更加看重彼此间的校友之谊，对母校的感情并不深厚。“要是有人提议给母校写一张支票，他们的反应很可能是，‘凭什么啊？’我能够毕业完全是自身努力的结果，跟他们有什么关系，”赫伯格这样说道。

    2004年，赫伯格终于从雷鸟校友、NBA球队菲尼克斯太阳（Phoenix Suns）的老板山姆•加尔文手中争取到一笔6,000万美元的冠名权捐款承诺，这所商学院似乎即将迎来转机。加尔文的确捐赠了1,300万美元的现金，但没能按照时间表兑现剩余的捐款承诺，他和校方最终同意取消他的冠名权。

    后来，西班牙人、马德里IE商学院前院长安吉尔•卡布雷拉于2004年底接替赫伯格出任校长一职。当时，雷鸟的财政状况已经岌岌可危。“我来的时候，这所学校正在损失大笔资金，”卡布雷拉在接受口述历史采访时回忆称。“由于教学实践无法跟上需求的变化，我们正处于一个异常艰难的时期。”

    2012年7月，卡布雷拉离开雷鸟，出任乔治•梅森大学（George Mason University）校长。在接受口述历史采访时，他对学校档案保管员说，尽管2009年和2010年爆发经济危机，但雷鸟依然实现了预算盈余。但他接着指出：“相对其他院校来说，我们依然是一所穷学校。我们的捐赠基金依然不及竞争对手。大牌商学院拥有充沛的捐赠资金，足以支持他们的教学活动。”

    为了筹集现金，学校曾试图向房地产开发商出售部分校园（总面积160英亩的校园仅有一半被建筑物覆盖），用以建造公寓，单户住宅和其他商业开发。但由于亚利桑那州的房地产市场崩盘，这些计划最终无疾而终。与桂冠教育公司达成的这项交易显然是另一个战略选择。

    Still, the school's unique qualities were quickly challenged by business school titans like Wharton, Columbia, and Harvard, along with schools in both Europe and Asia.

    Truth be told, Thunderbird could never match either the prestige or the cache of the big brand schools. Even in its best years, its acceptance rate -- often hovering in the 70% to 80% range -- was much higher than the major business schools, which accept less than 20% of their applicants. So were the average GMAT scores of its entering classes, which tended to range near 600, more than 100 points below the best schools, which typically report scores in the 700-plus range on an entrance test where the highest possible score is 800.

    Besides, the school was often in perpetual turnaround mode. When Herberger took over as president in 1989, he was confronted with what he called "a classic turnaround" challenge. "It took me awhile to look beyond the lack of paint, the unrepaired roads, and the old facilities," he recalled in an oral history interview. "The faculty was underachieving, and the students were underachieving. The students were floating along…The expectations weren't high enough."

    At the time, the school was unaccredited and unranked. With the exception of a language training program that brought in $300,000 a year, Thunderbird had no executive education programming at all. One study commissioned by the school showed that its alumni were more devoted to each other and not the school. "When it came down to writing a check for the school, it was, 'What for? I got my education in spite of whatever you guys did,'" said Herberger.

    Thunderbird seemed to turn the corner when Herberger landed in 2004 a $60 million naming gift from entrepreneur Sam Garvin, an alumnus and owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball franchise. Garvin did give $13 million in cash toward the $60 million pledge, but could not honor the timetable for the gift, so he and the school agreed that his name should not be on the school.

    When Angel Cabrera, a native of Spain who had been dean of IE Business School in Madrid, succeeded Herberger in late 2004, Thunderbird was in a precarious financial situation. "The school was losing significant amounts of money when I arrived," recalled Cabrera in an oral history interview. "We were in a tough era in terms of applications and shifts in demand."

    Cabrera, who left the school to become president of George Mason University in July 2012, told the school archivist during an oral history interview that the school was reporting an annual budget surplus despite the collapse of the economy in 2009 and 2010. But, he said, "we continue to be a relatively poor school. We don't have much of an endowment like the schools that we compete against which have terrific endowments to support their activities."

    To raise cash, the school attempted to sell part of its 160-acre campus, only half of which is built upon, to developers for condos, single-family homes, and commercial use. But the plans never got off the ground due to the collapse of the real estate market in Arizona. The deal with Laureate was clearly another strategic option.