After over a decade of service as the Dean of the Olin Business School, Mahendra R. Gupta will leave his position to spend more time with his family and to further pursue his interests in research and teaching.

Olin Business School will launch a new initiative for both undergraduate and graduate students to help small businesses in the coming weeks, partly as a response to the riots that hurt businesses in Ferguson, Mo., last August.

Textbook shopping can be a financial nightmare for students, as new copies of required books can run well into the $200 to $300 range. Fortunately, the school bookstore and websites such as Amazon and eCampus offer rentals and used copies that can run at less than half the price of a new book. This flexibility lessens the burden on students who prefer not to spend exorbitant sums on textbooks that may not be necessary to absorb the material in a given class.

The newly-formed Olin Diversity and Inclusion Committee will hold its first meeting Thursday in the hopes of tackling its internal issues of diversity and underrepresentation.

Nine new courses and major changes will be implemented in the Olin Business School’s course listings as the school will be amending and updating its curriculum for the class of 2019 and beyond.

This weekend, the Olin Business School will hold its inaugural Olin Case Competition, which was designed by Washington University students to help boost the business school’s name recognition.

Two weeks ago, Washington University officially opened Knight and Bauer Halls, the two newest business school buildings. While construction has not been completely finished, students and faculty have started using both buildings’ grand lecture halls, high-tech study rooms and spacious offices. We can already see the benefits of adding Knight and Bauer Halls.

When school started last August, students would peer into the gap between McMillan Hall and the Knight Executive Center to get a glimpse of a monstrous hole in the ground. By winter break, that hole was filled with a large skeleton of iron beams. Today, that structure is starting to resemble an actual building—and a magnificent one at that.

The Olin Business School’s undergraduate program is the fourth-best in the country, narrowly besting the University of Pennsylvania’s celebrated Wharton School, according to Bloomberg Businessweek’s latest rankings. Olin rose four places from last year’s ranking—the first year it made the top 10—in the 2013 rankings released Wednesday.

Bloomberg Newsweek released its latest ranking of the country’s best business programs on Tuesday. Washington University’s very own Olin Business School’s undergraduate program was pegged eighth in the nation. Our business school has an impressive track record, especially with job placement.