In recognition of a landmark contribution to FIU, the College of Engineering & Computing’s school of construction has been renamed in honor of alumnus Chad Moss ’94.
The Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability was recently unveiled at a ceremony at the Engineering Center and commemorates a $10 million donation to the school made through the Moss Foundation, Inc. last year – the largest gift ever made to FIU by an alumnus.
“This school has an extraordinary future,” Howard Lipman, CEO of the FIU Foundation, Inc., said at the ceremony. “Today we celebrate the generosity of a friend and alumnus of this great university, Chad Moss.”
Moss’s gift does more than just name the school. It supports university leadership’s mission for the school to become a top-ranked construction management program by providing funding to hire world-class faculty; recruiting top graduate and undergraduate students; advancing research and innovation at the school; and offering safety and skills workshops and continuing education programs to the South Florida community.
One million dollars has been set aside to create scholarships for students, including first-generation students, women, veterans and former foster students studying construction management.
At the ceremony, President Mark B. Rosenberg thanked the Moss family for their commitment to FIU, and told students to consider Chad Moss and his family an example of what they, too, can do with an FIU education.
“I think you can draw strength from what you see here today. Know that you’re on the right course, and that if you do your work, buckle down and focus, if you treat people with respect, if you’re a true professional, you can be very successful in the same way that Chad and the entire Moss family have been,” Rosenberg said.
Moss’s dedication to his alma mater is evident through more than just his monetary donations.
He donates his time to the school by teaching real estate and construction management classes regularly. He has also mentored FIU students, many of whom have gone on to work for Moss & Associates – and now, about 10 percent of the family-owned-and-operated firm’s employees are FIU graduates.
“As an alumnus, I am grateful to FIU. I enjoyed my time here as a student. It was a great place to study and learn,” said Moss. “As a businessman, I’ve come to realize the significant role that FIU has had… in this community. If you want to be successful in South Florida, you need FIU grads to drive that success.”
Moss & Associates’ work is visible around campus. The firm constructed the Parkview Hall residence hall at MMC, which opened to students in 2013. The Moss Foundation also supports the Moss Built Environment Informatics Lab, a virtual-reality testing facility at the Engineering Center.
The newly named Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability has evolved drastically over the years. It began as a single bachelor’s degree track in the 1970s, evolving to the Department of Construction Management in the 1990s, and opening as a full-fledge school within the College of Engineering & Computing in 2012.
The school is already well on its way to a top ranking, having graduated countless students whose success demonstrates the quality of education at the school. This includes Chad Moss, whose company has grown into a national corporation with more than 600 professional employees and $7 billion in managed revenue in less than 15 years.
Among the school’s recent accomplishments: FIU’s team took first place and earned top honors in quality control, estimating and project managing at the 2018 Associated Builders and Contractors Construction Management national competition. In addition, Construction Management faculty have provided safety workshops to nearly 1,000 English- and Spanish-speaking construction workers and employers in the South Florida community, leveraging a recent grant by the U.S. Department of Labor.
“It is an exciting time for the college and a major step forward in positioning the school to be a leader in construction management education,” said John Volakis, dean of the College of Engineering & Computing. “Now, through the generosity of Mr. Moss and the Moss family, we have the resources to advance the school to the next level of academic excellence and to better prepare our students for success.”