Five questions

FGCU's Lucas Institute is rolling out a minorin real estate this fall and expecting a real estate major to hit the books in 2009. This will be the second degree program and the third minor offered by the Lutgert College of Business-and the first specifically for real estate. The program will serve as the primary link between the business college and the real estate community in Southwest Florida, placing students in the field and working with local groups to develop the courses. Shelton Weeks is the academic director of the real estate institute and the driving force in creating this degree.

1. Where do you expect students will be able to go with this degree?
A lot will go to work locally for developers. I know we're in a [real estate] slowdown right now, but it's hard to see that going more than 18 to 24 months. We'll work through this [housing] inventory, and they'll go out and work in the development field here, work for homebuilders or commercial banks. Some will go and do entrepreneurial things, and some will probably look on the investment side.

2. What does the minor entail?
[Required classes will include] a real estate principles or fundamentals class and a real estate law class; once we get approval from the state, taking those two classes will allow for the students to sit for their salespersons' license exam. [Others are] a real estate valuation class, an investment decision-making class and an urban economics class. The sixth class is an elective. We'd like for them to do an internship, but for some students who are working full-time, that might not be realistic. So, depending on what their area [of interest] is, they could take another class in place of the internship.

3. How are you going to split the classes between residential and commercial real estate?
Each class will cover both, but some things are going to lend themselves more to the commercial side, such as complex cash-flow analysis. In the valuation class, it's valuation in commercial real estate; we'll maybe spend a week or so where we look at residential stuff, but you're using the same tools.

4. There's no shortage of realtors here; why is the program needed?
Realtors are one piece of the puzzle. One of the things that we consistently see is a demand for additional real estate professionals across all the different areas of real estate-specialists in valuation, property management or on the development side. The realtors are there to facilitate transactions and they have to have an extensive knowledge of what is going on in the market, but they don't have to be aware of all the other nuances in the market. The program isn't designed to necessarily produce realtors, but a variety of real estate professionals.

5. How does the local business community contribute to the program?
The business community contributes by hiring our students. Even though we are just getting the program up and going, we have already placed finance graduates with a couple of different firms. This summer, we have five students who are doing real estate-related internships. The [companies] have been very receptive with our students. A number of [local business] leaders have provided input as we're planning, helping to shape the curriculum so that it fits the needs of Southwest Florida.