The School of Commerce opened in 1908 in downtown Chicago under the leadership of economics professor Willard E. Hotchkiss. The school initially offered evening classes in accounting and business law before starting a bachelor of business administration program in 1912. The school became a founding member of the American Association of Collegiate Business Schools in 1917 and continued to formalize its curriculum over the next decade by introducing a full-time Bachelor of Science in Commerce on the Evanston campus, launching MBA and Ph.D. degrees, and establishing the second business research center in the nation.