"When is the last journal editor in the Rocky Mountain region?The answer is never. Tom's journal is where you go when you want toreally find out what is happening in real estate economics," ByronKoste, executive director of the real estate school tellsGlobeSt.com. "We need someone of Tom Thibodeau's quality andreputation to take us to the next level. Everybody in real estateacademia knows who Tom is."

Currently, the CU real estate school would be ranked on thethird level of four tiers, Thibodeau says from his office on theBoulder campus. However, Koste says with his hiring, and one newhire to replace a junior staff member, the CU school will move tothe second tier.

But that is not good enough for Thibodeau and Koste. They bothwant the CU school to be on the same level as the University ofWisconsin at Madison, MIT, the Wharton School at the University ofPennsylvania, and the University of California at Berkeley,generally considered the four best real estate schools in thecountry.