Around the Halls

Winter 2004, Issue No. 1

A periodic newsletter addressing issues and initiatives that concern our business school community.

CONTENTS

1.  U+M

2.  Rankings:  Imperfect & Important

3.  Changes in the MBA Curriculum

4.  Update on the BBA Curriculum Review

5.  For the Record

U+M

Last Fall, I visited Wharton as part of outside committee reviewing their curriculum. I was there with Associate Deans from Harvard and Princeton (yes, Princeton). We spent a very busy couple of days interviewing students, staff, faculty, and administrators in the process of preparing comprehensive report on what we saw as the curriculum’s greatest strengths, most pressing challenges, and best alternatives for the future. Visits like this one are a great chance to ‘look under the hood’ of a close competitor and I came back having learned quite a lot about their practices. I also returned home feeling quite good about where we’re at and the course we’re on going forward.

 
Mind you, it was not an altogether easy task. Everyone we talked to – from the youngest undergraduate to the most seasoned chaired professors – exhibited a fierce pride in Wharton. Whenever the review committee hit upon a line of questioning that might lead to uncovering a problem or weakness, the answers were always very careful and given in the most favorable light possible. It is not that anyone dodged questions or hid information from us, but it was evident throughout the process that the committee would only be able to penetrate so far into what was really going on inside the Wharton community.

At dinner the first night, I made a remark about the community pride we had witnessed to their Associate Dean. He’s someone I happen to have known for a long time and he responded candidly: “Well, we’re kind of like a family here. On the inside, we might be fighting like cats and dogs, but we make sure the dirty laundry is out of sight when company visits. Everyone knows to keep it in the family.”

I believe we should all take great pride in the community we have here at Michigan, too. It’s such a vibrant and collaborative place, we’re making great progress towards our goals, and I think we’ve shown a tremendous commitment to one another and working together to address the most challenging issues that face our community.

Is everything at the School perfect? No.

Do we have a lot to do to get where we want to be? Yes.

Can we all see things around us that need to be done? Yes.

Are we working together to make the place everything it can be? Yes.

We have a terrific family here at Michigan. It’s broad-based and diverse to be sure, but it is also close-knit and collaborative. What a powerful combination! We also have an unrivaled ‘extended family’ in the rest of the University and Michigan’s alumni all over the world.

Here at home, our family has to talk and act to address the challenges that face our community. We have to be introspective and frank with one another. We need to constantly take a steely-eyed look at ourselves and work together to make our community all that it can be. That’s what a healthy family does and it’s the only way we can move forward together to achieve our common goals.

 
To those outside our community, though, we all need to be certain to always represent our community as well as possible. Accentuate the positive. Save concerns for the right place and time.

The bottom line is that we should always remember that each and every one of us – students, faculty, staff, and alumni – is an ambassador for Michigan. When you are in an interview, talking to a prospective student, or friends at other schools, please keep in mind that you are representing all of us. During internships and in your careers, everything you do and say, all your accomplishments and failures, reflect not just on you, but on all of us. We all hold the reputation of the whole in our hands.

As always, Bob and I invite each of you to help achieve our mutual goal of being one of the world's great business schools.  There are lots of ways that you can help.  Your contributions of time and effort are greatly valued.  Your positive and constructive suggestions are always welcome.  Your support of all those that are working to make this a great place to be is needed.  Your willingness to stand behind the School both internally and externally is critical. 

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Rankings:  Imperfect & Important

I’m sure that many of you would argue that rankings of business schools are not worth the paper on which they are printed.  However, despite what we may think of their various methodologies and measures, the reality is that rankings remain the most widely used barometer of a business school's reputation.  A business school's stock in the real world rises and falls with where it stands in rankings by Business Week, U.S. News, the Economist, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal, to name just a few. 

While these metrics may not always reflect Michigan's true value - either our current state or our promise for the future, we all know that we must take the implications of these rankings seriously.  Our rankings are important to prospective students and faculty, recruiters, alumni, corporate sponsors, and many other important constituencies.

So, we carefully track our rankings, where we stand in each poll, and what makes each one tick.  Currently, the Full-Time MBA program is currently 8^th in Business Week, 13^th in U.S. News, 10^th in the Economist, 30^th in the Financial Times, and 3^rd in the Wall Street Journal; the BBA is ranked 3^rd in the primary poll for undergraduate programs, U.S. News; Executive Education is ranked #3 in Business Week.  A major determinant of how well we do in a given poll is the degree of fit between the ranking's methodology and our chosen strategy as a School.  Given our broad-based, general management approach, we naturally tend to do better in some rankings than others.  In particular, we generally do well where recruiter opinions are a major input (Wall Street Journal, Business Week) and not as well when what really matters is placing a large percentage of students in one or two very high paying industries (Financial Times, Forbes, and, to a lesser extent, U.S. News). 

Personally, for a wide variety of reasons, I don't like to see us outside the top ten in any listing of business schools or individual programs. 

I am not about to suggest that we dissect the rankings with the aim of reverse engineering our strategy, though.  Obviously, it would be dangerous to set our course on the basis of maximizing our rankings.  In particular, those rankings which rely heavily on salary and placement data are inconsistent with our general management strategy and trying to maximize our position in these polls would lead us to recruit students whose primary interest are fields with the highest starting salaries, persuade students to take jobs in these industries once they are here, and focus our resources on training students for entry level positions in these industries as well as attracting those recruiters to campus.  Such distortions are not good for our students, our faculty, the vast majority of companies that come to us seeking management talent, and, in a broader sense, the world’s economy and society in general. 

However, I think it is appropriate and necessary for us to consider what useful feedback we can glean from each ranking we receive and how we can bring what we learn to our continuous efforts to improve our community.  I think we need to view such measures as an opportunity to reflect on whether we are being successful in pursuit of our goals and to identify potential areas of improvement -- especially if we are not performing as well as we would like in areas that are central to our overall strategy as a school. 

A good illustration of how we work to improve our position can be found in the way that the School has responded to the 2002 Business Week rankings.  After the results came out in October 2002, Dean Dolan and several of his senior staff followed up on the results with Jennifer Merrit, Business Week's B-Schools reporter.  Although BW does not share the actual data with Schools, they are willing to provide verbal feedback on a school's performance.  The BW student survey consists of questions on overall satisfaction, as well as specific aspects of the curriculum, teaching, recruiting, and the overall environment of a school.  Each of these questions receives equal weighting in calculating the overall rating of student satisfaction with a school.  Jennifer Merrit walked us through our score on each question, indicating whether we were above, at, or below what she referred to as 'the pack' -- her term for the top 30 schools in the final BW ranking.  She also told us whether our score on that question was up, down, or about the same as in the last survey. 

Merrit told us that we received our highest scores in areas such as our practical, broad-based approach to business education; our efforts to include topics such as ethics, leadership, teams, and diversity in the program; the number, diversity, and quality of firms that recruit here; the placement office’s help with matters such as interview training, negotiating strategy, and resumes; and the availability of faculty outside the classroom.  Our biggest improvement came on the question that pertains to the extent to which the learning environment enhanced by the use of technology (e.g., the wireless network).  The major areas in which we fell: the core curriculum and the quality of instruction. 

We knew that these criticisms were warranted and consistent with our own internal data and analysis.  A few months before the 2002 rankings appeared, the Dean had charged a group of faculty and students to review the core curriculum and teaching, and propose improvements.  The Business Week results provided added urgency to the Dean’s charge and those of you that were here last year will recall that the entire community participated in a tough, introspective look at the core curriculum.  The result is the first major overhaul of the core curriculum approved by the faculty in 25 years and important changes in how it is staffed (both are described in the following article).  All of these changes are based primarily on internal student feedback, but there is no doubt that the BW results influenced both the nature and extent of the changes.

Going forward, we will continue to work to improve our rankings wherever and whenever it makes sense to do so.  For example, we have been doing our best over the past year to get back into the U.S. News Top 10 and stay there.  Not at the expense of changing our philosophy and direction in any fundamental way, or of violating our own policies or integrity, but by doing what we can to maximize our position in that particular poll while staying within our game. 

Our ultimate success, however, depends on how well we implement the roadmap that Dean Dolan has provided with his vision of the School’s future.  With our sharper, more refined positioning founded on action-based learning, we have an terrific opportunity to build a unique and differentiating position that is highly valued by both prospective students and recruiters, while at the same time being hard for other schools to imitate.  It’s a magic moment in strategic terms.  We are the right school, in the right place, at the right moment in history, with the right set of assets.  If we are successful in carving out a dominant position with our unique approach to developing leaders, then we have a real chance at solidifying our reputation as one of the world’s premier business schools.  The rankings will follow.

So, while we will continue to pay attention to rankings and to project a true reflection of our strengths and programs to the world, it is vital that we continue to follow our own beliefs about what constitutes MBA program quality: 

• outstanding faculty committed to developing broad-based intellectual capital with impact;

• excellent students with a wide variety of backgrounds and professional interests;

• the best possible learning, professional development and enrichment opportunities for our students;

• a committed and professional staff dedicated to the School's mission;

• a strong reputation and franchise with the corporate community to ensure maximum career opportunities for our graduates and support for our programs;

• pride and confidence in ourselves. 

These are the elements that make this School truly great and we will work hard to continue to build on this foundation for the future. 

I invite each of you to contribute to improving our community on all these fronts.  Dean Dolan and I welcome your suggestions and your involvement. 

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Changes in the MBA Curriculum

We are always in a mode of 'continuous improvement' for all our degree programs.  Our commitment to innovation in business education requires that we continually engage in 'fearless introspection' to find ways to improve our offerings in both the short- and long-run. 

In our MBA program, we launched a large number of new elective courses this year, offered more seats in many elective courses than ever before, and added new sections of some of our most popular courses.  Among the new courses offered this year are LDP II:  The Leadership Development Program Transition Workshop (1.5 credit hours, Winter B), Advanced Valuation (1.5 credit hours, Fall B), Strategy in Emerging Markets (3.0 credit hours, Winter A & B), and Integrated Operations Strategy (1.5 credit hours, Fall B).   We were also able to create more space in popular electives this year, thanks to area chairs agreeing to raise enrollment capacities on their electives.  The result has been a greater number of students getting a seat in a higher proportion of electives than at any time since the school began keeping records.  For example, there were nearly 50% fewer sections with waitlists this year and the average length of waitlists is similarly shorter.  While our very best professors are still oversubscribed -- and will be until we figure out a way to clone them! -- there are more seats in their classes than ever before.  The School has also invested in expanding the number of sections of some perennially oversubscribed courses.  For example, we've grown the number of sections of Negotiations from 4 last year to 11 during the current academic year. 

As those that were here last year will recall, Dean Dolan appointed a committee of faculty and students to review the core curriculum (exclusive of MAP) with an eye towards aligning the core with the School's new strategy, identifying high priority areas for improvement, and developing a set of recommended changes to be discussed and voted upon by the governing faculty.  You'll no doubt also remember that we approached this important task very deliberately: benchmarking peer programs; carefully seeking input from all key constituencies -- alumni, faculty, recruiters, staff, and students; keeping the community informed as proposal ideas were developed and tested; and so on (click on thumbnail for overview).  The input we received was extremely helpful in ensuring that we developed the soundest possible set of proposals for the faculty to consider.  Thanks again to all who participated!

Highlights of the proposal approved by the faculty include a reallocation of credit hours across courses, changes in the sequence in which topics are taught, opportunities for students to take an elective during Fall B, and the ability to take a reduced load of courses during Winter A.  All of these changes are made in response to student concerns expressed during the core review process last year.

To make the core consistent with our strategy of developing 'broad-based intellectual capital with impact', the new core will reallocate credit hours evenly across the disciplines.  By doing so, we are aiming for a general management core with sufficient ‘bandwidth’ for each core topic to make its needed contribution to the whole.  In terms of implementation, these new courses will be 2.25 credit hours in length.  Each course will meet twelve times for two hours and ten minutes, with a ten-minute break during each session.  This course length is equivalent to that of core courses at peer schools on quarter systems, such as Chicago, or half-semesters, such as Duke.

The new core will also feature improvements in sequencing, in order to increase efficiency and to better leverage integration opportunities across courses.  In addition, we've structured the core so that students will be able to spend more time on fewer courses during a given half-semester.  Fall A courses will be Business Economics, Corporate Strategy, Financial Accounting, and Quantitative Methods (formerly Statistics).  In Fall B, students will take Finance, Marketing, and Management of Organizations (formerly Organizational Behavior).  During Winter A, the required core courses will be Management Accounting and Operations Management.  Please click on the thumbnail below for an illustration of how the new core is structured.

The new Fall B elective slot means that Michigan students will have an opportunity to go deeper into their chosen subject area than students at other schools prior to their internship interviews.  For example, students interested in brand management or consulting will have a chance to take 4.5 credit hours of courses in marketing or strategy before the Holiday Break in December.  The School's Curriculum Committee has also approved a new Finance elective that can be taken by students with the necessary quantitative skills during Fall A.  Students that complete this course successfully would be able to take two electives during Fall B.  So, Finance students will have an opportunity to take Finance electives such as Options (F580) and Valuation (F615) prior to the Holiday Break.  Our hope is that this system will give students pursuing all paths an advantage in the internship hunt over competing students from other schools.  If it works out as well as we hope, this change should also help draw more recruiters to Michigan as the market discovers how much better prepared our students are by the time internship interviews begin in January.

At the same time, the new core offers students an opportunity to better balance academics and recruiting during Winter A by reducing core requirements during that term to 4.5 credit hours.  While those that wish to take an elective during Winter A may do so, it will no longer be necessary to take 7.5 credit hours at the same time as interviewing.  For those that choose to take just the 4.5 credit hours of core courses during Winter A, we intend to schedule classes two days per week and leave the remaining days for interview preparation, interviewing, and flybacks.  In conjunction with the new elective in Fall B, we hope that allowing students to focus more of their time and energy on securing an internship will both give our students an advantage over those at peer schools and make Michigan a more attractive place to look for talent in recruiter's eyes. 

We've also been discussing changes in the MBA academic calendar for next year with faculty, staff, and students.  The current draft schedule incorporates an exam period after each half-semester.  In addition, there will be a new period between half-semesters that will be used for forums, recruiting, executive skills and other professional development activities.

A third major area of change for next year is the staffing process for core courses.  In the past, decisions regarding which faculty will teaching core courses have been handled at the area level.  Going forward, though, the area chairs have agreed that decisions about who teaches the core should first be approved by the Dean's Office.  As a result of this change, we are looking forward to a very strong line-up in the core for next year.  And, in areas where we have had difficulty in the past, we are making special efforts to hire appropriate staff.  We have already procured the services of a new clinical faculty member to coordinate and teach the Marketing core for next year,  Christie Nordheilm.  Christie is joining us from Kellogg, where she has taught the Marketing core for the last 6 years, won the core teaching award twice, as well as Kellogg's school-wide teaching award.  We're very excited to have her joining us in the Fall.

So, there's obviously a lot to be excited about for this year with all the new electives, as well as for next year with the redesign of our core. 

As always, I welcome everyone's thoughts and help as we move forward with implementing these changes for next year.  In particular, I would like to invite all students to share ideas with us regarding the new core curriculum.  The changes for next year require every core course to undergo a major re-design.  It is an unprecedented opportunity for the community to have an impact on each individual core course and think about how the core courses relate to one another.

So, if you have ideas about what topics should be covered in a particular core course or across core courses, please email your suggestions to 'mbacore@umich.edu' between now and March 31st. 

In particular, I would like to encourage all club presidents to work with their membership to develop a set of 'high impact' suggestions on how to shape the new core curriculum.  In some cases, this may naturally lead to a focus on a specific core course such as Corporate Strategy, Finance, or Marketing.  For example, the Finance Club may wish to focus on recommendations for the Finance core and the Marketing Club on suggestions for the Marketing core.  In other cases, though, the topic may be one that cuts across core courses such as diversity, globalization, or sustainability.  For example, Net Impact may wish to propose suggestions on sustainability that cut across core courses and Michigan Business Women might make recommendations related to how and where gender is addressed in the core curriculum.

Once I've received your input, I will distribute consolidated feedback to each area chair and core coordinator for their consideration as they redesign their courses for next Fall.

Thanks again to all those who have contributed their suggestions, time, and effort to the changes for this year and next.  If we continue to work together to improve our School, there's no limit to where we can go.  In this regard, I think the core curriculum is perhaps the most important driver of our future success and I am certain that we will see many benefits from these changes over the coming years.

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Update on BBA Curriculum Review

For this year, Dean Dolan appointed a new committee to review the BBA program.  The decision to review the BBA program was based on his conviction that the BBA is vital to the School's future and that, therefore, we should be engaged in a constant search for ways to improve the undergraduate experience.   

The members of the task force are:

Gene Anderson, Associate Dean for Degree Programs

Izak Duenyas, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research

Jason Gottleib, BBA SGA Representative

Tom Jones, BBA Program Director

Scott Moore, Associate Professor of Business Information Technology

George Siedel, Professor of Law

Dave Wright, Associate Professor of Accounting

Since receiving its task in September, the committee has focused on identifying and understanding issues of concern.  In particular, we are looking to assess the program's alignment with the School's new strategy and to identify high priority areas for improvement.

Work-to-date includes one-on-one interviews with students, faculty, alumni, and recruiters; discussions with the School's outside Boards; reviews of core course evaluations; benchmarking of peer school's core curriculums; review of past student course evaluation data; faculty forums; and surveys of both students and alumni.  A timeline summarizing these activities can be viewed by clicking on the following thumbnail.

To date, the most frequently mentioned issues can be summarized as follows:

While there have been many other issues raised, the above have been mentioned most frequently to date. 

Going forward, our next step is to identify potential action items.  Action items can range from 'small wins' to large scale redesign of the program. 

We continue to welcome student and faculty input on what issues we should be looking at, potential changes and improvements we should be considering, and the review process as a whole.  There are both formal and informal routes for you to communicate with us.  Formally, through Tom Jones as BBA Director or Jason Gottlieb as SGA Representative.  You can also email the committee at 'bbataskforce@umich.edu'.  Stopping by during my weekly office hours in the Student Lounge (Mondays, 3-5PM) is also a good idea.  Informally, please feel welcome to meet with any of the committee members or simply talk to us in the halls.

Thanks in advance for your time and effort in helping the School with this important initiative.  In talking to students and faculty, I'm excited by the level of enthusiasm and know that by working together, we can create the best undergraduate business program on the planet.

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For the Record (Answers to questions that seem to keep coming up!)

Just what the heck exactly does an Associate Dean do?

The short answer is that an Associate Dean works for others.  It's the nature of the job and satisfaction basically comes from making things happen for students, staff, faculty, and the community as a whole.

The longer answer is that I find myself involved in coordinating, planning, trouble-shooting, and communicating along a wide variety of fronts. 

To give you an idea of what I get up to, here is a sampling of what I've been involved with over the past week or so.  While the actual individual items change a lot from week-to-week, most of my time in any given week falls into one of the eight categories listed below.  The first one, ‘Student Life’, consists of everything I do to try to help students out in their day-to-day lives at the School.  In any give week, I field requests that range from getting into desired classes to what books we have available in the library.  I try my best to follow up and make things happen.  Everything doesn’t always work out, but on the whole I feel like it has been a good week if I can help make someone’s experience at the School a better one.  The other categories relate to admissions, academic services and policies, faculty and staffing, School strategy and administration, curriculum planning, and communications about all of the above. 

I hope this gives everyone a better idea of what it is that really goes on down in the Dean’s Office.  It may also give you an idea of why I am usually left speechless whenever my 9-year old daughter asks me to tell her what I did while I was at work.

Student Life

·    Attended free coffee and bagel hour in Student Lounge.

·    Met with students developing a plan to provide student-run food service in the Student Lounge.

·    Responded to a student inquiry about the process of offering a faculty position to Andy Hoffman.  (We’re waiting for SNRE to finalize their decision.)

·    Received and responded to a student’s inquiry about how many tickets would be available to each student for graduation.

·    Received and passed on information about University of Illinois’s Minority Case Competition to appropriate club presidents.

·    Discussed possibility of the School’s hosting Senator Carl Levin as a ‘Dean’s Speaker’.

·    Responded to student inquiry about the availability of OM615 in the Evening program.  It has not been offered for several years due to low enrollments the last three times it was offered.

·    Received competitive intelligence on HBS marketing club activities and passed it on to the marketing club here.

·    Received and approved funding request to send students to Cornell stock picking challenge.

·    Solicited information from core course instructors on exam feedback and return policies in response to student concerns about their appropriateness and variability across courses.

·    Offered to help out a student studying how tuition levels are determined.

·    Held office hours in the student lounge for two hours.  Most discussion focused on the School’s commitment to Diversity.

·    Met with representatives from the Evening MBA Association to discuss projects we can work on together.

·    Microwaves moved in the Student Lounge to improve traffic flow.

·    Approved an appropriate beverage service for Global Blue’s ‘Blue Out’.

·    Advised GSI on Business School and University resources available to help undergraduate student in need of counseling. 

Admissions

·    Followed up on an alumni’s request to understand why his son did not get admitted to the MAcc program.

·    Reviewed initial figures on under-represented minority applications received through the Consortium.

·    Reviewed enrollment of women and under-represented minorities in Business Week Top 10 over the last decade, as well as applications, admissions, and yield for women and under-represented minorities at Michigan over the last decade.

·    Investigated trends in GMAT test-taking over the last five years.

·    Read report from Alumni Relations on BBSA Alumni plans to help with admit recruiting efforts.

·    Reviewed preliminary enrollment projections for 2004-05 in preparation for budget meeting.

·    Reviewed draft of a survey to help us understand why people that express an interest in Michigan’s MBA program do not apply.

·    Responded to request from alum about using his firm’s services for course evaluations.

Academic Services and Policies

·    Per the request of a faculty member, asked Academic Services to distribute course evaluation with summary sheets placed inside an envelope rather than pasted on the outside.

·    Followed up with Academic Services on Evening MBA requests such as making course bidding available, putting together better information for students to choose courses (e.g., area recommendations tied to career tracks), and holding information sessions on how to bid/register and what’s available.

·    Approved moving a section of F624 in Fall B to a new time slot.

·    Worked with Paula Caproni and Jim Murdock to determine whether to cancel Evening classes due to inclement weather and road conditions.

·    Helped faculty, staff, and BBA program director determine proper scheduling of F310 for next year.

·    Talked to Academic Services about drafting master schedule for next Fall.

·    Helped LHC area chair locate data on grade distribution in other area’s courses over time.

·    Determined appropriate allocation of sections of F310 for 2004-05.

·    Agreed to meet with Dean of INCAE to discuss student exchange program.

Faculty and Staffing

·    Reviewed and commented on a summary of instructional appointment issues prepared by University representatives negotiating with the new union (LEO).

·    Responded to faculty request for teaching evaluations of a former faculty visitor.

·    Approved office changes for three faculty members.

·    Interviewed a faculty candidate in Finance from Yale.

·    Read recommendation letters and materials for faculty member being considered for promotion.

·    Attended Executive Committee meeting to discuss tenure and promotion cases.

·    Responded to Global MBA Director inquiries about staffing for MAP this summer.

·    Discussed appropriate staff person to attend a meeting of the Community Values and Standards Committee for the purpose of taking notes. 

·    Responded to faculty inquiry about paycheck discrepancy.

·    Worked out teaching load arrangement for supplemental faculty member who is unable to complete his contracted teaching for 2003-2004.

·    Investigated allegations of faculty misconduct in BBA core.

·    Reviewed initial matching of faculty to IMAP and EMAP projects.

·    Discussed non-renewal of supplemental faculty member with area chair.

·    Met to discuss promotion and tenure cases for two faculty members.

·    Coordinated donation to the School to pay for teaching by a supplemental faculty member.

School Strategy

·    Briefed on Communications’ analysis of latest Financial Times ranking.

·    Reviewed and commented on drafts of announcements for this week’s community wide discussion on Diversity.

·    Outlined suggested topics and discussion points for Dean Dolan’s use at upcoming community discussion of Diversity.

·    Met with Dean Dolan, Kris Nebel, and Al Cotrone to discuss Dean’s presentation at community discussion on diversity.

·    Revised report on economics of BBA and MBA degree programs.

·    Meeting of Deans to discuss possible strategies for improving the efficiency with which staff units are performing activities.

·    Attended community-wide discussion of Diversity.   

Administration

·    Helped move operations for our Executive MBA session with IESE students to Executive Education staff.

·    Apprised the Dean of an investigation by Community Values and Standards Committee.

·    Responded to a request from university Counsel for student help on creating a traveling version of the exhibit on the affirmative action cases at the Media Union.

·    Reviewed comments on instructional support for Provost’s Budget Meeting.

·    Agreed with request of Community Values and Standards Committee to contact University Counsel.

·    Responded to request from the University regarding the Business School’s guidelines on Clinical Appointments.

·    Confirmed that staffing for a week-long Executive MBA program with IESE students would maintain the same leadership.

·    Reviewed development plans for new ‘Professional Development and Student Life’ unit.

·    Reviewed report on Winter 2004 enrollments.

·    Responded to a faculty inquiry about tuition for students from other units taking classes at the Business School.

·    Clarified policy on GMBA staffing to area chair and program director.

·    Developed pro forma for potential EMBA program with MASCO.

·    Provided funding for BBA guest speaker.

·    Sent invoice to IESE for EMBA program expenses.

Curriculum

·    Drafted a summary of key challenges facing the School’s BBA program based on feedback from faculty, students, and staff..

·    Checked with Academic Services on University policies and procedures regarding changing degree program requirements.

·    Edited presentation on BBA Task Force’s progress in preparation for February 6^th Faculty Meeting.

·    Requested and received course evaluation data for Fall 2003 to add to exhibit on past course evaluations in BBA Curriculum Review.

·    Summarized data on credit hours taught to BBA and non-BBA undergraduates for BBA Task Force.

·    Learned of a BBA student’s concern about LHC 350 and set up a time to meet next week.

·    Ran a meeting of the BBA Task Force to finalize faculty presentation for next week.

·    Edited a survey to be sent to BBA Alumni.

·    Received and got back to students concerned about MBA core course in Marketing.

·    Responded to inquiry about how many new courses we’ve offered during the last five years.

·    Set a meeting to discuss how to tie together Leadership Development opportunities at the School and scale these activities to full set of degree programs.

·    Reviewed initial distribution of student bids on MAP projects.

·    Met with BBA Task Force subcommittee to evaluate alternative ideas for changing the BBA grading curve.

·    Met with BBA student concerned about LHC 350.

Placement

·    Reviewed placement survey data on BBA and MBA internships and full-time employment

·    Met with recruiters to welcome them to Michigan and understand their perspective on hiring our students

·    Discussed interview bidding system with student concerned about its efficacy

·    Brainstormed ways to leverage faculty and administrative contacts to help students still searching for internships and full-time employment

Communications

·    Participated in 21.5 hours of meetings with students, faculty, and/or staff.

·    Sent 150+ emails.

·    Had informal lunches with students in the Lounge.

·    Wrote 2 articles for the MSJ and one Newsletter.

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Last updated, 2/10/04