On Thursday, Oct. 31, Interim Dean of the Daniels College of Business (DCB) Charles H. Patti addressed a room of approximately 25 faculty, undergraduate and graduate students about the strategic vision for DCB in upcoming years.
A new strategic plan to improve DCB was put in place in 2009, outlining goals through 2014. The goals include completing construction of Margery Reed, revising MBA and IMBA programs, increasing global initiatives, continuing to be accredited by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and gaining an Equis accreditation, the world’s leading international accreditation for business schools.
DCB expects to have a new dean on June 1, 2014, according to Patti. The process of selecting a new dean starts with Korn/Ferry, an executive recruiting firm, finding 15 new candidates for the position. These candidates will be filtered through interviews and eventually three or four candidates will be invited to visit campus for an interview in February.
The seven aspects of the strategic plan include: achieving the top 50 ranking for an undergraduate program, globalizing DCB, improving the quality of program offerings, focusing on the quality of academic units, creating a recognizable national and international brand, creating a financial model for a college that supports excellence and developing state of the art teaching and learning.
According to Patti, faculty members get together each year to look at the plan and identify which goals can be broken into smaller goals in order to work through various priorities.
“We want to go from a very good business school to a great business school,” said Patti.
According to Patti, DCB is going to achieve its globalization goals by adding travel courses and forming relationships with universities in different countries to expand their global front.
“I see the value of a global business school,” said Patti. What we want to do here is really globalize the college of business. This involves exchange of students and faculty.”
DCB also has several ongoing priorities such as inclusive excellence and diversity, high program quality, financial strength and community involvement, according to Patti.
In addition to these new initiatives, DCB also strives to uphold the quality of their program. Adjunct professors are continually brought in to keep the program fresh with new ideas, according to Patti. DCB hired 18 new staff members this year.
“One of the reasons we’ve hired 18 new people is to get new ideas and new ways of teaching,” said Patti. “When I was in school a teacher read to you in a lecture for hours and somehow that was learning, and that’s just not the case anymore. Learning is very much interactive now.”
There are strict standards about what an acceptable teaching score is and what is an excellent teaching score on student evaluations in the business school, according to Patti. If a professor receives low scores on student evaluations, the school speaks to the professor about what can be improved for students.
The plan is to prepare the best environment possible for the new dean’s arrival, according to Patti.
“In the meantime, we move forward with the strategic plan,” said Patti. “We’re pressing on.”
