New mission, structure, leadership make college more agile
Earlier this year, Stritch’s College of Business and Management was reorganized in alignment with its new mission to help students gain critical skills and training to balance people, planet, and profit in service to a greater good.
Dr. Peter Holbrook, dean of the college, said that a new way of thinking and operating was required to ensure that the college continues to produce well-informed, marketable graduates who are attractive to employers.
The college is now segmented into undergraduate and graduate schools, each led by an associate dean. Dr. Bruce Loppnow is associate dean for the Graduate School of Business, and Dr. Eileen Sherman is associate dean for the Undergraduate School of Business. In addition, Dr. Jennifer Northern is associate dean for assessment, accreditation, and strategic planning.
The three associate dean positions report directly to Holbrook. Each school now has faculty chairs in programmatic areas, providing oversight on curriculum, as well as faculty management and development.
This structure renews the role of the faculty and strengthens the college’s system of shared governance. These changes took place after extensive analysis of the ideal structure for the University’s business programs.
“This realignment was guided by several guiding principles, including the need for continuing academic excellence and student service, as well as accreditation,” said Holbrook. “This new structure allows us to be more adaptable and flexible to meet the changing needs of the competitive higher education landscape. As a result, the college is better positioned to prepare business leaders for the 21st century shaped by a Franciscan worldview.”
The move was also geared to enhance the marketplace perception that the College of Business and Management has a demonstrated expertise in business education, allowing for better long-term growth for both traditional and non-traditional business programs. This change aligns the University with the best practices of its peer institutions.
In addition, the Department of Business and Economics, formerly in the College of Arts and Sciences, became part of the College of Business and Management. The move was made for several reasons, including recent research suggesting that the marketplace was confused as to why Stritch had a Department of Business and Economics separate from the College of Business and Management.
As a result of this change, all four faculty members and the administrative assistant in the Business and Economics Department moved to the College of Business and Management. Course offerings for traditional undergraduate business students remain on the main campus during the day, just like other traditional undergraduate programs, and these students will continue to be educated by the liberal arts core courses and receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in business.
“By placing the University’s business, economics, and management programs in a single college, we are in a better position to communicate that the college is home to extraordinary breadth and depth in both business programming and expertise,” said Stritch President Dr. James Loftus.
The realignment was led by Holbrook, who served as interim dean of the college since June 2011 and was named dean in January. He has helped lead the college’s efforts to be recognized by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), the leading specialized accreditation association for business education that supports, celebrates, and rewards teaching excellence.
This article appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of Stritch Magazine.