August Message From the Dean

Dear colleagues,

And here we go! The last couple of weeks have been very busy welcoming many students back to campus. It was especially fun to see the great turnout at our Centennial birthday party on Monday, where we celebrated with a 100-foot-long birthday cake and the marching band. This was a very nice way to top off the many orientation sessions and events, from OMBAs to FTMBAs and BBAs, that took place over the past couple of weeks. A huge thank you to our program teams and faculty who put so much thought and effort into making our students feel welcome at Michigan Ross.

It was also great to connect with each other at the annual Staff Summer Soiree a few weeks ago. And we held the annual Faculty Celebration at the University of Michigan Museum of Art again this year. This event celebrates the key milestones across an academic career, where we welcomed new tenure-track faculty members and LEOs to Michigan Ross, recognized faculty tenure and promotion decisions over the academic year, and paid tribute to our faculty who retired. Several new faculty commented to me that they especially appreciated the warmth of the comments conveyed about our retiring faculty, alongside their impressive career accomplishments. 

Regarding our strategic priorities, in last month’s message, I shared news about the coverage of our academic excellence in national and international media outlets over the past year (up 23.7% over last year!). A great current example of the visibility of our academic excellence was former NYC Mayor, Bill DeBlasio, talking about our Michigan Ross + Financial Times poll on CNN (link to news story). If you haven’t seen this already, definitely check it out. Mentions like this help us move forward with one of our three strategic goals – to be globally recognized as a premier source of talent, knowledge, inspiration, and connection; press mentions are one important component associated with making progress on this goal. 

We are also on schedule with our plans to renovate the Executive Residence and the build-out plans for the temporary space for those who are in Wyly. The temporary space is on S. State Street in a former Google site. The move will take place at the end of the semester. The upgrades to the Executive Residence are also important to our goals of elevating our global reputation for excellence since these facilities impact the experience executives from around the globe have when they visit us for a range of programs, including our executive education programs. You can see our progress on our strategic goals on the Mission in Action page. Throughout this academic year, we will update this page with additional metrics and content related to progress on our goals.

There’s one more special event that I would like to highlight before the end of August. Today, Aug. 29, from 3-5 p.m., I am inviting all faculty and staff to an open house in the new dean’s suite (3rd floor), where you can enjoy some light refreshments. Please join us if you can!

Looking ahead to September, here are some upcoming events to mark on your calendar:

• Faculty and staff are invited to attend the Sanger Leadership Dialogues on Sept. 13. Professor Sue Ashford will interview alums André Branch, MBA ’99, SVP and GM of MAC Cosmetics, and Jamie (Epstein) Rosen, BBA ’09, former director of entertainment and brand marketing at Hasbro.
• Our annual State of the School address will be held on Sept. 24 in the Robertson Auditorium, where I will share updates on our strategic priorities and other important school news, so I hope to see you there. 

Finally, I want to remind everyone of my upcoming office hours, which can be found on our new dean’s office webpage. In September, the in-person office hours for faculty and staff will be held in the Davidson Winter Garden on the following dates and times:

• Tuesday, Sept. 3, from 4:15-5 p.m.
• Wednesday, Sept. 11, from 3:30-4:15 p.m.
• Monday, Sept. 16, from 4:15-5 p.m.

The monthly virtual office hours will be held via Zoom on Friday, Sept. 27, from 2:15-3:15 p.m. Please contact Heather Cooper for an invite with the link to join, and check the dean’s office webpage for updates.

Once again, welcome to our new academic year, and best wishes for a productive and engaging semester!  

Go Blue!

Sharon