April Message from the Dean
Dear Colleagues,
I am very excited for this week! Our Michigan Ross Commencement is Friday, May 2, at 3:30 p.m. in Crisler Center. This year’s invited speaker is André Branch, MBA ’99, a C-suite executive with more than 25 years of experience leading and building brands in the consumer packaged goods and luxury sectors. Additionally, we will hear from four graduating student speakers: Michael Hartt, BBA ’25, Christian Brymer, MBA ’25, Jaden Douglas, BBA ’25/MBA ’25, and Priya Varshika Ganji, MM ’25. We are graduating an incredible set of students, including an Olympic medalist, national champions in multiple sports, winners of the global Venture Capital Investment Competition (beating out Kellogg and Booth), an entrepreneur who developed and sold a cancer diagnostic tool, and tremendous dual degree musicians, artists, engineers, and scientists.
As we celebrate this milestone, it is also a time to reflect on the academic year we are finishing. We are excited to award special new research grants to faculty whose research has the potential to have a significant impact on both research and practice, while we are also moving forward on our LA location and our Executive Residence renovations, saw record BBA applications (more than 13,000!), a No. 2 ranking for our Online MBA Program, and implemented significant upgrades to our BBA curriculum. We are also well on our way to launching a dual undergraduate degree program with the College of Engineering that we think can be the best in the world, significantly increased programming and its visibility related to artificial intelligence (see below for more details), and recognized accomplishments of faculty, staff, and students related to belonging, community, and broad access to opportunities. This is all in the face of some headwinds for higher education, with new budget uncertainties related to the federal research funding landscape and potential challenges to recruiting international students in the future. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to all of our faculty and staff who have volunteered many ideas about how to create opportunities and increase efficiency in the face of these challenges; your ideas were critically important in our planning processes and your partnership is essential in leading the Ross School forward as we aim to be in front of the changes around us.
I’d also like to take a moment to reflect on other important events from the past month.
On April 8, I was pleased to participate in the Paton Fellows Induction Ceremony. Each year, the Paton Center awards scholarships to rising University of Michigan third- and fourth-year students to encourage them to consider an accounting‑related career. The event was well-attended and also recognized two Honorary Paton Fellows — distinguished alumni who have contributed significantly to the accounting profession. This event was so well done — a special thanks to the Paton and Master of Accounting teams for doing a stellar job orchestrating this event!
On April 10, we welcomed incoming Full-Time MBA students to campus for Go Blue Rendezvous. More than 200 admitted students and 56 partners from 25 states and six countries visited the campus. Students visited the Ross buildings, learned about student clubs and other engagement opportunities, attended development and leadership sessions, and heard from current MBA students. A big thank you to everyone involved in planning this event. For many students, GBR is their first experience on campus, and it helps to set the tone and build connections before classes begin.
On April 15, we hosted our final Ross volunteer opportunity of the academic year in partnership with the Huron River Watershed Council. The volunteer event was focused on climate/sustainability, and about 20 faculty and staff came together to clean up Gallup Park. This was our third event in a series of volunteer activities, bringing faculty and staff together to give back to the local community around themes of climate/sustainability, technology disruption, and economic inclusion. I want to thank everyone who participated in these activities — it was terrific to have our Ross team out in the community showing our commitment to building a better world together through these volunteer opportunities and what we do through our research and student interactions.
On April 25, some of our Full-Time MBA students presented at the CK Prahalad Multidisciplinary Action Project Showcase in the Winter Garden. This event spotlighted some of the MAP projects funded by the CK Prahalad Initiative and gave students the opportunity to share their experiences with MAP in India. MAP is such an important learning experience for our students, and it is always amazing to hear about the experiences of our students while completing their projects.
Besides the events this past month, I am pleased to share that Michigan Ross recently took two significant steps to better highlight our leadership in AI. First, we added a new AI at Michigan Ross page to our website, where we provide information about the faculty who are both researching and teaching how AI can be applied to business principles. Second, we announced a collaborative effort with Google Public Sector to study how a customized virtual teaching assistant may improve student learning and provide educators with teaching insights. Professors Jun Li and Andrew Wu are spearheading this effort, which includes 25 other universities from around the world.
Before I close, I want to remind everyone of the Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards event, which will take place on May 6 from 3-5 p.m. in Robertson Auditorium. I hope to see you there to celebrate the outstanding work of our colleagues from across the school.
As usual, my upcoming office hours for the month of May can be found on the dean’s office webpage. In May, the in-person office hours for faculty and staff will be held in the Davidson Winter Garden on May 13 from 4:15-5 p.m., and the Zoom office hours for faculty and staff will be held on May 30 from 2-2:45 p.m. Please contact Heather Cooper for an invite with the link to join.
Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our students’ success. I look forward to seeing many of you at Commencement and the Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards event.
Kind regards,
Sharon
