Building a Culture of Encounter in Mendoza  

“We are promoters of a culture of encounter.” Pope Francis

Greetings! As we start another academic year, our University and College communities are coming alive with the energy and enthusiasm of new beginnings. It certainly feels like a time of renewal, where fresh ideas, diverse perspectives and boundless possibilities converge. I hope your fall semester is off to an excellent start.

This summer marked my first full year as the inaugural associate dean for innovation and inclusion here in Mendoza. The role aligns with the College’s larger goals of developing innovative curriculum and formative experiences for our students, elevating our degree programs and creating a culture of encounter among faculty, staff and students. 

I have the good fortune to work closely with Sr. Associate Dean Craig Crossland on innovation in our degree programs, and am exploring the potential for new non-degree programs to further the College’s teaching and research. I am honored to be part of an academic community where each and every individual plays an integral role in these endeavors. In this type of engaged community, we are more likely to see our students succeed and thrive, which also relates to belonging and inclusion. The research shows that how students respond to the question of, “do I belong?” is closely linked to whether they can succeed or thrive there.

As we enter this new academic year, I'm encouraged that students are expressing a deeper sense of inclusion and a strong commitment to creating a welcoming and diverse campus. Our resources in Mendoza allow us to achieve belonging in many ways, including through the visibility of accessible support systems and opportunities that encourage appreciation of diverse perspectives, talents and lived experiences. 

In that spirit, allow me to share some of the amazing things our College community accomplished last year — many of which we will continue this year ,— and how you can be part of them. 

• Programs for faculty and staff that support exclusive excellence in the workplace. Last year’s reading groups for “Relationship-Rich Education” and “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity,” were well attended. Mendoza Staff DEI Council will also sponsor a reading group for World Mental Health Day in October. Please join other faculty and staff in reading, ”Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?” The Mendoza Community Forum: Building a Culture of Inclusion in Mendoza and Beyond, which took place earlier this month, is another example of a program that supports exclusive excellence in the workplace. 
• Social events that highlight the diverse backgrounds of faculty, staff, and students. The College collaborated with the MBA program to offer the first-ever Diversity and Heritage Ball in Spring 2023. With at least 125 faculty, staff and graduate students in attendance and seven different graduate affinity groups celebrated, this event is sure to return in Spring 2024. Keep track of events like this, as well as international holidays, by subscribing to the Mendoza DE&I Calendar using this link.
• Support of undergraduate and graduate student Affinity Groups. Students are pivotal in shaping Mendoza’s inclusive culture through their leadership of student organizations. Last year, we saw the success of Black History Week with the Black Graduate in Management Club, and just last week, there was “A Trip Through Latin America” with the Latin American Club at Mendoza. On the undergraduate side, a new student-led coalition called, The Equity in Business Initiative strives to make sure all students — especially students from underrepresented backgrounds and those unfamiliar with business/business-adjacent roles — know about opportunities on campus.  
• Co-sponsored events that connect faculty, staff and students with other Colleges on campus. Since the creation of the Office of Institutional Transformation, the University has become more intentional about connecting DEI practitioners across campus. This has led to collaboration between colleges and units for DE&I events, such as last month’s A Powerful Conversation with Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover and Dr. Angela Logan, during the TSU-ND football weekend. Stay tuned for other celebratory, cross-campus events like this during Walk the Walk Week, which will run January 16-22, 2024.  Contact me if you are interested in participating in monthly meetings of the University’s DEI Practitioners Group.
• Advancing equal access to business education through innovative recruiting initiatives with Graduate Enrollment. Examples of such recruiting initiatives include the Diversity in Leadership Program and partnerships with the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. Last year, the MBA program welcomed two students from Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-lettered fraternity for African American men. Mendoza will look to expand other recruiting partnerships with Catholic universities across the globe this year. 
• Formative student experiences that support inclusion in business. The DE&I Grow the Good in Business Case Competition in Spring 2023 drew Mendoza undergraduate, MBA and specialized master’s students to compete for $40,000 with their pitches focused on financial inclusion. Stay tuned for Spring 2024, when we plan to welcome more corporate sponsors and competing students. Judging opportunities will be available for faculty and staff.
• Consistent approach to surveying students about belonging in Mendoza. In 2022, 93% of Mendoza student respondents to the Inclusive Campus Survey strongly agreed (42%), agreed (36%) or somewhat agreed (15%) that they feel a sense of belonging at Notre Dame. But what about those students’ individual sense of belonging, community, and feeling valued within Mendoza? We could benefit from more data on student belonging at the College level.

I don’t take it lightly that the Dean’s Cabinet has trusted me to add perspective on diversity and belonging when discussing issues related to our core mission, as well as to lead our progress toward a culture of encounter as the needs of our students change. Please consider this an open invitation to reach out to me if you would like to discuss anything related to my role or innovation and inclusion in general. I welcome a conversation or your feedback at any time, whether it be in person or through our suggestion boxes. I look forward to another year where our community is strengthened by your support. 

Go Irish!

Kristen

Following up to last week’s column that introduced our new tenured, tenure-track, visiting and research faculty, I’m pleased to focus on our new teaching faculty this week. Below, each person has provided his or her area of expertise and a quote about how they originally became interested in that area.

ACCOUNTANCY

Mike Favorite, Associate Teaching Professor

AREAS OF EXPERTISE: General accounting.

“I'm joining the full-time teaching faculty in Accountancy after nearly 25 years as a concurrent adjunct faculty member. In this role, I will teach primarily undergraduates in 201 (Foundations), 202 (Managerial), and Corporate Financial Reporting. I was fortunate to have an amazing professor for my Intro to Accounting class many years ago: Jim Ward. He was enthusiastic, energetic, and committed to making sure everyone understood the material and how it related to business – for all majors. I try to emulate that philosophy and care for my students in and out of the classroom. It is a great privilege to teach Mendoza students.” 

FINANCE

Jeff Bacidore, Associate Teaching Professor

AREAS OF EXPERTISE: Algorithmic trading, smart routing and trading research.

“I first became interested in quantitative finance when I did my undergraduate senior thesis on the economic impact of hostile takeovers. That single project motivated me to get my Ph.D. in finance and ultimately to spend my career doing research in quantitative trading.”

M&O

Emily Harris, Art, Art History, and Design (A&L) and Concurrent Assistant Teaching Professor

AREAS OF EXPERTISE: Design thinking, public interest design, design research, self efficacy, systems design, women empowerment

“I am passionate about getting students out of the classroom and connected to real world projects to build empathy and provide hands-on experiences. As a researcher, I delve into the intersection of making and adventure, investigating how these realms build self-efficacy, particularly in female identifying individuals. My exploration of this dynamic underscores my dedication to dismantling barriers and empowering marginalized groups through innovative approaches. My commitment to promoting leadership among women is further evidenced by my role as the founder and executive director of She's Rogue, an organization committed to fostering creativity and risk taking.”

MARKETING

Kevin Hartman, Associate Teaching Professor

AREAS OF EXPERTISE: Digital marketing, market research and business analytics.

“I was drawn to digital marketing analytics through my extensive 35-year journey in the digital marketing sector, which began at a private equity-backed incubator and culminated in an 11-year stint at Google. My diverse experiences in between, especially leading an analytics team at a global advertising agency for seven years, solidified my passion for this space. This naturally steered me towards making it my teaching specialty.”

FITZGERALD INSTITUTE OF REAL ESTATE

Mike O’Malley, Executive Director of the Notre Dame Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate

AREAS OF EXPERTISE: Real estate private equity, distressed real estate investing, and real estate entrepreneurship

"After spending the last 17 years as a partner in a real estate private equity firm, I identified the opportunity to bring the practical application of private real estate investment into the classroom, well before students begin their careers.  It's in this environment that students can not only learn concepts, but also apply them in simulated experiences.  Students gain confidence interacting with leaders in the industry, exploring investment theses and performing investment underwriting, further equipping them to contribute earlier in their careers."

Please join me in welcoming all of them to Mendoza!

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

It was great seeing many of you at the Tom Mendoza Presents panel discussion on Friday, September 1. We had a very enthusiastic and full house in the Jordan for the conversation on “Leadership, Culture and the Power of Diversity” with guests Tom Mendoza, Tennessee State University Head Coach Eddie George, Notre Dame Women’s Basketball Coach Niele Ivey and former Notre Dame All-American Derrick Mayes. 

We also had an unannounced visit from our football head coach Marcus Freeman, who dropped in to greet Coach George and pose for a quick photoshoot. If you missed the event, I highly encourage you to watch the video. 

One of our strategic goals is to elevate the quality and quantity of impactful research with relevance to business and society. Achieving this goal depends heavily on our ability to recruit talented faculty. I’m thus very pleased to introduce the newest members of our faculty community. This week, I’ll focus on our new tenured, tenure-track, visiting and research faculty. Next week, I’ll introduce our new teaching professors. In addition to their areas of research interests, each one also provided a quote about how he or she chose their particular area of study.

ACCOUNTANCY

John Aland, Visiting Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Financial institutions, financial reporting, equity crowdfunding, voluntary disclosure.

RESEARCH: "My research looks at the behaviors of traditional and non-traditional financial institutions. As an auditor, I developed a deep understanding of the banking industry that has helped inform my research focused on the behavior of these institutions. As I looked more into these institutions, I also developed an interest in how firms fund their operations when traditional sources of financing aren't available, which led me to equity crowdfunding. It has been really interesting getting to make connections with people in the equity crowdfunding industry, and helping to contribute to our overall knowledge about the democratization of financing for startup firms."

Ilona Bastiaansen, Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Corporate disclosure (mandatory & voluntary), market efficiency, financial distress and bankruptcy.

RESEARCH: “When I was young, my life was profoundly impacted by the financial collapse of the family business. One of the contributing factors to the bankruptcy was the lack of financial acumen of the people involved in the business. This personal experience has been a driving force behind my dedication to instructing in the field of accounting and conducting research related to corporate bankruptcy.”

Lauren Vollon, Visiting Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Structuring of private M&A contracts and VC investors; disclosure regulation, equity ownership and liquidity.

RESEARCH: “In my research, I study how (unequal) access to financial information affects capital markets and contracting.  Proper information flows between firms and external stakeholders are a necessary condition for any market to optimally function.  Inequality among stakeholders in the access to information and in the ability to process information is an important impediment to information dissemination and thus ultimately to economic development. It is then also a great pleasure for me to teach financial accounting to a broad range of college students and help them become critical users of financial information."

FINANCE

Alberto Martin Utrera, Visiting Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Empirical asset pricing, financial econometrics and portfolio optimization.

RESEARCH: "I've been passionate about math and numbers since I was a kid. Over time, I became curious about how economic agents interact with each other, which eventually led me into the data-rich field of finance. Now, I focus on developing quantitative methods to improve our understanding of financial decisions."

Emanuele Rizzo, Visiting Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Empirical corporate finance, financial intermediation, corporate governance, regulation.

RESEARCH: "My research centers on gaining a deeper understanding of how financial institutions operate. Specifically, I focus on three key factors — team dynamics, governance quality and the interconnectedness of financial markets  — and I study how they influence the decision-making processes and behavioral patterns of financial institutions."

ITAO

Francis Bilson Darku, Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Sequential analytic methods, nonparametric statistics and econometrics, analytics for IT and operations.

RESEARCH: “Collecting data can be costly and time-consuming, but it is crucial for accurate analyses and conclusions. Knowing when to stop data collection and declare sufficiency has therefore been a key question that I try to answer in many different statistical contexts. Hence one of my research areas is to develop stopping rules for sampling data given a desired accuracy level for a particular statistical analysis.”

Alfonso Pedraza-Martinez, Greg and Patty Fox Collegiate Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Humanitarian operations and crisis management, sustainability, operations in emerging markets, global supply chains.

RESEARCH: “I study humanitarian operations and disaster management. Before joining academia, I worked for three years as a humanitarian logistician for the city of Bogota, Colombia. Then I realized I wanted to get a deep understanding of the challenges faced by humanitarian operations and disaster response systems and contribute to finding solutions.”

M&O

Casher Belinda, Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Emotions, interpersonal perception and communication, close relationships at work.

RESEARCH: “My research focuses on emotions, interpersonal perception and communication, and close relationships at work. My interests in these areas were heavily influenced by my time spent working as a sauté chef at an Italian restaurant.”

Michael Rosenblum, Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Perceptions of inequality and political discourse.

RESEARCH: “I study both how different forms of inequality (along the lines of gender, race and socioeconomic status) impact interpersonal judgments and how engagement in political discourse shapes both our impressions of others and the way in which we communicate our beliefs. I became fascinated by these topics through his deep interest in politics, as it is the domain of politics through which societal inequalities are created and through which they can be remedied.”

MARKETING

Kristen Ferguson, Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Creativity and innovation, consumer emotions and social influences. 

RESEARCH: “My research focuses on understanding the influence of creativity and innovation on consumer behavior. I became interested in studying creativity because it is the key factor that drives change and progress. My research influences my approach to teaching, where my goal is to utilize innovative and interactive materials to encourage creative thinking and discourse.”

Andre Martin, Assistant Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Marketing strategy, privacy, firm communication, marketing finance interface.

RESEARCH: “I have always had a passion for problem-solving. After doing so in the tech industry for 15 years I wanted to solve problems that had a greater impact on people's lives and firm strategy. My research looks at the implications of privacy on consumer perception and leverages machine learning, text analysis, and AI to solve marketing/finance and consumer welfare issues.” 

Breagin Riley, Assistant Research Professor

AREAS OF INTEREST: Social justice and consumer behavior, social contracts and market evolution.

RESEARCH: “My research is driven by the idea of ‘putting your money where your mouth is,’ or the extent to which people's consumption behavior supports or reflects their values. I'm lucky to study this in an era when there is abundant data on people's values and how they allocate scarce resources like money and time. My work generally focuses on detecting values-driven shifts in consumption which are predicted by theory, but have historically been difficult to observe.”

Please join me in welcoming our new faculty. My gratitude also to Ken Kelley, senior associate dean for faculty and research, and department chairs Brad Badertscher (ACCT), Shane Corwin (FIN), Rob Easley (ITAO), Ann Tenbrunsel (M&O) and Frank Germann (MARK) for all of their efforts to recruit top faculty.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

Graduate Programs Update

Hi, everyone,

Happy Labor Day! I hope you’re settling in well for the 2023-24 academic year. Our first home football game is in the books and we’re already into week three of the fall semester. If you’re anything like me, summer is but a distant memory by now. That’s OK, though — Christmas will be here before we know it. 

Today, I’m writing to provide an update on the College’s graduate programs. I’ve been in my role as associate dean for academic programs for a little more than a year now. I continue to be honored and grateful to Dean Martijn Cremers for giving me the opportunity to serve in this role, and to work with hundreds of outstanding Mendoza colleagues and thousands of engaged, committed students. 

There are far too many people to thank than I could do individually, but I do want to recognize three colleagues that I work closely with every day in my role — Kristen Collett-Schmitt, Associate Dean for Innovation & Inclusion; Ken Kelley, Sr. Associate Dean for Faculty & Research; and Rob Kelly, Chief Operating Executive — for their wisdom, support, and patience with me as I’ve gotten up to speed over the last year.

The Mendoza College has over 50,000 alumni. Easily one of the best and most inspiring parts of my role is hearing from so many of these alumni — from recent graduates to retirees — about the transformative influence that our academic programs have had on their lives and careers. I had the great fortune of serving as a guest speaker recently for the Notre Dame MBA Class of 1973. We did not enroll MBA students until fall 1967, so this was one of the very first MBA classes to graduate. 

I discussed the history of our MBA program, gave an overview of our current program and approach, then asked for some examples of their own experiences on campus. It was a fascinating discussion, and I know that I learned more from them than they did from me. As an aside, for anyone interested in learning more about the College’s history, I can’t recommend the updated version of “O’Hara’s Heirs” strongly enough.

The most moving story I heard was after the presentation. One of the MBA alumni (we’ll call him Bill to maintain confidentiality) approached me to discuss a situation that occurred at work only a few years after graduating with his MBA. Bill came to believe that his employer was acting unethically when it came to a particular relationship with an outside firm. Discussions with his manager and several other senior executives weren’t able to resolve his concerns. Although this was a challenging time for Bill personally and professionally (he was the sole income -earner for a young family), he chose to resign from the firm. 

As he explained the situation to me, Bill credited his Notre Dame education and its focus on the critical importance of ethical decision making in helping him make his decision. While this is the type of response that we would all hope to take in such a situation, many of us struggle with the strength of our convictions when put to the test. 

This story reminded me again of the recurring theme in Notre Dame business education over the last 100-plus years, from the words of our founding dean back in 1921 (“Business has a code of ethics based very largely on divine principles. When this code is followed, commerce can and does advance civilization”) to our current College mission today (“As a leading business school guided by the University’s Catholic identity, the Mendoza College of Business seeks to grow the good in business, to improve the human condition in an ever-changing society”).

One of the other privileges of my role is that I’m fortunate to have a great view of the full picture of Mendoza academic program activity. I would summarize this picture in a few short words: “There is a *lot* going on in Mendoza.” Let’s start with all the individual graduate degree programs and cohorts that the College is responsible for in fall 2023:

Specialized Master’s Programs

• Master of Nonprofit Administration Class of 2024: 40 students
• Master of Science in Accountancy Class of 2024: 68 students (two cohorts)
• Master of Science in Business Analytics Class of 2024: 112 students (three cohorts; two MSBA-General track and one MSBA-Sports Analytics track)
• Master of Science in Finance Class of 2024: 40 students
• Master of Science in Management Class of 2024: 73 students (two cohorts)

Full-time MBA Programs

• One-year Master of Business Administration Class of 2024: 36 students
• Two-year Master of Business Administration Class of 2024: 95 students (two cohorts)
• Two-year Master of Business Administration Class of 2025: 104 students (two cohorts)

Executive/Working Professional Programs

• Executive Master of Business Administration-South Bend Class of 2024: 54 students
• Executive Master of Business Administration-South Bend Class of 2025: 42 students
• Executive Master of Business Administration-Chicago Class of 2024: 45 students
• Executive Master of Business Administration-Chicago Class of 2025: 22 students
• Executive Master of Nonprofit Administration (Flexible Graduation Date): 81 total students; 40 new this year
• Master of Science in Business Analytics-Chicago Class of 2023: 24 students

If my math is correct, this means that our college is currently supporting a total of 836 graduate students across 20 different cohorts, eight different graduate degrees, two different locations, and a range of different program entry points. 

Every single one of these students carries with them their own backgrounds, goals, needs, expectations, idiosyncrasies, and, at times, frustrations and complaints that they choose to share with us. This makes for a very complex administrative task for our College. In case you were wondering why there seems to be so much activity in the Mendoza academic programs space (and why we spend so much time and energy on Now Irish over the summer), there’s your answer. 

Moreover, beyond our graduate programs, the Mendoza College is also responsible for the small matter of over 2,000 undergraduate students (approximately 550-600 per year) and a series of other academic Centers, Institutes, and Programs – the Business Ethics and Society Program; Business Honors Program; Center for Accounting Research and Education; Fanning Center for Business Communication; Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program; Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership; Powerful Means Initiative; and Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing. 

None of this activity would be even remotely possible without the strong cooperation and integration we see across the three faces of the “Mendoza Pyramid”: 1) Academic Programs; 2) Staff Functions; 3) Faculty & Departments. 

As you might expect with this many students, cohorts, and programs, our College continues to see a lot of innovation and exciting new developments. Here are just a few short examples:

• The Executive Master of Business Administration program — currently offered in South Bend and Chicago — has been re-envisioned as the Notre Dame Global EMBA, beginning with students matriculating in summer 2024 (Class of 2026). As part of their program, students will participate in monthly residencies on the Notre Dame campus and up to three immersive global residencies — one at orientation, one in the final semester of the program, and an optional global residency in the summer between years one and two.
• In 2022-23, the Notre Dame MBA program successfully offered two “Mods Away” for the first time — Santiago (Chile) and Silicon Valley — and will continue to offer both this year. The Mod-Away program includes a full module (seven weeks) of off-campus classes and experiential learning opportunities in the second half of the fall semester. Approximately one-third of the MBA class participated in a Mod-Away program last year.
• This year, the Meyer Business on the Frontlines program will offer five different for-credit class options for students: International BOTFL; Frontlines Engagements; Frontlines in America; Ways of Rebuilding Community (WORC); and Regenerating Ecologies, Economies, and Livelihoods (REEL). This broad range of classes allows the College to provide access for both Mendoza and non-Mendoza students and also to provide a wide selection and scope of external partner engagements that best fit with individual student interests and circumstances.
• All our programs continue to work tirelessly to build stronger, more diverse cohorts of students. The MNA and EMNA programs have helped lead the way in this area via partnerships with outside organizations including Diversity in Leadership, Xavier University of Louisiana, the Divine Nine (National Pan-Hellenic Council), and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
• The College’s reimagined and redesigned “Now Irish” (Orientation) experience for students has been a great success. For each program, a cross-functional College team works hard for months to create a comprehensive schedule combining leadership development, administrative success, class preparation, and introduction to the Mendoza and Notre Dame cultures. As an illustration of the positive student response, here are some examples of the mean overall student satisfaction score (out of 5.0) for Now Irish in different programs over summer 2023: MSA (4.7), MSF (4.8), MSM (4.7), Two-year MBA (4.8), EMBA-South Bend (5.0).
• Although my column today is focused on our graduate programs, I also want to briefly highlight the range of undergraduate minors and new double majors that are now being offered by the College as a further example of the innovation we’re seeing. As of fall 2023, we offer minors available to Mendoza students (e.g., Minor in Business & the Common Good), non-Mendoza students (e.g., Minor in Foundations of Business), and all Notre Dame students (e.g., Minor in Innovation & Entrepreneurship). We also now offer six different double-major options within the College.

Finally, I’d like to briefly comment on the outcomes for the Class of 2023. Students come to Notre Dame for myriad reasons, including personal growth, career advancement, network building, and future financial security. We’re therefore cognizant that no one metric can effectively capture student outcomes. That said, we know that many of our graduates are hoping to use our programs as a springboard to professional success, and so we try to keep a close eye on mean/median salaries and the percentage of graduates with accepted job offers. 

In the coming weeks, the College will be able to provide more concrete information about these metrics at three months post-graduation, which is a widely used benchmark. Preliminary results suggest that mean salaries are up compared to last year, but our jobs-accepted figures are slightly lower than last year. This is consistent with what has been identified as a tougher employment market, especially for our international students.

We also track more holistic and nuanced measures of student satisfaction with our programs via exit surveys. As in previous years, these results for the Class of 2023 continue to be impressive. For example:

• 95% of students strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: “The MSM program helped me gain a solid foundation in business principles.”
• 100% of students strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, “The quality of the faculty teaching in the MSF was satisfactory.”
• 92% of MSBA students strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: “My overall experience in the program was satisfactory.”
• 100% of the EMBA Class of 2023 stated that their expectations for the program were met or exceeded.
• The mean response to the question “Do you feel like you are an included member of the MBA community?” was 4.4 on a 5.0-point scale.

Although we operate in an environment of continuous improvement, and there is always a desire and a need to get better, it is reassuring to see these positive responses from our graduates with the most recent experience of our programs. 

I’ll end by offering my sincere thanks to you. If you’re reading this, you play a vital role in the success and development of our college’s academic programs. Thank you for all of your efforts to make the Mendoza College of Business an even better, more inclusive place to work, learn, and grow.

Sincerely,

Craig

Congratulations, everyone, on completing Week One of the 2023-24 academic year! I just got back from a wonderful trip to visit family in the Netherlands and to go to the football game in Ireland. It was a really fun trip, with many meetings with alums and festivities, and, of course, a terrific football game. 

In today’s column, I am providing an update about our Undergraduate Studies Program, where our strategic goal is to provide an unsurpassed educational experience that contributes to the formation and preparation of undergraduate students who will meaningfully contribute to the world.  

The official University enrollment data will be available later this semester. Based on preliminary data, we welcomed 2,391 undergraduate students to the College, including: 

• 546 First-Year Business Intents
• 654 Sophomores
• 598 Juniors
• 593 Seniors

Of the 546 First-Year Business Intents:

• 10% are first-generation students
• 43% are female
• 12% are international

Our sophomores (Class of 2026) are the first class subject to the revised Business Core Curriculum, which is designed to be more flexible and provide greater opportunities for integration across disciplines in and outside Mendoza. The Mendoza Class of 2026 distribution of majors as of fall 2023 is as follows:

• Accountancy: 13%
• Business Analytics: 16%
• Finance: 51%
• Marketing: 13%
• Strategic Management: 7%

These percentages have been relatively stable over the past five years, as can be seen in this chart:

For the first time in the College’s history, Mendoza students in the Class of 2026 (and beyond) may now declare a second major in business. This includes Accountancy, Finance, Marketing and Strategic Management (i.e., all disciplines except Business Analytics.) The double major allows students to broaden their knowledge and specialize in a second business discipline without adding time to complete their degree.

We currently have 75 students who are double majors in business. About 88% of these declared the combination of Accountancy/Finance or Finance/Accountancy. Sophomores will have another opportunity later this semester to declare a second major.

Another exciting development in our Undergraduate Studies Program has been the addition of minors available to business students and non-business students. We offer nine minors with a total enrollment this fall of 892 students: Accounting, Business and the Common Good, Business Technology, Digital Marketing, Finance, Foundations of Business, Impact Consulting, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and Real Estate. 

One of the new minors open to Mendoza students is Business and the Common Good. Offered through Mendoza’s Business Ethics and Society Program and directed by David O’Connor, the minor is a “uniquely Notre Dame” offering that seeks to gather an intellectual community of students and faculty who share a special interest in the philosophical and theological foundations of careers in business and citizenship in a commercial society. 

We also launched the Impact Consulting minor led by Wendy Angst. The minor, open to business majors except for those currently majoring in Strategic Management, enables students to have a meaningful impact on “wicked problems” — gender equity, access to education, poverty, climate change, energy and more. Students engage with project partners over multiple semesters to apply design thinking principles to empathize with stakeholders, co-create innovative solutions, design and test prototypes, and ultimately, build and launch concepts. 

In the past two years, we’ve made significant changes to expand students’ academic opportunities and improve their journey in the program. With this greater flexibility comes the responsibility to guide our students in choosing the courses of study that truly reflect their talents, interests and what they want to achieve in life personally, spiritually and professionally. You all play an important role in this. I am especially grateful to those in advising roles:

• Mendoza Undergraduate Studies: Andy Wendelborn, Amy Radvansky, Gina Shropshire, Lisa Heming, Jen Washko, Laura Glassford and Jessica Noffsinger.
• First-Year Advisors: Samantha Cloon, Drew Espeseth, Kristy Patterson and Sarah Priebe.
• Academic Director Amanda McKendree. 
• Department Directors of Undergraduate Studies for our business majors: Colleen Creighton (ACCT), Jim Leady (FIN), Jen Waddell (ITAO), Jennifer Cronin (M&O) and Mitch Olsen (MARK).
• Directors of Undergraduate Studies for our business minors: Colleen Creighton (ACCT), Jen Waddell (Business Tech), Mitch Olsen (Digital Marketing), Jim Leady (FIN), Laura Hollis (Foundations of Business), Wendy Angst (Impact Consulting), Sam Miller (Innovation & Entrepreneurship), Geno Acosta (Real Estate) and David O’Connor (Business & the Common Good).

To find out more about the changes in our Undergraduate Studies program, I encourage to read this article or check out the Dean’s Report 2022-2023: Undergraduate Studies (downloadable PDF or online highlights). 

In Notre Dame,

Martijn