From the Dean's Desk

Guest Column: Kara Palmer

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 27 July 2020
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Safety and Compassion
It’s hard to believe we have all been working virtually for four months now. When I locked my office door and walked out of Mendoza in late March, I never imagined that it would be the last time to see and interact in person with so many faculty, staff and students for months on end. While the lack of human interaction has been personally challenging for this extrovert, I continue to be in awe of the hard work, diligence and commitment of everyone in the College during these unprecedented times.
As we move into the fall semester and once again welcome our undergraduate, graduate and executive students back to both in-person and virtual classes, the College is committed to remaining diligent in minimizing their potential risk of contracting COVID-19. In addition to the University’s safety protocols — the classroom improvements, face masks and social distancing — many of our staff members will continue to work remotely with very limited time on campus.
For the period of August through November, less than 20% of our staff will be primarily on campus. Almost 40% will be working completely remotely. (To see the breakdown, click here. For a complete list of staff and their workforce designation, click here.)
While we have become somewhat accustomed to this type of working environment while our students have also been remote, it will create some new “norms” as they return to campus. For example, most of our suites will remain locked with card access or by appointment only. When we do see one another, it will be behind face masks and from a safe social distance. 
We need to continue to be thoughtful about reaching out to one another through phone calls and Zoom. Most importantly, we all need to conduct ourselves with patience and grace as we rethink our traditional Notre Dame “high-touch” approach in a virtual environment. Provost Marie Lynn Miranda recently wrote in an email, “We are part of a community of learning in which compassionate care for one another is part of our spiritual and social charter.” This is a good reminder as we go about our jobs to consider the well-being of others by complying with the safety protocols and acting with compassion in our interactions with one another. As always, if you do not feel safe in your working environment, please speak up by contacting me or the Coronavirus Response Unit hotline at 574-634-HERE or covidresponseunit@nd.edu.
One thing that has become evident to me and everyone in the Dean’s Office over the last four months is how dedicated and effective our staff has been on delivering on our promises virtually to our key constituents — namely, the students and faculty. While this way of operating and interacting with one another is not ideal, I am convinced that together we will flourish and succeed as only the Mendoza family can. I want to specifically recognize the Mendoza Emergency Response Committee, the Transition Back to Work Committee, the dean, associate deans and leaders across the College, and all of those who have gone above and beyond their job descriptions to serve in so many ways!
During a recent workshop, we were asked what our North Star is during times of change and transition. One of mine is to always look for the silver linings in any situation. I am proud to work in an environment that is service-driven with so many thought partners who think creatively and compassionately in all we do. 
Thank you to all!
Kara
Kara J. Palmer
Director of Administration

Guest Column: Walt Clements

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 20 July 2020
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Here come the Irish!
On May 18, Father John Jenkins sent a letter to faculty that put the wheels in motion for students to return to campus following the comprehensive shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The letter was a bold proclamation about the University’s future amid so much uncertainty. Father John’s view about the importance of on-campus classes received wide publicity, including a New York Times op-ed and a Today Show interview. Included in his announcement was a reminder of the three principles arising from Notre Dame’s core values: to safeguard health; to educate the mind, body and spirit; and to advance human understanding through programs that heal, unify and enlighten. I have found it valuable to re-read his letter because it serves as a guiding light for the actions we take and the goals for which we strive.
So there we have it: The tremendous commitment by Father John on behalf of the University, its faculty and staff, to best serve our students by resuming live classroom instruction, safely, and with virtual access for all students.
The faculty and staff who serve students in our Executive Education programs will be among the first to welcome students back to the main Notre Dame campus. By Aug. 8, all of our Executive Education programs will have returned to live instruction before the thousands of undergraduate students begin classes on Aug. 10 and Mendoza’s residential MBA and specialized master’s programs arrive on Aug. 17. These programs include:
  • July 24: 33 Chicago MSBA students.
  • July 24-25: 35 Chicago MSF students.
  • July 31-Aug. 7: 53 new EMBA students (Special thanks to Nick Farmer and Cassie Kline for landing an incredible new cohort of students (Nick), and for beginning their on-boarding and nurturing our new family (Cassie)!).
  • Aug. 6-8: 39 returning Chicago EMBA students.
In speaking for the faculty, staff and students who will be first at Notre Dame to hold live classroom instruction, I describe our current feelings as nervous, excited and confident!
I have been humbled to witness the tremendous dedication and hard work by so many people to prepare for students’ return to campus. Because Mendoza’s graduate degree programs start earlier than the wider University, our staff and faculty are pioneers in a way, ensuring that the appropriate measures are in place for the safe return to live classroom instruction. In fact, Mendoza teams developed detailed and comprehensive “playbooks” for reopening (maybe Coach Kelly could use their help!) for approval by the University and St. Joe County.
The leadership of Dean Cremers and the associate deans, department chairs, program and academic directors, and the Dean’s Office leaders has been invaluable to our efforts as we approach the start date. Their stewardship and representation of Mendoza in the various University efforts have been stellar. In fact, Mendoza’s Emergency Response Committee (MERC) has been a critical vehicle to first move to virtual instruction in the middle of the spring 2020 term, and now to resume live classroom instruction.
Staff members who have been especially notable in our efforts to resume live classroom instruction starting July 24 include:
  • Morgan McCoy, Mendoza’s operations team leader.
  • Tracy Freymuth, the student services team leader for the programs in South Bend.
  • Christine Gramhofer, the student services team leader for the programs based in Chicago.
  • Numerous faculty members, for their eagerness and dedication, and who will be the first at Notre Dame to conduct live classroom instruction.
Special thanks to Morgan, Tracy, Christine and their teams that support all graduate business programs, and of course to our outstanding faculty, Mendoza IT, the facilities team and many others. Together, they are the ones who have done the heavy lifting for Mendoza’s early restart. They are the ones who have created the “playbooks.” (And who could show Brian Kelly a thing or two.) They are the ones getting us ready to resume live classroom instruction later this week.
No one knows for certain what the next year will bring to Notre Dame, our country or the world. But it's been inspiring to see so many of you pull together as a team. To reiterate the University's message, "Here for each other. Here for the world. Here come the Irish!"
In Notre Dame,
Walt Clements
Associate Dean, Executive Education
Teaching Professor, Finance

Guest Column: Kristen Collett-Schmitt

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 13 July 2020
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The ‘Old’ is ‘New’ Again

Last year, we heard a lot about our new specialized master’s programs. In their inaugural year, the residential MSBA and MNA programs advanced Mendoza’s distinctive mission as a Catholic business school by focusing on Dean Cremer’s priorities of incorporating analytics into curriculum and emphasizing business as a force for shared good.

We proudly toasted our MSBA and MNA graduates in May and sent them off to make a difference in the world – students like Joe Jenkins (MSBA ’20) who started an app to track COVID-19 in Rhode Island, and Morgan Delp (MNA ’20) who recently began her tenure as dean of academics at a Catholic high school in Toledo. 

But what about our old specialized master’s programs? Thanks to recent curricular initiatives, even these programs are new again.

Take, for example, the MSM program. In February, the first-ever academic director, Kris Muir, was appointed to oversee this program originally founded in 2013. In June, we welcomed a record-breaking 85 MSM students to Mendoza. Our faculty and students quickly pivoted to 100% online classes for the summer session.

By effectively doubling the size of this program, new and exciting curriculum initiatives are now possible, such as Interterm skill courses in disciplines such as digital marketing, consulting analytics and leadership development. More importantly, a concentration in sport management is planned for 2021. Over time, more concentrations will be launched to better allow students to turn their passions into a career path.

The MSA program, originally founded in 1998, has always had its eyes on an integrated view of business. The top-four ranked program offers a flexible curriculum where MSA students can enroll in elective courses in other business disciplines.

This academic year, under the guidance of new academic director Jim Seida, the MSA program will launch a data analytics concentration with courses including Accounting Data Management. Students with non-accountancy undergraduate backgrounds now also can enroll in the MSA program after completing a rigorous boot-camp-of-sorts called the Accounting Immersion Program. This summer marks the second iteration of the successful AIP program.

Finally, what has the College’s oldest graduate program been up to these days? The Executive MNA program, founded two years after Mendoza’s BBA program and 13 years before the two-year MBA program, recently went through a systematic curriculum review, expanded career support to students and piloted leadership development coursework under the guidance of academic director Angela Logan.

This June, we welcomed a record-breaking cohort of 48 nonprofit professionals from organizations such as Notre Dame, Beacon Health System, the Peace Corps and Volunteers of America. More than ever before, the EMNA program embodies the spirit of solidarity, arming “servant hearts” with “business minds” so they can take particular care of society’s greatest needs. 

I appreciate the opportunity to share the existing news of our specialized master’s programs, whether they be “new” or “new again.” Of course, this incredible ability to innovate would not be possible without the dedication of faculty and staff who support these programs and are willing to be flexible in response to the changing graduate business landscape.

In Notre Dame,

Kristen Collett-Schmitt
Associate Dean for Specialized Master’s Programs
Associate Teaching Professor of Finance

Guest Column: Ken Kelley (part II)

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 6 July 2020
Greetings! 
I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July holiday.   
Last week, I began the Dean’s Guest Column with the first of two parts, where here I focus on research. 
One of my duties as the senior associate dean of faculty and research is to manage and advocate for a strong infrastructure to support high-quality research. As I tell the new faculty each year at orientation, “We want to remove barriers and do all that we can so that you can be successful.”
One aspect of success for a faculty member tasked with research is to publish in the top academic journals of one's discipline. To facilitate this, the College invests heavily in our research infrastructure, which includes the Mendoza Research Team. The team currently consists of three data scientists and the director of the Mendoza Behavioral Laboratory (MBL), four highly qualified professionals devoted to advancing our research mission.
The data scientists assist the faculty with research by doing a considerable amount of data preparation, such as data wrangling, tidying messy data and combining disparate data sources into a unified dataset ready for analysis by the faculty. The team also assists with a variety of services, including data acquisition and serving as a liaison on data-use agreements between Mendoza researchers and groups such as ND’s Center for Research Computing, General Counsel, data vendors, as well as Notre Dame’s Research Office (NDR). Mendoza’s data scientists include:
  • Brandon Greenawalt was a double major in computer information systems and philosophy and currently is enrolled in the MS in Data Science program at Notre Dame. Brandon has worked in data science (though not always with that title) since 2014 across multiple groups on campus. He also is tasked with many administrative matters of the group as the data science program director.
  • James Ng, senior data scientist, joined the Mendoza Research Team in 2019 after previously serving in a similar role in Hesburgh Libraries’ Center for Digital Scholarship as an assistant librarian. James has a Ph.D. in economics, which bodes well for his work on archival financial data so widely used in Finance and Accountancy.
  • Ray Alavo joined the Mendoza Research Team in 2019 after working as an application developer with the Mendoza IT group following his graduation from IUSB with a master’s degree in computer science in 2017. When we were short-staffed in this area, Ray provided help and began to upskill in data science, leveraging his data engineering experience.
Think of the data scientists as a one-stop shop for both research support and data procurement. Faculty researchers can request assistance with either research support or data procurement by simply filling out this request form. Please note that this is a new process and replaces the RMan process. The RMan process was developed chiefly by David Yeh and Pete Pietraszewski. Because this group of dedicated data scientists has a deep knowledge of our faculty research, they can oversee the College’s data acquisition in collaboration with the library, primarily Pete. Many thanks to David and Pete for their work in helping faculty acquire data over so many years.
The other part of the Mendoza Research Team involves the Mendoza Behavioral Laboratory (MBL), which provides support to faculty conducting research involving individuals, groups and organizations. The MBL manages two participants pools comprised of (primarily) Mendoza undergraduates and community members, including residents of the South Bend region, alumni, staff and graduate students. The behavioral lab is overseen by Letecia McKinney, who earned her Ph.D. at Virginia Tech and previously held faculty positions at Wisconsin and Immaculata University. 
A published author of academic articles herself, Letecia is well-positioned to continue to help enhance our behavioral research. Faculty interested in using the MBL should contact Letecia to discuss their project and visit the lab’s website (also linked from the more general MBL page) for information on how to use the lab for a behavioral study. Although we are waiting for approval from Notre Dame Research to resume in-person studies, researchers should submit participant requests for the fall semester by August 1. Along with so many others, Letecia found creative ways to meet the challenges of the campus shutdown this spring and still managed to collect data successfully.
In addition to the Mendoza Research Team, our faculty is supported by the extensive resources of the Hesburgh and Mahaffey libraries. The College also buys large amounts of archival data from a variety of specialized firms and collects data from publicly available sources, such as Twitter or web pages where we are able to scrape information (e.g., text and tables).
With those introductions and that background, let me introduce the new Mendoza Research Team webpage, which offers a variety of useful sources of information.
I also want to make the same offer as I did last week: If there is anything that I can do for you or if you want to talk about anything, such as when you think something is not as it should be or if you have ideas for improvement, please contact me. 
Best wishes for a restful and safe summer,
Ken Kelley

Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research
Edward F. Sorin Society Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations

Guest column: Ken Kelley

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 29 June 2020
Greetings! 
I hope this Exchange finds you and your family well.
In place of Martijn’s usual note, I will end our fiscal year 2019-2020 with a new beginning, one in which Martijn invites a guest to contribute a note to the Mendoza Exchange. This first guest column will be a two-parter, with the second part coming next week. 
To begin, during the past four months, I have witnessed firsthand significant pivots across all of our internal operations. We have all heard about the dedicated faculty who shifted to online teaching with very little preparation. By many accounts, teaching online was a resounding success. This is a testament to our dedicated and creative faculty. I echo Fr. John and Tom Burish in thanking you for all that you did to serve the students during the second half of Spring/Module 4. 
I also want to highlight the significant roles that staff members have played advancing our mission throughout this pandemic. I personally have seen many “behind the scenes” activities the staff has performed in order to advance the College and I hear about many other important activities from those I work most closely with. 
Prior to serving in administration – when I was teaching and working on research full time – I did not fully appreciate the essential roles that our various staff members and staff departments play in the operations of the College. I offer my sincere appreciation for the hard work that allowed us to effectively accomplish our core mission of teaching and research despite the drastic change in day-to-day operations due to the pandemic.
Regarding research, I would like to note the critical role that it plays in establishing our reputation as thought leaders in the various disciplines represented in the College. Each year, we have faculty openings and compete in the market with the best universities in the world for top research talent. This includes recruiting senior researchers who may not have shown any prior interest in moving from their current positions, yet we try to recruit them due to what we perceive as an exceptional fit with our mission. 
Although we have five academic departments, we have many research areas. Sometimes a faculty opening in a department is general, where we try to find the “best athlete” across the areas covered by the department. At other times, we may have an opening within a department’s particular sub-discipline (e.g., digital marketing, operations research, strategy, organizational behavior). In general, many aspects of business research are motivated by practical issues while leveraging more abstract or foundational fields.
In addition to publishing in top business journals, areas where our faculty may also contribute are publication in fields such as economics, mathematics, statistics, psychology, computer science, philosophy, and others, often with the inspiration based on a business application that may be of broader interest. The span of our faculty research is indeed broad. Clearly, we could not exist without the students, but we are able to serve the students best by having thought leadership in the field. 
All of our departments invest considerable time in recruiting candidates who will make us a better institution by elevating our research and teaching. I would like to thank the faculty of each of our departments that were so heavily engaged in recruiting last year and the administrative assistants who helped plan the many campus visits. The effort was a success: we have hired 18 new regular faculty, two visiting faculty members and one postdoctoral teaching scholar to join us in the coming academic year! 
Supporting an expansive research portfolio is a goal of the College and essential to our mission. In the next Mendoza Exchange, I’ll introduce the Mendoza Research Team and the critical role they play in supporting our research.
In messages to the faculty, I often offer to help them in any way that I can. I am always open to getting together – virtually or otherwise. Let me make the same offer to the staff as well: if there is anything that I can do for you or if you want to talk about anything, such as when you think something is not as it should be or if you have ideas for improvement, please contact me. 
Best wishes for a restful and safe summer,
Ken Kelley
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research
Edward F. Sorin Society Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations

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