From the Dean's Desk

Guest column: Father Jim Bracke

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 16 November 2020
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Meister Eckhart, a 15th-century Dominican mystic, said, "If the only prayer we ever say is ‘thanks,’ that is enough."
Since March, our lives and the lives of all the world has been consumed by the pandemic that seems to rage on and on. Along with an election that has bitterly divided a nation, as well as a nation facing racial issues, one can easily say, how can one give thanks?
I have been confined trying to be safe and healthy. As a result, I have not been able to preside at a funeral of a friend of more than 40 years or visit a niece in Illinois who gave birth to a child. I’ve heard the stories of staff members losing loved ones to COVID-19 or not able to visit family members in hospitals or nursing homes.
Give thanks?
In the 1990s, I was pastor at Sacred Heart Parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Manitou Springs and Holy Rosary Cascade in Colorado Springs. One Sunday afternoon after celebrating three Masses and a baptism, I was hungry and tired. As I turned the corner leaving the parish center, I noticed a middle-aged man whom I frequently saw at Mountains Shadow Cafe in the morning after Mass. Neatly dressed, Mark was a resident of a nearby shelter for the homeless. Unsure of what he might say, I was concerned that he had a complaint or wanted to ask for help of some kind.
Instead, he said, “Father, you look tired and hungry. Let me take you to the café for lunch.” He explained that a parishioner gave him money for both of us to have lunch. “So really, you’re taking me,” he joked.
As we began to converse after placing our order, he said that he comes into the café each morning at 7 a.m. after he leaves the shelter. He then looks up help wanted ads and starts a job search. He said he likes the café because they treat him as an individual. “Sometimes, when I have no money, they give me a coffee,” he said, adding, "I dream of the day when my life is straightened out and I can walk in here and say, 'This is what I owe you,' put $500 in the tip jar and then say, ‘Thank you.’"
Mark is still my gratitude teacher today.
I invite everyone to think of ways that strangers like Mark have blessed you, or a beautiful sunrise or sunset, flowers, fall colors, lakes, oceans, birds, eagles, blue skies, a smile of a baby or smile or the Word of God that says over and over, "You are my beloved daughter or son, and I call you by name."
I think of all the heroes serving here at Notre Dame and across the lands in hospitals and nursing homes, the health care workers, police, fire, emergency personnel, grocery workers and on and on.
Finally, I want to thank GOD for EACH OF YOU AS YOU ARE.
God bless you,
Father Jim Bracke
Staff Chaplain

Winter session

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 9 November 2020
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Today, the University’s posted information for students about its Winter Session offered in January during the extended break between fall and spring semesters this year. The session is intended to keep students engaged and provide additional learning opportunities through online courses and workshops in areas such as skills-building, career discernment, research and virtual community service.
The Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing will be running four programs during the session. NDIGI’s offerings provide opportunities for a range of business and non-business students, from Notre Dame First-Years to undergraduates and graduate students, to add to their investing acumen, increase career discernment, interact with industry professionals or gain business lessons in a novel way by watching “The Godfather” film series.
NDIGI’s Winter Session lineup includes:
Investing Case Studies: Open to all undergraduate students regardless of major or class year, this one-credit course held Jan. 4-27 will be taught by NDIGI faculty director Colin Jones. Students will analyze an investment opportunity prior to each weekly live session. Industry practitioners will then lead discussions around their unique approach to the case and introduce their firm’s general investment strategy.
Investment Management Access Program (IMAP): This program to assist in career discernment is open to all undergraduate members of our program partners regardless of major, class year or professional experience who are considering a career in financial services. IMAP program partners include AnBryce Scholars, ALPFA, BBAND, BlackND Capital, First Gen Careers Initiative, SWS and UWIB. The program consists of online curriculum, live sessions with industry practitioners and a project providing hands-on experience with partner firms.
Life Lessons from the Big Screen: Peter Kaufman, chair and CEO of Glenair, hosts this four-part series that is open to all undergraduate and graduate students regardless of major or class year. Peter, an accomplished businessman and author of the classic investing book “Poor Charlie’s Almanack,” will highlight life and business lessons from classic movies. Live Zoom sessions are tentatively scheduled for 3 p.m. EST on Dec. 2 and 16 and Jan. 6 and 20. Participants will be asked to watch The Godfather film series for the first three live sessions, with the fourth movie selection to be determined based on student feedback.
Virtual Career Treks: This series of career exploration Zoom visits is open to all First-Year students regardless of intended major. NDIGI will lead students virtually to visit firms on the West Coast (Jan. 7), Boston (Jan. 8) and New York City (Jan. 14 and 15). Sophomore treks will be coordinated through the Wall Street Club and will include a Chicago option.
More information on all of NDIGI’s Winter Session offerings can be found at ndigi.nd.edu. My thanks to the NDIGI team of Erin Bellissimo, Mark Dumich, Tess Swain and Colin Jones for their creative thinking and hard work in organizing these programs.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn

Advancing DE&I at Mendoza

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 2 November 2020
In an effort to better identify opportunities to advance and support diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) at Mendoza, I’m pleased to let you know about two DE&I leadership changes:
Ken Kelley, senior associate dean for faculty and research, will serve as the faculty diversity advocate for Mendoza, with an emphasis on faculty recruiting and faculty hiring. Working with the Provost’s Office, the department chairs and search committees, Ken will seek to continue to broaden our searches to increase the number of highly qualified faculty candidates from underrepresented groups. Faculty members can take any suggestions, questions or concerns to Ken about DE&I (or any matter). My thanks to Jim Seida for previously serving in this role.
Kara Palmer, director of administration, will serve as the staff diversity coordinator. This is a new role for the College. As part of her appointment, Kara will be chairing a new Staff Diversity Council, which will assist the College in four DE&I-related areas for staff:
  • Recruiting and hiring
  • Engagement and education
  • Talent identification and development
  • Promotion of diversity, equity and inclusivity as part of the culture of Mendoza
The Staff Diversity Council’s purpose is to create and sustain an inclusive culture for all Mendoza staff by fostering an environment of dignity, respect and fairness that is grounded in our Catholic mission. These efforts will be facilitated through the College’s ongoing and continuing efforts to attract, retain and promote staff from all backgrounds, perspectives and abilities. We will share additional details as the Staff Diversity Council forms, but if you are interested in learning more, please contact Kara. Staff members should also continue to contact Kara with any DE&I suggestions, questions or concerns.
I’m thankful for the many efforts made to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion at the College in recent months. A few examples include:
  • Monthly DE&I sessions for faculty and staff to create opportunities for candid and open dialogue. This includes a recent workshop led by MNA academic director and M&O associate teaching professor Angela Logan on unconscious bias. (A recording is available here; downloadable PowerPoint presentation and responses.)
  • The MBA student task force, which presented 44 recommendations across four themes to college leadership. We are working to implement most recommendations over the next year.
  • A shift in student recruiting and program marketing to increase diversity, which resulted in seating our largest MBA class of women (32%) in recent years.
  • A new MBA course focused on Gender Equity, which has been a highlight in our efforts to recruit more women to our MBA program. This year, we are adding another new course focused on how business can play a powerful role in promoting social justice, combating systemic racism and addressing economic inequality.
  • Inclusive Leadership, a new undergraduate elective exploring the issue of gender equity in the workplace, debuted in the second half of the spring 2020 semester. The seminar-style course drew 24 students and was taught by M&O associate teaching professor Jessica McManus Warnell. The class was developed in response to undergraduate student interest and the ongoing activities in the MBA program led by MBA Women in Business and Men as Allies clubs.
As a community that recognizes every person’s intrinsic human dignity, it is incumbent on us to contribute to the flourishing of each individual, recognizing our reciprocal responsibilities and supporting one another. A spirit of diversity, equity and inclusion reflects this fundamental belief and underlies all that we do. I know many of you are greatly interested in advancing DE&I initiatives. Please contact Ken, Kara or me if you have suggestions, questions or concerns.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn

Guest Column: Mike Mannor

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 26 October 2020
Notre Dame MBA & STEM
During the past two years, a major change has shifted the value proposition for many students in the MBA landscape. Although few MBA programs were classified with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-designated federal classification codes prior to 2018, now more than 90% of the Top 25 MBA programs have at least some STEM-designated concentrations for MBA students.
The designation provides a few advantages for students with employers and is most helpful for international students, who are granted a three-year opportunity to work in the U.S. after graduation (compared to 12 months for non-STEM degrees). With this broad market shift, many major employers who typically hire our graduates will not consider hiring international MBA students who don’t have a STEM-designated MBA degree. This created significant challenges for our 2020 graduating MBA class, and is seriously holding back opportunities for our current students.
Over the course of the year, our team has worked through a variety of challenges to craft a proposal to bring STEM designation to some of our MBA concentration areas. From the beginning, we committed to a plan in which some, but not all, of our concentrations would provide a path to STEM degrees. This approach allows us to maintain the strategic positioning and focus of each program of study — some of which are less focused on STEM skills — while also providing a more quantitative and analytics focus for interested students.
I am happy to report that we received final approval from the University last week to offer five STEM concentrations in our MBA program. Starting with graduates in May 2021, students who complete a concentration in business analytics, corporate finance, investments, supply chain management or a new STEM-focused marketing concentration will all receive a STEM-designated MBA degree. Thanks to all of you who helped get us to this point.
With this STEM designation, we are now reconsidering the structure and unique value provided by the dual MBA/MSBA degree program. This dual degree program, Mendoza’s first STEM-designated graduate program, has been particularly popular in recent years with well-qualified international students. Now that we have a path for these students to receive a STEM-designated degree through our traditional MBA curriculum, we expect that most of these students will opt for the less expensive and more flexible traditional MBA program.
Thus, beginning next year, we are going to restructure the dual degree program to more efficiently serve a smaller number of students each year. This will involve more tightly connecting these dual degree students with our MSBA residential students for one year of the two-year program and with our one-year MBA students for the other year.
These changes, together with the expansion of the Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program and several additional new initiatives, support our commitment to continue to elevate our MBA program to a stature commensurate with our aspirations at Notre Dame. Thanks to all of you for your help in making this happen.
In Notre Dame,
Mike
Michael J. Mannor, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for the MBA Program
John F. O'Shaughnessy Associate Professor of Family Enterprise

Guest Column: Kara Palmer

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 19 October 2020
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been.” —T.D. Jakes
Over the course of the last seven months, we have all been stretched to learn and adapt to our new COVID environment. During these extraordinary times, we have had to learn to be agile and more technology savvy, and to operate in a world of unknowns while attempting to keep all of our personal and professional “trains on the tracks.”
While at times it is challenging and even painful, we have had to keep our heads up and continue to forge through for the sake of our students, one another, the College and our Lady on the Dome. And if I may say so myself, we have done a damn good job at all of it … but I challenge you to do more!
Much like a good fitness plan, our growth and development is never “done.” It’s not a box that can ever be fully checked. Instead, we continue to build skills, grow stronger and find new opportunities to develop further. So while there has been a great peak in our professional and personal learning this year, as Dr. Seuss said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” We have to be creative in our roadmaps and seek new kinds of learning opportunities, especially during these unusual times of remote work and minimal budget availability.
As you are working on your annual plans, goals, and objectives and key results (OKRs), I want to encourage to you to be selfish and intentionally consider your own professional growth and development during this time. I invite you to consider some of the many options available to you at no cost as a Mendoza and University employee:
Winter Term Development Program
While there is never truly any quiet time (though many of our friends/family often assume we all have our summers “off”), the halls of Mendoza and our undergraduate students’ needs should be a bit quieter in December and January this year. In an effort to create an opportunity for community building, engagement and professional development, I am currently formulating a plan to create a Winter Term Development Program to be executed in mid-late January.
The program will consist of the following opportunities:
  • Virtual workshops/programs delivered by internal (college and campus) experts.
  • A menu of options to pick and choose speakers/content/programs that interest you the most.
  • Programs that are designed to help us in our professional development and career growth.
In an effort to ensure our content is most meaningful, I am seeking your input in advance. Please complete the Winter Term Professional Development survey by Friday, October 23.
Non-Degree Online Courses
Earlier this year, we communicated that Mendoza faculty and staff would have the exclusive opportunity to utilize our online non-degree certificate programs at no cost through Bisk, our third-party learning provider, which markets and administers a host of online learning certificates on our behalf. While we have recently determined that we will not be renewing our current contract with Bisk beyond September of 2021, there are still some courses that will remain available to faculty and staff in the coming months.
You will find a listing of all of the available non-degree online courses for the remainder of the Bisk relationship here. If you are interested in applying for an online course, please complete this form. All applications will be reviewed by Executive Education and the Dean’s Office based on the criteria identified and timing of submitted application.
Think ND
ThinkND is designed to help easily access free online learning opportunities from across the University. They have partnered with distinguished faculty at Mendoza along with others from Arts and Letters, The College the Science, College of Engineering, School of Architecture, The Law School, Keough School of Global Affairs as well as the Graduate School and the many centers, institutes and departments on campus to bring a digital learning experience through talks, podcasts and other series. Visit ThinkND to view the talks, podcasts and webinar series available.
Other University Resources
While many of our professional development and training programs offered through the University look a little different now, there are many outstanding programs available.
Employee Resources Group Educational Opportunities:
While 2020 has thrown us all quite the curve ball, I believe we will all look back at this as a time of amazing growth and learning. Thank you for all you have continued to do to put one another, our current and prospective students and our stakeholders first. Now it’s time to give yourself the same care and attention that you give to others.
In Notre Dame,
Kara
Kara J. Palmer
Director of Administration

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