During the recent Notre Dame Town Hall fall sessions, Father Jenkins suggested three key questions:

• Automate: Are there systems or processes that will automate certain jobs or tasks to enhance efficiency?
• Integrate: Can we improve efficiency and effectiveness by identifying areas where people are doing similar jobs and looking for ways to integrate operations?
• Prioritize: What activities can we stop doing in order to take on those that have a higher strategic
  priority?

A part of being good stewards of our resources is a continual evaluation of the way we’ve been doing things and asking ourselves what we should stop doing — which activities or projects no longer support our priorities. It’s also an opportunity for innovation, finding different ways to do our jobs to be more effective and efficient. A number of Mendoza teams are already reimagining their jobs and find new and innovative ways to gain efficiencies through automation, integration and prioritization.

One great example is the partnership of Executive Education and Mendoza IT with OIT to select a robust campus-wide event registration tool. The benefits of the new tool include a better experience for users and operational efficiencies. The project also is a collaborative effort with Venue ND, ND Athletics, University Relations, IDEA Center, Office of the Controller, Procurement and Auxiliary Operations. The tentative campus rollout is spring 2020.

I’m very grateful for this and other efforts and the many faculty and staff members who contributed their thoughts, time and expertise toward enacting changes. I’ve also heard many good ideas from individuals for ways we can continue to improve our culture and operations during the recent one-on-one meetings with staff.

As always, I value your input. I encourage you to continue to bring up ideas and concerns with me, the associate deans, directors and chairs.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

In his book, “O’Hara’s Heirs: Business Education at Notre Dame 1921-1991,” Notre Dame Magazine editor Kerry Temple wrote about Mendoza:

The college has navigated … various currents by being far-sighted, flexible and adaptive, and also by being steadfast in its mission, true to its most fundamental goals. Through the decades, this has meant preparing individuals and engaging in a scholarship that applied professional acumen and an ethical perspective to local, national and international concerns. Or, to put it more bluntly: business making life better for all those affected by its reach.

The words are especially meaningful as we approach the College’s 100th anniversary in 2021. The occasion provides us with a great opportunity to both reaffirm Mendoza’s commitment to its legacy and to set forth a renewed vision for its future.

I’ve appointed an anniversary planning committee led by Kristen Collett-Schmitt, Kara Palmer and Carol Elliott, who will be reaching out to faculty and staff members to invite them to be part of the committee.

Please contact one of them if you would like to be involved or to contribute any ideas you have.

I look forward to a busy Centennial celebration in 2021!

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

In July, I announced a plan to integrate our Marketing Department and the admissions functions of all of our graduate programs into the Marketing and Graduate Enrollment Department. The new department builds on the great strengths and previous successes of our admissions and marketing teams within their individual departments by realigning roles to better leverage the deep experience across the teams toward our admissions goals.

Led by Tim Bohling, this arrangement will enable the College to meet new challenges arising in the rapidly changing and increasingly competitive business school landscape by optimizing best practices, learning and cooperation across everyone involved in marketing and graduate enrollment, with the goal of deepening communications with prospective students across their entire enrollment journey and elevating our brand reputation.

To help guide the integration process, Tim formed an Integration Leadership Team (ILT) with key team members from across the College. The team met regularly over the summer to identify areas of synergy and to operationalize those areas. Following is an update about the overall progress of the integration as well as promotions for several individuals:

The Marketing and Graduate Enrollment Department has been organized into two teams:

• The program-aligned team, which focuses on recruitment and admissions for all of our graduate programs — MBA, Executive MBA (South Bend and Chicago), MSA, MSM, MSF, MSBA (South Bend and Chicago) and MNA (residential and executive). Mike Brach has agreed to serve as the interim director of this team. During this time, Robin Kistler, director of Executive Education non-degree programs, will assume some of Mike’s responsibilities in Executive Education degree programs. I’m grateful to both Mike and Robin for their willingness to serve in these broader capacities.
• The Center of Excellence, which is a program-agnostic team focusing on support functions such as technology, analytics, content, performance marketing and operations. We currently are conducting a search to fill the director position for this team.

In addition to Mike and Robin, I would like to recognize several individuals who were recently promoted:

Angela Sienko has been promoted to associate director of portfolio marketing. Her responsibilities include crafting and executing a data-driven digital-first integrated marketing strategy to support executive education.

Helen High has been promoted to associate director of pipeline and operations management. In this newly created position, Helen leads the team that manages the pipeline of graduate program prospects and provides application processing for all graduate programs.

Joe Sweeney was named to a new position of associate director of experiential learning, working in the recently formed Experiential Learning and Leadership Development led by Alice Obermiller. Joe will continue his excellent work with Business on the Frontlines, as well as other graduate experiential learning experiences.

Cassie Smith has been promoted into the associate director of MBA Admissions, responsible for assisting with all aspects of recruitment and enrollment of MBA students.

Two additional position changes in the near future include Christopher Ditmar moving from Nonprofit Professional Development to the new Marketing and Graduate Enrollment team to focus on MNA admissions — both executive and residential. Also, Shane McCoy will be changing his role to focus on MSF admissions.

Please join me in congratulations those named above, and in thanking the many people involved in the department integration. I appreciate the openness to change, sense of collaboration and continuing dedication to serving the College. My thanks especially to ILT members Kelli Kilpatrick, Mike Brach, Joe Sweeney, Annette Tysver, Nick Farmer, Marcus Dittmer, Cynthia Proffitt, Kara Palmer, Angela Sienko, Cassie Smith, Angela Logan and Helen High.

Tim will be providing additional updates during our upcoming Staff Town Hall on October 7. If you have questions about the new organization, please submit them by October 2 via this form.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn