From the Dean's Desk

Sharing Our Talents

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 11 May 2020
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Many members of our Mendoza community have stepped up in extraordinary ways to meet the challenges presented by COVID-19. Today, I want to recognize a remarkable effort to fill in some of the staffing gaps faced by programs and departments across the College due to the hiring freeze.
Thanks to a cross-collaborative effort, more than 25 staff members have been “matched” with projects in other College departments in need of additional resources. Many of them are working on multiple projects. This effort involved a process of directors and staff members working together to identify who had some additional capacity as well as the expertise or talents they could contribute. Kara Palmer also worked with the directors to determine areas where their departments could use additional help. 
The projects span the College, from Mendoza IT to Graduate Admissions and Enrollment. The contributions of these individuals will allow us to tackle key strategic priorities across the College during a time where we have limited resources. 

While the “COVID 19 Special Assignments” project is intended to be an interim solution, the effort is a testimony to the ingenuity and dedication of our staff and the Mendoza community as a whole. My thanks to Kara Palmer for leading the project and to all of you for your continued commitment to teamwork and collaboration.

Finish Strong

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 4 May 2020

The photos below depict the EMBA South Bend Class of 2020 gathering virtually to celebrate their last day of class with a Champagne toast – the end cap to 22 months of hard work. Joined by family and friends, the group decided to wear their graduation caps, as Robin Kistler said, “to represent the love, solidarity and mutual respect they have for one another and their beloved Notre Dame.”

None of us could have imagined back in January that this semester would end with a virtual ceremony to confer the degrees. Yet as I look at these images, I am once again awed and appreciative of how special our community is. Despite the challenges of these past months, here we see students, faculty and staff celebrating the years of hard work and sacrifice it takes to earn a degree from the University of Notre Dame.

As we wind down our semester, surely we will look back with remembrances of how difficult the sudden transition to online education was, how sad it was to have a campus without students, and how scary and uncertain ordinary life became. I hope you will also remember how we came together as a beautiful community to serve our students and each other, where these pictures can help us celebrate with our students their achievements that you have made possible, accomplished in the way that matters most – as a strong community.

Good luck to all with exams and grading.

In Notre Dame,
Martijn
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Hometown Heroes

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 27 April 2020
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Even though we are not together on a daily basis, there is still a lot of activity going on at Mendoza. I’ve heard so many encouraging stories about our students, faculty, staff and alums stepping up to help others, I thought I’d share a few:
Jim Spencer is part of a University cross collaborative team using 3D printers to produce plastic face shields, which have been in critically short supply for medical personnel on the COVID-19 frontlines. Jim is working with the other members of the local makerspace to produce as many parts as they can. The Mendoza Ed Tech team is also running its 3D printer to produce face shield parts. Once we began working remotely, Jim added Mendoza's printer to the printer farm at his house and is now running three printers nearly 24 hours a day. In his spare time, he’s also building more printers out of parts he’s accumulated over the years.
The EMBA-Chicago Class of 2021 raised $5,545 to donate to the Greater Chicago Food Depository to support feeding kids who normally would get many of their meals from school. This translates into 16,650 meals The cohort was less than three months into the program when we transitioned to online teaching. But they wanted to find a way to stay connected and give back. “It’s a weird time in the world, but at the same time, we all feel immense gratitude to be part of a community that we weren’t part of just months before — the Notre Dame community,” said student Kendall Raymond.
Two companies led or founded by Mendoza alums have converted their operations to produce hand sanitizer. Kem Krest CEO Amish Shah (EMBA ‘05) is working to create the chemical packaging company’s own sanitizer for public use during the current shortage. South Bend-based Indiana Whiskey, led by Charles Florance (MBA ’13) and Matt Logston (MBA ’20), shifted from producing its award-winning small-batch whiskeys to bottling the all but impossible-to-find commodity.
Ugandan priest and MBA student Father Arthur Joseph Ssembajja (MBA ’21) celebrates daily Mass in the Mendoza chapel alone as his contribution to battling the coronavirus: “I pray for God’s intervention, mercy and healing. I pray for the Church to remain an icon of hope and presence of God in the world. I pray for civil leaders to make decisions that will benefit the whole of humanity. I pray for the University of Notre Dame – administrators, staff, faculty and students that the Lord keeps us and our families safe. That a day will dawn when we get to see each other face to face again. I pray for my family in Uganda. Lastly, I pray for those on the frontline and all those suffering with the coronavirus.”
At a time when we’ve seen so much heartache and struggle on a daily basis, these stories remind me of a quote from Pope Francis’ encyclical, "Laudato Si’”: "Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start."
I’m thankful for all of you who again and again have shown yourself capable of rising above and who are already making a new start in our changed world.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn

Administrative Professionals Day

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 20 April 2020
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Today’s message is one of deep appreciation to all of the Mendoza administrative assistants as we observe Administrative Professionals’ Day on Wednesday this week (April 22).

The College could not function without those who serve in this capacity. They often are the face of Mendoza, serving as the first point of contact for students and guests. They keep us organized and on track, scheduling meetings (a herculean job in itself!), coordinating events of all sizes, administering our budgets, and drafting our presentations and correspondence. They help prepare our materials for teaching and research submissions.

Collectively, they represent a skill set that spans finance, digital media, project management, office software, information design, audio/visual technology, vendor relations and many, many additional areas. They contribute heavily to the initiatives and events that make our workplace rewarding and enjoyable.

Normally, we would organize a special lunch to recognize their contributions. As that is not possible this year, regrettably, I encourage you to reach out individually to acknowledge their important contributions. We are blessed to have the support and assistance of this phenomenal team at Mendoza.

My sincere thanks to each and every one of them.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

Kimberly Bakle, GBP 
Candice Cleveland, Dean’s Office
Deborah Coch, Administrative Support
Heather Denton, Dean's Office
Elizabeth Ganger, GBP Career Services
Laura Glassford, Undergraduate Studies
Karma Grundy, Dean’s Office
Rachel Karnafel, Faculty Support
Dana Marsh, Exec Ed 
Judy Miller, Management
Maggie Neenan-Michel, Faculty Support
Jessica Noffsinger, Undergraduate Studies
Denayia Phillips, Faculty Support
Jenna Rangel, Administrative Support 
Jennifer Ransbottom, GBP
Amanda Rink, Administrative Support
Bailey Smith, Administrative Support
Beth Smith, Dean’s Office
Amy Spangler, Faculty Support
Tamara Springer, Faculty Support
Shelly Sterling, Marketing and Graduate Enrollment
Kayla Taylor, Administrative Support
Kathleen Webb, Administrative Support
Angela Wesley, Marketing and Graduate Enrollment

FAQ Updates

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 13 April 2020

Happy Easter; the Lord is risen, alleluia!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend; I was glad we were able to enjoy a brief glimpse of spring.

The University has provided several updates recently about campus operations. You can find more information on the Notre Dame Covid-19 site, but here are a few highlights to answer questions I’ve received:

Returning to campus: At this time, the University plans to offer additional guidance about when the campus will resume normal operations by May 15. Note that this does not mean we will necessarily return to working on campus on that date; it means that the University will provide more information by then, as the state and federal safety and health guidelines related to Covid-19 develop.

Commencement: As was previously announced, the commencement celebration for the Class of 2020 is planned for Memorial Day weekend 2021. The University will host a virtual conferral of degrees in May 2020 for our graduates. The Provost’s Office has asked that the colleges hold off from making any individual plans to honor graduates until the full details of the University plan are announced later this month.

Summer sessions: The University will not hold in-person courses or programs through July 6. For Mendoza, we have decided that we will not be doing any in-person teaching in our main campus until the fall semester starts. This means that three of our graduate programs — MBA One-Year, MSM and Executive MNA (both new and returning students) are going to be fully online this summer, with the intention of resuming normal operations in the fall.

Annual budget planning: Last week, I emailed College budget managers reiterating EVP Shannon Cullinan’s statement about the need to curb expenses for the remainder of this fiscal year and to make provisional plans to reduce spending of unrestricted funds for fiscal year 2020-21. Doug Franson and I are working with the Provost’s Office to understand the specific directives involved. We will be providing more information to budget managers in the next week. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to think of innovative and effective ways to do your jobs that will help us trim costs. Any operational savings helps support the University’s commitment to serving students, caring for its employees and supporting our core functions of teaching and research.

Endeavor: I want to reiterate Kara Palmer’s email sent April 8 to staff asking everyone to complete their performance reviews in Endeavor. We are committed to prioritizing increases in salaries related to promotions for faculty and staff as soon as the budgetary situation has changed, and want to ensure that your hard work is recognized. At this time, all staff members should have finished their year-end comments and ratings and submitted them to their supervisors (Step 3). From now until early May, supervisors will meet with direct reports to discuss performance evaluations and final ratings. Endeavor closes on May 15 for fiscal year 2019-20.

As you start your week, I encourage you to watch the video of the Notre Dame Glee Club’s performance of Franz Biebl's “Ave Maria.” (Thanks, Chris Stevens, for sending it!) It’s a powerful and moving reminder that we can cooperate well together even during this difficult time of working remotely, and that we are still very much a strong community even while physically distant.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

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