Letter from the Dean | SIU College of Business and Analytics

Letter from the Dean

Steady as She Goes

Despite the tempestuous waters SIU and the College of Business and Analytics have sailed through in the past 6 years, I am pleased to tell you that the ship remains sound, her course a sound one, and that we are making good progress.

I deliberately didn’t send out a Dean’s note last semester, because the college’s accreditation status wasn’t finalized. However, that is now settled. I have three very encouraging pieces of news to pass on to alumni, friends, students and faculty.

First: I received the following (wonderful) email from the AACSB on April 6:

A lot of people helped us retain accreditation, but I’d like to give a special shoutout to Mark Peterson, Nicholas Hoffman, Bridgette Sargent, and Dena Stogsdill. Thank you.

Second: We have some encouraging news regarding a few of the College’s forward-looking initiatives. As you know, CoBA currently has one functioning research center—The Pontikes Center for Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. That Center, headed by Professor Jim Nelson, was at the forefront of the College’s venture into analytics.

Recently, we received a generous $100K seed grant from alumnus Herb Shear, to help the startup of a new Center—the Center for Logistics and Supply Chain Management. If we make satisfactory progress in year 1, Herb is open to providing additional funds for year 2 of the startup. Professor Greg DeYong is heading up this initiative. Work on this Center will begin as soon as the semester ends.

Additionally, as you know, Bill Fenwick, a 1964 CoBA graduate passed away in late 2021. Bill had an amazing career, including close relations with most of the founders of tech firms in Silicon Valley. While attending his memorial, I had a conversation with his partner about the feasibility of creating the Bill Fenwick Center for Corporate Social Responsibility. That initial conversation has since grown into a full blown proposal. Shortly after graduation, I head out to Silicon Valley, where Bill’s partner has agreed to broker high-level introductions, with the purpose of soliciting seed monies for the Center.

Finally, one of the new programs the College gained through SIU’s reorganization, Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management (HTEM), represents a large and varied set of related industries. Not only does HTEM have its own illustrious external board, but our College’s external board has several people prominent in the industry. In discussions with HTEM Professor Niki Davis, we gave her a green light to develop a proposal for an industry-related center. More on this as it develops.

Third: We continue to see encouraging signs that enrollment at both the University and College-level is improving. SIU and most Illinois public institutions suffered disastrous enrollment declines in the wake of the great Illinois budget crisis. The only realistic way out of these declines is to grow incoming freshman classes. I am delighted to tell you that all indications are that Fall 2022 looks to be the third Fall in a row in which our incoming freshman classes are growing! Here is a summary of what first time, fulltime freshman admissions look like for the University and College at 21 weeks out from the start of Fall 2022 classes (change over Fall 2021 shown as a percentage increase or decrease):

University

8,246 admitted [34.2%]

CoBA

While it should be noted that we have to “yield” these admissions, the signs are very encouraging.

In closing, I want to thank each of you for the encouragement, advice, and support through what has been a difficult passage for the College and for the University.

Terry Clark
Dean