It is always a privilege to report to you on the college’s activities and the excellent progress that we have made on so many initiatives. The college’s strength continues to be in the areas of student learning and business connectedness. Below is an update on several key developments, several of which are featured in this edition of Exchange.

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. Implementation of the revised B.S.B.A. program is ongoing. Last year’s business freshmen are now sophomores, and the new sophomore-level courses must be introduced. The integration and coordination of the management information systems and the managerial accounting courses, as well as the planning for the required enterprise resource planning (ERP) and the applied business statistics courses, are just a few of the key projects.

Business Residential College. This very successful student living environment, led by Joe Myslevic, is having another great year.
Master of Business Administration. M.B.A. faculty members are continuing to work hard on plans to deliver the M.B.A. program in Detroit (see related story on page 9).

Internship program. A record 480 of our students, or about six of every 10 CBA students, participated in internships during the 2004-05 academic year. The college’s strong relationship with dozens of firms and organizations continues to benefit the placement of our students. Thank you to our alumni, business partners, and friends who do so much for our students in the area of career development (see related story on page 14).
Six Sigma. Ten CBA faculty members will receive Six Sigma Black Belt certification as they complete their projects in spring 2006 (see related story on page 16).

College events support learning,
career development

So many wonderful college events have occurred just in September and October. Some of these events include Career Day, Get Acquainted Day, Career Development Day, the Beta Gamma Sigma (business national honor society) induction, Corporate Spotlights, Homecoming activities, and the mentoring program.

David Brandon, Chairman and CEO, Domino’s Pizza Inc., did such an outstanding job as Dow Corning Executive-in-Residence in October (see related story on page 10). We will welcome two Executives-in-Residence in the spring 2006 semester. We also enjoyed honoring some of our outstanding alumni at our October 28 awards banquet.

Many opportunities to support the college

The college has met its New Vision of Excellence campaign goals, but we continue to seek additional support for program development, scholarships, and faculty research. You have been so generous in establishing scholarships for outstanding students. Nevertheless, your support still is needed to help us compete with other universities to attract high-quality business students. To the faculty’s credit, they have established higher research standards in terms of quantity and quality of publications required for tenure and promotion. To support these faculty efforts, we seek funds for summer research fellowships, databases, professorships, and graduate student support.

As always, I encourage you to become engaged with the college in any way you can. Please consider participating in the February 2006 Dialogue Day event or in other ways. You can become a mentor, visit classes, serve on an advisory board, provide financial support, or help us improve student placement even more.

We always look forward to hearing about your accomplishments. Keep in touch.

Daniel Vetter
College of Business Administration
Interim Dean