 | Fall 2006 |
Letters: Marwan Wafa
Dean of the College of Business and Management
Greetings from the faculty, staff, and students of the College of Business & Management. I am delighted to have the opportunity to communicate with you about the most recent events and activities that CBM has been engaged in.
I have just completed my first year at SVSU coming from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The faculty and university leadership has been quite supportive of the initiatives that we launched during the year. We now have a CBM Advisory Board consisting of 30 business leaders who are committed to our institutional role in the delivery of quality education to our future generations. The College went through a revision of its mission and goals during the first part of the year with input from our students, faculty, and our stake holders represented by members of our Advisory Board. We are grateful for the support and timely input during that process.
We have also established a Student Advisory Council that interacts with the Dean in order to provide the voice of our students which is critical to our continuous quality improvement efforts.
Last year, the first on-line CBM newsletter entitled: Business Matters was published at the following web address: http://www.svsu.edu/emplibrary/BUSINESS_MATTERS_vol1[1].pdf The second volume will be published on our website soon.
Our faculty has responded to market needs, in particular for our region and in the State of Michigan, by introducing a new minor in Entrepreneurship which is housed in the Department of Management & Marketing. The Entrepreneurship minor will provide any student in the University with the opportunity to learn about innovation and launching new businesses which we believe is timely for our region. Dr. Shiv Arora is helping in the promotion of the new minor across all departments at SVSU.
In order for the students to learn about entrepreneurship, we now have more faculty using the project based learning approach since it is one of the most effective means of learning. Our students and faculty have been addressing many projects during the past year with favorable outcomes. This enabled us to connect CBM with the Center of Business & Economic Development at SVSU and which is headed by Mr. Harry Leaver, the SBTDC which is located in Delta College, and in some cases we dealt directly with area business owners and entrepreneurs.
In support of the Entrepreneurship initiative, the university has allocated a prime location in Curtiss Hall for establishing a facility to provide the proper work environment. This will promote interaction between students, faculty, and business owners who are looking for solutions to existing business related challenges. Entrepreneurs with ideas/products will be assisted to help identify strategies to launch their business ideas in our region. This change in our approach to learning will connect our business programs with our region in a targeted and effective approach to impact our economy.
Dr. Danilo Sirias is the faculty coordinator for incoming projects and chair of the Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee which was established this academic year. The Committee is working on developing processes to manage the inflow of projects effectively.
Dr. George Puia and Mrs. Janet Rentsch played an important role in the WIRED grant submission which will help our region retool and adapt to new economic realities with emphasis on entrepreneurial initiatives. One of the key highlights of the WIRED initiative is that SVSU and her regional partners will provide key support services. Our students and faculty from CBM and the College of Science and Engineering Technology will partner in providing necessary support through our academic programs.
Dr. Diana Lawson who served as the Harvey Randall Wickes Endowed Chair played a key leadership role with faculty from CBM in the launch of the Entrepreneurship minor. She has accepted a dean's position of the College of Business at St. Cloud University, Minnesota. We wish her all the best in her new capacity and appreciate her efforts and contributions to our institution, students, and community during her tenure at SVSU.
We also had a new faculty addition to the College. Dr. Christopher Surfield joined the Department of Economics this fall from Lander University, South Carolina. He specializes in Industrial Organizations, Econometrics, Labor and Health Economics. We are delighted to have him as a member of the team of our faculty.
Our faculty have been successful in presenting their scholarly works in national conferences and published their research work in refereed journal outlets. This is an important part of faculty roles in universities to maintain currency and academic qualifications which is in line with our accrediting body: AACSB International.
I personally welcome your feedback and suggestions that will help our institution to continue on the path to effective delivery of timely and quality education and service to our communities.
Best regards,
Marwan A. Wafa, Ph.D.
Dean