Community operations to navigate Ross through transition
Gene Anderson
Issue date: 11/6/06 Section: Dean's Office
I hope everything is going well for everyone as we move past the mid-point of the semester. As many of you are very aware, our community is experiencing a totally new operating environment this fall as construction on our new home begins. While we were able to do a great deal over the Summer months to enhance the space we inherited from Executive Education and the Executive MBA program (e.g., creating two new tiered classrooms, adding more power outlets in many of our classrooms, etc.), it should be pretty clear to everyone by now that our 'cozier' surroundings still present significant challenges for our community to navigate over the course of the next two years.
To meet these challenges, key staff have been working hard to make sure that we learn about operational issues students, faculty, and staff are encountering and getting the message to the right set of people as quickly as possible. These efforts have involved staff from the School's different support units reaching out to students for additional feedback, meetings between SGA leaders and directors of the School's key support functions, and other 'listening posts' such as the email solicitation all business school faculty, students, and staff received from Associate Dean Kathie Sutcliffe and myself a few weeks back.
The response has been tremendous. We have heard from all constituents about a wide variety of issues ranging from academic services to career services to facilities to food service to information technology.
The most common area for which faculty and students have suggestions is facilities. In particular, the design of the 'off-site' classrooms given to us by LS&A for our BBA core classes presents challenges - especially in terms of sightlines and acoustics. Faculty are trying to minimize these issues by using microphones when needed and modifying pedagogy to better suit the layout of the classrooms. We've also replaced many of the projectors over there in order to ensure better viewing of presentations. Everyone is getting a little more used to this new teaching environment and making the best of it, but we will have to continue to work to find the best possible solutions here - including working with LS&A to find appropriate rooms for our style of teaching going forward.
To meet these challenges, key staff have been working hard to make sure that we learn about operational issues students, faculty, and staff are encountering and getting the message to the right set of people as quickly as possible. These efforts have involved staff from the School's different support units reaching out to students for additional feedback, meetings between SGA leaders and directors of the School's key support functions, and other 'listening posts' such as the email solicitation all business school faculty, students, and staff received from Associate Dean Kathie Sutcliffe and myself a few weeks back.
The response has been tremendous. We have heard from all constituents about a wide variety of issues ranging from academic services to career services to facilities to food service to information technology.
The most common area for which faculty and students have suggestions is facilities. In particular, the design of the 'off-site' classrooms given to us by LS&A for our BBA core classes presents challenges - especially in terms of sightlines and acoustics. Faculty are trying to minimize these issues by using microphones when needed and modifying pedagogy to better suit the layout of the classrooms. We've also replaced many of the projectors over there in order to ensure better viewing of presentations. Everyone is getting a little more used to this new teaching environment and making the best of it, but we will have to continue to work to find the best possible solutions here - including working with LS&A to find appropriate rooms for our style of teaching going forward.
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