By Xhaxany Cuellar, Editor in Chief
The McLane School of Business has named Dr. Stephen Baldridge as their new Interim Dean. Dr. Baldridge will serve as the interim dean for a period of one year while also maintaining his current position as Dean of Humanities and Sciences.
The combination of both positions requires a mix of time management and team commitment.
“There's some things that I’ve had to delegate, that I usually do, that others have picked up, and then I've just had to be really intentional about the things that I'm taking on this year,” stated Baldridge.
One out of the many things Baldridge is working on in the business school is the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation. According to the AACSB website, the AACSB is world recognized accreditation given to schools which are considered the best in the world and whose programs have passed rigorous quality standards. The purpose of the accreditation is to encourage schools to improve business practices through strategic management, learner success, thought leadership and social impact.
Additionally, understanding unreasonable hospitality is another aspect being focused on within the department of education. “We're going to just kind of focus on creative ways that we can be more hospitable to people on campus, to students, that sort of thing. And really, kind of the idea is thinking of unique ways that people wouldn't expect you to serve them,” said Baldridge.
Dr. Baldridge discussed his plans for the recruitment and retention rates at UMHB and added a few programs in the works to address both issues. One of the programs is titled “Cru Detective’ in which eighth and ninth graders will come to campus in May, and participate in a murder mystery weekend with the different departments on campus. Each department will have their own set of clues and, at the end of the weekend the students will give a presentation on who they think committed the crime and why.
Another program is set to be launched in the summer called “Seder Scholars,” where students, after their junior year of high school, will be invited to come live on campus for a week in the summer. They will participate in three hour college classes, and be in class for a total of eight hours a day. “Then we're just going to entertain them at night, do a bunch of fun stuff with them, and then once they complete that, they'll get automatic admission to the university.” stated Baldridge.
