- Hi, everyone, I'm Catenya McHenry. You are joining us now
on our new February Q&A with the Dean. Welcome, Dean Lil, it's great to see you.
- It's great to see you, Catenya. I can't believe it's February already.
- It's crazy. This year is already flying by.
But February is a very important month for people who look like me,
so tell me how we're celebrating Black History Month.
- Well, I think about Black History Month as having both education and celebration.
And, you know, McCombs has a too-short history
of welcoming Black students to campus.
Our first McCombs Black graduate is Mrs. Peggy Holland.
She is still alive, and she remembers being admitted to UT
but not being allowed to live in our dormitories.
And this is still part of our lived memory here at McCombs.
And so, the efforts we make to have a more welcoming classroom
are still having to overcome memories of either not being admitted to UT at all
or, "We'll let you come to class, we won't let you live here."
That's an important part of our history, but we also get to celebrate successes.
And if you've read McCombs' magazine this month,
you know that we have some fabulously successful Black entrepreneurs
who were graduates of McCombs. And, of course, we celebrate
that the admissions season is happening right now.
And last year's freshmen class was the most diverse ever.
We had doubled our Black enrollment from five years ago.
So, I hope you'll follow our social media as we educate and celebrate
throughout February for Black History Month.
- Excellent. Alright, so we also recently returned to hybrid class.
We were online for the first part of the semester.
So, how has the transition gone? I mean, it's not like we haven't done this
and done it very well.
But how is it going for this semester so far?
- Well, it's a little quiet on campus, but there are students and faculty here.
As you know, the Travis County cases were climbing quite a bit in January,
but the Dean of Dell Med School says that
here in early February they've come back down.
So, if you have a hybrid class, we encourage you to come to class.
But this is the mode we hope to be in for the rest of this semester,
where a lot of our classes are fully online,
some of them are hybrid, which means it a dual modality.
You can be in class or not, but all of you can still participate.
- Yeah. It's still so weird to be on campus and not see any students,
especially like in the middle of the day, in the middle of a school day.
It's still incredible, but nevertheless, education is still happening.
So, let's talk about the AACSB Review. This is something that the College
goes through as part of our accreditation process,
so that just recently happened. So, talk through what that is,
and what it will mean for McCombs.
- So, every six years, we have a team come to campus that would
consist of a couple of Deans from peer and aspirant schools.
And because our accounting group is separately accredited,
a couple of chairs from big accounting departments.
And we're so grateful that all of you offered candid feedback.
And a shoutout to Christina (inaudible), not just for marshaling our report
and organizing our meetings,
but also continuing to improve our assurance of learning
for the last five years.
And there was an extra shoutout to the career management team.
Every one of the review members were envious of that integrated operation
that so many students praise.
So, it'll be a month or two before we get the final report,
but the visit was excellent and I appreciate all of you that participated.
- Let's talk about SalesForce and what's happening with
the implementation of SalesForce across McCombs.
- So, the faculty may not be aware, but we have a lot of our staff
working with Huron Consulting on a SalesForce implementation.
And this is a really important integrated, behind the scenes system
to help with our graduate admissions, with our executive marketing.
And it's a big lift to take our legacy in-house systems and migrate
to this world-class system for tracking customers and clients.
And so, I just really appreciate everybody that's working so hard in
the computer services team
and the MSPO and the MBA and the executive teams who are
working on this implementation lift.
We are going to get there, and it's a game-changer.
- Awesome. I know, we've been hearing about it for a long time.
So, it's good to hear that it's making some good progress.
- It's making progress. - Yeah.
Well, making progress, obviously. The year is making progress.
Let's talk about some of the things that are upcoming across campus
as well as at McCombs. We have some business outlooks.
This is a series of events that we host at the beginning of the year,
and they're in process right now. So, the next one is coming up
in a few weeks. So, talk about the business outlook series
and what that will cover.
- So, we're really lucky to have a nice, tight relationship with
the Federal Reserve Board of Dallas.
And through the alumni there, they connect us with experts
on healthcare, on technology, and on energy.
And these business outlook webinars pair or group a Federal Reserve expert,
someone out in industry, and then, typically, one of our faculty members
who works in the area. And I get to interview these three experts.
That's just a treat.
And we get hundreds and hundreds of registrations for these events.
And I hope you in the faculty and staff might join some of them.
It's great professional development.
- And the registrations, the attendance of these has been up
since we've gone virtual, which is really incredible.
It's been so great.
So, make sure you check the McCombs calendar for the next upcoming
business outlook event.
Also coming up is 40 for 40. That is something that's happening,
of course, at McCombs and across the university campus.
So, talk about 40 for 40 and what that is.
- Thanks so much, Catenya. I appreciate using some of this Q&A
to make a big pitch for annual giving and how you on the faculty and staff can help.
Over the last couple of years, the annual giving participation rate
has fallen off at UT, and I think this is important
for a couple of reasons. The higher the participation rate,
the more it signals that our alumni value their degree,
and if we have alumni that give a little bit every year for a decade,
a little more for twenty years, those become the champions
who help us with millions of dollars when they become successful in middle age.
So, cultivating donors for regular, faithful participation is a big deal.
How can you help?
Well, given that the 40 for 40 is 40 hours early in March,
February would be a great time to reach out to your favorite students.
And, of course, you could volunteer to be an ambassador for 40 for 40,
which helps directly with fundraising,
but it would be enough to just email your students to ask how they're doing.
What are they doing since graduation? How's work going?
What advice do they have for your current classes?
Are they hiring, because our current students sure want jobs?
Most of the initial connection alums feel with their university
is often to their favorite professors.
So, if it's been a year or five years since you have contacted former students,
please do so. This would be a great time to check in with them
and ask how they're doing in the middle of the pandemic
and foster that connection back to the 40 Acres.
- Yeah, and I'm sure those connections don't just stay within the school year.
I think the hope is that those connections stay with those students
throughout their career and their life, even after college.
- Right. And these students may be eager to come judge a case competition
or speak in your class or help you with research knowledge
that advances your knowledge creation,
or, maybe, donate back to your program office.
So, if you have former students, this is a great month to get in touch with them.
- Yeah. Well, one big event that's coming up that I think has been
a hot topic about how we were going to do it, and if we were going to do it,
and if we were, how it was going to be executed, is commencement.
So, there is a plan for an in-person commencement event in May
for 2021 graduates. So, I'll let you talk about it.
- Sure. So, we have three different parts of commencement
that we expect to pull off.
There will be an in-person, university-wide evening commencement
in DKR Stadium, which is large enough
to have all the health and safety protocols in place.
We expect the college or degree-level commencement ceremonies
will be virtual like they were last May and in December,
but we're getting even better at a classy virtual event.
And, by high student demand, we are working to figure out
how to make memorable moments for the students
and a couple of their friends or family,
where we might be able to stage areas for them to come through
in a cap and gown and take photos,
maybe with a dean or a few faculty, in view but safely distant.
And I appreciate how hard the program offices are working
to figure out how could we pull that off?
And that's what we're attempting university-wide.
- Awesome. Well, be sure to check our social media. We will be
amplifying what comes down from the university about,
you know, all the information. Tickets, how to --
What to do, when to get there, all that information will be
available on our website.
Well, that is about all we have time for today on our February Q&A.
Before we leave, though, I want to just emphasize it's a very important month,
obviously, but it's an important month, as Lil talked about in the beginning,
to educate yourselves about things you need to learn more about
when it comes to Black accomplishments, Black achievements,
and achievers who have made great strides in all industries,
from education, to science, to technology.
There is plenty to learn. So, this is obviously a good month to learn it,
but, of course, the learning is long-lasting, right?
Beyond the month of February.
If you haven't picked up a copy of the McCombs' magazine,
there are additional ones in the Dean's Office and around the building
if you're in the building.
But we will have those stories posted on our website, so make sure
you pay attention to our social media.
And follow us on social media if you don't already.
Thank you so much for joining us on the February Q&A,
we will see you next time.
- Thanks, Catenya! Hook 'em, horns!
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