Richard C. Thompson, PhD
Dean, School of Business
To all Business Administration Students, Faculty, and Staff;
As we move into the second quarter of the year, the biggest event looming on the horizon is graduation. This spring, we are celebrating the largest graduating class of Business Administration students to date.
My sincere congratulations to one and all for your hard work and dedication to your education; it will serve you well. I enjoy hearing from our graduates, so drop me a line from time to time and let me know how you are doing.
As for our current students, I hope all of you will join us at JIU’s online graduation ceremony June 9, beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET, at http://graduation.jiu.edu. You can extend your good wishes to your former classmates on a graduation bulletin board, and envision the day when I read your name as I officially confer your degree.
Program News
Faculty: I’d like to extend a warm welcome to our newest faculty members. Dr. Jolene Buehrer and Professor Marilyn Godfrey joined us last quarter. Dr. Buehrer will be teaching our English and World Literature courses and will also work on the revision for these courses. Professor Godfrey is revising IT102 (Introduction to Computer Information Systems) and will be teaching it when it is reintroduced into the schedule in August.
Staff Changes: Please extend your congratulations to Art Pacheco, who has been promoted to the position of Academic Services Manager. Many of you have worked with Art in the past on scheduling and program-related issues. He will now combine some past work history in management with his skills in student service to bring you superior customer service.
We also have three new Academic Service Counselors: Welcome to Melissa Schwartz, Trish Hemmersbach, and Andrew King. Melissa and Trish join us from the admissions counselors’ group and Andy is brand new to JIU.
BizBlog: Looking for up to date Business Administration news and schedule changes? Don’t forget to check out the JIU BizBlog. We have been using this tool to provide current news to the students and faculty. You will find announcements related to course and text book updates and schedule additions. We are also slowly adding a “Professional Corner” for each of the specializations, to contain educational, professional and employment information.
You can find the BizBlog in the right margin of the main JIU web page, post login. While the three most recent announcements are always listed there, clicking on “BizBlog” will take you into the site. You can subscribe to our blog as well, and have recent announcements pushed to your browser as soon as they are created. For details, see the announcement in the “Resources and Tech Q&A” folder.
That wraps up all the news. Don’t forget, if you have any news you’d like to share, or any feedback regarding JIU and your program, feel free to drop me a note. It’s always good to hear from you.
With regards,
Richard C. Thompson, PhD
Dean, School of Business
rthompson@international.edu