2003-2007 Accomplishments in Implementing the Strategic Plan

Below are the actions steps (in italics) taken directly from the strategic plan followed by a description of the school’s progress in accomplishing the desired improvement.

1 | 2 | 3

School's Overall Strategy

Recruit 40 Additional Tenure-Track Faculty to the McCombs School
Substantially Completed: Over the past four academic years, the McCombs School recruited 35 new tenure-track faculty. Nineteen of the 35 are replacements of McCombs faculty who left during the period and the other 16 are net additions to school. The additional faculty have helped to reduce the school’s student/faculty ratio from 32:1 in 2002-03 to an estimated 26:1 in 2007-08.

Because of the net addition of tenure-track faculty and the reduction in the size of the entering class of our full-time MBA program, we have been able to enhance the rigor of our undergraduate program by adding undergraduate classes taught by our tenure-track faculty. We expect the number of undergraduate class sections taught by the school to increase by 80 (21.5 percent) over the fall and spring semesters of the four academic years (subject to scheduling changes during the spring semester of the 2007-08 academic year). Our undergraduate sections taught by tenure-track faculty have grown by 30 percent over the four years; for 2007-08 we estimate that 32.7 percent of our undergraduate class sections will be taught by tenure-track faculty (compared to 26.6 percent in 2002-03).

During the current academic year, the school will seek the necessary institutional funding to hire an additional 21 tenure-track faculty in 2007-08 and 2008-09. With that funding in place, we will have only three faculty to be funded and hired in 2009-10 to complete our objective of recruiting 40 additional tenure-track faculty by the end of this decade.

Develop Distinctive Initiatives in our Management and Marketing Disciplines
Substantially Completed: The Marketing Department has repositioned the Center for Customer Insight and Marketing Solutions (CCIMS) to focus on customer-driven, cross- functional marketing research issues faced in the marketplace. Companies involved with CCIMS are Accenture, AT&T, Dell, Frito-Lay, GE, Miller, Phillip Morris, and Wal-Mart. The Management Department has given a priority to the development of its relationship with consulting firms and the school now offers case interview workshops to better prepare MBA students for interviewing with consulting firms. The department launched this fall a consulting track within the undergraduate management major.

Develop a Branding Strategy to Convey the Strategic Distinctions of the McCombs School
Completed: Under the leadership of the school’s Director of Marketing and Communications, David Wenger, we have developed a new branding strategy for the McCombs School including a new logo. The strategy emphasizes the distinctive leadership characteristics of our faculty, students, and programs that were identified in our market research of recruiters, alumni, and prospective students. We are currently implementing an integrated marketing plan for the school and our programs consistent with that branding strategy.

Academic Programs

Temporarily Reduce the Size of the Full-Time MBA Program While Maintaining Other Full-Time Programs at Current Enrollment Levels
Completed: In the fall of 2004, the school reduced the size of the entering full-time MBA program’s Class of 2006 by one cohort, going from 380 to 320 students. In response to a continued national decline in applications to full-time programs, the school further reduced the Class of 2007 and subsequent classes by another cohort to 260 students. The University agreed to maintain the instructional resources allocated to the school despite the lower enrollment. These class reductions provided significant relief to the demand pressures for our MBA core and elective courses and enabled us to improve the quality of our full-time program.

Continue Improving the Delivery of the MBA Program
Completed: The school made major changes in our full-time MBA program since the adoption of the strategic plan:

• We implemented a significant shift in the focus of the program to better align with the core business disciplines that related to the MBA placement market (marketing, finance, and management consulting).
• Starting with the class that entered in the fall of 2004, we initiated a mandatory interview requirement for admission to the program to ensure a good fit for all of our students.
• During 2003-04, the school reorganized its MBA placement operation to enhance its effectiveness.
• The school currently is developing a bidding system to enable MBA students to give their preferences for taking courses with particular McCombs instructors.

These changes have significantly improved our full-time program and substantially increased student satisfaction with the program. They also should enhance the national reputation of our MBA program.

Continuously Improve Teaching Performance in All Programs
Completed: The combination of additional tenure-track faculty and the reduction in the size of the full-time MBA program has allowed us to rely less on part-time lecturers. We have also been able to better match faculty members with the academic program that best fits their teaching skills. In addition, the school has made the following teaching enhancements:

• The school appointed Professor James Fredrickson, an excellent teacher and dedicated researcher, as our first Director of Teaching Development to lead our efforts in improving the quality of teaching at McCombs. Jim will pursue teaching initiatives that include offering an orientation for newly hired junior faculty and lecturers at the start of each academic year covering teaching expectations and resources in the school, as well as workshops during the academic year for all McCombs faculty covering particular teaching techniques and issues.
• In 2006-07 the school amended its merit review process to include a formal evaluation of the course content and rigor of an instructor which, when combined with student evaluations of classroom delivery, provides a more complete assessment of the teaching performance of McCombs faculty members.

Undertake a Comprehensive Review of our BBA Curriculum
Completed: During the 2006-07 academic year, the school completed a comprehensive review of our BBA curriculum.

Based on discussions with faculty, students, recruiters, and members of the McCombs Advisory Council, the McCombs Undergraduate Program Committee recommended that the school:

• reduce the size of our BBA core classes;
• encourage faculty-student research opportunities;
• increase international study opportunities for our BBA students;
• develop a leadership certificate program.

The school is currently implementing the Committee’s recommendations.

Build a Stronger Sense of Community Among Students and Faculty in both the MBA and BBA Programs
Completed: We have pursued a variety of initiatives over the past four years to build a greater sense of community in the school:

• Monthly faculty luncheons are held during the academic year to encourage stronger faculty relationships across departments.
• Annual faculty retreats are held at the start of each academic year to discuss current developments in our academic programs and in the school.
• Faculty are now expected to attend the commencement exercises for the programs in which they teach.
• Faculty members are also expected be involved in at least one student activity outside of the classroom.
• Our undergraduate and MBA students have more joint activities and they are more supportive of the other McCombs academic programs besides their own.
• These initiatives have been well received by our faculty and students and they have strengthened the concept of a McCombs community.

Start an Early Acceptance (“Jump Start”) Program to Increase the Number of Minority Students in our MBA Program
Completed: In February 2005 the school created Jump Start, a program in partnership with leading companies to expand the diversity of our MBA student body and the managerial ranks of American businesses. Jump Start targets undergraduate seniors at universities across the country that are academically qualified for a top-ranked MBA but lack the required work experience. The partner companies agree to provide the experience by hiring the students for three years and the McCombs School considers the candidates for deferred admission to our MBA program based on the completion of their job commitment. While the Jump Start program is open to students from any background, the hope is that the program will encourage more high-quality students from under-represented backgrounds to pursue a business career and attend our MBA program. There are currently six companies participating in the program: AT&T, BMC Software, Deloitte Consulting, Frito-Lay, TXU, and Wells Fargo.

Research Environment

Substantially Increase the Financial Resources Devoted to Research and the Ph.D. Program
Completed: Through greater executive education revenue and earnings on new discretionary endowments over the past four years, the school has been able to improve our research environment, bringing our research support levels closer to those at other leading business schools. All research-active faculty in the school now receive full summer support as well as higher levels of annual academic development funds. The school also has allocated over $1 million in new funds for statistical and editorial research help for faculty and doctoral students and a larger budget for faculty travel and Ph.D. scholarships. These research enhancements put the McCombs School in a significantly better position to compete with other top-tier business schools for new faculty and to retain our current faculty.

Strengthen our Quantitative Methods Discipline to Better Support our Academic Programs and Our Research
Substantially Completed: The school has hired two excellent faculty members in the quantitative methods area from other leading business schools (one from Michigan and the other from New York University). We currently are recruiting a talented senior statistician from the University of Chicago. The McCombs School also is involved in the development of the Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation at the University that will support quantitative education and research across the campus.

Create a Semester Partial Leave Program to Enable Junior Faculty to Extend the Pre-Tenure Period
Outstanding: In 2003 the school requested permission from the University Provost to start a junior faculty leave program. Under that program assistant professors in the school who have satisfactorily completed their three-year review may apply for a 25 percent leave of absence for one semester. The leave would be funded by the McCombs School of Business Foundation. Faculty approved for this paid leave would have an extra year added to their pre-tenure period. In 2004 the Provost approved the program, but in 2006 he withdrew his approval, forcing the school to stop this very attractive recruiting incentive. The University recently appointed a new Provost and we have sought his permission to restart the program.

External Relationships

Expect Each Academic Discipline to Build Strong Industry Relationships
Substantially Completed: In support of the initiative in our strategic plan to build more partnerships with firms and industries, the school created a new Corporate Relationship Management team. We appointed three professionals to liaise with the approximately 150 companies that are involved with the McCombs School. One of the responsibilities of this team is to look for opportunities to involve our faculty with these companies and create new distinctive academic initiatives in partnership with these firms. Since inception the team has organized visits of company officials with our faculty on campus and scheduled trips for groups of our faculty to visit firms in Texas as well as California, Michigan, New York, Michigan, Virginia, and Washington State.

A new interdisciplinary center in supply chain management has been created through approximately $400,000 in seed money provided by the school from its discretionary funds. That center has sponsored conferences and developed and new undergraduate courses in the area. The center is currently supported by 17 companies. The school also is considering new interdisciplinary centers in corporate governance and in leadership.

Enhance our Undergraduate and Graduate Alumni Networks
Completed: Over the past four years, the school invested an additional $400,000 in the development of the McCombs MBA Alumni Network. Through this organization we have expanded the scope of our MBA alumni operations, including holding annual alumni conferences and arranging more opportunities for McCombs faculty to speak at meetings of our alumni chapters in the U.S. and other countries. This year the school has started a comparable organization at the undergraduate level and invested about $300,000 in its operation. The McCombs BBA Alumni Network will offer our undergraduates the same opportunity to stay involved with the school and each other as currently enjoyed by our MBA alumni.

Executive Education

Participate Financially in the Development of a Hotel/Conference Facility on Campus
Completed: In May 2006 the University started the construction of an executive education center at the intersection of University Avenue and MLK Boulevard on the edge of campus. When completed in 2008, this project will be the finest residential executive education facility at any business school in the country. It will include 300 hotel rooms and approximately 33,000 square feet of high-quality executive education space. In May 2007 AT&T pledged $25 million to our school to be applied to the construction cost of the facility which will be named the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. Through the combination of the AT&T gift, room naming donations, and McCombs funds, the school currently has almost $37 million invested in the project, resulting in a 76 percent equity position in the property.

Offer an Executive MBA Program in Houston
Completed: In August 2005 the McCombs School began offering a weekend MBA program in Houston for working professionals. The program has been very well received by the Houston market and this past August we enrolled our third class of over 100 students. The school has leased a floor in the Federal Reserve Bank building in Houston to provide classroom and office space for the program and enable us to offer non-degree executive education programs at that location. Our Houston MBA program and other executive education offerings are of great value to the school in developing stronger relationships with the companies in Houston.

School's Organizational Structure

Retain the Present Five Department Academic Organization of the McCombs School;
Reorganize the School’s Management Committees;
Move Oversight of the Entrepreneurship Program to the Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center
Completed: The school has completed the reorganization of its management committees and the Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center now oversees the school’s entrepreneurship program.

1 | 2 | 3