Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Beginning of the New School Year




The beginning of the new school year is filled with new faculty and faces, receptions and introductions, and even elections (and, sometimes, appointments to new positions, including administrative ones).

Last Friday, we had our Fall 2010 reception in the atrium of the Isenberg School of Management, which had a terrific attendance. At this event, new faculty and staff were announced, and some administrative changes noted plus thank you's given by the administration to those who have put out an extra effort for the school. One of the highlights for me, every year, at this special occasion, is the introduction of our new doctoral students. This year we have a class of 20 new doctoral students that come to us from various parts of the US, from China, Egypt, Turkey, and even Bulgaria!

As the PhD Coordinator for the doctoral students in the Management Science track (some of the other tracks are: Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Organizational Studies, and even Sports Management) it is very exciting to see the new group of doctoral students who will be working closely with the faculty on research and, ultimately, teaching 2 or so courses at our school, before they received their PhDs.

And as Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Student Chapter I am delighted that the students already held an election and elected their 2010-2011 chapter officers!

Plus, we have thousands of new undergraduate students (4,500 freshmen, to start, at UMass Amherst) that have arrived. With neighboring colleges such as Amherst College, Hampshire College, Smith, and Mount Holyoke also beginning the new academic year, this area of western Massachusetts is teaming with energy (and more traffic, I might add).

Last Friday night, with the reception at the Isenberg School and the one honoring Anna Schuleit and her "Just a Rumor" painting on the side of the Fine Arts Center, there was no need to cook dinner.