Dean's Update

Summer 2022: A Note from Dean Michael Solt

As we catch our breath for the summer and look forward to an exciting year coming up, this is a good time to review what happened in COB in 2021-2022. Even though we are past the depths of the pandemic, COVID-19 did have an impact. During the fall semester, approximately 80% of our classes were virtual and 15% were face-to-face, and during spring, we reversed this with 80% face-to-face classes and 15% virtual classes. However, the Omicron variant caused the university to push the start of face-to-face instruction to early February for the spring semester, and we keep a wary eye on new variants that could affect how the fall semester operates, but we are hopeful that faculty, staff, and students will be back to “normal” operations.

Even though COB operated in a mixed world of face-to-face and virtual activity, our students continued to perform spectacularly. As you will read below, our students in Beach Investment Group, International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition, and Society for Human Resource Management competed against students from other universities and admirably brought back top-place finishes.

This issue of the Dean’s Update also features Nupur Shah, Head of COB Information Technology, who is a very valuable member of the COB team who has helped us immeasurably survive the virtual world of the pandemic. Also highlighted is the role our faculty played in the recent WDSI meetings on Hawaii’s Big Island; Pia Gupta, Finance Department Chair, did a wonderful job organizing the conference.

COB could not grow and thrive without the help and support of our alumni, and it is always heartwarming for me to see how many COB alums give their time, energy, and experience to improve career success for our students. I am also very inspired when an alum steps ups and makes a significant donation to the college because such gifts become the fuel that ignites growth and improvements in COB programs. Wayne Powell, COB 19xx and 19xx, has made a large gift to COB that will be transformative in its impact on the college, and I thank him for his belief in COB. You will learn more about Wayne in this update below.

I hope that you enjoy reading this Dean’s Update and learn about the exciting things in which COB is engaged. I also hope you have a wonderful summer.