MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

This fall, we are beginning our second year in The UTD School of
Management's new 204,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art home. This facility
is making a huge difference in the quality of education we are able to
deliver to our students. It has also helped in our outreach efforts to the
vibrant business community that surrounds us. As several articles in this
issue show, our school now serves as a focal point that allows numerous
companies, business organizations and chambers of commerce to participate
in our programs as well as showcase their own activities.

The new building is accommodating our continued growth in enrollment and
faculty size. Our enrollment now stands at 4,484, which is double the
school's enrollment just nine years ago. This fall, we welcome eight new
faculty members, including three full professors. Dr. Alain Bensoussan
joins us as Distinguished Research Professor in Operations Management. Dr.
Ashiq Ali and Dr. William Cready both will hold named professorships and
are outstanding additions to our Accounting and Information Management
faculty.

As we grow, we continue to gain in national visibility. Our rankings show
we are making progress toward our goal of becoming one of the leading
public business schools in the United States. U.S. News and World Report
lists our fulltime Cohort MBA Program among the top 62 such programs in
the nation and among the top 35 at public colleges and universities.
Financial Times ranks the UTD Executive MBA Program 62nd in the world and
32nd in the United States.

Perhaps even more significantly, we are taking the lead in defining
another parameter that measures accomplishments of business schools based
on their research contributions. We have created a database, which can be
found at http://citm.utdallas.edu/informs, that tracks publications in 22
leading research journals across major business disciplines from 1990
forward. Based on this data, we have created a Top 100 Research
Productivity list in which The UTD School of Management ranks 36th among
all North American business schools, ahead of all but one school in Texas.
Recognizing the important role of academic research in providing students
with the most advanced educational experience, our plans are to
continually update the database, making public on an ongoing basis this
important measure of excellence in business education.

The quality of education our students are receiving is reflected in their
first-rate performance in various competitions related to their academic
experiences. In a recent contest organized by the Association of
Information Technology Professionals, the SOM team won first place, in a
field of 21 teams, for network design. Last month, a team of Cohort MBA
students participated in the Dell-Microsoft National Marketing Case
Competition. They distinguished themselves among the 100 teams that
participated by being named one of the six finalists. In the final round,
which was ultimately won by Northwestern University, our Cohort MBA team
was the only team from Texas in a field that included Emory, Purdue,
Vanderbilt and The University of Virginia.

Such accomplishments assure us that we are achieving our goals, sooner
rather than later. We welcome the input of our alumni and friends in our
endeavors, and we thank them for their continued support.


Hasan Pirkul

Visit our site on the worldwide web http://som.utdallas.edu