Project Management Program Earns Accreditation, Holds International
Project Workshops

The Project Management Program at The School of Management (SOM) capped a
productive summer of achievement by gaining accreditation from the Project
Management Institute (PMI) one of only five such programs in the world
to have done so.

The accreditation was announced September 10th, during the Project
Management Institute (PMI) Global Congress in Toronto. Official
recognition followed a rigorous screening process that came to a
conclusion even as the Project Management Program launched a major
initiative, a series of daylong on-campus workshops designed to cover all
aspects of what it takes to make international projects successful.

I'm very honored, Jim Joiner, Project Management Program director
(pictured below), says of being granted accreditation. This gives us the
ability to say that we have been examined by outside professionals,
measured by their standards and found to be in compliance with their
requirements. It puts us in an elite group of world-class programs.

Mr. Joiner helped found the Project Management Program in 1997. At the
time, less than 25 such programs existed worldwide; today there are more
than 100.

The SOM program advanced its own worldwide perspective last spring by
focusing on international projects in the Managing Projects Across
Borders workshop series. Begun last May, the six highly interactive
sessions are addressing issues of concern to the many thousands of project
and program managers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond  for
example, effective communication, remote management and team collaboration
and efficiency, Mr. Joiner says. These are issues that are challenging
to project and program managers in coordinating large projects, especially
when they involve teams from different countries and cultures.

That cross-cultural, cross-country dynamics are increasingly a reality in
many aspects of life  including business education  was highlighted by
the accreditation announcement in Toronto, where the SOM Project
Management Program shared recognition honors with the ƒcole Superieur de
Commerce in Lille, France. They are the fourth and fifth schools in the
world to become accredited, joining the University of Quebec, the Stevens
Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Western Carolina
University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

For SOM, accreditation screening began with a self-study of the program
and was followed by a report that the school submitted to the PMI Global
Accreditation Center. Once approved, that report was sent to a team of
professionals who conducted a site visit and then submitted a final
recommendation to PMI's Global Accreditation Center.

David Springate, Ph.D., SOM's associate dean for Executive Education, said
that the PMI site visitation committee was impressed with the program's
integrated curriculum as well as the fact that the program has a parallel
online program. With this accreditation, UTD now offers one of the very
few accredited programs in the world for project management that leads to
an Executive MBA degree, Dr. Springate says.

SOM's Project Management Program also takes pride in providing continuing
education. Project management professionals who take all six Managing
Projects Across Borders workshops will earn a professional certificate
and eight professional development units (PDUs). However, the workshops
may also be taken individually. Remaining sessions are planned for January
17 and March 14, 2006. For information, please contact Judy Clothier at
972-883-2656 or judyc@utdallas.edu. Register online at
http://som.utdallas.edu/project.


Project Management Educators from Around the World Meet at SOM

Dean Hasan Pirkul, Ph.D., welcomed 14 members of the International Project
Management Educators' Union (IPMEU) to The School of Management in
September. The school's Project Management Program hosted the IPMEU annual
meeting, a gathering of representatives of universities around the world
that have highly developed project management programs. Among other topics
on the groups' agenda was a report on both the on-campus and online
curriculum design of The School of Management's Project Management
Program.


New Dual-degree Program Benefits Electrical Engineers

A new dual-degree program at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) helps
electrical engineers enhance their technical education while providing
them the business acumen most find necessary to operate in today's
high-speed, high-pressure world. Through the program started this semester
by UTD's School of Management (SOM) and Erik Jonsson School of Engineering
and Computer Science, students will be able to simultaneously earn a
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree and a Master of
Business Administration (MBA) degree.

Almost 25 percent of the more than 1,000 students in our MBA program have
undergraduate degrees in engineering, says Steve Perkins, Ph.D., SOM's
associate dean for graduate programs. They are often coming back to
school to either switch careers or enhance their current positions. By
[our] offering the combined MSEE- MBA degree program, students can broaden
their skill set beyond engineering into management.

Duncan MacFarlane, Ph.D., an electrical engineering professor and
associate dean for interdisciplinary programs in the Erik Jonsson School,
says the double-degree proposal came about in large part as a result of
input from the university's stakeholders  students, parents and local
corporations. It's important that students get the set of skills they
want, he says. This definitely shows we're looking out for our students
as well as their employers. In addition, our students and graduates are
becoming increasingly interested in starting their own companies, and
developing a knowledge of business practices will serve them well.

Management skills are critical for engineers who aspire to leadership
positions, says Varghese Jacob, Ph.D., SOM's senior associate dean. Dr.
Jacob worked with electrical engineering and management faculty to create
the combined degree program. He sees this program as particularly
benefiting engineers working in start-up companies or entrepreneurial
positions.

Students must be admitted to both the master's program for electrical
engineering and The School of Management. The MSEE and MBA combination
will require 68 graduate hours beyond prerequisites. Separately, the MSEE
requires 33 hours, and the MBA requires 53 hours, but taken together the
program allows engineering electives to count toward the management degree
and management electives to count toward the engineering degree. A student
may also elect to get a Master of Arts or a Master of Science degree
through The School of Management. The MS option offers various
concentrations, from accounting to information technology management to
entrepreneurship and finance. This option would require an additional 51
hours beyond prerequisites. Many students attend classes part-time, Dr.
Perkins says, and we would expect them to graduate in three to four
years. Students will have advisers in both The School of Management and
the Erik Jonsson School.

Other universities offer similar programs, but this is the only one of its
kind in North Texas. UTD officials expect about 50 students to be enrolled
in the joint program at any given time.


Ph.D. Student Wins HP Award

Qi (Annabelle) Feng, a doctoral student in The School of Management's
Operations Management area, has received a $5,000 award from
Hewlett-Packard, where she worked as an intern during summer 2005. Ms.
Feng earned the award in recognition of an internship project that focused
on mitigating the demand and supply risks in workforce planning and the
development of hiring strategies. Ms. Feng is in the final year of her
doctoral program. Her research deals with inventory and supply chain
management, software maintenance and development, and optimal control. Dr.
Suresh Sethi, Ashbel Smith Professor of Operations Management, is serving
as the chair of Ms. Feng's doctoral committee.


SOM Students Win Scholarships

Four School of Management (SOM) students have won scholarships and
recognition from two Dallas-area professional societies.

From the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the American Marketing Association
(AMA), Cohort MBA student David Wedemeier won a $3,000 DFW AMA/ Bass
Scholarship, and undergraduate Linda Tham won a $500 AMA/Bass Scholarship.
Mr. Wedemeier is pursuing an MBA with concentrations in marketing and
international management. Ms. Tham is pursuing a bachelor of science
degree in business administration. Both are members of the UTD student AMA
chapter.

The DFW AMA chapter established the Bass Scholarship in 2004 in
recognition of the many contributions to the field of marketing by SOM
faculty member Frank M. Bass, Ph.D., who is widely regarded as a founder
of the field of marketing science. Dr. Bass is Eugene McDermott University
of Texas System Professor of Management. (See More Accolades Bestowed on
Professor Bass on page 28.)

To win the scholarships, Mr. Wedemeier and Ms. Tham participated in a
marketing plan contest with other members of various student AMA chapters
in the DFW area. The two UTD students won the contest's two top honors.

The Dallas Association of Financial Professionals (DAFP) awarded the top
prize of a $1,200 undergraduate scholarship to Randy G. Black, an SOM
student pursuing a bachelor of science degree in finance. Another SOM
student, Ana Johnson, won a $250 honorable mention award in the DAFP's
Outstanding MBA competition. SOM Finance area faculty nominated both
students to compete for the honors.

Mr. Black's entry consisted of his academic transcript, a rŽsumŽ, a letter
of reference, a statement of interest in becoming a professional in the
financial field and a brief essay. Ms. Johnson's award was bestowed after
a DAFP panel of judges reviewed essays written by contestants in the
Outstanding MBA competition and then interviewed the finalists. Winner
of the 2005 DAFP Outstanding MBA competition was Beth Coleridge of the
University of Dallas. Ms. Coleridge received a $500 scholarship for her
personal use and a $1,500 scholarship for her school.


Cohort MBA Team a Finalist in Dell-Microsoft Competition

The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School of Management's Cohort MBA
business competition team was among six from a field of 34 at universities
nationwide to be selected to compete in the final round of the
Dell-Microsoft Marketing Case Competition in Anaheim, California, in
September. The other five finalist teams were from Northwestern
University, which had two entries; Rice University; the University of
Virginia; and Vanderbilt University. The winning team was from the Kellogg
Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. The finalists
were chosen after a first round of online competition from a field that
included such highly regarded schools as the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Purdue University and the University of Michigan. Cohort MBA
students on the UTD team were (below, left to right) Anthony Gale, Seema
Gupta, David Wedemeier, Alejandro Garcia and Visa Shanmungan.


Global MBA Online Opens Professional Production Studio

The unveiling of The School of Management's Production Studio marks the
culmination of a two-year effort to provide advanced technology for
creating online presentations.

This all goes back to the school's commitment to offer online degree
programs, explains George Barnes, director of the Global MBA Online
Program. The School of Management began offering online courses in 1999
but found that the presentations were of varying quality.

Without a professional studio, production could be haphazard, Mr. Barnes
says. So we began planning a studio and now have a fully operational
state-of-the-art facility.

The production studio includes digital cameras, professional lighting,
broadcast-quality microphones, and is acoustically treated to optimize the
vocals. Technical support staff sits in an adjacent room, providing a
quiet environment for professors to record their course materials.

That factor alone makes for better online materials, allowing professors
to concentrate on content. They don't have to operate equipment while
they're recording, and it allows them more focus on the information
they're delivering, says Mr. Barnes.

Although Mr. Barnes' team visited other schools to find a production
studio to emulate, they ultimately built a facility that surpassed
everything they had seen. The new studio can produce streamed lectures,
clips from publisher videos, virtual chalkboard sessions, software
tutorials and more.

Nothing that we saw out there is as sophisticated in terms of online
technology and course development, Mr. Barnes says. The School of
Management has really been a pioneer in terms of online courses, and the
dean was very determined to find a way to do this.


Summerfield Roberts Scholars Recognized

Five of The School of Management's Summerfield Roberts Scholars attended a
scholarship recognition luncheon at the school last spring. They are
(above, left to right) Christopher McCullough, Melody Macaluso, Jason
Mahoney, Dabney Sellars and Raghunath Mallepalli. Summerfield Roberts
Scholars receive a $1,000 scholarship that is renewable for up to seven
semesters. To be eligible for these scholarships, students should have
high entering qualifications and be newly enrolled in the part-time
Professional MBA Program. To remain eligible, students must take at least
six credits hours each semester and maintain a cumulative grade point
average of at least 3.0. Applicants must be Texas residents. The
scholarships are made possible by an $88,500 grant from the Summerfield G.
Roberts Foundation, which is named after Dallas oilman, inventor and
investor Summerfield G. Roberts. More information can be obtained by
contacting Dr. Steve Perkins, associate dean for graduate programs, at
972-883-6789 or perkins@utdallas.edu.


Exec Ed Fills Niche with New Sales Management Certificate Program

Responding to requests to apply a management-school mindset to sales
training, a Sales Management Certificate Program, launched by The School
of Management's Executive Education Center last summer, repeated in
November and will be available online in January.

The six-session program, which meets weekly in a two-hour evening class,
takes participants through the essentials of building, developing,
coaching and motivating a sales team. It covers skills development,
motivational management, relationship building, developing a strategic
account plan, understanding customers' organizations and building strong
value propositions.

The classes include case studies drawn from the business experiences of
U.S. corporations. Classes also feature in-depth discussions on what
strategies and actions should be taken to win sales. Participants get
involved in buyer-seller scenarios that include research and preparation
of a team sales presentation.

John Fowler, Executive Education's director of new initiatives, oversaw
the launch of the new program. He says it fills a niche not being
covered by other universities locally. Describing it as an
executive-development program, Mr. Fowler says the value to participants
of earning the certificate is that they have opportunities to look at and
understand how to build winning sales teams.

The certificate is a rŽsumŽ enhancer even for those with prior experience,
Mr. Fowler says, because of the importance to show they have added to
their sales training with a college-level program.

Stu Schlackman, founder and president of Competitive Excellence, an
executive performance coaching firm, is lead instructor for the
certificate program. Author of Don't Just Stand There, Sell Something
(Lightning Source, Inc., 2004), Mr. Schlackman has more than 20 years'
experience in corporate sales. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering
from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Business
Administration degree from Kennedy- Western University.

His fellow instructor, Mark D. Denissen, has 24 years of sales and
marketing experience with Texas Instruments Incorporated. His current role
is director of Southern Area Sales. He manages 65 sales and applications
professionals.

For more information on the Sales Management Certificate Program, contact
Mr. Fowler at 972-883-4697 or at jfowler@utdallas.edu.


United Supermarkets Becomes SOM's Newest Strategic Partner

Interested in providing its executives and promising employees with
continuing-education opportunities, United Supermarkets, a family owned
grocery company based in Lubbock, Texas, recently went in search of a
university that could answer its needs.

We interviewed several schools around the state, and UTD was just,  . . .
really set up to work with the working person, the company's co-president
Gantt Bumstead says. Because The School of Management (SOM) was, in his
words, flexible, amenable to what we were looking for . . . and easy to
work with, United Supermarkets did more than enroll three of its vice
presidents in the Executive MBA Program this fall. The company also signed
on as SOM's newest strategic partner.

Strategic partners make a financial commitment to the school as well as
pledge to support its efforts through involvement on the SOM Advisory
Council and the university's development board. SOM reciprocates by
developing customized courses and programs geared to answer the specific
needs of partners.

Because this is the first strategic partnership developed under the
auspices of the school's Executive Education area, SOM Dean Hasan Pirkul,
Ph.D., says Phil Pirkle, vice president of human resources for United
Supermarkets, has been designated as the company's representative to serve
on the Executive Education Advisory Council. The company's appointee to
SOM's schoolwide advisory council will be named later.

We are pleased in the trust United Supermarkets is placing in us, Dean
Pirkul says. The new alliance represents, he says, a validation of our
efforts to convince companies that we can design programs that make sense
for them.

We've been saying we want firms to believe in us, work with us and use
our programs, says Associate Dean for Executive Education David
Springate, Ph.D. This partnership offers the school the opportunity to
deliver specific courses and programs, he says, but it also offers a
wonderful way to model what we could and should be doing with others.

Employing almost 7,000 people, United Supermarkets operates 47 stores
across North and West Texas under three distinct brands: United
Supermarkets, United Supermercado and Market Street. In the Dallas
Metroplex, Market Street stores in Colleyville and McKinney offer everyday
groceries as well as specialty items and gourmet products.

Mr. Bumstead, a great-grandson of company founder H. D. Snell, presides
over United Supermarkets with his brother, Matt. Gantt Bumstead says that
for its part, United Supermarkets' brings a unique experiential
contribution to the strategic partnership. We've been in business 89
years, and we go about business in a certain way, he explains. I think
any time you can tap into companies that are actually sort of fighting the
battle out there, especially in our industry that is brutally competitive
and one that is seeing a great deal of change, I think . . . there is
obviously some benefit to sharing that in a business school setting.

Dr. Springate agrees. Our [Center for Intelligent Supply Networks] is
looking forward to working with [United Supermarkets], he says, because
they said, ÔSure, come on out and look at our supply chain management, the
way we supply our grocery stores. You can model it, you can write some
cases from it.' 

The partnership also affords SOM's marketing faculty a wonderful
opportunity to work with them on some of their marketing issues, Dr.
Springate says.

Likewise, Mr. Bumstead says: I'm so excited we can partner with UTD and
really give our team members an experience that they haven't been able to
have  that we can grow them, challenge them. I think the more challenged
they feel and the more they feel like they're growing, the more they enjoy
the job.


SOM Administrative Assistant Earns Campus Award

Lisa Johnson, administrative assistant in The School of Management's
Advising area, has received a Celebrate Achievement: Reward Excellence
(CARE) Award from the UTD Staff Council. Ms. Johnson was praised for her
organizational skills and eager personality [that] ensure that the office
runs efficiently and that all visitors are greeted professionally and with
a smile. Award recipients were honored in ceremonies in May. Each
received a certificate and an engraved clock to commemorate their
contributions to the university. The award is given to a maximum of six
employees twice each year by the council and is approved by UTD President
David E. Daniel to honor outstanding staff members. Fellow staff, faculty,
visitors or customers of the university may make nominations.


Teaching and Staff Award Recipients Chosen

Recipients of The School of Management's 2005 Teaching and Staff Awards
are (below, left to right) Michael Oliff, Ph.D., outstanding undergraduate
teacher; Tracey Rockett, Ph.D., outstanding adjunct faculty member; Mark
Vargus, Ph.D., outstanding undergraduate teacher; Ram Rao, Ph.D.,
outstanding graduate teacher; David Sanzgiri, outstanding staff; and Mary
Beth Goodrich, outstanding online teacher. Not pictured is Howard Dover,
who received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Teaching Award. The SOM
Teaching Committee reviews nominations from students and selects award
recipients based on their outstanding teaching abilities. A separate
committee made up of SOM staff members chose the recipient of the
Outstanding Staff Award. All award winners received a plaque recognizing
their achievement and a grant of one thousand dollars.


New Program Trains Professional Coaches Via Distance Learning

The School of Management's (SOM) Executive Education area in September
began offering a new graduate-level curriculum, the Executive and
Professional Coaching Program, via distance learning technology  the
first university-based program in the nation to do so.

In making the coaching courses accessible by phone, computer, and
high-speed Internet connection, Executive Education accommodates the
schedules of busy professionals interested either in becoming certified as
an executive and professional coach or in learning more about this
fast-growing field.

Enrolling students have two curriculum options. Under the first, they can
earn a professional certificate by completing an in-depth, 140-hour
curriculum that includes a supervised coaching practicum. Certificate
program graduates will be qualified to apply for professional
accreditation by the International Coach Federation. Students completing
this option will be eligible to earn 12 graduate-level credit hours. The
second option allows students to select specific learning modules for
their own professional development and continuing education purposes.

Robert Hicks, Ph.D., an executive coach, organizational psychologist and
director of the new program, explains that use of advanced
distance-learning technology enables students to participate interactively
with instructors and fellow students. Classes are offered in the late
afternoons, early evenings, or on Saturdays.

By offering our program via distance learning, we are able to make our
classes available to people regardless of their geographic location. And
our students have the opportunity to learn how to increase their coaching
efficiency by using the latest technologies, Dr. Hicks says.

Dr. David Springate, associate dean for Executive Education, says the new
coaching program adds an important dimension to the school's executive
programs. The most successful business people are those who have learned
to maximize both their professional and their personal potentials, and
they often access an executive coach to help them do so, he says of the
rapidly growing coaching field. He also notes that SOM provides executive
coaching to students in several of its Executive MBA programs.

Dr. Hicks says the Executive and Professional Coaching Program at UTD is
designed to exceed the standards of the International Coach Federation.
The program also is a member of the Graduate Schools Alliance for
Executive Coaching. Registration information can be obtained on the
program's website at http://som.utdallas.edu/coaching or by contacting Dr.
Hicks at 972-883-5900 or coaching@utdallas.edu.


Dean Signs Exchange Agreement with South Korean University

School of Management (SOM) Dean Hasan Pirkul, Ph.D. (above, left) signed a
program agreement in late August between the school and the College of
Business Administration, Chonnam National University, in Kwangju, South
Korea. Business professor Ki H. Son (above, right), director of foreign
affairs at Chonnam National University, delivered the agreement already
signed by Dean Tae-Koo Kang of the College of Business Administration.
According to the 2+2 agreement, a group of select undergraduate students
of the College of Business Administration will complete their first two
years of study in Korea, then transfer to SOM for their third and fourth
years. Upon successful completion of course work satisfying both schools,
students will receive one bachelor's degree from UTD and another from the
Korean university. Chonnam National University will provide summer program
opportunities to SOM and other UTD students; also some faculty members
will have an opportunity to teach there for a semester.


GLEMBA's Three New Certificate Programs Offer Advanced Global Expertise

Attuned to the growing reality of worldwide competition throughout
business, The School of Management's Global Leadership Executive MBA
(GLEMBA) Program in January is launching three new post-graduate
certificate courses for professionals to learn, understand and then lead 
at the global level  in the disciplines of market development, strategy,
technology-based operations and human resources.

Each of the certificate programs is a six-month, multi-course offering
that is delivered via online technologies and in classes and workshops in
two on-campus weekend retreat sessions. All three programs require
participants to hold an undergraduate degree and have a minimum of five
years' experience in a relevant managerial or senior position. Other
requisites vary.

The 15-credit-hour Graduate Certificate of Global Strategy course is
geared to mid-level managers who hold an MBA degree or who have been
working as a marketing executive. The 13-credit-hour Graduate Certificate
of Global Operations course is designed for senior professionals and
managers with a degree in a technical discipline. The 14-credit-hour
Graduate Certificate of Global Human Resources course is aimed at
mid-level human-resource managers.

Each program offers participants specialized courses leading to in-depth
understanding of how globalization affects their area of business
expertise. The School of Management issues a certificate of completion to
those who fulfill program requirements.

The most important benefit of these certificate programs is participants
acquire and can apply critical knowledge quickly and conveniently, GLEMBA
Director Anne Ferrante, Ph.D., says.

For more information on the certificate programs, call 972-883-2373, visit
http://som.utdallas.edu/glemba, or e-mail glemba@utdallas.edu.


SOM Career Fair Draws 75 Recruiters

Randall Christopher (right photo), a student in The School of Management's
(SOM) part-time Professional MBA Program, visits with Brenda Young, a
recruiter for JPMorgan Chase, at the SOM Graduate/MBA Career Fair in
September. Seventy-five recruiters representing 32 companies participated
in the fair that was held in the UTD Student Union and hosted and
organized by the UTD MBA Society and SOM's Career Management Center. In
all, some 300 SOM master's level students and alumni attended.