As we look back at the
accomplishments of the 2014 academic
year we have held true to our mission:
to be an inclusive community engaged
in innovative research, service and
rigorous learning — with a personal
touch — that develops highly respected
business leaders who solve challenges
of a global society.
We have implemented new
curriculum, new diversity and outreach
programs, and we are creating the first-of-its-kind-in-the-nation business
analytics lab along with an investment
trading floor and value-investment
research library.
Our students and alumni are using
their talents and innovation to become
entrepreneurs: from making unique
wines in California to discovering
ways to better serve patients at a
dentist office in the small town of
Enterprise, Alabama.
The Culverhouse Majors Awareness
Program, headed by lecturer Lisa
McKinney, is a residential summer
institute for exceptional students who
are typically underrepresented in the
ever-growing Culverhouse College of
Commerce. This can include students
with disabilities, different ethnic
backgrounds and different cultures.
Learning Initiative and Financial
Training launched in August 2014 and
is a community-based program to help
the unemployed and underemployed
build career-worthy skills. LIFT is also
focused on teaching young children that
business school can be fun and cool.
Business students volunteer to teach
everything from navigating a computer
mouse to building Excel spreadsheets
to a diverse group of attendees that
include young and old, elementary
school students to 65-year-olds.
We created a business analytics
lab through our partnerships with
Lockheed Martin, Healthcare Business
Solutions and SAS. It will be the first-of-its-kind in the nation and will partner
faculty and students with businesses
on projects to help create solutions to
real- world problems.
In the year ahead we also have plans
to create a live trading floor within the
College to help students experience the
reality of value investing and what it is
like to work on Wall Street. The Vulcan
Value Partners Research Library and
Trading Room will be located near the
business analytics lab in Bidgood Hall.
We also began hiring staff for the
new Alabama Center for Insurance
Information and Research. The center
was authorized in 2013 by Gov. Robert
J. Bentley and is designed to be a
nonpartisan and highly credible source
for information about various insurance
issues of importance to the people of
the state of Alabama.
The College is also leader in
innovation with UA’s STEM Path to
the MBA program launched in 2011
with nearly 600 students enrolled
to date. It is the only program of its
kind in the nation. The STEM Path to
the MBA offers students majoring in
science, technology, engineering or
math the opportunity to earn an MBA
with one additional year of study — all
while acquiring the communication,
leadership, decision-making and
business-analytics skills needed to
thrive in today’s competitive world
J. Michael Hardin, PhD
Dean, Culverhouse College of Commerce
Russell Professor of Business and
Professor of Statistics
The University of Alabama
Twitter.com/@culverhousedean
FROM THE DEAN
DEAR FRIENDS AND ALUMNI,
