Latha Ramchand, Ph.D.

With much to be thankful for, I look back at a year filled with achievements at the Bauer College that make me, along with our students, faculty, staff, alumni, partners and friends, proud. Even as the college mourns the loss of a visionary leader, Dean Arthur Warga, we move on knowing that he would be pleased to see the results we have to share.

We started 2011 with an efficiency award in January. The Rockwell Career Center at the College was named one of nine colleges and universities nationwide by University Business magazine’s “Models of Efficiency,” a program sponsored by Higher One. The company assists in college business office operations and identifies new approaches for streamlining higher education operations to deliver superior services to students in less time and at lower cost. Against the backdrop of budget cuts, the recognition reinforced the fact that at Bauer, we mean business.

This year, we were also happy to hear of the confirmation of our re-accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). AACSB announced on Jan. 5, that the Bauer College maintains its accreditation in business and accounting. With less than 5% of the world’s business schools being accredited, the AACSB accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education. Achieving accreditation is a process of rigorous internal review, evaluation and adjustment and can take several years to complete, during which a school develops and implements a plan to meet the 21 AACSB standards requiring a high quality teaching environment, a commitment to continuous improvement and curricula responsive to the needs of business.

UH football Coach Kevin Sumlin spoke at the February Bauer Alumni Networking Breakfast and predicted, “The stars have got to align, but if I didn’t feel like we are close to something happening, then I would have a different attitude,” Sumlin said. “It’s going to be a fun year. This is going to be a great year.” And it has been indeed.

In March, Rebekah Elliott, Taylor Herbert and team alternates Jozette Bionat and Adrian Sese, all undergraduate marketing students in the Program for Excellence in Selling (PES) competed against 60 of the top graduate and undergraduate sales programs in the nation and came away with the first place trophy at the National Collegiate Sales Competition held at Kennesaw State University. During the same month, Prof. Craig Pirrong, director of energy markets for the Global Energy Management Institute (GEMI) at the Bauer College was featured in a panel discussion hosted by the CME Group, the Commodity Markets Council and the Natural Gas Supply Association. The panel discussed developments in derivatives trading and the impact of the financial-overhaul law that was being discussed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In April, continuing a tradition more than 10 years strong, students from the Finance Association at the Bauer College dominated the Houston round of the CME Group Commodity Trading Challenge. The open outcry competition requires students to test their ability to buy and sell oil contracts using the traditional trading terminology and fast-paced hand signals. Bauer students made up half of the top 10, with Francis Dorrego taking the first prize of $1,000, Laurentino Rangel and Kirsten Mayell taking fourth and fifth place, respectively, and Wallis Paez and Rong Yu rounding out the top 10. They then headed to NYC to participate in the NYMEX Outcry Competition in April where they placed in the top ten nationally. Also in April, two teams of graduate students from the Cougar Fund — Maria Asher, Krishna Danda, Horacio Mendez and Russell Schulze; and Anitha Ramaraj, Greg Spahr and Peter Vo — placed in the top three spots in both the Texas Investment Program Symposium (T.I.P.S.) Portfolio Competition and the CFA Institute Investment Research Challenge, hosted by Rice University.

In May, the Sales Excellence Institute (SEI) at the Bauer College celebrated its 15th anniversary with a week of “sellebration” to recognize the faculty, staff, alumni, students and partners who have built the program into the top sales program in the nation. At commencement festivities held during the same month, the college welcomed a group of 35 senior executives from one of China’s largest energy companies who traveled from Beijing to receive MBA degrees as part of the college’s Global Energy Executive MBA (GEMBA) program in Beijing.

While summer is traditionally a slow time, not so for Bauer students. What started as a conversation between Department of Finance chair Praveen Kumar and Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegel became a project developed by MBA students to give the city a practical and usable framework to project its financial position in the medium and long run and to allow the city managers and its elected representatives to examine effects of various policy changes. At the same time, Cougar Fund graduate Jason Wangler was named one of America’s top stock pickers by The Wall Street Journal.

In August, we heard the news that the world’s best student marketing team is here at Bauer. Four MBA students, Erin Blatzer, Lauren Davis, Carolina Thomas and Jeffrei Clifton were named the first place team winners in the 2011 Google Online Marketing Challenge – a competitive event where 4,429 collegiate teams from 68 countries participate. Not only was the Bauer team #1, it was the first time in four years that a U.S. based team had won the coveted first place. Better still, their project, which they worked on for over three months using a $200 AdWord budget, helped promote concerts for the Houston Symphony.

Also in August, the college lost a bold visionary, Dean Arthur Warga who passed away after a valiant battle with cancer. It was no coincidence, and as if to honor his legacy, that the college celebrated in September its #1 ranking in entrepreneurship in the undergraduate program, an honor received for the third time in five years and for the second consecutive year. Also in September, GEMI, at the request of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), hosted a week-long leadership program for energy professionals.

In October, Bauer hosted Pulitzer-prize winner Daniel Yergin who spoke on energy, the environment and the economy. The college also partnered with Invesco to host a financial boot camp for women, which was well received and appreciated.

In November, the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship presented CougarPitch in its inaugural year as the campus elevator pitch competition. Thirteen finalists competed in three categories — faculty/staff, entrepreneurship student and general student — with each giving a two-minute pitch in front of a voting audience. The first prize winner was a pre-nursing student who won a cash award of $1,000 for her idea of creating a better online study guide for the national nursing exam. The event attracted over 200 participants and will become a regular Bauer calendar event in the future.

Hours before kickoff of the Nov. 19 University of Houston-Southern Methodist University football game, former Cougar offensive tackle James Hong (’05) who runs Little Coogs, a program that gives Houston-area at-risk youth a taste of Cougar pride through tailgating excitement at every home game, arranged for over 3,000 hotdogs, chips and drinks to be delivered to the Bauer tent so the over 1,500 at-risk kids that he brought to the game could have a good time. James is a Houston native who holds dual degrees in finance and management and is president of the Bauer College Alumni Association (BCAA). We are so proud of you, James.

December graduation was special this year, as the University of Houston’s first Tier One graduate walked across the stage at the Bauer College commencement. The Tier One Scholars Program is part of UH President Renu Khator’s initiative to attract and engage high caliber students. Graduating in a year and a half with a degree in accounting, Lei “Sally” Wong, remarked, “I’m very thankful for the Tier One Scholarship. With it I was able to focus solely on my studies and not have to worry about tuition,” she said. “My class rank in high school allowed me to attend any Texas public university. I chose UH and have never regretted doing so.”

We have much to be proud of and we owe it to our faculty, and staff whose commitment to student success is inspiring. Happy New Year everyone – onward and upward.

It sounds too cliché-ish but it is certainly true that travelling abroad is an enlightening experience.  I was in Beijing in November and in Dubai more recently, teaching in our Global Energy EMBA (GEMBA) program.  These trips reinforce my belief that while people look, speak, dress, eat and talk differently, we are very similar in many respects.  People everywhere want to have a good time, eat well, and appreciate the opportunity to be heard and listened to.  When convinced that the listener can be trusted, most cultures are willing to critique themselves and appreciate the opportunity to learn from others.  This does not, however, equate to global integration.  In fact I am not sure what ‘integration’ means – does it mean we all buy the same bundle of goods and listen to the same music and watch the same movies?  Does it mean that chains like Walmart are able to sell to consumers in India (India is currently debating the benefits and costs of allowing companies like Walmart to sell to Indian consumers and the rhetoric has a strong political tone)? Does it mean that in a country like Dubai where the local population accounts for less than 15% of the population, immigrants are allowed the rights to citizenship? How do we preserve the ability to understand and appreciate differences without standardizing everything we do?

I visited a friend in Dubai who lives in an apartment surrounded by neighbors from Syria, Iran, Iraq, India, Australia, and the U.K.  Children of these neighbors play and work together, celebrate holidays together and trust each other in a way that is refreshing.  In a world where Facebook and Twitter have changed the way in which we cultivate relationships, there is still no substitute for physical proximity.  Travel will not go out of fashion in my life time.  What do you think?

As we watched unhappily yesterday, the super committee which was supposed to have come up with $1.2 trillion in budget cuts this week, failed.  Democrats do not want to reduce spending and Republicans do not want to raise any taxes.  For the second time this year, we have a political stalemate.  The market dropped more than 240 points on the day of the announcement.

How does this affect you?

• The payroll tax cut: The stimulus package called for a reduction in payroll taxes, which meant that the average person’s take-home pay increased by about 2% this year, or roughly $930 additional paycheck dollars for about 121 million workers.  This cut will lapse by the end of the year, which could result in reductions in spending, and declines in hiring, leading to higher unemployment and slower growth.
• Extended unemployment benefits made possible by the stimulus package will run out.  In states like California and Nevada, unemployed workers can now receive up to 99 weeks of benefits (federal and state) and these extended benefits would now lapse affecting roughly 3.5 million Americans.
• A $492 billion cut over 10 years from defense, which comes to about 10% of the military’s budget in the first year.
• Domestic programs will see a cut of 7.8%
• A 2% cut in Medicare.  More specifically this would mean that physicians that see Medicare patients will see a 30% cut in their reimbursements.

In many ways, the failure of this super committee barely scratches the surface of the bigger problem — our national debt is close to $15 trillion and the exploding debt was the reason the super committee was set up.  Hence, a failure of the committee means a failure to reckon with our indebtedness.  More importantly, the failure suggests that political gridlock may be here to stay, or at least until the smoke of the elections is cleared.  This is the bigger challenge.  Are we entering an era when compromise means that we refuse to make decisions?  Does decision making mean we keep moving problems forward and hope we never have to make tough choices? And all this in the midst of a time when Congress’s approval rating of 9 percent is less than what President Richard M. Nixon enjoyed during the Watergate scandal. How do we resolve this problem?  Send me your input.

I recently attended a symposium on the future of state universities.  The speakers ranged from internationally reputed policy makers like ex-prime ministers Tony Blair and John Howard to respected scholars like Clay Christensen and individuals that were revolutionizing the way we teach, like Sal Khan and Michael Wesch.

The consensus was that we need to rethink the way we deliver knowledge.  Salman Khan challenged the idea that some students just do not “get” science and math.  Sal’s YouTube videos are now accessed by millions of students world wide.  The key take away from his experience is that when students complete a first level course without comprehending 5% of the material, this builds up over time in successive courses and soon an entire discipline like math or chemistry becomes incomprehensible.  The solution is to attack the 5% lack of comprehension in the first course.  Sal’s videos enable students to go back to parts of the material that are challenging, without the embarrassment of the instructor’s presence.  The enormous data that Sal and his group have collected shows that students learn at a different pace and accommodation of differential rates of learning is the key to improving student success.  If the basic concepts can be mastered outside the classroom, the instructor can devote the time in class to group projects and group simulations.

Clay Christensen juxtaposed the idea that while student learning is best when customized, universities are set up to deliver standardized curricula, in prepackaged modules that everyone takes, and is expected to complete at the same time.  Most industries initially start out with a fully integrated model, supplying all components of the value chain and over time, evolve into a modular structure where different parts of the process are delivered by different providers.  This reduces overhead and allows the industry to offer products at lower prices and increase market access.   Education needs such a  modularization so that teaching and research can be uncoupled when it makes sense.  Christensen sees online and hybrid models of instruction developing to fill in the gaps to modularization in the higher education arena.

Michael Wesch is passionate about student engagement in the learning process.  Learning is a two-way conversation.  Current classroom norms leave the impression that  information is scare, that authority is needed for good information, and that authoritative information is beyond discussion.  We need a more collaborative model.  The online space is not just a delivery model, it is a collaboration space.

The million dollar question in my mind is — how do we customize learning in the context of large state universities that account for 34% of the higher education landscape but are engaged in teaching 76% of the student body?  Send me your suggestions.

Today I attended the Center for Houston’s future’s vision for 2040. What will Houston look like in 2040? The scenarios presented and the conversations that ensued were meant to get the audience thinking. Will we be a vibrant and growing city attracting the most talented workforce? Or will we settle down to be just another city in a world where economic power is distributed across the globe with no single country playing a dominant role?

Today the buzz word is jobs. As the problems of financial institutions unfolded, the ensuing tightening of credit led to hiring freezes and the ensuing uncertainty brought with it low consumer sentiment, which in turn led companies to tighten their belts, and lay off employees. Now we face a situation where more than 9 out of every 100 Americans is out of work. Youth unemployment, (unemployment in the age group 15-24) is 18% in the U.S., which, while it is seemingly high, is lower than 41% in Spain. Nobel Laureate Economist Edmund Phelps notes that today’s job pain is more than just an aftermath of the financial crisis. The natural rate of unemployment (the rate below which, an increase in demand results in inflation) is 7.5% today, which is higher than before. In addition, as another Nobel Laureate economist Spence argues, globalization is the more potent factor in the story of unemployment. The job market in the U.S. today is polarized and will become more so as the pace of globalization and technological change increases. On the one hand we need skilled professionals, knowledge workers, or what Friedman and Mandelbaum describe in That Used to be Us, as people to fill nonroutine and creative jobs. At the other end of the spectrum are the nonroutine, low skilled jobs that do not require advanced degrees or formal education. The layer in between, of jobs requiring routine and repetitive tasks will be automated and move to the lowest cost locations.

How do we retain all the nonroutine, highly skilled jobs and build on these? The answer of course lies in innovation and education. Going forward, the key to being employed will be to be in learning mode on a continuous basis. Graduating with a formal degree is only a beginning. What we really need is a system that facilitates continuous learning. In The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here, Lynda Gratton argues that people will need to acquire new skills every few years. What does this mean for our universities and institutes of higher learning? Do we need a new business model for higher education where the innovation is not so much in the product but in the process? Like a just-in-time inventory model that created value for Dell, can we conceive and deliver a just-in-time education model that helps people seek and acquire skills as they need them, customized to their own specific requirements ? How do we build creativity and innovation into the core component of our curriculum and keep invention alive?

Send me your ideas.

During the past three weeks I have been humbled to be part of several events that I will characterize as inspiring which I want to share with you. The Bauer College Alumni Association (BCAA) hosted their annual meeting at Cemo Hall on August 18, 2011. The 300+ participants honored Mike Cemo, whose generous contribution has made it possible for us to enjoy the facilities at Cemo Hall. We also heard from Erin Blatzer, who along with Lauren Davis, Carolina Thomas and Jeffrei Clifton formed the team that was recently named the #1 overall global champions of the 2011 Google Online Marketing Challenge. This team of all-women MBA students worked with Professor Steve Koch, and secured first place after competing against over 4,429 teams from over 68 countries, becoming the first-ever North American team (and the only all-female group) to take No. 1 in the competition’s history. Interestingly, the team’s choice of the type of firm they wanted to promote through their ad campaign was a non-profit and a local one, the Houston Symphony, and this to me makes this recognition truly inspiring. Read more at http://bauerticker.uh.edu/recognition/behind-the-global-win/.

On August 21, Abdul Kalam, who served as India’s president from 2002-2007 visited Houston. I had the opportunity to hear him speak at India House and at the luncheon hosted on August 22, by Chancellor Renu Khator at the University of Houston. What can I give? this captures the message of President Kalam as he spends his time and energy inspiring folks all over the world to connect to solve the problems of poverty and illiteracy. More information at www.abdulkalam.com.

On Thursday, September 1, I met Cathy Tran, who is a student at the Bauer College working on her undergraduate degree in accounting. Cathy will complete her degree in two years and then take one more year to work on her Master of Science in Accountancy at Bauer. While Cathy did come here as a transfer, she transferred only one of her courses, essentially having to start from scratch despite her ‘transfer’ status. She has one more year left within her two-year degree plan and despite an aggressive timeline, she currently has a  GPA of 4.0. Admirable as this record is, what was inspiring to me was Cathy’s goal of ultimately using her knowledge to help her father and sister and give back to charity. When Cathy left my office I smiled knowing that the solution to our problems lies in grooming and helping others like Cathy.

Associate Dean Frank Kelley and I took time last week to meet Cathy Tran, one of many Bauer students who truly inspire me.

On Sunday, September 4, watching Meet the Press on NBC, I was inspired by the story of Joseph Kearns Goodwin, a Harvard graduate, who, on September 12, 2001, gave up a lucrative job offer to enlist in the army. As he described,

Looking at my life, I realized that I had been afforded basically every advantage that a free and prosperous society such as ours can yield. It seemed only fair, right and just that I spend some time giving something back to the great country that had given me so much.

What inspires you?  Let me know.