CBA Dean candidates give insight on department improvement

Alex Johnson, Staff Reporter

Laura Milner and Don Gudmunson, two more candidates who took part in a continued process of interviews this week, introduced their designs for the now vacant College of Business Administration Dean position. Taking office effective June 1, 2015, the new Dean for the College of Business Administration, will implement his or her new ideas and modifications for the department.
The candidates each had fifteen to twenty minutes to answer the question, “What are the current challenges and opportunities to the College of Business Administration and how can we adapt to them?” followed by a question and answer section.
Giving her presentation last week, Milner, a PhD currently serving as Associate Dean at Central Washington University, offered a sense of community between UW-La Crosse and their alumni in addition to the students and businesses.
Milner’s plan involves UW-L reaching out to the alumni and making a sense of community.
“We need to create relationships, not transactions with our alumni, to make them feel valued and a part of something more,” she said.
As the College of Business Administration Dean, Milner would also consider adding a CBA requirement where the student would engage in two experiential learning opportunities in order to graduate.
Milner noted larger companies such as Boeing, which has worked closely with Central Washington University in the past, likes to see students with not just one but two internships for greater fieldwork and hands on experience. Companies like Boeing also ask for more “autonomy of tasks” where the student finds a way to complete a task without step by step guidance. This is another step towards what Milner calls “increasing the recognition of life-long learning,” a practice she would hope to bring to UW-L.
The third candidate to present at the Open Forums, Gudmunson, recent Dean for University of Northern Colorado, now serving as a professor, brought the idea of community to the forefront.
“We need to tell the stories of what we do and educate the public” said Gudmunson. “We need to inform the public that we are 45 percent teachers, 45 percent researchers and 10 percent service providers for the students.”
Gudmunson stressed his idea of community and teamwork throughout the open forum.
“My style of leadership is very collaborative. I want all of [the professors] to be a part of what we do,” he said.
With a progressive attitude and goals for improving not only the College of Business Administration but also the campus, Gudmunson believes in always improving and moving towards a new goal.