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UB School of Management seeks to add new department
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
At its first meeting of the 2005-06 academic year, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee yesterday endorsed a School of Management (SOM) proposal to split its Department of Management Science and Systems (MSS) into two departments, with the new area focusing on operations management, strategy and entrepreneurship.
Provost Satish K. Tripathi presented the proposal to the FSEC, which customarily reviews any major academic reorganizations across the university. The committee's approval of the proposal simply means that the senate is recommending that the provost proceed with the reorganization approval process, which ultimately will need the consent of President John B. Simpson.
The new department in SOM would be known as Operations Management and Strategy (OSS), and would employ current MSS faculty. MSS would adopt a distinct focus on the management of information technology in organizations.
While the school's full faculty unanimously supported the proposal at a May meeting, an earlier departmental vote in Management Science and Systems showed 14 faculty members voting yes, two no and one abstaining, according to a memo from SOM Dean John M. Thomas to Tripathi on May 25.
According to the SOM proposal, "The focus of OMS will be on the linkage between supply chain and operations management and business strategy." Also, the change is necessary because it "will contribute to an overall school strategy that encourages individual departments to establish a clearly focused area of competitive advantage in research and related educational programs."
In other business yesterday, Michael E. Ryan, vice provost for undergraduate education, submitted a proposal to reduce the period in which students are allowed to drop classes to one week, while the period in which students may add classes would be extended by one day beyond that first week.
Ryan's proposal also would extend the period in which undergraduate students may resign to 11 weeks.
Ryan said the reasons for his proposal are many, including the fact that current drop/add dates do not align with the periods of financial liability for students, and the fact that classes that are dropped on the last day of the drop/add period are then not available to be added by other students.
A two-week drop/add period also results in students who add courses at the last minute missing a full two weeks of class in a 14-week semester, he said.
The proposal will be presented to the full Faculty Senate later this semester.