Dear Paul College Faculty and Staff,
I am writing to let you know that after 6 years of excellent service as Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Neil Niman will be stepping down from his Associate Dean role as of June 30, 2020. Neil will be going back to the faculty but taking on a new role as Faculty Director of the Business in Practice program and overseeing business engagement. We are still working out the details of this new role, but it will enable Neil to devote a large share of his attention to developing this innovative and exciting new program which we believe will be a key differentiator for Paul College.
During his tenure, Neil has provided leadership for several key innovations that have enhanced the quality of our undergraduate academic programs and students’ experience: our FIRE (First Year Innovation and Research Experience); a significant redesign of ADMIN 400 in the Business Administration Program; the collaboration with COLA in the co-teaching of a redesigned Business Ethics course; the launch of several new minors; the support to the redesign of the Hotel and Hospitality Management program; and the revisions of the Paul Honors program. Neil also provided important leadership for the program review of the BSBA program and in mobilizing us all to prepare for a very successful AACSB 5th year review in 2018-19. During his tenure as Associate Dean, our undergraduate business program got ranked for the first time and has placed in the top 60 or 70 nationally. Neil has provided extensive service at the university level, serving as an active member on the Academic Standards and Advising Committee (ASAC) and taking leadership roles on numerous university-wide committees and task forces, including, most recently, the retention task force focused on strengthening the first-year experience university-wide.
Neil has been a strong and thoughtful partner to me as Dean and provided very helpful guidance when I joined Paul College in 2015 as your new dean. He has given a lot to Paul College and has worked with us all to take Paul College to the next level of excellence. I am going to miss having him as a thinking partner, but I am also excited to see what he will do in building out our new Business in Practice Program and strengthening our business engagement.
I am putting together the next steps in replacing Neil as Associate Dean and will share information on that process within the next two weeks.
Deborah
