Possible CBA candidate promises faculty benefits
College of Business Administration dean candidate Renee Wachter would like to see more fund-raising, differential tuition and more faculty benefits.
Wachter spoke at an open public forum Friday afternoon in Grawn Hall’s Pierpont Auditorium.
Resume:
- Associate Dean for Academic Affairs since 2003 at the Montana State University
- Administrative Liaison
- Founding Director of The Bracken Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Business Education
- Associate Dean at University of Indianapolis 99-03
- Acting Dean January-May 2000
- Associate Professor of Business
- Assistant Professor of Management at Ball State University August 93-99
She said she is the ideal candidate for the job.
“I am the Seabiscuit of candidates – look at my background,” she said. “I bring a skill set to CMU.”
Wachter, currently associate dean of the College of Business at Montana State University, said Central’s campus left her “very favorably impressed.”
“There’s so much untapped potential,” she said.
Wachter said she feels comfortable at CMU because she grew up in the Midwest, a region that fits her values.
She said she did extensive research prior to her visit at CMU.
“CMU is ideally situated. It is a tremendous traditional setting, but nearby a metropolitan area,” she said. “It’s a good fit for my skill set.”
Monica Holmes, chairperson of the business information systems in the College of Business Administration, said searching for a new dean has been a lengthy process.
“Business deans are hard to recruit. I was on the last search committee and there were openings at Saginaw (Valley State University) and Western (Michigan University),” she said. “Central is not the only school looking for a dean. We have to go through this if we want a good dean.”
Wachter said she felt the CBA faculty is under-budgeted and she would try to put money back into the program using her extensive experience with donors.
CMU is Wachter’s only prospective position with a unionized faculty, and she said she is prepared to work under the different conditions.
“I have colleagues in unionized faculties. I have read through the contract, but have not read department by-laws,” she said. “It would not affect tension between administration and faculty.”
Although Wachter said she was impressed with many aspects of Central’s campus, she didn’t understand why the college of business was not in one central location.
“I don’t like the spread out through three buildings,” she said. “People need to be physically seeing each other.”
