From the Desk of Dean Sarker

From the Desk of Associate Dean of Transformation, Janice Branch Hall

Colleagues, I hope you are well and having a great start to the fall semester.  At last week’s townhall meeting, Dean Sarker announced the evolution of Pamplin’s DEIB operations with the formation of the Office of Transformation. I am writing to provide further context about this exciting new chapter.  

Over the last five years during my time serving Pamplin, I have observed several cultural shifts - from leadership transitions including the arrival of our new dean, to external factors such as growing enrollments, new facilities, and evolving people trends. These shifts have informed the direction of our work and, whether we feel ready or not, we find ourselves in unprecedented times. However, I believe this is a moment for, alignment, that positions us to strengthen our 3R philosophy – Resources, Reputation, Responsibility – while working toward our vision of Next-Gen Pamplin.

A recurring theme that ties our philosophy and vision together is – Responsibility. To achieve our 3Rs and Next-Gen Pamplin, Dean Sarker has inspired our #OnePamplin value, a guiding principle that will inform our responsibility to manage both our individual and collective actions, behaviors, and interactions with one another in the work ahead. This is not about simply managing change; change management is a temporary solution to the deeper cultural issues that could hinder our progress. If we reduce our work and our interactions to past encounters or if we lack the humility and drive to step outside our comfort zones, we run the risk of failing to uphold our commitment to stewardship, and the world-class we seek. 

Given the size, scope, and depth of Next-Gen Pamplin, we must expand our perspectives beyond the past and the present to intentionally and strategically co-create our culture of the future. This is the heart of transformation - a movement to inspire people excellence. 

In conjunction with our strategic planning efforts, the Office of Transformation will be engaging with you in the months ahead to collaboratively define #OnePamplin and shape the people strategies that will foster this shared culture. Your involvement will give you a sense of ownership in constructing the future we envision. At the same time, we will continue to partner with you in the pursuit of inclusive excellence to further integrate data-driven DEIB practices that expand access to opportunities and affirm the diverse perspectives and lived experiences of Pamplin community members. 

Each of you is a valued and essential part of this journey. The future of Pamplin students and our global stakeholders need you! Committing to #OnePamplin is not a fleeting dream, rather, it is a call to action. Together we aim to realize the incredible possibilities that emerge when we move forward with shared conviction. 

Warm regards, 
Janice Branch Hall 
Associate Dean of Transformation 

I hope you all had a good July and are enjoying the last couple of weeks of summer before the start of the new academic year.  

July was quieter for me following a hectic June filled with conferences and research workshops. Each event was valuable but, today I want to share key takeaways from one of them, namely, the Responsible Research in Business Management’s (RRBM) annual summit held at Cambridge University, UK.  

I have been closely associated with RRBM serving as a member of the organization’s working board as well as the summit’s program committee. RRBM brings together deans, researchers, doctoral students, journal editors, and even organizations such as AACSB, EFMD, and FT. It is a privilege to work closely with such visionary and thoughtful leaders especially as part of the board. While there was a myriad of topics discussed, panels conducted, and brainstorming sessions organized, two stood out to me. 

Responsibility in Research - How can we encourage research on responsibility-related topics, conduct responsible research, and ensure that responsibility becomes core to our research mission and excellence.  

I took away several ideas from fellow academics. For example: 

• Including ethics, responsibility, and sustainability as a metric for ranking and recognition,  

• Asking external letter writers (during promotion and tenure cases) to comment on “responsibility” surrounding an individual’s research,  

• Introducing  “data colatas” (or 3 volunteer scholars who act as vigilantes and examine a published paper to assess its authenticity, replicability, etc.).

As you all know, responsibility continues to be an important node of my 3R framework. As we continue to integrate responsibility into our College and establish our 5-year vision, I hope that the many dimensions of responsibility that are being practiced and proposed within academia will inspire us to do our best with respect to this important area.

Impact of Research - Universities, accreditation bodies, and journals are now grappling with the definition of impactful research, how to encourage it, assess it, and reward it.

A range of different ideas are beginning to be implemented or proposed. 

• Requiring impact statements in manuscript submissions to journals 

• Discussing “impact beyond academia” in annual activity reports,  

• Giving credit for practice-oriented studies and pedagogical innovation.

Since joining Pamplin I have recognized the multi-dimensionality of impact and seek ways to operationalize them within the College. It was reassuring to see the same efforts taking shape within academia, and I hope we can arrive at a more structured set of actions in the coming months. 

Stay tuned for more on the above topics.  

Enjoy the few remaining weeks of summer and I look forward to seeing you all at our College townhall and picnic on August 29.  

Go Hokies! 

The month of May went by in a flash with end-of-the-semester activities, and most importantly, Commencement. It was great seeing many of you at the Pamplin awards ceremony as well as at the Commencement ceremonies. For our College and University, Commencement is one of the most significant events celebrating the hard work of our students, faculty, and staff as they embark on their next chapters, projects, or initiatives. A huge thanks to all those who worked tirelessly both in Blacksburg and in the D.C. Metro Area to make Pamplin’s Commencement ceremonies   memorable, especially a big shout-out to Lisha Henshaw, Michelle Seref, and Barbara Hoopes.

As soon as the frenzy of the academic year subsided, I traveled to meet with Hokies and partners on the West Coast and China.  We have a 3+1 program with Xidian University in the beautiful and ancient city of Xi’an, China where students complete three years of their undergraduate program in Xidian, focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation, and their final year in Blacksburg. The first group of approximately 99 students will arrive on campus in 2025. 

Below are some highlights from this visit:

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: China’s business ecosystem emphasizes these areas. Not only is there demand for more structured education surrounding these topics, but we also visited multiple companies founded by Xidian alums who are successful entrepreneurs   of AI and sustainability start-ups.  These interactions affirmed many of the ideas surrounding next-gen Pamplin, where entrepreneurial mindset, digitalization, algorithmic thinking, and sustainability, will be central to its educational focus.

Collaboration and Exchange: There is a lot of interest in deeper collaboration between Chinese- and U.S.-based universities, including faculty and student exchanges. We received an invitation to visit with one of the leaders at the Ministry (equivalent to our Department of Labor) in Beijing who approved some grants to our joint program signaling future collaboration opportunities.

Ut Prosim: In the spirit of Ut Prosim, we got to spend half a day at a primary school in rural area near Xi’an teaching the students songs in English (led by Michelle Seref), craft work and spending time with them in their classrooms.

Hoke Spirit in China:. As part of the last leg of our journey, we hosted an alumni event in Shanghai. We were overwhelmed with the response with over 70 VT alums in attendance (about one-fifth from Pamplin). The venue was transformed into a mini-VT campus with pictures of Buruss hall and the Drillfield, and we heard from eight alums who shared their professional journey since leaving VT and the impact of their VT education on their growth and development. What a way to end the trip!

I want to thank my colleagues, Michelle Seref, Devi Gynawali, and Jennifer Clevenger for being amazing travel buddies and not shying away from any challenge including hiking the Great Wall with enthusiasm. Thanks also to our seven VT faculty members who are currently at Xidian teaching different courses to the students who will be here in the coming years. Also, gratitude to our partners at Xidian University, for their amazing hospitality and attention to every minute detail, and a special shout-out to Jennifer for making top notch arrangements for our visit.

I hope your summer is off to a great start and I look forward to seeing you all in person soon.