Newsletter - October 20

October 20, 2023

A Note from Desk of Dean Sarker

Dear Pamplin faculty and staff:

Add the College Town Hall meeting for Friday, October 27, from 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. to your calendars. This will take place at the Inn, with breakfast from 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Apologies to those of you who will be teaching at that time. I will provide some opening remarks about our environment and the plans we are making for the fall and spring. The environment and plans keep evolving so I’ll tell you the latest that I know. Most of the meeting will be reserved for questions and comments that you want to raise. We strongly encourage in-person participation, however, Zoom details will be provided.

We would also like to offer the opportunity to submit questions prior to the meeting. Please complete the questionnaire here by Friday, October 20. Your questions will remain anonymous.

We look forward to seeing you then.

Thank you!

Saonee

Announcements

Segal is making their meeting invites now.

As many of you know, a college-wide organizational, operational, and cultural review will be launched to ensure our operating models, organizational structures, services, systems, practices, processes, policies, and culture position us to meet the current and future needs of our students and workforce. Pamplin has partnered with Segal, a nationally recognized higher education consulting firm with extensive experience in leading organizational assessment and transformation initiatives for a broad range of colleges and universities. Their in-depth knowledge of best practice organizational and operational structures and practices will assist us in identifying our greatest opportunities for success. Segal will be utilizing the scheduling tool, Calendly, to schedule the individual interviews. Some of you may also be asked to participate in a focus group, and the dates and times for the focus groups will be pre-selected. If you’ve been asked to participate in a focus group, you will receive a separate email inviting you to join the focus group at a certain date and time. Please be on the lookout for communication regarding this initiative over the next few weeks.

Download the Hokie Ready App to BE HOKIE READY!

The Hokie Ready App is the university’s safety app the offers critical emergency information and resources. Apple users can download here. Android users can download here.

There is a Childcare survey available until Friday, October 27th.

Identifying ways to help Virginia Tech employees and students access quality early childcare and education is a priority for the university. As part of our ongoing work to address this important issue, all Virginia Tech faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students in all Virginia Tech locations are encouraged to complete a child care survey to gauge the current use and needs regarding child care across our university communities. Even if you do not use childcare, please take a moment to complete the survey. Please complete the survey by Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. All responses are anonymous. Visit the Caregiving site for information, resources, and more.

Employee Spotlight

Each employee below has been submitted for this recognition by their colleagues.

Shout out to Christopher and his colleagues! Christopher Zobel just had a paper - “Trade-offs Between Equity and Efficiency in Prioritizing Critical Infrastructure Investments: A Case of Stormwater Management Systems” accepted in POM! This was a joint project with a previous PhD student, Milad Baghersad, and colleagues from FAU and the University of Houston. Be on the lookout for their impactful work!

Congratulations to three current and one emeritus on the list of the Top 2% of Sport, Leisure, and Tourism Scholars over their career. A list of the top 100,000 scholars globally plus the top 2% of scholars in their field of study if they sit outside of the top 100,000 has been published by Ioannidis (2023). The full reference and link can be found here. The data are updated to the end of 2022 and relied on Scopus data provided by Elsevier through ICSR Lab. For full details and other data, including the full career list of over 204,000 names, and the list of leading scholars for the year 2022, please refer to the link. Sport, Leisure, and Tourism was one of the subfields included in the analysis. These 4 are a part of a set of the almost 200 scholars who are recognized as the top 2% in this field over their careers.

The Engagement Team under Pampin Advancement would like to spotlight two employees! “Amy Transue and Caitlin Camire are a delight to work with and consistently add value to the teamwork dynamics and they operate independently with great effectiveness. Their attitude toward the work, Pamplin and the University is positive and allows them to meet challenges with honesty, transparency, and professionalism. They are terrific representatives of Pamplin working in line with and consistently displaying a great understanding of the event management, alumni relations, and volunteer engagement model for the Pamplin Advancement division. Amy and Caitlin give me 110% without fail. I cannot ask for greater colleagues!”

Thank you to Rocio Barrueta Enriquez and Ashley Crawford for their detailed budget support! Ashley and Rocio always go above and beyond to help whenever and wherever they need to.

Submit staff and faculty for upcoming issues here: Cheriw@vt.edu

Upcoming Events

Haunted House at McComas Hall

Face your fears and embrace the Halloween spirit for the fright of your life! Unleash your creativity at Hokie Wellness’ self-care patch as you carve your pumpkin on the McComas patio and step into the world of eerie fun in the McComas’ gyms. Popcorn, cotton candy and carnival games await! Then brace yourself for the spine-chilling Haunted Hallway of McComas that will be directed by the Theater Department. The event will take place October 27^th: pumpkin carving from 6-8pm and haunted tours from 7-10pm. The free event is open to Virginia Tech students, staff, and the local community. No pre-registration is required.

Pamplin All Faculty and Staff Town Hall

Friday, October 27^th, in the Latham Ballroom (A and B) at the Inn Breakfast will be served at 8:30am with the meeting to follow at 9:00am In order to make sure we have adequate spacing, please RSVP here.

Registration for the following events will open soon so be on the lookout for an email from Advancement:

Pamplin Holiday Reception. Friday, December 1^st at the University club from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Pamplin Holiday Luncheon. Thursday, December 7^th at Eastern Divide from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

For more events, check out https://pamplin.vt.edu/events.html

Committee Corner

Graduate Studies and Policy Committee Meeting Minutes can be found here.

Faculty Honorifics and Award Committee Meeting Minutes can be found here.

Undergraduate Studies and Policies (USP) Committee Meeting minutes can be found here.

For a full list of committee and minutes, http://pampl.in/Committees

Extra Items

Call for nominations for Graduate Alumni Achievement Award

The Graduate School invites nominations for the Graduate Alumni Achievement Award to recognize outstanding national and/or international achievement and exemplary contributions of graduate alumni to their profession, discipline, community, or society. Nominees must be engaged in efforts that enhance the reputation of Virginia Tech to a national and/or international audience. Only alumni who have obtained a graduate degree from Virginia Tech are eligible. Submission deadline is Nov. 3.

A Message from DEIB –

Veteran’s Day Donations. DEIB is still collecting personal items to donate to Voluntary Services, a Department of the Veterans Affairs as a part of our college-wide efforts to serve veterans and military persons in need. Click here to see the full list of needs. Donations can be dropped off outside of the Dean’s Suite or mailed. Deadline to donate is Thursday, November 16^th.

Special Tribute. Calling ALL military service persons. We would like to highlight your military service and photos in a special tribute presentation during the Veterans Day program. Please complete this survey by Wednesday, Oct. 25^th, to ensure your information is included in the tribute.

Did you know?

Trivia about Pamplin and Virginia Tech.

Each edition we will ask a question about Pamplin. This will include trivia questions, historical details, or current events. The answer will be published in the next edition.

Oct 13^th: Where can you find the hiring manager tool kit ? Have you used this kit to help onboard new employees?

Answer: You can visit the Hiring Manager Resources page for resources or to download the hiring manager tool kit when hiring someone. Visit the page here: Hiring Manager Resources | Pamplin College of Business | Virginia Tech (vt.edu)

Oct 20^th: What year did business become one of the colleges at the University? What was the first bachelor’s degree offered?

Check back next week to find out…..

Have an announcement?

Send your events, updates, and announcements for the monthly update to Tracy Price. Also, if you have comments, feedback, or recommendations for how we can improve the Dean’s Update or suggestions for information that should be shared with faculty, staff, and academic program personnel, please provide them to tbprice@vt.edu.