I recently I sat in on the final presentation for the Batten Investment Fund. This is the ten-year anniversary and, as in all previous years, I was again struck by the excellence of the student presentation and the value of the experience. Yesterday I sent a note of appreciation to Frank and Jane Batten, along with a copy of this year’s presentation.
You can view videos of four of this year’s Batten Fund analysts — Stefan Martinovic, Meg Sherwood, Joanna Hayes and Matt Kusek — talking about their experiences on the Mason YouTube channel.
For all of you 150 or so Batten Fund Alumni, what do you think of the idea of having a Batten Fund reunion next year in our new building?
I know Dean Krapfl mentioned this topic in a recent posting, but gaining the recognition in the rankings that we believe we rightly deserve will likely be Job One for the Mason School next year. You will be hearing more about this but let me simply share an excerpt from a letter I sent to my fellow deans last fall that I believe raises an important broader issue:
Most of us have recently revised our programs to emphasize leadership, experience-based learning, and greater interaction with companies and executives. However, these important efforts to prepare workforce-ready MBA students are not directly measured by the traditional rankings. The rankings take careful assessments of both ends of our production process but, ironically, make no effort to evaluate what takes place in the middle, which is what occupies most of our time and attention.
What if the criteria by which we are measured actually reflected what we are doing? Novel thought. The current rankings are, of course, useful tools for prospective students and others. But there is virtually nothing in them that I can see that actually attempts to assess and measure the direct value-added of the educational experiences we provide through traditional teaching or more innovative means.
If they did, perhaps the rankings could do a better job of informing prospective students of the real choices that are available to them. Think also of the potential benefits for recruiters.
Like so many of you, we at William and Mary’s Mason School of Business have worked hard to create an educational experience that we believe prepares our students in the skills and behaviors that really matter in business. We now measure important aspects of what we do so others can verify our claims. For example, we promise our students substantial one-on-one interaction with executives, which we assess through our Executive-to-Student ratio and Face-Time-with-Executives measure…
I will keep you apprised of this conversation as it moves forward.