The sole dean candidate for the Texas A&M Mays Business School Eli Jones visited Friday morning to relay his past experiences at other universities, visions for Mays and his action plan should he be chosen for dean.
Jones holds a doctorate in marketing, a master’s of business administration and a bachelor of science in Journalism, with all three degrees coming from Texas A&M. He is currently the dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and serves as the Leadership Chair at the University of Arkansas.
Jones’ seminar stressed the importance of listening to the market, possible contributions to the school and how he looks at education as a whole.
“I’m passionate about curricula, I’m passionate about students and getting students careers,” Jones said. “I’m passionate about raising the researchers to make that happen.”
Ricky Griffin, Interim Dean of Mays Business School said Texas A&M needs someone who understands Texas A&M University and Mays Business School to help run it.
“There’s not a requirement of course that a person has to have ever worked here or been here before, but they should have an appreciation of a state university — a land grant university — with some of the unique characteristics that we have here at Texas A&M,” Griffin said.
Griffin said the world of business education and higher education in general is changing dramatically.
“We need a visionary leader who understands where [general education] and business education in particular are headed, because he or she needs to lead us in that direction,” Griffin said.
The process for choosing a new dean for any college is a long one. William Dugas, acting vice chancellor and dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said the Mays Business School faculty abides by university rules by deciding if the candidate is acceptable or unacceptable.
“After a week of voting, the votes are tallied and if Dr. Jones receives at least 50 percent of acceptable vote, then the search committee has to decide if they want to recommend Dr. Jones as a candidate forward to the Provost,” Dugas said.
Dugas said only after this vote does the A&M Provost, Karan Watson, have the ability to begin conversations with Jones about his candidacy. After that, Dugas said the decision will go on to the Texas A&M President before going to the Board of Regents for final approval.