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(February 11, 2009) EFIB Bites Fractured Real Estate The CoB's real estate program, which currently resides in the EFIB, is slated to become (beginning 2009-10) part of FINRELS under dean Lance Nail's IHL-approved reorganization of the CoB. Under current EFIB chairman George Carter's stewardship, sources say that the RE program has been largely devastated. A number of events have transpired that have been detrimental to the program: (1) the loss of assistant professor Sean Salter, (2) the separation of business law from the EFIB, (3) the fracturing of RE instruction, and (4) the failure to foster inter-departmental relationships that could benefit the RE initiative.

(April 30, 2009) LAATSCH LIKELY TO CHAIR FINRELS More and More CoB Chairs Falling to Internal Candidates The recent news that decision sciences’ Donna Davis will be chairing the CoB’s new department of business economics and decision sciences has USMNEWS.net sources stating that associate professor of finance Francis Laatsch will likely be taking over the new department of finance, real estate and legal studies. Davis’ rise to administration (once again) now looks like more than simply a farewell tour through CoB administration for her. It is becoming clearer, at least to some, that LSU’s Kirby E. “Skip” Hughes, who was recently hired to direct the CoB’s new school of accounting, will be the only “outsider” hired during CoB dean Lance Nail’s campaign to staff the top position in six new departments.

(May 4, 2009) And the Winner is . . . How Much Faculty Governance is Occurring in the Selection of CoB Dept Chairs? Nail's choice of Donna Davis sounds more like the sort of fait accompli that carried the day in the EFIB throughout the Harold Doty administration of the CoB (2003-07). Given that, one might conclude that a little bit of "faculty governance took the day off" is just what the doctor order vis-à-vis the CoB's all-too-politicized economists. One can, and should, still hope, however, that Nail confines any faculty governance lapses to matters concerning the CoB's economists. If such a policy becomes widespread then CoB faculty will be left wondering just how much, and how good, the "change" being ushered in by the Nail administration really is after all.

(May 7, 2009) It's Looking like Laatsch Dean Lance Nail's New CoB Now Taking Shape The recent news that CoB dean Lance Nail has selected Leisa Flynn, a professor of marketing at Florida State University, to chair the CoB's new department of marketing and fashion merchandising, is creating a stir around the JAG. That stir is only compounded by even newer reports that FIN's Francis Laatsch will be reporting to Nail on 1-July-09 as the chair of the new department of finance, real estate and legal studies.