Marla Stafford, a candidate for dean of the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, speaks to faculty about her qualifications for the position Tuesday in the Borderlands Room in the Education Complex on the Edinburg campus. Angel Ballesteros/THE RIDER
Marla Royne Stafford presented Tuesday about her career qualifications for the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship dean position during an interview process open to UTRGV faculty and staff.
Stafford, who serves as a tenured professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, presented the importance of investing in student success in the Borderlands Room in the Education Complex on the Edinburg campus.
“Students are at the core of the university,” she said. “We need to invest in students’ success, right? Students are here for a reason and we have a mission to serve them. … We need to have initiatives to support underrepresented populations.”
From July 2019 to July 2021, Stafford served as William F. Harrah distinguished chair and executive associate dean of Academic Affairs at UNLV.
Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Georgia. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from Rollins College and a Bachelor of Arts in speech communication from the University of Arizona.
Additionally, Stafford has a certificate in climate change and public health from Yale School of Public Health, as well as diversity and inclusion from eCornell at Cornell University.
“I consider myself a welcoming person, a welcoming leader,” she said. “I have empathy. I listen. I’m reflective. I’m communicative. I build relationships. I believe in community building. So, these are the principles on which I operate and I serve as a leader. I do believe leadership is about servant leadership because we have an obligation to the people that we work with, that we lead, and our students.”
Stafford said it is important to prepare students.
“We need students to learn how to communicate,” she said. “Students need to know how to get in front of a group and speak. Communication is the No. 1 skill for success in business. So it’s not just written, but it’s oral communication. … There are a lot of different opportunities to create programs, cocurricular programs that they can add on their resume.”
Stafford is a proponent of undergraduate research.
“Undergraduate research programs are so important,” she said. “It helps undergraduate students, it helps faculty. There are national conferences. There are national publications for undergraduate research. Faculty are developing students.”
During the presentation, Stafford pointed out how retaining students is important.
To improve retention, she suggested hosting pizza parties on campus to bring students together and encourage registration for next semester.
Stafford suggested creating a program to bring high school students in the summer to get a “taste” of the college.
Jerald Hughes, associate dean for Undergraduate Studies and an associate professor in the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, asks Stafford about her thoughts on the rising prevalence of AI within student-submitted class work Tuesday in the Borderlands Room in the Education Complex on the Edinburg campus. Angel Ballesteros/THE RIDER
“A summer business institute [is] one of the best things you can do to get people interested in the college and show them what’s here and have faculty as part of it,” she said.
After Stafford’s presentation, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions.
Jerald Hughes, associate dean for Undergraduate Studies and an associate professor in the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, said he has seen huge effects in his classes with the COVID-19 impact, K-12 deficits, remote learning and artificial intelligence.
Hughes asked Stafford her point of view on the nature of change in higher education.
“Things have changed so much,” Stafford replied. “So to your question, specifically to your points, expectations have changed. So, that starts from COVID. So, a lot of programs were online and a lot of them were first going to go online and then COVID hit and all of a sudden everything is online, right? So, what happened is a lot of the online programs, really I can’t speak to anything here, but in general, a lot of online programs were not quality programs. Some were, some weren’t.”
She also gave her point of view on AI in the classroom.
“I do think that there should be a policy about AI within either a university or a college,” Stafford said. “It’s hard for professors and instructors to catch that, but I think we need to teach AI. … It’s not going anywhere. So we can’t ignore it, but to teach them how to use it as a tool and tell them it’s OK to use [it] as a tool, but it is not OK to just put something in and put it in as your own.”
Peter-James Ehimika, director of Student Success Initiatives at UTRGV, asked what would be the role of the dean in ensuring business students are not only retained but can make progress toward a degree.
“Well, I think the dean’s role of retention, No.1, is to be there and be part of it and work closely with the director of Student Success,” Stafford replied. “… So, my role would be possibly partly what you need with me, but also sharing ideas on how to do that based on some of my experiences. So, it’s a very, very important supporting role, but it’s a very important listening role. … So, whoever the new dean that comes in, whether it be me or somebody else, needs to understand from you the challenges that you see with retention.”
Giorgio Gotti, interim dean of the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, has been in office since Aug. 2, 2023.
Luis H. Zayas, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, sent a message to the UTRGV community on Aug. 4, 2023, stating he was going to “initiate a search for a permanent dean” for the college.
Prior to Gotti, Lance Nail served as dean of the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship from 2019 through 2023.
Qing Hu, the second candidate for the dean position, will present his career qualifications from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the Borderlands Room in the Education Complex on the Edinburg campus. The presentation will also be available through Zoom for faculty and staff.
Hu serves as the dean of the Koppelman School of Business and a professor of business management at Brooklyn College. Before Brooklyn College, he served as senior associate dean for Academic Affairs and Innovation at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.
The audience listens to Stafford’s presentation Tuesday in the Borderlands Room in the Education Complex on the Edinburg campus. Angel Ballesteros/THE RIDER
