Dedication of the Brian D. Jellison Living Learning Center.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – As we turn the page on another calendar year, a somewhat muted centennial celebration of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business also comes to an end. As we reflect on what has been a tumultuous 2020, it remains true that students, faculty and staff at Kelley continued a 100-year legacy of having both the talent to succeed and the tenacity to persevere.
This is evident as we look back at many of the school’s accomplishments over the last 12 months. While COVID-19 required that learning and other major activities go online, the momentum at Kelley did not slow down when it came to important faculty research and student learning at all levels of the school. Kelley faculty and students were highly engaged in state and national efforts to find solutions and help Americans respond to the pandemic and its disruptions on personal and professional lives.
This can be seen through the chronological review of major Kelley events and announcements that follows. Here’s to an even better 2021.
January
Kelley School remains No. 1 in U.S. News and World Report rankings of online programs — Kelley Direct is No. 1 among online MBA programs and second among online Master of Science programs. “This past year, we introduced a revised curriculum, which was designed to allow students to personalize their experience and attain an even broader understanding of today’s complex and globally interconnected business world. It is gratifying to see our programs continuing to be recognized as the best choices for online MBA and M.S. degrees,” said Dean Idalene “Idie” Kesner. “In November, Poets & Quants ranked the program No. 1, as did the Princeton Review a month later.
Kelley’s Indiana Business Research Center supports U.S. Opportunity Zones initiative — A new, national resource, the USA Opportunity Zones tool, was developed at the IBRC and praised by top officials at the U.S. Department of Commerce when it was announced to the public on Jan. 14.
Jellison Family Foundation gives $16 million to Kelley School of Business – The first major gift from the Brian and Sheila Jellison Family Foundation will benefit the school’s innovative and No. 1 ranked Kelley Direct online MBA and MS programs, through the creation of new state-of-the-art studios and “virtual classrooms.” Their gift also supports the Brian D. Jellison Living Learning Center and the creation of a new online financial literacy course, available free to the public, and global student experiences.
February
Conference helps early-stage life science companies connect with venture funding — Kelley’s Center for the Business of Life Sciences on Feb. 21 presented an eerily timely conference for research ventures in the early stages of development needing to find investors. The event offered practical guidance on funding strategies and finding support from government, private equity and venture funds.
March
Kelley School initiative sparks ideas from around world to address problems from coronavirus – In the early days of the pandemic, Kelley faculty used innovative methods and their personal resources in the battle against the novel coronavirus. Many of those efforts arose from an “Idea Sprint” organized by several management and entrepreneurship professors. They pulled together more than 200 entrepreneurs, coders, engineers, medical doctors, nurses, venture capitalists and other business professionals, who worked virtually and developed 19 potential solutions for problems arising from COVID-19.
Kelley partners with Indy Chamber to offer free webinars to help businesses impacted by COVID-19 – Indy Chamber and Kelley Executive Education partnered to offer a webinar series giving business owners best practices and strategies for reopening and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Free and open to the public, the Rapid Recovery Series covered topics ranging from setting a recovery strategy and rebuilding business financials to repairing supply chains and attracting new customers.
Much needed masks went to IU Health and Community Health Network in Indiana
April
Kelley School initiative results in more than 21,000 surgical masks donated to hospitals — #RealHeroesNeedMasks, a grassroots social venture started by students and faculty at Kelley worked to get N95 and surgical masks to hospitals and to the life-saving doctors and nurses who need them. Co-founded by Dr. Amani Jambhekar, a Houston-based cancer surgeon and Kelley Direct online MBA student, the national effort collected more than 21,000 masks in the first month, with support from Kelley faculty and alumni. As of today, it has provided nearly 75,000 masks to front line medical workers.
Kelley and Krannert business schools partner to help IU Health manage surge of COVID-19 patients – Normally, Indiana and Purdue see themselves as competitors, but business faculty at the two universities collaborated on a project with IU Health to help the health care provider manage the COVID-19 demand surge in their 16 hospitals across five regions of the state. Jonathan Helm, associate professor of operations and decision technologies and Grant Thornton Scholar at Kelley, co-led the project to develop a predictive model of the resources required for an adequate response to the pandemic. It integrates disease prediction with a sophisticated patient flow workload model.
May
Kelley offers no-cost assistance to help small Hoosier businesses shift their operations online — To help small companies in Indiana hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the Kelley School began offering no-cost assistance to businesses needing to shift operations online, while also providing internship opportunities for its students. Kelley partnered with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Indiana Small Business Development Centers on the Kelley HOPE Digital Project. By year’s end, more than 360 small businesses and public organizations in Indiana in 52 counties across Indiana – half of them owned by women and one-fourth by minorities – were helped.
As international academic conferences are cancelled because of COVID-19, Kelley faculty step forward to host them virtually — Much has been reported about efforts at Kelley to provide students with a high-quality educational experience online, but two major conferences hosted virtually by the school also demonstrated its ability to use the same technology to advance research knowledge. Kelley became a leader in pivoting to present conferences online in April and May, drawing upon its considerable expertise in online education.
The Haring Symposium was the first virtual conference held at Kelley as a result of the pandemic. It provided a foundation for the success of the 2020 Society for Financial Studies Cavalcade, also held through Kelley.
June
Kelley alumnus and wife donate $1M to help school retain students facing financial need — William C. Bogner and his wife, Pamela Barr, from the Atlanta area, said they are giving $1 million to his alma mater to help it better retain students — particularly those from rural Indiana communities — who face financial need.
July
Chatbots can ease medical providers’ burden, offer trusted guidance to those with COVID-19 symptoms – Research by Alan Dennis, the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems; and Antino Kim, assistant professor of operations and decision technologies, found that chatbots — software applications that conduct online chats via text or text-to-speech — working for reputable organizations can ease the burden on medical providers and offer trusted guidance to those with symptoms.
Racial and LGBT bias persists in ridesharing platforms despite mitigation efforts, research finds — Despite efforts by ridesharing companies to eliminate or reduce discrimination, research by Jorge Mejia, assistant professor of operations and decision technologies, found that racial and LGBT bias persists. He and his colleagues found that biases against underrepresented groups and those who indicate support for the LGBT community continued to exist after drivers accepted a ride request — when the rider’s picture would then be displayed.
August
$2.25 million NSF award will fund CyberCorps student scholarship program — The National Science Foundation awarded Indiana University a $2.25 million grant to establish a scholarship program in the growing and critical field of cybersecurity on the Bloomington campus. The CyberCorps program reflects a pioneering collaboration between Kelley and the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering and the Maurer School of Law. In exchange for their pursuit of degrees in this area, students will commit to spending a comparable amount of time working in state or federal service.
Three Kelley professors receive American Accounting Association’s Wildman Medal – Patrick Hopkins, Joe Schroeder and Lori Bhaskar received the 2020 Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal Award from the American Accounting Association. The Wildman Medal recognizes research that is “judged to have made or will be likely to make the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of public accountancy.” It was presented Aug. 12, as part of the organization’s virtual annual meeting.
School-wide committee appointed to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion at Kelley – Kelley Dean Idie Kesner on Aug. 17 announced the appointment of a schoolwide committee to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. Chaired by Jason Brown, associate professor of accounting, the committee includes students, faculty and staff. It has been given a mission to “examine our systems, structures, and curricula for unconscious biases and opportunities to foster a culture of inclusion and respect.” In September, the school announced a series of virtual events, “The Commons,” to foster better understanding during the 2020-2021 academic year.
A team from Kelley shared first place at the National Diversity Case Competition in January, which the school hosts.
September
Sports Industry Workshop at Kelley School has support of top sports league executives — With support from an all-star roster of top executives from the NBA, NFL, NCAA and NHL, related ventures and sports agents, the Indiana University Kelley School of Business has launched the Sports Industry Workshop, a unique, immersive experience for undergraduate students pursuing a career in the sports industry.
Paper ballots, risk-limiting audits can help defend elections and democracy, study finds — Two months before the 2020 election, three professors at Kelley published offer a comprehensive review of how other nations are seeking to protect their democratic institutions and presents how a multifaceted, targeted approach is needed to achieve that goal in the U.S., where intelligence officials have warned that Russia and other rivals again attempted to undermine our democracy.
Kelley Full-Time MBA Program remains a top 20 program in the U.S. in QS Global MBA Rankings – Kelley’s Full-Time MBA Program remains in the top 20 among U.S. programs with a No. 19 ranking in 2021 Global MBA Rankings published by Quacquarelli Symonds on Sept. 30. Kelley also remained a top 40 program worldwide (38th globally) at a time when the number of accredited business programs continues to grow outside the United States, particularly in Asia.
October
Black police officers disciplined disproportionately for misconduct, research finds — An examination of racial differences in the disciplining of police officers in three of the largest U.S. cities consistently found that Black officers were more frequently disciplined for misconduct than white officers, despite an essentially equal number of allegations being leveled. This included allegations of severe misconduct. “We found a consistent pattern of racial differences in the formal recording of disciplinary actions in three different major metropolitan cities: Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles,” wrote a group of six Kelley management professors. “Our results showed that Black officers were more likely to have recorded cases of misconduct, despite there being no difference between Black and white officers in the number of allegations made against them.”
Webinar series offers business knowledge during pandemic to healthcare professionals — A new webinar series offered through the Kelley’s Graduate Certificate in Medical Management program is giving healthcare professionals insight and business knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The HealthBiz webinar series aims to translate business theory into practical tips to help any healthcare professionals, including nurses, physical therapists, healthcare administrators and other staff, to anticipate and solve healthcare problems. Each webinar will be taught by a Kelley School of Business faculty member. Several already in the certificate program are saying what they’re learning is helping them navigate issues related to COVID-19.
Kelley’s Institute for International Business marks a decade of making a world of difference — People from across the globe came together virtually on Oct. 21 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kelley’s Institute for International Business and participate in roundtable discussions about the importance of global connections. Live panel discussions and breakout sessions originated from Bangkok, New Delhi, Mexico City and Berlin as global business leaders joined a conversation about “The Importance of Global Connectedness during Disruption and Beyond.” Dean Kesner moderated the closing panel from IU Bloomington.
One IIB program fostered entrepreneurship and developed economic enterprises in Bethlehem’s West Bank.
November
Kelley School receives State Department grant for outreach in North Macedonia – Through a $249,000 grant from the U.S. State Department, faculty at Kelley will extend the teaching and outreach capabilities of the oldest and largest public university in the Republic of North Macedonia, in south-central Europe. The project continues the school’s legacy of involvement in Eastern Europe, going back to the efforts of late IU President and Chancellor Herman B Wells in the 1950s. The business school played a key role in establishing the European Productivity Agency, the first of many institution-building programs that would characterize Kelley’s activities for decades. IU was an early center of study of Russia and Eastern Europe after World War II.
Kelley School begins offering a Master of Science in Accounting with Data and Analytics — Keeping in step with rapidly evolving uses of digital information by the world’s leading accounting and professional services firms, the Kelley School on Nov. 17 announced that it will begin offering a Master of Science in Accounting with Data and Analytics degree.
Kelley School researcher to advance secure, energy-efficient technology in manufacturing — Amrou Awaysheh, an assistant professor of operations management at Kelley IUPUI, is part of a multidisciplinary, multi-institution team that received a $70 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance the use of secure and energy-efficient technology in manufacturing.
December
Unprecedented study details state of cybersecurity preparedness in Indiana — According to a new survey of more than 300 public and private organizations across Indiana, nearly one-fifth said they had experienced a cyberattack in the past three years. The findings come from the report “State of Hoosier Cybersecurity 2020,” which was prepared for the Indiana Executive Council on Cybersecurity by the Kelley School and its Indiana Business Research Center. “This is the first time we have a state-level snapshot of both cyber hygiene practices as well as how businesses and local governments are using cyber risk insurance as a tool to mitigate the risks they face,” said Scott Shackelford, associate professor of business law and ethics, executive director of the Ostrom Workshop and chair of the IU Cybersecurity Program.