Columbia Business School Demonstrates Commitment to Teaching

Announcement of Inaugural Vice Dean: Mark Broadie

On June 26, 2012, Columbia Business School announced the appointment of Professor Mark Broadie as Columbia Business School’s Vice Dean for Teaching.

Broadie is currently the research director of the Program for Financial Studies and the Carson Family Professor of Business in the Decision, Risk, and Operations Division.

In the new position, Broadie will act as a teaching mentor and will lead the efforts of the Arthur J. Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence to support innovative instruction by faculty members.

You can read the announcement made by Columbia here.

As part of his new position, Broadie will focus on three main tasks:

• Strengthening links in content within and across courses
• Increasing faculty collaboration with regard to teaching
• Drawing ideas from faculty research into the classroom

About the Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence

The Samberg Institute was founded in 2002 as a result of a $25 million grant from Arthur J. Samberg ’67, chairman of Pequot Capital Management, Inc, and a member of the Columbia Business School Board of Overseers.

Need for Collaboration between Faculty at Business Schools

To better understand the impact of this move by Columbia Business School, I would first like to talk about the structure of education at many leading business schools.

As an example, students might study the same case (e.g. Ford) in Marketing, Strategy and Operations class within the same week. You might question the intelligence of using the same course across disciplines as some repetition is bound to creep in. Might it not be better to use different courses to expose students to a greater number of companies, you ask.

The idea behind using the same case for multiple disciplines is to help students understand the fundamentals of business from different standpoints. When you are looking at the same company, it helps professors tie what you have learnt in your other courses back to their course. Furthermore, students are often surprised when professors make linkages from what was discussed in a previous class they might have sat in on. This is not by accident, but by design.

What this means for Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School’s latest move is designed to enhance the teaching experience at the school. Undoubtedly, Columbia is well known for its research and lays emphasis on the same. Establishing processes for collaboration among faculty will enhance the teaching experience.

To all prospective students, this is good news as this move demonstrates Columbia’s commitment to the quality of teaching at its business school. Here’s wishing Mark all the luck hoping he can create real impact in this new role.