{"id":1827,"date":"2009-08-17T12:47:51","date_gmt":"2009-08-17T19:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2013-07-31T11:23:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T15:23:56","slug":"the-school-of-business-gets-a-new-dean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=1827","title":{"rendered":"The School of Business Gets a New Dean"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"william
William Keep, Dean of the School of Business<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

William Keep <\/strong>has a PhD in marketing from Michigan State University and a BA in social science and economics from James Madison College, a residential college at Michigan State. He comes to the College from Quinnipiac University, where he has held the positions of associate vice president for academic affairs and director of assessment for the institution\u2019s School of Business. He was most recently a professor of marketing at the university, and said that when he told his students last spring about his new position, several said to him, \u201cYou\u2019re going to love New Jersey, and you\u2019re really going to love TCNJ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep\u2019s CV shows an impressive record of scholarship and publication as well as a devotion to teaching. He has been published extensively and has authored or co-authored multiple texts. Additionally, he has taught a range of marketing, management, and business ethics courses. In the wake of recent business scandals, many people have questioned whether business schools do enough to educate their students about ethics. We asked Keep his thoughts on the subject.<\/p>\n

Unlike some business schools that weave ethics into the larger curriculum, Keep noted that TCNJ offers a standalone course on the topic. \u201cWhat I like about that approach is that it says to the students that [ethics] is important, it\u2019s a topic unto itself,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat being said, [business ethics] is hard to teach\u2014especially to an 18 or 19 year old,\u201d Keep said. \u201cThey haven\u2019t had enough exposure in the broader work environment to understand the types of situations they might be faced with. But I think we need to help students understand that the positive role that we see for business in society\u2026carries with it a responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the short amount of time he has been at TCNJ, Keep has already noted the School of Business \u201chas a very solid, experienced faculty that care greatly about their students. I think the students know that\u2026and it\u2019s important that we sustain that culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep said one of his first orders of business will be increase student engagement by encouraging greater participation in business-student organizations and study abroad opportunities. \u201cIt\u2019s important to get students excited about a few things while they\u2019re here, so they\u2019re not just thinking of their education as \u2018checking off the boxes\u2019 of required courses while they\u2019re going through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another priority he mentioned\u2014increasing alumni participation\u2014will help with the student engagement issue. \u201cAlumni have credibility with the students, and that can definitely help the student engagement issue,\u201d Keep explained. \u201cA faculty member can stand in front of class and say three or four times some relatively important concept, and the students will write it down. But if an alumnus comes in and says the same thing, it has so much more impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep\u2019s experience has been that students get excited to hear from alumni, whether that interaction pertains to what it is like working for a certain company, or simply what it was like being a business student at the College however many years ago. \u201cAn alumnus can come in and talk about a business situation with a kind of passion and experience that only they have, because they have been doing it day in and day out for years,\u201d Keep said. \u201cThose are the types of things that alumni bring to the table that are important for students.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want alumni from TCNJ\u2019s School of Business to feel a shared experience with our students,\u201d Keep said, adding that he would specifically like to see more alumnae come forward to serve as role models for today\u2019s female business students.<\/p>\n

Keep feels TCNJ\u2019s School of Business has done a good job of connecting with outside businesses, citing as examples relationships established through the Business Advisory Board and with companies that recruit TCNJ students. \u201cI will take a lead role in helping build and sustain [more of] those types of relationships,\u201d Keep said. \u201cMy job is to go out and make sure that I know why [these companies] are recruiting here, what they think of our students, and what they think of our programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another priority Keep mentioned was helping TCNJ\u2019s business students realize how the school\u2019s various disciplines tie together. Such an understanding becomes especially important as a person\u2019s career in the business world advances, he noted. \u201cOur job is to help students think about business in a convergent way, while at the same time helping them become an expert in their discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep, whose degrees are from a public institution and who started out teaching at one before leaving for a private university, said it is good to be back in the public arena. \u201cPeople often think about public education as something that is big,\u201d he said. \u201cI like the fact that TCNJ has chosen to stay small. It\u2019s hard to do in these times, but yet when you talk to people about it, everyone feels very positive about the experience,\u201d Keep said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think TCNJ has made some very good decisions about the kind of educational environment that it wants to create and sustain,\u201d Keep continued. \u201cI\u2019m delighted to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Keep has a PhD in marketing from Michigan State University and a BA in social science and economics from James Madison College, a residential college at Michigan State. He comes to the College from Quinnipiac University, where he has held the positions of associate vice president for academic affairs and director of assessment for the institution\u2019s School of Business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,10,28,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-online-exclusives","category-september-2009","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}