Clark’s School of Business

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:

Many of you will have learned of Dr. David Jordan’s decision to resign his position as dean of Clark University’s School of Business. We remain very grateful to him for his work on behalf of our students and colleagues. As an adjunct faculty member and most recently as dean, David has made many important contributions to the School and to Clark in the past twenty years. 

The plan shared earlier this week does not call for the elimination of the School of Business or any of its current programs. Consistent with Dean Jordan’s own stated goals, the plan amplifies the School’s focus on undergraduate business studies while it maintains its graduate-level programs, emphasizing business for social good. 

What the plan does put forward is for the School of Business to join the School of Professional Studies as part of a new division that allows the University to operate both schools in better coordination with one another, reducing expenses and enhancing our support for students. Both schools, today, offer a number of highly similar or related programs that should be more complementary. Such an arrangement is consistent with our model for the School of Climate, Environment, and Society (CES), which will include the Graduate School of Geography as its own school within CES and alongside other related programs. The School of Business and the School of Professional Studies will retain their identities within a new division. And the new division will sit within the core of the University’s faculty of arts and sciences. 

We assure you that nothing in this plan calls for dismantling the School or ending programs for students currently enrolled, or diminishes the University’s commitment to high-quality business education. This change in where the School of Business sits within the University has no impact on the program’s ability to be accredited and has many benefits in connecting business education to other academic programs and curricular opportunities for students and faculty. 

A university-wide restructuring is essential to meet the fiscal and market demands of the moment. Every business must learn to adapt and be agile in responding to external forces, and that is what Clark is doing. The need to reduce administrative overhead, to ensure our programs are aligned correctly for the market, and to continue to provide our students, now and in the future, a high-quality learning experience is our objective.

We recognize that change — of any kind or to any extent — can be unsettling, and this is a time of considerable change in higher education and at Clark. We are eager to engage with all members of the Clark University School of Business and the wider community to ensure accurate information and a more complete understanding of these important and necessary next steps. We appreciate how much our School of Business matters to you, and it matters to us, too.  

Sincerely, 

David Fithian, President
John Magee, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost