Advisory Committee to the Business Honors Program
Saturday, October 14
3-4:00 PM CST, Phone line = 512- 232-4200 (local), 1-800-687-4539 (toll free)
Location: Undergraduate Programs Conference Room (next to BHP Office)
Attendees: Dr. Cox, Shelley Nix, Steven Hirsch (HBA), Crissy Perez, Michael Klein, Tera
Highbarger, Aabir Malik, Andrew Allemann, Steve Carlson, Tanmay Desai, Ramesh Dhanaraj,
Greg Gerstenhaber, Ashish Gupta, Brian Landrum, Glenna Sharafeldin, Dominic Sung
1. Welcome (Crissy)
Introductions
New member: Aabir Malik (’02), Austin
2. Overview of the Program (Dr. Cox)
New Staffing: Santos Rodriguez (Communications and Marketing
Coordinator)
2007 Symposium: Globalization. February 2, 2007
Micheal Klein’s firm, Connor Duffy with Wells Fargo assisting with
sponsorship. Changed day to Friday to accommodate student schedules.
Format will be 3 main speakers, luncheon, and panel discussion. Suggestion
to plan alumni event around symposium. Either Friday evening or Saturday.
Admissions: We have moved to a rolling admissions process with an early
deadline of November 1. This will slightly change the timeline for alumni
interviews. Interviews will be granted based on scores and class rank.
Diversity initiative: Realize McCombs. New event held on November 11 that
attracts some of the top underrepresented students. Joint effort by BHP and
Undergraduate Program
3. Resource/Fundraising Updates (Dr. Cox)
Excellence Fund Annual Report mailed in early October.
Resources: Continued support from Dean along with Make A Mark and
Excellence Fund to provide scholarships. These scholarships assist us in
competing with top universities for top students and higher yield.
Undergraduate Curriculum Reform-committee is considering general
curriculum changes but will not affect BHP as originally anticipated.
4. Advisory Committee Survey Results (Crissy)
18 members responded to survey
Average of 4 years on the Advisory Committee
Participated in 4 out of 6 main events hosted by BHP
i. Alumni admissions interviewing and Alumni area events the most
popular or well attended (interesting to note that admissions
interviewing was only put in place in 2002—great participation)
ii. Also very good attendance at Prospective Members Conferences
Most people interested in helping out with recruiting and alumni
relations, followed by alumni-student relations
Initiatives and improvements to the program…themes that emerged:
i. Networking opportunities for alums (online?)—Coordinate with
Steve for area events
ii. Connecting with students (in classroom or out)—Visiting
Alum/Coffee chat program…coordinate with curriculum, if at all
possible (Tanmay)
iii. Out of state outreach for alumni and to attract prospective
students—explore more aggressive marketing efforts with top
out-of-state high schools (and alma maters of current out-of-state
BHP-ers)
Primary motivation for joining the BHP
i. Most common response: to give back and maintain
quality/prestige of the program
5. Quarterly Advisory Meetings
Suggested more frequent meetings for better progress toward alumni
projects
6. Alumni Involvement
Area Event Update (Shelley/Steve) Successful summer events with the junior
interns in Dallas, Houston, NYC, Austin. Attendance was 10-35 people.
Possibility of scheduling breakfasts and luncheons instead of happy hours to
accommodate alumni challenging schedules. Game watching parties
Saturdays during football season.
Upcoming Events: Dr. Cox will be in Boston on December 6 and will
schedule an alumni event. Steve working with Area Chairs for spring events.
Senior BHP Students Getting Involved with Area Chairs (Steve Carlson)
Seniors apply to be “regional” reps and assist area chairs with event
planning. Purpose is to facilitate new graduate involvement and hopefully
will carry on after graduation. Steve and Shelley will work on this project.
Alumni Interviews (Shelley)
Will begin in November. Thanks to everyone participating in the past.
Prospective Student Matching Program (Shelley) Connect top prospective
minority students with alumni in the same city. Alum would serve as a
resource to discuss benefits of BHP as a student and alum. Email will be sent
out next week.
HBA Involvement with Alumni (Steven Hirsch) HBA has new Alumni
Relations Committee that will work on spring projects. Tie this committee
into some of our alumni initiatives listed above.