CHRONICLE - COLLEGE NEWS 2025

Notable Speakers, Events and Program News

BUILDING THE GOOD IN BUSINESS

Mendoza College of Business' iconic "H-shaped" footprint is getting a makeover — a dramatic one. In March, construction crews broke ground for a new addition to the north end of the building that will effectively create a giant "A."

The North Addition is just one of the major construction projects taking place in the College in the next 18 months. Collectively themed "Building the Good in Business" to echo the College's imperative to Grow the Good in Business, the projects are intended to significantly advance Mendoza's research culture and the academic experience of students.

The three major projects are:

The North Addition, a three-story, 28,000-square-foot addition scheduled to open in fall 2026 that includes a classroom/auditorium, student lounges and study areas, a third-floor open terrace, Ph.D. student offices and two flexible seating classrooms, among other features. The addition and the auditorium will be named to honor founding dean Father John Cardinal O'Hara, C.S.C., with artwork and other installations in the common areas devoted to telling his life story.

The Trading Room, a 1,200-square-foot space designed to optimize an industry-standard, hands-on lab experience in financial markets and investment strategies. Located in the highly visible northeast corner of the atrium, the Trading Room features a glass-front entry, wall-to-wall video board and racetrack-style stock tickers. The room, set to open in fall 2025, will provide access to industry-leading platforms like Factset, Bloomberg and CapIQ, with roughly 24 workstations, a conference table and a soft seating area.

The Mendoza Behavioral Lab, a dedicated research center designed for examining human behavior as it relates to business. With multiple rooms configured for studies involving human subjects, including virtual reality and biometric equipment, the lab will allow business faculty to run trials and experiments to collect primary data — a great advantage in pursuing impactful scholarly research. The lab opens in summer 2025.

SUPPORTING MILITARY SPOUSES

Notre Dame is partnering with the Military Spouse Advocacy Network (MSAN) to offer two online courses for military spouses starting in spring 2025. The Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership will take the lead on one course, covering topics such as conflict management, voicing values at work, and honesty and empathy in decision making. MSAN plans to launch the non-credit courses beginning with a cohort of 50 military spouses.

Read more here.

LIFE COACHING

Byron Spruell (MBA '89, ND '87), NBA president of league operations, shared an NBA sizzle reel and career insights during a Mendoza Dean's Speaker Series event. The former Fighting Irish football co-captain emphasized key principles: working hard, serving others and building a strong support network. For the NBA, Spruell oversees basketball operations, referees and game evolution. He credits his success to mentors and lives by Jackie Robinson's message: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

Watch the video here.

COWBOY BOOTS

After serving five years as dean, Martijn Cremers received a pair of cowboy boots customized with his initials as a gift of appreciation from the Business Advisory Council during the fall 2024 meeting.

DOUBLE UP

The College will offer a new double major program in business and computer science in fall 2025 for Mendoza undergraduate students in collaboration with the College of Engineering. Students can combine any one of the Mendoza majors with a second major in computer science. The offering speaks to recruiters' increasing interest in hiring students who possess both strong business and technical skills.

IN MEMORIAM

Robert A. Drevs, retired associate teaching professor at Mendoza, died peacefully October 29, 2024. Born in Chicago in 1945, Drevs was a Notre Dame and Northwestern graduate who served in the U.S. Navy during Vietnam. He joined Mendoza in 1993, where he pioneered the College's web initiatives and won several teaching awards, including the Kaneb Teaching Award. His enthusiasm and dedication to students defined his career until his 2009 retirement.

Yu-Chi Chang passed away on November 4, 2024, at the age of 94. Born in Anhui, China, Chang's career as a professor at Notre Dame spanned 45 years, leaving behind a legacy of educational excellence and an enduring belief in the power of knowledge.

AACSB ACCREDITATION

The Mendoza College of Business and its Department of Accountancy renewed their accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in 2024. AACSB accreditation is considered the most recognized form of specialized accreditation for a business program. The College first received AACSB accreditation in 1962; accountancy has been accredited by AACSB since 1984.

WOMEN'S INVESTING SUMMIT

In February, the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing (NDIGI) hosted its seventh annual Women's Investing Summit, inviting 21 speakers hailing from various investment sectors. The two-day event featured Allison Barber, former president of the Indiana Fever and CEO of To The Hoop Strategies, who spoke on "Building a Championship Culture: From the Pentagon to the WNBA." Barber told the primarily student audience that she's in her "eighth career, not jobs, but careers," stressing the importance of not limiting one's aspirations to a single job or profession.

POST ELECTION ANALYSIS

"What's broken is the public sense of confidence in their leadership — not just their government leadership but their private sector leadership, their culture leadership. That's going to take a lot to repair."

— Gerry Baker, editor-at-large of The Wall Street Journal, speaking during this year's Thomas H. Quinn Lecture Series "Unpacking the Election: Where Do We Go From Here?"

INAUGURATION: HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

Mendoza faculty, staff and students pitched in to help with a local Habitat for Humanity project as part of the events celebrating the inauguration of Notre Dame President Bob Dowd, C.S.C.

GETTING IN THE GAME

The Mendoza College of Business and Notre Dame Athletics launched a groundbreaking partnership in July 2024 to support student-athletes through graduate business programs. The initiative includes offering the professional development program ND Elevate to student-athletes to help create pathways for women into business leadership. The partnership was inspired by research showing 94% of women C-suite executives have played sports.

NEW MASTER'S DEGREE

Applications are now open for the College's newest specialized master's program: the 10-month Master of Science in Digital Marketing program, starting August 2025. The STEM-designated program targets students with less than three years of work experience and covers brand strategy, social media, SEO and AI. Led by former Google analytics strategist Kevin Hartman, the program emphasizes both practical skills and ethical digital marketing practices.

Read more about Kevin Hartman's development of the Notre Dame Master of Science in Digital Marketing program.

AI'S THREAT

Notre Dame Law Professor Paolo Carozza spoke about "The Dignity of Human Life in the Digital Age" during the Mendoza Dean's Speaker Series event in February. The renowned expert in international human rights and comparative constitutional law provided a deep analysis of AI's potential erosion of human dignity as understood through Catholic Social Teaching.

He moved beyond the simplistic "good vs. bad" framing of technology, noting that it "is an inextricable part of the human landscape of our reality now and into the future just as it has always been in the past."