The Fox School’s Department of Management Information Systems hosted the second annual Management Information Systems (MIS) Academic Leadership Conference (MALC 2012) from Nov. 1-3 at Alter Hall.
Academic leaders of MIS departments across the world were invited to network and learn from others facing similar responsibilities and challenges. The format was small and highly interactive, with 70 professionals with leadership responsibility for MIS at their respective college or university in attendance. Attendees represented 53 universities, including some of the top schools in the nation.
The conference featured a keynote presentation by Joseph C. Spagnoletti, senior vice president and chief information officer at Campbell Soup Company, as well as a keynote deans’ panel led by Fox School of Business Dean M. Moshe Porat.
Temple Provost Hai-Lung Dai introduced Porat by saying:
the business school under the leadership of Dean Porat is recognized as a powerhouse of Temple University, and our MIS program is a gem of the Fox School.
University President Richard M. Englert praised the accomplishments of Fox MIS faculty and students and called MIS:
“one of the most dynamic academic disciplines,” adding that it “is an essential and powerful tool in business development and economic growth.”
The deans’ panel was titled “The Digitalization of Business Schools” and included Leonard Jessup, dean of the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Business, and Peter A. Todd, dean of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Quebec. Opportunities and threats posed by the digitalization of business schools were debated, and discussion focused heavily on online learning. “I think it’s inevitable we will have to provide all of these things online,” Porat said, stressing that online classes cannot lose quality. The panelists shared varying views. Jessup noted the importance of online classes at Arizona while Todd shared that McGill does not see much of a need for them yet. “I think it depends on the culture of the institution and the strength of the brand,” Porat added.
In the general sessions, conference presenters represented schools from Boston College to Aalto University in Finland. Each shared insight as to what their schools are doing on topics such as information systems advisory councils and best practices for MIS graduate programs. Associate professor and founding chair of Fox’s MIS Department, Munir Mandviwalla, served on the conference committee and presented at the session titled, “Where will MIS go in 2015? 2020?” Another MIS faculty member, Professor Paul A. Pavlou, chaired the session. Assistant Professor Richard Flanagan presented in the “Recruiting Strategies” session. Flanagan is the director of Fox’s new Master of Science in IT Auditing and Cyber-Security program in the MIS Department. Assistant Professor Mart Doyle and Fox IT Advisory Board Chair Bruce Fadem also moderated sessions.
The MIS Academic Leadership Conference is the only conference specifically designed for individuals responsible for leading MIS in higher education to network and learn. The conference was co-sponsored by Temple, the University of Arizona, University of Minnesota, Indiana University and University of Texas at Dallas.
For more information click on: http://ibit.temple.edu/malc2012/
