Dean Sumichrast talks all things Virginia Tech

So what exactly does a dean do?

The Tab sat down with Dr. Robert T. Sumichrast of Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business for an exclusive interview on today to find out just that. 

Dean Sumichrast shared plans for Virginia Tech’s new Global Business and Analytics Complex (GBAC), set to open in 2023, and other aspects of the university’s business program. In addition to sharing details about the new complex, he talked about Pamplin’s plans and programs tailored towards engaging alumni, encouraging involvement from students outside of the college and future plans to improve the curriculum.

How do you feel about the Global Business and Analytics Complex right now?

It’s definitely exciting. It’s a way for us to interact with students differently than how we have in the past. The project will allow classes to become more interactive, and have space for students to socialize and work in small groups. I envision maybe having a larger class where the professor can break it up after discussing some content and assign students into small groups.

How specifically do you want to incorporate analytics into this complex, and into the university as a whole?

Our university is moving towards areas of focus that we call “destination areas.” Analytics is one of those focus areas, so there are faculty within Pamplin that are working on the business aspect of analytics. There are faculty in math or statistics that are working with a less-applied version of analytics. There are faculty at every college interested in the use of data and mathematical models.

We want to have students in marketing to have the opportunity to use the data that’s out there to make better decisions. The marketing department is launching a digital marketing minor. The BIT department will continue to have the strong business information technology major that is growing so fast. 

We have a master’s program in business analytics that just started this semester. It’s a fifth-year option for students who finish up a degree in a technical field and want to study applications of what they know. Students will be using analytical tools to essentially work for a company; they will have a project and have contact with a company throughout the year.

The goal of our strategic plan is to have data analytics broadly throughout the curriculum. As we build up at the university level, there could be a data analytics and decision-making minor that includes courses from Pamplin, science, engineering or any college.

Was there a moment or meeting that transitioned the Business Learning Community (BLC) concept into the GBAC?

It was some discussions that I had with the president and provost over the last summer. We needed a way to still meet the goals that set with the BLC, but do it in a way that took advantage of the collaborative atmosphere that President Sands and Provost Rikakis are building at Virginia Tech. It was a way to take what they hope to accomplish university-wide, and use it to support the facilities for the changes we want to make in Pamplin.

Are any of the advisory boards within Pamplin undergoing projects to enhance community and alumni outreach?

Yes. The Pamplin Advisory Council is a long-standing organization that we’ve revised three years ago. Through its alumni engagement committee, we’ve helped create the Recent Alumni Board and a new version of the R.B. Pamplin Society. 

The type of project that I’ve asked the Recent Alumni Board (RAB) to focus on is engagement with our current students. We’ll have a panel of speakers that comes in once or twice a semester to talk about things that would be of interest to students who are ready for that transition into a career. We’ll have them help us with encouraging students to take part in certain activities. We have our homecoming tailgate coming up this fall, which has been well-attended by alumni, but not very many students. 

The Recent Alumni Board is also active in PUMP, Pamplin’s mentoring program. We now have RAB members mentoring students, so it’s a way to take that recent experience of the transition from student to professional and open it up to students.

The R.B. Pamplin Society was previously an organization of people who served on the Pamplin Advisory Council, but were no longer serving. We still want those senior people, but I want to infuse a large number of recent graduates. Right now, the R.B. Pamplin Society is coming up with better ways recognize alumni. 

So, we have to ask: What is your favorite Hokie tradition?

Well, it has to be football. It’s hard to beat the Enter Sandman entrance.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with students?

It’s a really exciting time to be at Virginia Tech. We’re moving into a new time period where there is more complete integration than any other university I’ve been at. We’re identifying problems in society that we want to solve, and bringing together an approach to solving them that you typically wouldn’t see. It’s a much richer way to think about problems, and I hope it will be a much richer way for students to get an education.