Business school dean to resign

After one of its most prosperous eras, the Kelley School of Business needs a new leader. Dean Dan Dalton, who created the Graduate and Executive Education Center and raised more than $150 million for the school, will step down from the position and return to a professorial role at the end of the semester. A new interim dean will be selected before Dalton's resignation goes into effect June 20.\nDalton has served as the school's dean since 1997, and cited a desire to return to a teaching capacity as reason for the change.\n"I have served in the second-best position within the Kelley school now for eight years," Dalton said. "Now I look forward to be rejoining the best position in the school as a professor. I haven't been in the classroom for eight years, and that's entirely too long."\nDespite the change, Dalton will retain the Harold A. Poling Chair of Strategic Management title which he has held since 1998. \nDalton garnered many accolades for the business school during his tenure as dean, including retooling the MBA curriculum and creating the online MBA program. \nInterim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said Dalton made the business school a stronger institution. \n"The MBA curriculum was overhauled (under Dalton)," Gros Louis said. "I've talked to students and faculty, and they say that it's a much stronger curriculum, and much more forward-looking than it was before."\nFundraising was also one of Dalton's strengths as he was instrumental in raising funds in gift income for the school. Dalton secured $23 million from the family of E.W. Kelley leading to the creation of the Kelley Scholars program, and the naming of the business school in 1997. \n"(Dalton)'s been fantastic. I've served under four different deans and I've never seen a dean that's better," Associate Dean of Academics Dan Smith said. "The measurable performance is incredible with the new building, he's an incredible fundraiser, and without him, we're not the Kelley School."\nDalton originally took on the responsibilities of dean after John Rau left the position and IU, to become the president and chief executive officer of Chicago Title and Trust Co. and Chicago Title Insurance Co. After Rau stepped down, Dalton was appointed as interim dean in 1997 and eventually became the dean after a seven-month search beginning at the start of the 1998-99 school year. \nPrior to his tenure as dean, Dalton served as a professor at IU for 18 years and was the associate dean for academic affairs and chair of doctoral programs and the Samuel and Pauline Glaubinger professor of management.\nSince Dalton took on the responsibilities of dean, the IU business school has consistently increased both student and professor performance as the number of professorships and endowed chairs has grown from 26 to 67.\n"Student quality has improved and he's increased good teaching," Smith said. "In 1990, the average teaching rating in the IU business school was a five, on a seven point-scale. Today, it's a six, and that's huge. That comes about from reinforcing good teaching and hiring good faculty, and I think that's some of the major ways he's improved the school for the better." \nOverall, Dalton said he is happy with both his own performance as dean and the performance of the business school, as a whole.\n"I think it's fair to say that we at the (business) school have maintained a relatively high standard," Dalton said. "All of our programs are in the top 20 among both private schools and public schools, and that's something I'm very proud of"