Last modified: Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Dan Dalton to step down as dean of IU's Kelley School of Business
EDITORS: A digital image of Dalton is available. Contact Linda Cajigas at 812-856-5546 to obtain a copy.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Dan R. Dalton, who as dean of Indiana University's Kelley School of Business oversaw the development of a new graduate and executive education center, and academic programs consistently ranked among the nation's best, announced today (Jan. 20) that he will step down as dean and return to teaching at the end of the current academic year.
Dalton, 57, made his announcement to administrators, faculty and staff on both the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses.
Dalton, who has led the Kelley School since 1997, said he has decided not to seek a reappointment as dean and that he will return to teaching. He will hold the Harold A. Poling Chair of Strategic Management, a title he also has held since 1998.
"In a note of this character, it is customary to extol the achievements of the period, a tradition with which I am not altogether comfortable. Deans, at their very best, facilitate and leverage the opportunities and accomplishments of others," he wrote. "It is in this spirit that I thank our faculty, staff, students, alumni and our many, many friends for their enormous contributions to the Kelley School of Business. It has been a productive time. It has been a privilege to serve in your company."
"Dan has been a strong dean not only for the Kelley School, but also for the entire campus because he has always taken the larger view. The new building certainly is the best testimony for the rich legacy he has given to the university. He has excelled in every way as dean," said Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, interim IU senior vice president for academic affairs and chancellor of the IU Bloomington campus.
Charles R. Bantz, vice president for long-range planning and IUPUI chancellor, added, "Dan Dalton demonstrated superb leadership as a scholar-administrator. He is internationally recognized for his research and vigorously led his colleagues as an administrator. As reader of the management literature, I look forward to even greater contributions from Dan in the coming years."
Bantz, to whom Dalton reports as dean, said he and Gros Louis will consult widely as a search process is defined.
Dalton was appointed as interim dean at the beginning of 1997, succeeding John Rau, who left IU to become president and chief executive officer of Chicago Title and Trust Co. and Chicago Title Insurance Co. Dalton was named dean following a national search in May 1997.
Under Dalton's leadership, the Kelley School has secured more than $150 million in gift income, which is more gift income than any other academic unit or program at IU Bloomington. The revenue includes more than $25 million in private support for the construction of the Graduate and Executive Education Center, dedicated in 2003; $23 million from the family of E. W. Kelley, whose gift began the prestigious Kelley Scholars program for high-achieving undergraduates and led to the naming of the school in 1997; and $5.4 million for the Mitte Foundation Scholarship/Fellowship program.
Additionally, the number of named professorships and endowed chairs has grown from 26 in 1997 to 67 today. All of the school's major programs -- undergraduate and graduate -- advanced to top-20 status during his tenure. Only five other U.S. business schools can claim this distinction.
Dalton also positioned the school as an innovative leader in online education in an era where strong reputations give an early competitive edge. Kelley Direct, the school's arm for Web-based courses, manages the nation's only top-20 MBA program online, with top-echelon corporations such as Microsoft, General Motors, United Technologies Corp. and John Deere & Co. among its clients.
"During this time he also has maintained a prolific research presence," said Dan C. Smith, the school's associate dean of academics, pointing out that Dalton has published more than 65 professional articles in the field of management in the past five years alone. Dalton's contributions to the Academy of Management received notable recognition recently when he was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy. A gifted teacher as well as a business scholar, Dalton has received 25 awards and citations for teaching excellence, including recognition by Business Week magazine as a "best bet" instructor.
Dalton is a graduate of California State University at Long Beach and the University of California at Irvine.
