Brian Till is beginning his first school year as dean of the College of Business Administration after assuming the position on July 13.
Till was previously dean of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University and he held marketing positions at Drexel University and Loyola University-Chicago. He also spent seven years as chair of the marketing department at Saint Louis University.
Till said his experience teaching classes while studying for his MBA at the University of Texas at Austin is what spurred his interest in an academic career.
“That ignited my love for teaching, which is ultimately what led me to leave the industry and go the academic route,” Till said.
Although Till has been with Marquette for seven weeks, he has big plans for the college. Replacing the college’s building and relocating the it to a more contemporary environment have become priorities for him.
“The classrooms are not as student and instructor friendly as we might like, both from a technology standpoint and a space, set-up standpoint,” Till said. “The offices for faculty are in odd locations that make it more difficult for students to have access to the faculty and for the faculty to be connected with each other.”
Some students agree that a new space for the college would be a welcome and necessary change.
“I think it’s an old building – a lot of complaints, especially compared to the other buildings on campus,” said Ryan McDonald, a senior in the College of Business Administration.
Nathan Bowen, a senior in the College of Engineering who is taking business classes, said the importance of having up-to-date facilities helps education outcomes.
“I think having good, quality facilities are always important for the ranking for the school,” he said. “That’s obviously one of the big reasons of trying to have state-of-the-art facilities for whatever your particular discipline is.”
In addition to relocating the college, Till said he has a variety of ideas to raise the college’s visibility at Marquette and in the surrounding community. Those include the successful graduate student placement, an increase in community projects for all business students and strengthening the college’s
advisory boards.
Till said there are many ways to increase the reputation and visibility of the college.
“There’s not one, silver-bullet solution,” he said. “It’s really making steps in many different directions.”
