Virtual Mail Bag

Writing letters is a lost art. I do get a lot
of email, though and not all of it is ads for
mortgages, porn or Viagra. Here are a couple of
emails I received during the past week or so.

Dear Brett and the Lexmark Team:

While I appreciate that talented students have many opportunities that they may wish to pursue, I thought we made it quite clear at various points throughout our recruitment and orientation efforts that our immersive MBA format requires a total commitment on your part. Students must be available to fulfill a variety of program obligations throughout the business day, and on occasion, into the evening. This is why we strongly encouraged students not to take on employment or other non-family responsibilities during their year with us. The obligation to be available on an as-needed basis is a collective one that enhances the experience for all students and faculty associated with the program. Granting an exception to one person or group diminishes the experience for everyone. This will be especially true as Project Connect kicks into high gear. Thus, I am not willing to grant your request.


Please understand that rotation of students through the cohorts will continue with the start of the new product development module. Our plan is to move the groups in ways that allows everyone to be in class with everyone else at least once during the program. This may or may not result in you being in the morning cohort for the next module, but you will know that result in about a week.


Professor Paul Jarley
Associate Dean for Faculty and Special Programs
Director, Center for A Sustainable Aluminum Industry
Gatton College of Business and Economics
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY 40506-0034
Phone: 859-257-7692


Now I tried to take this one in stride, but he had to go and raise my
ire by sending me this email.

Dear Brett:

Success in the Immersive MBA program requires the total dedication of our students, faculty and staff. We expect everyone associated with the program to honor their professional commitments and obligations. Unless you had an excused absence we are unaware of, you failed to do so when you did not attend Thursday's brown bag with Randy Lisk.. The Brown Bag seminars are an important part of our program. Attendance helps build a sense of community and the information we provide at these sessions are an integral part of your professional development. I regret having to do this, but equity demands that I require you to do remedial work on the topic of Randy Lisk's seminar: "personal accountability--the power of choice." More specifically, you are required to practice the key skills discussed in Randy’s handout and provide a three page paper documenting your experiences. This paper should include at least two specific examples of what you did and how well it worked. The paper will be due to me on Oct. 10th.

Gatton faculty teaching in the program have been asked to place in their syllabus a statement that successful completion of all mandatory extracurricular program requirements is necessary for successful completion of their course. Please see your MBA 604 syllabus for an example. Failure to receive a passing grade on the paper assignment will result in a full letter grade reduction in your grade for MBA 604.

Professor Paul Jarley
Associate Dean for Faculty and Special Programs
Director, Center for A Sustainable Aluminum Industry
Gatton College of Business and Economics
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY 40506-0034
Phone: 859-257-7692

There are probably several ways to go from here, but there really
is only response to this type of arrogance. To build suspense on
my blog, I'll make a few more posts and then post my response at
the end of the weekend.