Dean Of The Year: Idie Kesner of Indiana University’s Kelley School Of Business

FUNDING A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TEAM WITH AN UNUSUAL BONUS STRUCTURE TO BRING IN JOBS

Only last year, Kesner made a bold decision. After opening a $14 million Career Services Center on campus, one of the very few business schools to devote an entire building to career management, Kesner decided to fund a new business development team, with four regional staffers, one in LA, one in Boston, one in Atlanta, and one in Bloomington who covers the Midwest. The four officials, who are incentivized by a bonus structure unheard of in academia, are tasked with building relationships with employers to bring in new jobs for Kelley’s students.

In the first year of operation, the team generated roughly 1,400 new job opportunities, including nearly 400 for MBAs alone, from companies that had never before recruited the school’s undergraduate and graduate students.

For Kesner, the investments represent a core belief that the school has a responsibility to its students. “We don’t like the idea of bringing students in without the certainty that we can find our students jobs,” she says flatly. “We owe an obligation to our students. We feel very committed to that.” Last year, 1,200 employers hired the school’s graduates across all its many programs.

DEALING WITH TRAGEDY AND CRISIS: A SUICIDE, A CRASH & A PROF EXPRESSING RACIST VIEWS

Along the way, Kesner has had to grapple with both tragedy and crisis, events in which the dean has shown a remarkable capacity for both learning and compassion. Three years ago, in early June, a Kelley undergraduate student had committed suicide in a Greenwich Village dorm room in New York City. Just a year short of graduation, the young man hung himself while in New York on an investment banking internship at PJT Partners. When news of the tragedy reached the campus, everyone was shocked. The 20-year-old finance major, after all, was not known to have a history of depression and was well-liked. He was known for his contagious smile and boundless intelligence. He had picked up three scholarships at Kelley, was in the business honors program, and had been involved in Kelley’s investment banking workshop and its investment banking club.

Kesner not only handled the crisis with sensitivity and care, but she also sprung into action, funding a major mental wellness program for the school’s large undergraduate population. She and her team launched a mentorship program to serve 2,000 students, began programs to ease anxiety ahead of finals week, setting aside a meditation room in the undergraduate center, and putting on a series of speakers and seminars, including a “Failing Successfully” panel with current Kelley students.

“Our school is very focused on the mental wellness of our students” believes Kesner. “It’s a key part of our undergraduate education and we started down this journey about three years ago. We’ve noticed that sometimes, students are not only overstressed, but they’re also expecting perfectionism from themselves. That striving places undue pressure on students today. We have focused our efforts on providing opportunities for them to destress and encourage them to think about their emotional wellness.

PUBLICLY CALLING OUT A PROFESSOR FOR HIS RACIST & SEXIST COMMENTS

“It may seem strange since mental wellness doesn’t seem like a business topic, but finding balance is a life-skill meant to last a lifetime. We are hoping to produce leaders who recognize when they need to step back in order to perform better, and we believe that leaders who can recognize this in themselves will be able to recognize it in the people they lead. There are many other skills a leader needs that are perhaps more qualitative and technical, but this skill is no less important. ”

And when another student suffered a serious facial injury in an electric scooter crash last fall, Kesner was immediately on the phone with the student’s mother to let her know what had happened before rushing off to the hospital to care for the woman’s daughter.

Of course, deaning in today’s world requires the ability to confront all kinds of discomfiting challenges. Only last month, in November, another event threw Kesner a curve requiring strong and decisive leadership. She did not disappoint.

‘I FIND THE REMARKS AND THE BELIEFS BY THIS PROFESSOR REPREHENSIBLE’

A tenured professor at Kelley came under fire for disseminating racist, sexist, and homophobic views through social media, prompting widespread calls for his firing. Among other things, Eric Rasmusen, 60, a professor of business economics and public policy, tweeted an article titled “Are Women Destroying Academia? Probably.” The point of view of the article,  endorsed by Rasmusen, reflected similar views expressed in his private Twitter account.

While the university made clear his views were protected by the First Amendment, Kesner took steps to isolate the incident and professor. More importantly, she did not hesitate to shame the professor with a strong statement rejecting his comments. Dean Kesner made clear that the school’s leadership was united “in condemning the bias and disrespect displayed by this professor; we find his sexist, racist, and homophobic views abhorrent. As a female academic, dean of the school, and a Kelley alumnus who cares deeply about our school,” she wrote, “I find the remarks and the beliefs presented in the papers cited and tweets by this professor reprehensible.”

Kesner decided to allow students enrolled in Rasmusen’s courses to substitute other courses or transfer to other sections taught by different professors.  She also put in place systems to ensure that the professor’s expressed biases do not impact the grades he gives students or how he conducts his classroom sessions.

‘WE ARE A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT THAT WILL STRIVE EVERY DAY TO MORE INCLUSIVE’

“I ask that you not judge our school by a single faculty member,” added Kesner.  “For 100 years, we have been a learning environment that cares deeply about our research, teaching and service missions. For 100 years, we have been a learning environment that cares deeply about our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.  And, we are a learning environment that will strive every day to be more inclusive and supportive of diversity than the day before. Each of us brings a valuable aspect of diversity that gives our institution strength.  I hope we can remember this even when we are challenged by others whose minds are closed to this viewpoint.”

With her hands tied by tenure and free speech, Kesner did the only possible thing she could do. She publicly made it clear that there was no tolerance for the professor’s views and that she would not subject any of the school’s students to them. It was a rare public rebuke of a professor but just another display of a smart and highly intuitive leader in action.