Alumni Newsletter Fall 2021

Greetings Alumni and Friends,

This Fall we have been fortunate to experience the return to fully face-to-face classes for the majority of our university courses along with the familiar marching and drumbeat of the Highty-Tighties practicing on the drill field. These are welcome sounds and sights representing a joyful return to near normality that we profoundly missed last academic year. Notwithstanding the immense challenges the pandemic presented our students and faculty, the ACIS Department has continued to achieve many positive outcomes and awards. Perhaps most important among these achievements is the vast majority of our graduating seniors (94%) obtained placements prior to or shortly after graduation. We are very proud of the energy and perseverance of our students, graduates, and faculty to overcome the challenges of Covid and continue their important work. One of the downstream effects of difficult times is that it often brings out the best in quality people. I continue to be humbled witnessing the way Hokies come together when times get tough. I’ve been a Virginia Tech faculty member for over 35 years and have witnessed many challenging events during that time including the 9-11 and 4-16 tragedies. The aftermath of each of these events resulted in the Hokie nation coming together in various positive ways to support one another. This same spirit of support and solidarity has been present during the Covid pandemic. I was privileged to behold a clear portrayal of this harmony at the May 2021 graduation. After an academic year of mostly zoom classes, the University held in-person graduations spread over seven days in voluminous Lane Stadium so that parents and friends could attend. Two Pamplin graduations were held on Sunday May 16 th . Even though it was drizzling rain and there were no faculty handshake receiving lines or diplomas provided, the students were thrilled to hear their individual names announced as they walked across the stage to the applause of proud parents and friends

in the stands. The students were remarkably happy to be able to share this in-person moment with their classmates and family. They gathered before and after the official graduation ceremony laughing and taking informal group pictures and selfies on the football field. Of all the joyful graduations, May 2021 will stand out in a special way in my mind for Pamplin students. I commend the upper-level Virginia Tech administration for their planning of that May graduation, and also for their handling of our return to classes this Fall. All students were required to prove they were vaccinated (with some prescribed legitimate exceptions permitted) and those that did not provide the necessary proof had their course registrations removed until they verified their vaccination status. This was followed by a vaccine requirement for all employees (with the same exceptions). In addition, a mask mandate was instituted for all university classrooms and indoor public spaces. These precautions resulted in a very successful Fall semester with a very low incidence of Covid among our university community. At the time of this writing, the positivity rate of those tested was 0.1% during the past week. We hope and pray that this trend continues so we can continue our return to normality. In the meantime, our students, alumni, and faculty continued to work and be recognized for their excellence in a wide variety of ways. We describe some of these in this newsletter including current undergraduate Meredith Slaw’s great success on the softball field. Graduate students Karneisha Wolfe and Carissa Malone have individually been recognized with awards for their research efforts. Alumnae Lynne Doughtie and Kelly Pope have been named among the Most Powerful Women in Accounting by the AICPA. ACIS PhD alumnae Damon Fleming and Pamela Smith have each

Jack Maher

been named to the head Dean position at AACSB accredited business schools. Furthermore, our faculty have received an assortment of awards in the past year comprising numerous promotions and recognitions including France Belanger’s selection as a University Distinguished Professor. Finally, Rob Davidson was named to become the new Department Head of ACIS beginning January 1 st , 2022. I am pleased to successfully complete my five-year term and will rejoin the teaching and research faculty. We provide more details about these and other ACIS events in the remainder of this Newsletter. In closing, thank you for your support in helping us educate the current generation of Virginia Tech ACIS students. Best wishes for a peaceful and enjoyable holiday season. Go Hokies!

John J. Maher

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