Rockhurst News

A longtime member of the Helzberg School of Management's faculty and administrative leadership has been named the new dean of the College of Business, Influence, and Information Analysis at Rockhurst University.

Before coming to Rockhurst University, Carrie Spanton was at a crossroads — having grown up in the hospitality business, she went straight from high school to the workforce, eventually working her way to restaurant management in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Bentonville, Arkansas.

Rockhurst University earned a spot as one of the Best Universities in the Midwest Region and one of the Best Values, among other categories, in the 2021 Best Colleges rankings released Monday by U.S. News & World Report.

The University was ranked No. 13 among Midwest regional universities for the second straight year, once again making it the highest-ranked institution in the Kansas City area.

This week, we welcome approximately 440 new students to Rockhurst University. For these students, arriving for their first semester of college is a milestone, and for both new and returning students, there’s plenty to be excited about.

With her new internship, senior Kate Ludwig has an opportunity to help make the lives of Kansas Citians better.

With more than 200 years of service between them, the eight retiring members of the Rockhurst University faculty have earned a round of applause.

Normally recognized at the April faculty awards dinner, because of the campus shutdown as a result of COVID-19 these longtime members of the University community were instead congratulated for their decades of service virtually in a video and an email sent by Doug Dunham, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

The world’s experience fighting the COVID-19 pandemic offers a host of lessons.

But for Myles Gartland, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business, Influence and Information Analysis at Rockhurst University, the pandemic also illustrates the importance of data literacy, and why it’s so important to understand where data comes from, what it means, and how it’s shaping our understanding of the world around us.

“I think for years, a lot of us have conflated data literacy and math,” he said. “Any time we say a number, we say ‘that’s math, and I’m not good at math.’”

From the moment the academic year began, it was bound to be unique. The commencement ceremony in the year 2020 will be Rockhurst University’s 100th, a milestone worth celebrating.

Each April, students at Rockhurst University vote for the staff member and faculty member who have had an outsized impact that year on their campus and academic lives. As part of the Festival of Student Achievement, the Faculty of the Year and Staff Member of the Year are typically recognized before a full Arrupe Hall auditorium.

Because of COVID-19, this year’s winners won’t get that live round of applause (a virtual Festival of Student Achievement is currently being planned). But they did get some in-person appreciation last Friday (at a safe distance, of course).

For most health care providers, staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic is simply not an option.