Recognizing Academic Excellence
Behind Bryant’s No. 7 ranking for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” in U.S. News & World Report
When U.S. News & World Report asked top academic officers to name the schools with an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching, Bryant University came to mind time and time again. “Bryant faculty have a passion and love for teaching that’s evident in the classroom,” says Provost and Chief Academic Officer Glenn Sulmasy, J.D., LL.M. The University places a […]
“He loves what he does, and he wants us to love it too.” Student comments like this are common when it comes to describing Finance Professor Jack Trifts, Ph.D. Trifts is a respected academic leader and accomplished scholar whose research has been published in some of the most prestigious finance journals, and he has presented at conferences […]
Students benefit from Professor Katayoun Alidadi’s global perspective
Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, Katayoun (Katie) Alidadi, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, researcher, and international expert on human rights, anti-discrimination law, and labor law. She’s also a dedicated and passionate educator who applies her research and global perspective in her teaching. “I believe you’re not just there to teach [students] the knowledge in a certain […]
It was Bryant’s IDEA (Innovation and Design Experience for All) program, the three-day design thinking boot camp for all freshmen, that helped Marlee O’Keefe ’19 of Mahwah, NJ, choose Entrepreneurship as her major. “In IDEA, you’re assigned a big problem and you have to come up with a creative solution. You have to do the big-picture work, […]
TEDxBryantU on Feb 23, 2019 will bring together 10 presenters, drawn from faculty, students, alumni, and friends of Bryant University, to share their ideas devoted to identifying “The Keys to the Future.” A student-run initiative that is independently organized by Bryant students and licensed by the TED media platform, TEDxBryantU provides the University community with an opportunity to […]
Bryant University’s College of Business marks 25 years of AACSB Accreditation
Bryant University’s College of Business has earned re-accreditation by AACSB (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) International, a distinction held since 1994. AACSB accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education, and it is a designation held by only five percent of the world’s business programs.
Last week, about 800 freshmen and 200 faculty, staff, student and alumni mentors, and 130 judges (nearly 1,200 participants in all) came together for the seventh annual IDEA, Bryant’s three-day, high-energy, design thinking boot camp for all first-year students. The entire campus was transformed into a Silicon Valley start-up environment, where students learned to shift […]
Empathy and journey maps help IDEA students walk in customers’ shoes
Proponents of design thinking, a method of human-based creative problem solving used by the world’s most innovative companies, say that empathy lies at the heart of the process. It’s such an important concept that workshops on empathy mapping and its companion piece, user journey mapping, were added to the curriculum of this year’s IDEA program.
The entire Bryant community mobilizes for IDEA, including about 100 alumni who come from all over the country to share their experience and perspective with first-year students. Alumni mentors offer feedback and guidance on students’ concepts, and in the process, many report they learn a lot too.
Student mentors are a vital component in the success of the Bryant IDEA program, helping to guide first-year students through the design thinking process. The opportunity to teach what they learned from their IDEA experience reinforces and reinvigorates their own creative thinking.
