Highlighted by six faculty members who have departed in the past year, a generation of 17 CBAPP faculty members has retired in the past five years. While paving the way for a new class of top faculty, they say goodbye after 444 years of combined service to the Carson campus.  

At this 45-year-old university, many of the retiring faculty members have been on campus since its inception, seeing the university grow and blossom through four decades. Averaging more than 25 years on campus, they have shaped the departments and programs they served, represented the college at countless conferences and in numerous publications, provided guidance as advisors for student organizations, and built CBAPP into the college that stands today.  

“These faculty laid the foundation for this college and this university,” said Dean James Strong. “To think of the number of students who have learned and been influenced by this strong contingent of faculty is staggering. We already miss them and will continue to do so for years to come.” 

The retirees include public administration professors Mary Auth, David Karber and Jeffrey Smith; finance and quantitative methods professors Martin Blyn, Sadik Cokelez, Carol Lopilato, Herbert Milgrim and Mazin Nashif; management professors Robert Dowling, Richard Nehrbass and Bryant Mills; marketing professors Joel Greenwald, and George Morris; economics professors Abraham Kidane and James Harris; and accounting and law professor Don Barnett. Some of these faculty members have stayed on as part-time professors during their retirement. 

And while Dean Strong will miss them sorely, he has little time to mourn their loss as the college is furiously filling 10 current faculty positions vacated by the outgoing professors. The shift represents a critical time for the college as this experienced wave of professors move out to make room for a new generation.  

“A quarter of our faculty are turning over in one year so this is certainly a dramatic and critical juncture for our college. We are very busy making sure we get the right people – top professors in their fields – to fill these vacancies. They will have a great responsibility to maintain and build upon the legacy of these outgoing faculty,” said Strong.  

When asked to look back at their years on campus, most of the retiring faculty referenced the people they worked and interacted with as the most memorable component of their jobs.  

“The best part has been the people – my teaching and administrative colleagues, the staff, and it has always been rewarding to work with students,” wrote Barnett, who retired at the end of last month. 

"Whenever I think of my time at DH in the years to come, without a doubt, the thing I will hold most dear is the people I have had the opportunity to meet here," wrote Auth. "I have had the privilege of working with some great colleagues in the Department of Public Administration and of teaching PUB and MPA students who are dedicated to public service and want to make a difference in the world."

“I can’t name just one thing as my fondest memory from my time here,” wrote Greenwald, who retired this past July. “The collegiality of the Marketing Department faculty was great from my first day on campus until I retired. I also thoroughly enjoyed my interactions with students as a faculty advisor to the Student Marketing Association and as associate dean, especially working with students in academic trouble, assisting them in finding ways to succeed and eventually seeing them graduate.”