School Notes: School of Management
July/August 2011

School breaks ground for new campus

About 100 of the people who have made possible the construction of Edward P. Evans Hall, the new School of Management campus, gathered at the site of the school’s future home on April 26 for a groundbreaking ceremony. Silver shovels and champagne marked the event, where Dean Sharon Oster, President Richard C. Levin ’74PhD, and William S. Beinecke ’36 praised the effort to create the new 4.25-acre campus now under construction at Whitney Avenue and Sachem Street. The 242,000-square-foot building will be a landmark at the northern gateway to the Yale campus, housing state-of-the-art classrooms, faculty offices, academic centers, and student and meeting spaces organized around a welcoming courtyard. It is scheduled to open in 2013.

Dean’s final commencement

The Class of 2011 graduated on May 23, marking Dean Sharon Oster’s final commencement as head of Yale SOM. She was to conclude her term as dean on June 30. Oster presented diplomas to 230 newly minted MBAs—212 from the full-time program and 18 from the executive MBA program. She praised the group for the passion and values its members brought to the school and expressed confidence that the students would go into the world and make it a better place. The students offered warm applause to Oster, who became dean in late 2008 and presided over three commencements. John Metz ’11, who was selected by his classmates to deliver an address, thanked her for her service. “We are a very lucky class to have the pleasure of your deanship from orientation to commencement,” he said.

Professor to serve in U.S. Department of Justice

Fiona Scott Morton, professor of economics, has been named deputy assistant attorney general for economic analysis for the U.S. Department of Justice, the first woman to hold the post. The position, in which she will oversee a team of more than 50 economists, was to begin June 1 and will last at least one year. She will take a leave of absence from her teaching at Yale SOM while serving in the government. Scott Morton will act as the chief economist of the DOJ antitrust division, a job traditionally held by an academic in a one- or two-year stint. Her role will cover three key areas: enforcing current antitrust laws; approving mergers and acquisitions applications that come before the department; and exploring how antitrust policy fits in new legislation, such as the new health care law. Scott Morton will also work on strengthening the department’s relationships with antitrust officials in the European Union, Canada, and other jurisdictions.