Economics professor William Hauk will begin in May as the new PMBA faculty director when current faculty director and accounting clinical professor Robert Lipe retires. Hauk, who joined the Moore School 16 years ago, has a bachelor’s degree in international economics from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in political economics from Stanford University. In conjunction with his faculty director role in the PMBA program, Hauk also teaches in the International MBA program.
Hauk discusses his priorities, what makes the Moore School’s Professional MBA program beneficial and his advice for students.
What are your priorities as Professional MBA faculty director?
My two big priorities are, first, working on reviewing the PMBA program to see if
the electives, certificates and concentrations are relevant for the needs of our students
and the current job market. I feel that we have a strong core curriculum, but the
employment space where our students work is always changing. We want our instruction
to remain relevant. My second priority is recruiting new students. Now that the COVID-19
pandemic is no longer a factor, we won’t be as limited in reaching out to people to
promote our program. My hope is that we will continue to draw strong candidates to
the Moore School’s PMBA program.
What is your vision for the program’s future from the perspective of the faculty director?
The PMBA program’s strength has always been that it is able to combine the flexible
delivery that our students want with the academic rigor that they need to succeed. I
hope to build on that key strength but also to craft a program that can combine the
more general business skills that we reinforce in our program core with some of the
more specialized skills that our students need in their specific industries and roles.
What PMBA courses do you teach? What is your approach to those classes?
For the last couple of years, I have taught ECON 720: Managerial Economics, which
is the core economics course for the program. Prior to that, I had taught an international
trade elective for the PMBA students as well. The main thing that I’ve learned from
this experience is that our students can watch lectures or do readings anywhere or
anytime. When I get them into class, I want it to be an interactive experience where
we work through problems, both together as a class or in small groups. That way, we
can interact with each other, and the students can better understand what their strengths
and weaknesses are and learn from each other.
For individuals in the PMBA program, many are balancing full-time jobs and families
along with the program. Do you have any advice for them on balancing these important
responsibilities while in the PMBA program?
If you have a lot of commitments outside of the program — and most of our students
do — it’s important not to overextend yourself. It’s tempting to try to “double-up”
on courses and get through the program quickly, but you’re not helping yourself if
you take on more than you can handle. Also, while we want to be flexible for our part-time
students, you should still try to come to the PMBA classrooms for that one-night-a-week
session, so you can completely focus on the task at hand for those three hours.
What would you say is your favorite memory/experience at the Moore School since becoming
a faculty member?
Maybe the time when the Gamecocks beat then-number-one Alabama at home when ESPN College
Game Day was here in 2010?! More academically, I always enjoy going to the graduation
ceremonies, especially when I know some of the graduates. It gives me a great feeling
to see our students completing their degrees and going on to what I hope is a bright
future!