Professor Pike Retiring in June
Kenneth Lee, MBA '06
Issue date: 4/13/05 Section: Johnson News
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Professor Alan Pike, after spending more than 20 years teaching at Cornell, is planning to retire in June of this year. Professor Pike, currently teaching NBA 567 Management Writing and NBA 568 Oral Communication, will be missed by students and fellow faculty alike.
After graduating from Yale with an A.B. in English and spending three years serving in the Navy, Professor Pike arrived at Ithaca in 1965, to begin his PhD studies in the English department. Upon receiving his degree, he stayed in Ithaca to start teaching a variety of undergraduate courses in the department, including Creative Writing and Literature & Values. Shortly afterwards, Professor Charlotte Rosen, then tasked with starting a new program to teach communications at the Johnson School, recruited Pike to teach a few courses for the business school students. Pike soon made the decision to teach at the Johnson School full-time. "It's nice to teach at the graduate level - I find the business school students to be a very receptive audience," he says.
From the beginning, Pike tried to help create a learning experience that differed from the large core communications classes that other business schools offered. "It is no accident that we restrict each class to 10-15 people. We prefer to give each student more personal attention," he says. Attention is focused on helping each student eliminate self-conscious defensive mechanisms when speaking in public and learn how to develop a rapport with the audience. "We try to expand each student's repertoire of communications skills," Pike adds.
It also helps when the professor has a strong interest in each student's success. "He believes that each student is capable of eloquence," remarks fellow colleague Rosen. "Professor Pike is really the person who would take his time, both in and outside of class, to polish your development to the fullest extent," says Tan Sakunkoo, MBA '05. "He has turned on the lightbulbs in students' writing and speaking," adds C. Lynn Liao, MBA '05.
After graduating from Yale with an A.B. in English and spending three years serving in the Navy, Professor Pike arrived at Ithaca in 1965, to begin his PhD studies in the English department. Upon receiving his degree, he stayed in Ithaca to start teaching a variety of undergraduate courses in the department, including Creative Writing and Literature & Values. Shortly afterwards, Professor Charlotte Rosen, then tasked with starting a new program to teach communications at the Johnson School, recruited Pike to teach a few courses for the business school students. Pike soon made the decision to teach at the Johnson School full-time. "It's nice to teach at the graduate level - I find the business school students to be a very receptive audience," he says.
From the beginning, Pike tried to help create a learning experience that differed from the large core communications classes that other business schools offered. "It is no accident that we restrict each class to 10-15 people. We prefer to give each student more personal attention," he says. Attention is focused on helping each student eliminate self-conscious defensive mechanisms when speaking in public and learn how to develop a rapport with the audience. "We try to expand each student's repertoire of communications skills," Pike adds.
It also helps when the professor has a strong interest in each student's success. "He believes that each student is capable of eloquence," remarks fellow colleague Rosen. "Professor Pike is really the person who would take his time, both in and outside of class, to polish your development to the fullest extent," says Tan Sakunkoo, MBA '05. "He has turned on the lightbulbs in students' writing and speaking," adds C. Lynn Liao, MBA '05.