Michael Cross starts almost every class with dad jokes.
“I think it’s really important to build a rapport with students and to have fun. To let [the students] know they can come up to me and ask a question and I’m not going to think it’s dumb. I try to establish a level of approachability,” Cross said.
Just before spring break, students voted for a faculty member to receive the Faculty Career Champion award, and Cross was selected. The Faculty Career Champion award honors a faculty member who has empowered students to find purpose, reach career goals and prepare for professional life.
“I feel really good about the fact [that I was selected] because I feel students recognize that I am trying to help them make connections to the business community whether it’s bringing in a guest speaker for BASCOM [Bears Advancing Supply Chain & Operations Management], whether it’s talking about specific business experiences; I’m just trying to bring the business world alive for students in the classroom,” Cross said.
Cross isn’t a traditional business faculty member. He doesn’t have a doctorate in business administration, but what he does have is 35 years of business experience.
“I have some professional certifications from areas in which I worked, and I worked across several different industries. What I’m bringing to the classroom is my business experience as opposed to being a research professor,” Cross said.
Cross worked as an adjunct professor while working in the field. He enjoyed teaching and wanted to do something different from what he was doing in the business field, so he taught full time at a small school in Missouri before a position opened up here at UCA in fall 2021.
Cross encourages students to use Career Services on campus and to make appointments with them. He also suggests the many resources on the Career Services website such as Handshake.
“Career Services is the primary resource I push students toward,” he said. “The other thing is, I strongly encourage students to do internships.”
Junior Matt Moix, an operations and supply chain major, is the president of BASCOM, an RSO Cross advises.
“[Cross] has dedicated a lot of time to bringing in professionals from the community to speak to our supply chain students,” Moix said. “A lot of them have internships and opportunities and are looking for students. It’s awesome for our students to gain real-world experience because of that.”
Moix said when Cross writes recommendation letters, they matter to the employer that reads them.
“When he writes letters of recommendation, his word is trusted and that’s helped a lot of students get internships and jobs. Just because of who he is and the work that he’s done so far has allowed him to be taken seriously in the supply chain community and is often very beneficial for the students,” Moix said.
Cross often offers advice to his students through a three-legged stool analogy.
“Success is dependent on a three-legged stool. The legs are basic business understanding, technical skills for the role, and being able to interact and communicate effectively with other people.
“If you’ve got those three things you are in a good position. If you don’t have them, you can develop them and continue to add and strengthen each of those three legs,” he said. “I use the three-legged stool because it is the most balanced piece of furniture that you can have. If you have four legs and one is too short then it rocks, but if you have three legs, it’s always sitting solidly.”
