Business dean looks to students to improve field; appeals to their integrity, enjoys their friendship Dean RandyMcLeod focuses his business faculty with one question: What is the difference between a busi-nessman and a Christian who works in business? McLeod knows the differences. Having worked for some time as a lawyer at a large Memphis firm, he recognizes the challenges ofleading a Christian life in the cut-throat worlds of business and law. "Itis difficult," he said, but he defends his strong commitment to educating Christians in these fields by simply explaining that we cannot give up. "If we're not encouraging good Christians [toward business or law], we're letting Satan have all that," he said. A value-based education is the key to solving problems in these fields, problems which McLeod diagnoses as symptoms of society's greater ills. Only these educated Christians who work from the inside will have an impact on these industries, and by "taking good Christian principles to the ma rket," McLeod hopes Harding business graduates will shock their coworkers with integrity. It was a fateful turn of events that led McLeod to Harding eight years ago. After his disheartening experience as a lawyer, a friend helped him get a job in sales out of state. "I knew nothing about sales," he said, chuckling about his misconceptions concerning "playing golf" with prospective clients. "They never told me how hard I would have to work." But he enjoyed his job - especially when it enabled him to train new salespeople. When he decided to move his family back to Memphis, he knewwhat he was leaning toward: "That's when I thought, 'I'll try teaching,"' he said, and he began teaching business law at Memphis State University. This love for business that he now wanted to share with others stemmed from the freedom it offered. "I was rewarded for work ethic and rewarded for hard work," he · said. "We had Harding in our sights for years," he said, Dr. Bobby Coker, dean ofthe School of Education, fills in for one of his education faculty. Coker has been dean since 1979. Photo by Aaron Gillihan. expressing how happy he and his family were at the chance to begin a professional sales program herein 1988. And he is well pleased with his move. "Our faculty got the best student evaluations ever this year; our teams won two national championships," he said, obviously excited about the direction the School ofBusiness is headed. "And the number of majors we have increases every semester." Along with the successes he has seen, McLeod's main attraction to the field of education is his close interaction with the students. "Just last nightat 10:30therewas a knock at the door," he said, "and it was a student who graduated two years ago passing through town. That relationship is something you just can't get everywhere." Moments like these are the payment for McLeod's service to his business students. "We don't want to graduate Christian business people," he said. "We want to graduate Christians who work in business." - Judie O'Farrell Academic Deans 137
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