Faculty Featurette
Michael Harper
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This semester we’re pleased to present an interview with Michael Harper—Senior Instructor: Business Analytics, CU Denver School of Business
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You have a background in geophysical engineering & physics—what kind of work were you involved with at the Los Alamos National Laboratory?
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I started in geophysical engineering but continued by education with graduate degrees in Mathematics, Operations Research, and Statistics at three different academic institutions. My terminal degree is a joint degree in Operations Research and Statistics. But my other degrees have allowed me to work in diverse areas. I am very thankful for the rigor and diversity of my education from different academic institutions at different parts of the United States.
At Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), I worked in three different groups as a research scientist over five years from 1976 to 1981. I was first on the weapons side of the Lab working on containment of nuclear testing (testing at the Nevada Test Site) as part of the United States nuclear test ban treaty, then the energy side of the Lab working on Oil Shale in-situ recovery, and finally spent my last year of the Lab working on various projects of special interest to the Lab and the United States in general. Although those were my main responsibilities in each group, I also worked on other projects assigned to my group through the years. In every group, with Q-clearance, I dealt with classified matters at different levels of national security and from different departments of the United States government. However, my involvement as a scientist was always merely advisory.
After LANL (initially known as Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory), I was a vice-president at Professional Geophysics Incorporated (PGI) for four years engaged in consulting and software development for different companies and industries including the Oil and Gas industry.
My experience in government research and corporate industry served me well for teaching in a business school.
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Tell us a little about what drew you into the field you’re in now—operations analytics & statistics?
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My journey from research scientist, through corporate executive, to university faculty has revealed to me that a university blends best with my personality. The operations and statistics subjects were the most logical in terms of my experience and education. Moreover, between government classified research, business consulting, and university teaching, I consider the most challenging to be university teaching. And most rewarding. Although I primarily teach business subjects, I have taught other courses besides operations and statistics.
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You’ve been teaching at the CU Denver Business School for over twenty years. How has the Business School and your students evolved over this time?
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I actually started teaching at University of Denver (DU) in the business school in 1985 full time (began part time around 1983). I also taught at Denver Seminary in the late 1980’s. I also taught at Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in the mid-1990’s and in 2010. I began teaching full time at UCD in 1993. The students have changed over the decades in many ways. I contribute much of the change to advances in technology, demands of industry, and challenges on graduates at the undergraduate and graduate levels which are different. There have also been dramatic changes in university management from top administration to the classroom across the nation and world. Changes will continue to happen, and we need to be much more pro-active than reactive in higher education or our value to society will be significantly diminished. The most significant contribution and change agent to a successful future that impacts society lies with empowering faculty.
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The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid & abrupt shift to an all-digital learning environment last year. You’ve been engaged in online instruction for several years now—how did the campus closure affect your own teaching?
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That’s a very good question. And an important question. I see the pandemic accelerating changes in higher education that technology and online education had already initiated. Moreover, I began to recognize that as the amount of teaching online increased, the science of online teaching began to emerge beyond traditional, and inefficient, modes of delivery to a much needed professional and academic approach to online teaching in higher education which is summarily different from K-12 teaching. Online higher education is the future of academic institutions but will look much different than it does now.
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In addition to your academic work here on campus, you’ve also been a member of both UCDALI & the University of Colorado Faculty Council for many years. What motivates your active & sustained participation in faculty governance?
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My practical response, to be honest, is that I first joined UCDALI to participate on governance committees with faculty from academic backgrounds other than my own to see how others from different disciplines think and address issues within the CU environment. And it did not disappoint. It remains stimulating, interesting, and educational. What I gained from my experience on committees with faculty over the years was an enormous respect for all my colleagues throughout the university system. They may not always agree with approaches to issues, they may differ in thinking from mine, but we all share in the common good contained in the education all peoples which I consider as one of the most noble professions. Of which I am proud to be a part.
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