UA Walton College Faculty Appointed to M. D. Matthews Chair

Paul Cronan

Fayetteville, Ark. - In 1991, alumnus M.D. Matthews established an endowed lectureship to stimulate innovative teaching and research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Paul Cronan, professor of information systems and director of the master of information systems program, was appointed as the first holder of the lectureship.

When M.D. Matthews established the lectureship, he expressed a desire to bring the endowment level to that of a chair. At the time, he said, "The University made a good education available to me, and I owe it to them to put something back into that."

With his death in 2002, a final contribution from the estate made it possible to turn the lectureship into the M.D. Matthews Endowed Chair in Business. The estate gift has been matched from the $300 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation to bring the total endowment to approximately $1.5 million.

Dean Doyle Z. Williams said: "We are very grateful to M.D. Matthews for enabling us to endow this chair and continue to support the outstanding work of Dr. Cronan. The field of information systems is one of our areas of excellence that is moving into national prominence, and having this chair will support that effort as well."

A long-time resident of Houston, Matthews was chairman, president and CEO of Houston National Gas. He graduated from the Walton College in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He was a commencement speaker for the Walton College and a member of the UA National Development Council as well as the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Steering Committee. He was also honored as a Tower of Old Main member in 2000.

Matthews served as a director of Southwest Bancshares, Bank of the Southwest and on the national advisory board of First Commercial Bank of Little Rock.

Fred Davis, the David D. Glass Chair in Information Systems and chair of the information systems department, said, "Paul is a highly productive researcher and teacher. Having the M.D. Matthews Chair will only serve to enhance the work he is doing now. At the same time, the chair will help propel the department toward its goal of being in the top 20 information systems departments in the United States."

Cronan received a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1972, a master's degree in economics from South Dakota State University in 1975, and a doctoral degree in information systems and management science from Louisiana Tech University in 1979. His current research focuses on ethics in the field of technology.

As director of the Walton College's master of information systems program, Cronan was instrumental this fall in the launch of a professional master of information systems degree program for working information technology managers. He heads up the college's alliance with SAP, business process software for student use and faculty research.

From its inception until 2004, Cronan co-directed the Walton College Center for Teaching Effectiveness and Faculty Development. From 1993-1995, he was co-director and co-founder of the University of Arkansas Teaching and Faculty Support Center. He served as president and member of the executive committee of the UA Teaching Academy. Cronan was recognized as the 1995 "Computer Educator of the Year" by the International Association for Computer Information Systems. He teaches database systems as well as graduate MIS and computer systems research courses.

Cronan is an active member of the Decision Sciences Institute, International Association for Computer Information Systems, and Association for Computing Machinery. He has served as regional vice president and on the board of directors of the Decision Sciences Institute and as president of the Southwest Region of the Institute. In addition, he has served as associate editor for MIS Quarterly and is presently on the editorial board of the Journal of Computer Information Systems.

His research interests include computer professional ethics, local area networks, downsizing, expert systems, performance analysis and effectiveness, and end-user computing. He has published in Decision Sciences, MIS Quarterly, OMEGA; International Journal of Management Science, Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Journal of End User Computing, Database, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, and Journal of Financial Research, as well as in other journals and proceedings of various conferences.