Que pasa, UA?

The University of Arkansas has dropped its fall seminar on business in Mexico, shelved its Winning in Global Markets program and the director has resigned.

What happened?

Well, nobody signed up for the four-week, $12,800 executive education program that included two weeks of study in Mexico City, Monterey, Guadalajara and Puebla.

Doyle Z. Williams, dean of the Walton College of Business Administration, suspects the program was too time consuming, and most businesses couldn’t let executives off work for a month.

“We will be looking at just how we might structure those in the future,” Williams said. “We are searching for a new director for that center.”

Michael Yates was director of the UA’s Center for Management and Executive Development, which was administering the WIGM program. Yates started WIGM, which would have been in its first year this fall.

Yates resigned in mid-August to start a business named Integral Wave Technology. He wouldn’t elaborate about the entrepreneurial effort.

“I’m doing what I’ve always done in life,” he said. “I’m starting a new company in high technology. We’re still in a sort of garage mode. We will have some announcements to make soon.”

Yates said he is still scheduled to teach classes in the Walton College this spring.

“[The WIGM program] is put on the shelf for the time being until we can find a new director and determine which way to go with it,” Williams said.

He hopes a new director will be hired by November, and the director will determine if the program should be resurrected in the spring or next fall. Williams said the salary for the position is between $55,000 and $60,000.

The UA’s classes on Mexico were to begin Sept. 17. The trip south of the border was scheduled for Oct. 22 to Nov. 4. The next two trips, to Moscow and Europe, have also been canceled.