Farewell to Prof Dr Stefan Betz
It's 11.55 pm and the light is still on in an office in the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics. Students rush through the corridor with their theses, tears streaming down their faces, looking for someone to receive them on time. And indeed: Prof Dr Stefan Betz is still there. As so often.
It is precisely such stories that Stefan Betz tells in his farewell lecture - with subtle humour, self-irony and an eye for the human side of everyday university life. And it is precisely these stories that explain why the room is so well attended on a rainy July day: former doctoral students, students, colleagues, family, even former student assistants of Prof Dr Stefan Betz - they have all come to say thank you.
A teacher with attitude - a colleague with heart
In his introductory speech, the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Prof Dr Jens Müller, described Prof Dr Stefan Betz's departure as a "very special day, but also a sad moment". This is because he is leaving a faculty that he helped to shape for decades - as an academic, as a colleague and as a person. And also as a teacher:
"Teaching was not just a duty for Stefan Betz, but a matter close to his heart. He moulded generations of students. He was characterised by excellent and practical teaching. He also formed an important interface to the industrial engineering degree programme," explains Müller. His lectures were considered challenging, but Betz was still popular with the students: "They knew that he was teaching: Someone was teaching with passion, ambition and understanding," says Jens Müller. His lectures were so popular that staff sometimes had to stand as bouncers at the lecture theatre entrance.
But Betz was much more than a committed lecturer - he was a creator. For over 20 years, he chaired the examination board - an important position that he held with precision, fairness and patience. "All the professors in the faculty were incredibly grateful that Stefan took on the role for so long, otherwise they would have had to do it," Müller remarks with a wink.
From the edge of the zone to his heart's home
In his farewell lecture, Betz takes the audience on a journey through his academic life - and back to the place where it all began. Originally from Wuppertal, he moved to Paderborn in the early 1980s to study business administration - contrary to his actual wishes, he was assigned to the city. "I first got out the Diercke atlas to see where it was and thought to myself: That's a border zone!" Betz recalls with a grin. He actually only wanted to stay for two semesters - he stayed (with interruptions) until he retired.
After completing his doctorate and habilitation at Paderborn University, professorships and chairs took him to Braunschweig Technical University and the University of Göttingen - before he returned to Paderborn University in 2004. There he became Professor of Business Administration, specialising in Production Management and Controlling.
Research with substance and active promotion of young talent
Among other things, Betz's research has focused on questions of warehouse capacity, make-or-buy decisions for services, tactical success planning for product innovations and the consequences of working time flexibilisation for production and logistics. What all projects have in common is the close collaboration with his employees. It is clear that Prof Dr Stefan Betz does not see himself as a lone fighter, but as part of a team.
Betz has supervised more than 20 doctoral candidates during his time at Paderborn University. In addition, no other faculty member has been active in so many doctoral committees - proof of the active promotion of young academics.
Between pyjama exams and ice-cream parlour exam discussions
His anecdotes from everyday university life at UPB before, during and after corona are not only entertaining, but also a testimony to the transformation of everyday teaching: from full presence to spontaneous complete digitalisation to the hybrid challenges afterwards.
Stefan Betz talks about students who didn't want to show their faces during oral online exams ("They don't want to see what I look like now... I'm wearing pyjamas!"), unknown students who approached him in the canteen and only knew him from online lectures ("I know you and actually I don't know you. I know your voice, who are you?") or parents who would "sell their soul" so that their son could still get the points needed to get into the Master's programme - Betz knows them all, the absurdities and emotions of the academic world. And he recounts them with a mixture of acumen and warmth.
He also met his students and their families outside the campus time and again: in the supermarket ("Are you Mr Betz? Then we'll have a lot to do with each other now. I've chosen all your modules!", in the ice cream parlour ("What was the result of assignment 17?") or in a taxi ("I have to tell you about my stepdaughter").
A person who leaves his mark
Stefan Betz doesn't need the big stage. But he is always there for his colleagues in small groups: as a motivator, supporter or to show appreciation. With an open ear, a clear set of values and empathy. And often with chocolate.
As the applause at the end of his lecture lasts for several minutes, it is clear that this is someone the faculty will not forget. And who will not disappear completely. Because as Dean Müller said so beautifully: "Stefan Betz has left many traces in the Faculty, especially with us people! We are delighted that you have now completed this phase - but even more so when you drop by again. For a chat. Or something sweet."
