When Darlene Smith became Merrick‘s dean last year, one of her goals was to host a top-notch speaker series for our students and the Baltimore business community. She imagined the series as a forum to address current business trends and to create new tools for a changing climate for capitalism. In her view, it would help bring attention to the school and its academic programs.

One of the greatest strengths of the Merrick School of Business is its accounting program. Over the years, dozens upon dozens of accounting graduates have been hired to support, manage and lead firms. Recently, the school uncovered that 10 out of the 25 largest accounting firms in the Baltimore area (as ranked by the Baltimore Business Journal’s 2009 Book of Lists) are headed by graduates of the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Business and the UB School of Law. That number is up from eight, as revealed by last year’s BBJ list, making the University the leading area source for top-level managerial accounting talent.

A truism in social media is that networks are constantly evolving. But what I said about Facebook, YouTube and the like in the Daily Record last summer is sticking: While there may a worthy debate inside organizations about whether these sites should be accessible to employees, I say keep them open. There is good business going on in there.

Companies need to embrace social media—not fight it.