Concerns/Obstacles - Ohio University



College of Business

Strategic Plan for Vision Ohio

Version: February 15, 2006

Table of Content

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 6

I. Undergraduate Programs 9

Vision Ohio Goals: Undergraduate Students 9

College of Business actions: 9

A. Curriculum 9

B. Recruitment 12

C. Enhancement of Residential Experience 13

D. Career development 14

II. Regional Capuses Undergraduate Programs 16

Vision Ohio Goals: 16

College of Business Actions: 16

III. Graduate Programs 18

Vision Ohio Goals: Graduate Students 18

College of Business Actions: 19

A. Fullrime MBA 19

B.Regional MBA Programsn 19

C International Program 20

D Masters of Financial Economics 21

E Program Review 21

IV. Faculty Development and Research Activities 21

Vision Ohio Goals: Sponsored Research and Creative Activities 21

College of Business Actions: 21

A.Sponsored programs 22

B. Faculty Research Activities 19

C Faculty Teaching 23

V. Diversity & Quality 23

Vision OhioGoals: Faculty, Staff, and Student Quality and Diversity Goals 23

College of Business Actions: 23

A. Curriculum 24

B. Recruitment 24

VI. Communication & Alumni Activities 25

Vision Ohio Goal: 25

College of Business Actions: 25

A.Alumni Activities 26

B. Communication Strategies 26

VII. Enrollment management & Facilities 29

VIII. Assessment and Accountability 30

Vision Ohio Goal: 30

College of Business Actions: 30

Executive Summary

We recognize that our college is an important part of a great public university sponsored by the citizens of the State of Ohio. We are proud to be part of the historical tradition that Public Universities have played in serving the needs of society through equal access to higher education and service to the community, state, and nation. This is an appropriate role given that we were established by public action and supported through general taxation for the benefit of the citizens of Ohio.

Ohio University has long recognized the unique role it has in Appalachia Ohio. We have a long tradition of working on promoting human, economic, and cultural development in Appalachia Ohio and the State.

We will respond to this tradition with an approach that emphasizes integration of teaching, research and interdisciplinary initiatives, and that develops programs in service learning, outreach, and university-community partnerships that help address the problems of the region and state. It is our hope that the community and region will benefit from such programs and that students will learn that higher education is about important values like informed citizenship, appreciation for diversity and a sense of personal responsibility.

The College of Business has traditionally been on the forefront of developing innovative, learning-centered education for undergraduate and graduate students that responds to needs of today’s and tomorrows students. We have been very active in enriching student experiences by bringing research and engagement into the curriculum and offering practical opportunities to prepare students for success in their chosen careers.

We have differentiated our approach to undergraduate and graduate education from other business school providers in two critical ways. First, the College has developed an engaged, learning environment, in which faculty integrate the traditional functional areas of business. Students are challenged to learn individually and in groups to solve authentic business problems. They learn not only the concepts related to each discipline, but also develop vital skills such as time management, teamwork, problem solving, and analytical thinking. This approach is reflected in our undergraduate integrated cluster program and our project-based full time Athens based MBA program.

Secondly, we have developed an innovative and very effective approach to teach our undergraduate and graduate students how to operate appropriately in the global business environment. We offer students the opportunity to work in another country, with students from a partner school located in that country. During their visit students complete a consulting project for actual client businesses. There are few other business schools in the country that have developed more opportunities for their students to gain this intercultural fluency.

We will continue to build on these historic strengths to meet the goals and objectives of the University’s Vision Ohio. There are several areas that we have identified where we can improve and strengthen efforts that are already underway.

We are primarily an undergraduate residential teaching institution, possessing a selective portfolio of distinctive graduate programs. The priorities we have set are as follows:

1. Undergraduate education focused on student engagement and applied learning

2. Faculty development in the areas of teaching and research

3. Innovative graduate programs in selective areas

4. Service to the region

5. International programs that enhance student and faculty internationalization and provide revenues that can be used to enhance our educational programs in Ohio.

As a result of these priorities (and the goals of Vision Ohio) the following areas have been identified as the most important areas to be strengthened:

• Enhance the undergraduate and graduate student learning

o Given our excellence in providing our students with international experiences we need to capitalize on this strength. We need to further develop our curriculum and provide other learning experiences to our students in ways that reflect the impact of globalization on business and society.

o Continue to enhance the residential experience for undergraduate students, providing opportunities to learn outside the classroom

o Engage in a college wide discussion and evaluation concerning the rigor and consistency in our learning outcomes across all disciplines for both undergraduate and graduate students

• Continue to enhance the distinctiveness of our portfolio of graduate programs. We need to use our full-time Athens based program teaching and learning innovations to inform the redesign of our regional and international graduate programs.

• Service to Region: Increase the quality and extend the provision of educational opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students in our service region through our regional campuses.

• Faculty Development

o Increase the support we provide for faculty research to be competitive with other business schools.

o Develop an ongoing program of faculty development and recognition for excellence in teaching.

o Maximize the opportunities for faculty and students to participate in international experiences.

• Promote ethnic, international and gender diversity in student and faculty recruitment while maintaining the current level of the quality of our students.

• National Rankings:

o Enhance our College in the national rankings by refocusing our efforts on the two most important ranking criteria (communication to our peer school deans concerning the quality of our programs and developing a more coordinated effort in assisting in student placement).

o Develop a common theme that reflects our strengths in leveraging knowledge with experience and international competence that becomes the common theme in all College publications.

Enrollment Management

In addition, consistent with Vision Ohio and the current competitive educational environment, the College of Business is a very important provider of high quality students to the University.

Therefore a critical strategic initiative for the College, is to work with the central administration of the University to complete a plan for enrollment management and space for the College. Our programs are in high demand and thus we have been able to achieve higher selective admission standards and higher retention rates. We have the opportunity to provide additional high quality educational programs to the following categories of students:

• Full-time undergraduate students on the Athens campus.

• Provide service to professional non-business majors throughout the University by providing them with a business minor, which greatly enhances their ability to get jobs in the fields they desire and for which they have been trained.

• Undergraduate students throughout the Appalachian region through our branch campuses.

• Part-time graduate students by offering the PMBA and EMBA to the region and the Columbus market via the Pickerington Center.

Once we develop an enrollment plan with the University administration we will need to develop a space and faculty resource plan to support these enrollment initiatives.

Introduction

Competitive Landscape for Business Education

The number of Ohio students who are of college age (18-24), for the next twenty years is projected to be, at best, flat. Given the increasing costs of four year public institutions, any growth in higher education enrollment will be concentrated in Ohio’s metropolitan regions. It is projected that the number of students enrolled at traditional four-year residential universities will decline. For the nation, the percentage of family income needed to pay for a 4-year public college education is 28.5%. In Ohio, it is 35.6%, which places us 2nd in the country for being the least affordable.

It is also projected that the state support for higher education will continue to decline, certainly as a percent of their total budget. When adjusted for inflation, higher education in Ohio is receiving 9% less per pupil in FY 2004 than it did in FY 1990. State budgets will continue to come under increasing pressure because of greater financial obligations to K-12 education and Medicaid costs. From 2000 to 2025, Ohio’s population of individuals 64 and older is expected to increase 52.8%.

In an era of declining financial resources, the State is demanding that we establish greater accountability and assessment for what we do, provide greater access for its citizens, and assist the state in solving state problems especially in the areas of providing value-added work skills, revitalizing K- 12 education, facilitating economic and community development and providing models for a multicultural society.

The University will continue to be a comprehensive institution and our College will continue to be a valued part of it. However, we will have to compete more effectively for quality students and State support. It is even more important for us to clearly differentiate ourselves by identifying innovative approaches for us to be even more effective in meeting the College’s and University’s mission and goals.

With regards to the College of Business, we face an increasingly competitive environment for business education. This market can be segmented into strategic groups. At the top of the scale would be schools who are positioning themselves as Global Brands and/or Flagship Research State Schools. State governments recognize that given their decreasing resources they must invest selectively, eliminating duplicate programs and looking for ways to improve the productivity of their existing investments.

Some of the regional schools have tried to develop a specialty, focusing on an area such as international, marketing, finance or entrepreneurship. Schools such as Babson and Thunderbird, and RPI have done an excellent job establishing a clearly differentiated competitive position. Liberal arts schools have emphasized the personal attention and engaged, high touch learning environment.

Within our state, Miami University and Ohio State University have done an excellent job staking out their respective competitive positions,. Ohio State University is the state’s flagship research institution and has set its goal to become one of the top ten public research universities in the nation. Miami University has done an excellent job of differentiating itself as a private-public, premier undergraduate teaching university. In the minds of many in the state, including the state legislature the rest of the state university business schools are lumped together as being similar.

Given this environment it is all the more important that we make strategic investments into those areas which will allow us to continue to be successful. We need to build upon our traditional strengths – a wonderful residential campus environment, the quality of our students, staff, and faculty; innovative curriculum and supporting a balance between excellence in teaching and research.

College’s Mission Statement:

The College of Business provides a distinctive learning environment that actively engages students, faculty, and the business community in developing knowledge and skills relevant for success in a complex, global economy.

This environment stimulates student learning and faculty research so that our graduates are able to: a) apply a holistic, integrated approach to business problems; b) apply the communication, leadership, team and technological skills needed to succeed in their business careers; c) understand how to work with people from other cultures and to operate effectively in other countries; and d) understand the social responsibilities of individuals and organizations and evaluate the ethical dimensions of decisions in a business context.

To support this distinctive environment we will:

• Attract and retain nationally recognized faculty, who possess excellent teaching skills, research skills, and personal objectives consistent with the mission of the College of Business.

• Encourage, expect, and support faculty scholarship relevant to our mission and stakeholders, consistent with our role in the university’s mission and with an emphasis on contributions to the practice and learning and pedagogical research.

• Cultivate an appreciation of and support for diversity (race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability, age, and ancestry) among faculty, students and staff.

• Provide a supportive environment for faculty and staff that includes training and development opportunities.

• Support the regional service mission of the university by providing graduate education to the region and delivery of the first two years of the business degree.

• Assist our students with finding jobs that are consistent with their education and career interests.

Strategic Planning Process:

The planning process was completed in a very short time frame to meet the University’s deadlines. We recognize that this plan is a “work–in–process.” The department plans are to be completed by May 15, 2006 so refinements of this college plan and incorporation of the respective department plans will be completed during the spring quarter.

This plan builds on and is consistent with the University’s Vision Ohio document. The following steps were taken to create the strategic plan for the College of Business:

Step 1 - September 9, College Retreat – Reviewed Vision Ohio and discussed how the College of Business’s strengths fit in with the University goals, followed by break out groups which discussed major initiatives and areas for improvement.

Step 2 – Fall Quarter, 2005 - Held Open Forums on Specific Critical Areas

• Two forums on Undergraduate issues

• Graduate Curriculum Committee

• Open forum on Research activities

• Focus group with Untenured faculty members to discuss issues of faculty recruitment & retention

Step 3 – January, 2006 - Task Force meetings to develop a draft document

Step 4 –Draft document sent out for all faculties to review and comment and discussed in a College-wide Faculty meeting – February 3, 2006

Step 5- Finalize CoB strategic planning document - Completion date February 15, 2006

Step 6 – Department & School Plans to be completed by May 15th and incorporated into final College plan

I. Undergraduate Programs

1.

Vision Ohio Goals: Undergraduate Students

1) Provide abundant opportunities for students to learn beyond the classroom and develop the ability to work collaboratively.

2) Inculcate among students a sense of personal responsibility, acquaint students with the values associated with the public good, and foster the acquisition of intercultural fluency.

3) Develop a supportive, learning-centered environment. Foster the development of faculty, staff, and student orientation programs to support the development of an inclusive, supportive, learning-centered environment.

4) Establish and implement recruitment and hiring practices that lead to a diverse and inclusive academic community.

5) Recruit, support, develop, and retain academically talented undergraduate and graduate students.

College of Business Actions:

A. Review of Curriculum (Vision Ohio Goals 1 and 5):

The curriculum and academic program delivery is at the heart of every undergraduate education. The College of Business has a history of developing innovative programs in the areas of student engagement, integrated curriculum, team-teaching and the use of technology. To maintain this leadership, we will pursue the following initiatives:

1. Complete a comprehensive and continuous review of the core curriculum – with focus on finding innovative ways to strengthen our emphasis on integrative, holistic learning, applying knowledge, and developing problem solving skills.

• As part of this review we need to strengthen our students understanding and ability to operate successfully in the global marketplace. This will require us to examine the following:

o Content of our curriculum

o Increasing the percentage of our students who participate in our international experiences

o Increasing the interactions between our international students and faculty with our Ohio students and faculty

• Acquire and develop classroom technologies to allow faculty control their own course materials and activities as much as possible while providing support to maximize use of available technologies.

• Review the curriculum to ensure that content issues such as diversity, ethics and personal responsibility are being properly incorporated into our classes.

2.) Enhancing Academic Excellence (Vision Ohio Goals 1 and 5):

The college has recruited high quality students, many of them are the best students in the University. As a result we need to make sure that we are setting high enough expectations and that those expectations are consistent for those students so that they are challenged to learn all that they can during their undergraduate experience. We will engage in a College–wide discussion of this issue with the objective of developing recommendations. One suggestion has been to appoint coordinators who assist in ensuring consistency of standards across sections of our large demand classes (such as has been done by the Accounting department).

3) Continuous Investigation and Experimentation with New Innovative Teaching Approaches

Consistent with the review of curriculum we want to develop support and encouragement for faculty to develop and improve innovative teaching approaches. We need to continuously build on our two distinctive advantages; a) providing students with the opportunity to integrate concepts from the functional disciplines and b) providing students with opportunities that leverage their academic learning with real business experience. Efforts in this area include:

• Expanding and supporting the use of real clients as in-class group projects.

• Expanding and supporting applied projects such as the Portfolio Management Group and the SOX Accounting Fellows Program.

• Investigate the development of innovative teaching approaches such as leveraging international partners to enhance the students learning. This could be accomplished by utilizing international students in projects and international faculty in some type of team teaching. In addition, we need to consider the use of simulations and synthetic worlds to provide more effective experiential learning experiences for our students.

• We also need to continue to develop and assist faculty in using new, improved learning management systems like Blackboard.

4) The First Year Experience (Vision Ohio Goal 3):

Innovative First Year Experience (FYE) programs in the College of Business have been a distinguishing characteristic of the college for some time. Two required first-year student development courses (BA 100A and BA 100B), a peer mentor program called the Freshman Engagement Program, and the transfer of freshman advising from faculty advisors to professional advisors from the College of Business Office of Student Services; are intended to recognize and meet the unique needs of first year students. The College of Business annually achieves the highest or second highest rate of freshman retention and four-year graduation at Ohio University. This trend should continue or even improve due to introduction of faculty to the Freshman Engagement Program (FEP). In 2005-06 we are piloting an effort to connect a faculty member to each small group which consists of 6-10 freshmen and one upper-class Peer Mentor. Plans are to ask for a larger number of faculty volunteers in 2006-07 and require each FEP group to have a faculty advisor in 2007-08.

5) Advising (Vision Ohio Goal 3):

The college will continue its efforts to provide the following types of advising that meets students’ changing needs as they progress in their studies: a) basic advising about general education, b) more focused advising on courses of study and research within a major, and, c) mentoring for post-graduate study and/or careers. To continue to improve advising, the college will implement the following steps:

• Review the annual evaluation and tenure/promotion policies to ensure recognition of advising activities by faculty

• Continue to use the orientation courses (BA100A/B) as the primary vehicle for freshmen advising.

• Provide more formal training for faculty on advising so that more faculty can feel comfortable with this activity.

• Coordinate career advising activities by elevating the role of placement in the college and coordinating the successful efforts already occurring in individual departments

• Coordinate and supplement career advising activities by elevating the role of placement in the college and using best practices efforts that are already occurring in individual departments

• Supplement professional advising staff as needed to accommodate growth in Regional and Athens campus programs

6) Intercultural Fluency (Vision Ohio Goal 2):

The college will continue to increase the number of undergraduate students who participate in at least one international experience during their four years at our university. We will also explore the possibility of adding additional international clusters. We will set up a needs based scholarship program to ensure that all students have the means to participate. We will also increase the opportunities for our business minor students to also participate in a meaningful international experience.

7) Sales Center (Vision Ohio Goal 1): We will continue to build the Sales center to provide our College majors with skills that can enhance their career success. In addition, the center will continue to build its collaborative partnerships with other departments and schools around the University. The Sales Center's unique learning model combines innovative and cross disciplinary curriculum with outside the classroom learning experiences with sales practitioners, including a 300 hour sales internship. Currently, the Sales Center offers four sales Certificates in collaboration with other colleges and departments: Media, Retail, Financial Services and Sport Management, and Technical Sales.

8) Undergraduate Honors / Research (Vision Ohio Goals 1 and 5):

• Continue to build a strong and visible honors program that will recruit and retain excellent and diverse students by expanding on the efforts in the Management Systems Department to include the other majors in the college.

• Continue to support business students in the Honors Tutorial College (HTC). Investigate increasing the recognition of faculty involvement with HTC students as part of the evaluation processes and increasing the compensation for faculty to participate.

• Consider developing one or two common courses that can be used as part of both the Honors program and HTC. Possibly a course in research topics and another in research methods.

B) Recruitment (Vision Ohio Goal 5)

We will continue to recruit top students by retaining our selective admissions policy and limiting class size in terms of the number of freshmen and transfer students. We recognize that a high-quality undergraduate experience is our best advertisement so the College will continue to improve and augment the initiatives listed in this plan. In addition, we will review all of our communications to ensure that there is a consistent message with regards to our outstanding undergraduate education. In addition, we will continue to utilize important recruiting tools such as Copeland Scholars Competition and increase targeted recruitment strategies such as the use of faculty in personal meetings and telephone calls to high potential students and those who will help us to increase the diversity of our student body.

1. Recruit Top Students through Copeland Scholars Competition (Vision Ohio Goal 5):

Copeland Scholars is the freshman honors program in the College of Business. High school seniors graduating in the top ten percent of their class who also hold superior standardized test scores (minimum ACT 26 and SAT 1200) are invited to visit campus to participate in an adjudicated scholarship competition that results in the awarding of fifteen Copeland Scholarships. The competition event is a valuable recruitment activity for the College of Business as it attracts high achieving students to campus and regularly results in a great yield. Annually 85-95 percent of students offered the scholarship attend Ohio University the following fall quarter while 70-80 percent of the participants who do not win the scholarship also enroll. The scholarship competition has proven to be a very effective marketing tool in attracting high achieving students.

Unfortunately, while the yield for the Copeland Scholars Competition has remained consistently high, the attendance on the day of the competition has diminished. In 2005-06, new efforts are underway in the CoB to ensure that all available seats in the competition are filled on the day of the competition. Invitations are mailed earlier and CoB faculty members have agreed to make telephone calls to all invited students. In addition, there has been improved collaboration with Honors Tutorial College and the CoB Junior Business Executive Program for Minorities. Our goal for is to fill every one of the eighty available seats in the competition every year.

2) Diversity Recruitment (Vision Ohio Goal 4):

Programs are needed to enhance our ability to recruit qualified students from diverse ethnic, international and socio-economic backgrounds, due to the high level of competition for these students among business schools.

• Obtain additional corporate sponsors to expand the Junior Business Executive Program for Minorities (JBEP), was created in partnership with Cardinal Health. The JBEP brings high school junior minority students to campus for a summer program that introduces them to the university. In the fall of 2005-06, the College of Business welcomed 21 minority students to the freshman class. In 2004-05 the freshmen class included 17 minority students.

• We also need to increase efforts of using alumni to assist in recruiting minority students.

• We plan to develop program to increase the numbers of Appalachian students both at the university and in the CoB. In the winter quarter of 2005-06, one of the CoB cluster classes is studying issues related to the recruitment of Appalachian students. The CoB will be reviewing the findings of this group and implementing those suggestions deemed to be effective. Initial discussions indicate that the group will make suggestions relative to partnerships with key high schools and a dedicated on-campus recruitment activity. The CoB will be an active participant in efforts at the university level and will create its own initiatives in this area as well.

C). Enhancement of the Residential Experience

1) Enhancing Leadership Opportunities (Vision Ohio Goal 1 and 3):

We plan to review the nature and interrelationship of the Copeland Scholars, Business Fellows and Corporate Leadership Fellows programs and look for synergies and ways to build further on the leadership opportunities in these programs, as ways to expand those opportunities to more students.

• Student Organizations: Maintain the exiting seventeen active student organizations which offer participating students a wide variety of leadership opportunities. Each organization receives limited funding from the College of Business, as well as the ATTEVO Student Activity Fund.

• Council of Student Organizations: The Council of Student Organizations (CSO) is an association of the presidents of the CoB student organizations. The group meets twice monthly under the direction of the Assistant Dean for Student Services to share information, resources and coordinate college-wide activities.

• Business Fellows: The Ohio University Business Fellows program is established to assist in the personal and professional development of its competitively selected members. Each works to gain a competitive edge through the guidance and support of mentors, interaction with successful executives, internships, and exposure to current business practices, business professionalism, and ethics issues.

• Corporate Leadership Fellows: This program takes approximately 15 students with high leadership potential and provides them with opportunities to interact with and learn from top corporate executives. Students from the top half of their class in the College of Business are invited to apply during their junior year. Those selected participate in an internship, round table discussions with business leaders, and represent the College of Business to the corporate world.

2. Residential Learning Communities (Vision Ohio Goal 1 and 3):

The college currently has several learning communities located on specific greens. We will expand the activities of these communities and consider some specific dorms being designated for business students.

• Freshman Engagement Program: The Freshman Engagement Program each year enables approximately fifty upper-class students to serve in mentoring positions for small groups of CoB first-year students. This is a valuable opportunity for students, who are looking for a leadership position that is in addition, to or in place, of serving as a student organization leader.

D. Career Development (Vision Ohio Goal 1)

1. Career Resources Office will be refocused to develop a college-wide coordinated program to assist more students to prepare themselves and to get contacts to meet prospective employers. We will build on the success and relationships created through the Internship Program to increase the student knowledge of the career development program, increase the involvement of faculty in the placement program and continue to build on existing relationships of students, student organizations, alumni, and employers.

This is an area that has long been recognized as a weakness by faculty and students. To successfully compete with other business schools in the state and nation, we need to provide students the information, opportunity, and skills to develop career-related tools, secure internships and finally, meaningful full-time positions. Success in this area is critical to improve our business school rankings; the second most important factor in the rankings system relates to placement.

a) Internships: We will continue to maintain our current success with student internships. The college committed to a full-time employee for internships in 1995; since that time, the program has flourished. The number of students completing internships during their college experience has grown significantly. According to the 2005 Commencement Survey, the average College of Business graduate completed 1.39 internships by graduation day.

b) Placement Activities: We plan to offer credit courses dedicated to the career development process. Classes will build on foundation established in the successful BA 100 class and will be titled BA 200, BA 300 and BA 400. Students will learn and practice relevant career-related skills. Students will participate in outreach programs offered for students, developing all personal and professional development opportunities (e.g. resume writing, networking development skills, internship search, etiquette workshops, etc…).

• Identify “Faculty Champion” position in each department, possible two in large departments. Selected Faculty member will lead departmental efforts related to career development and internship and full-time placement. Faculty Champion will share best practices and recommend to their departmental colleagues how best to improve and integrate placement activities in the departmental curriculum.

• Plan strategic events partnering students with employers and potential employers. Each year the Career Resources office will announce the event type and location. Events will create networking opportunities for students and faculty to increase placement of students in internships and full-time positions.

• The College will coordinate with the Career Services office to build on the success of Career Fairs and other career-related events. A representative of the Career Services office will have a seat on the Career Development Committee so as to gain synergies between the college and the Career Services office. The College will continue to promote the services and resources offered by the Career Services office including The Vault on-line resource.

• Develop a marketing strategy to increase the awareness of career-related offerings and create new marketing pieces targeted to selected audiences-students and employers and potential employers.

II. REGIONAL UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

Vision Ohio Goals:

Support high quality undergraduate programs that serve the needs of the region, state, and nation.

College of Business Actions:

A. Improve and Expand the BBA on Regional Campuses

A key goal within Vision Ohio is the expansion of service to the region. The College needs to renew its commitment to providing a high quality BBA to the students in our regional service area. We believe there is an untapped demand for business education at the regional campuses. To accomplish this will require some curricular redesign of the major, more creative staffing arrangements between the CoB and RHE, and better promotion and advising related to this new offering.

The College of Business (CoB) is currently one of the few units on campus offering a four-year degree on the regional campuses. This is done through the use of Athens campus faculty traveling to the regional campuses, using the compressed video system and adjunct faculty. The quality of this approach has been inconsistent and our enrollments have dropped. There are several reasons for this:

• There is no focused advising effort designed to promote the business degree on the regional campuses.

• The General Business major only requires students to take five courses at the 300/400 level. Students end up taking whatever courses are available as opposed to a coherent, focused major.

• The cluster requirement is difficult to complete on the regional campus and requires focused advising.

• There is little incentive for faculty to take regional assignments because the compensation is low compared to other overload opportunities. The additional evening teaching and travel expectations make this an unpopular assignment.

• Accreditation requirements prevent the CoB from using too many adjunct and Group 2 faculty to offer regional sections. We need more research-active, Group 1 faculty to be involved and the only way they can afford to do this is through compressed video.

• We have not been able to provide regional students with a consistent schedule of class offerings over the years, which discourages them from even trying to complete the BBA.

Steps to be Taken:

1) Improve Quality and Consistency of Regional BBA program:

• Standardize syllabi between Athens and regional versions of the same courses.

• Increase the proportion of academically qualified (tenure-track) faculty teaching in this program.

• Revise the core cluster program for the regional students to make it easier for part-time students to complete while at the same time maintaining the established learning outcomes.

• Re-design and re-focus the General Business major around a specific, coherent set of courses that can be predictably offered on the regional campuses.

2) Pursue alternative staffing approaches:

• Experiment with faculty appointments tenured in Athens departments but assigned to courses on the regional campuses supported financially by revenue generated through regional offerings.

o These faculty members would be hired in disciplines that allow them to offer both courses in the cluster and courses leading to the redesigned General Business major.

o These key faculty members would create a presence or “face” within the regional system for the BBA degree. Students would have one of these faculty members as an advisor.

III. Graduate Programs

Vision Ohio Goals: Graduate Students

1) Support high quality and distinctive graduate education programs that serve the needs of the region and state.  Support the development of programs and policies that prepare graduate students for careers in academic and professional settings.

2) Develop a supportive, learning-centered environment. Foster the development of faculty, staff, and student orientation programs to support the development of an inclusive, supportive, learning-centered environment.

3) Support growth in scholarly activity and research productivity that lead to increased sponsored research and national prominence.

College of Business Graduate Strategy:

While the College of Business is primarily a high-quality undergraduate teaching institution, quality graduate programs will also be developed in areas of special expertise or competency and that support the academic mission. Therefore, with respect to graduate programs, the College of Business will “offer selective, high quality programs that advance the best interests of the college on campus, regionally, and internationally.”

Priorities (in rank order):

1. The College of Business needs to maintain a high-quality, full-time MBA program on the Athens campus to maintain its status within the university as a college that includes graduate degree programs.

2. The College of Business needs to maintain an MBA program that serves the graduate business education needs of the southeast Ohio region.

3. The College of Business needs to maintain at least one internationally focused MBA program to provide professional development opportunities for full-time faculty.

4. The College will continue to work collaboratively with other departments in the University to develop partnerships to enhance the professional development and learning opportunities needed for our students. Examples include the Masters in Sports Management and the Masters in Financial Economics programs.

College of Business Actions:

A) Full time MBA(Vision Ohio Goals 1 and 2):

• Curriculum

o Continue to implement new focus of this program – leveraging education with experience. We will improve the integration, cross disciplinary curriculum combined with a focus on application through a partnership with the Voinovich Center.

o Strengthen the emphasis in our curriculum that reflects the impact of globalization on business and society. Also examine ways that we can enhance the JSCP – international consulting experience for our graduate students.

o Program focus is on increasing rigor, application of knowledge, and integration of disciplines

• Placement: Build on and extend newly developed placement activities and proposed activities for the undergraduate students to graduate students.

• Enrollment Management Plan

o Evaluate the size of the program in relation to the number of faculty resources, and number of fee-paying students. Need to maximize credit hour production and tuition revenue (fee-payers) while still providing an adequate number of graduate assistants and supporting high-quality students.

o Need to balance resource allocation with credit hour production. Investment in technology may help to reduce some of the resource strains.

o Collaborate with other departments and colleges where appropriate financially and strategically. For example we will continue our partnership with Sports Administration program.

B) Regional MBA Programs (Vision Ohio Goal 1)

• Work with the Graduate office and RHE to aggressively develop Pickerington as a center for professional graduate education. Support major marketing efforts to go after Columbus market with professional degrees such as the EMBA.

• Continue to increase enrollment in the EMBA by focusing on recruiting with companies. Consider tailoring the program to respond to the needs of those companies.

• Investigate the possibility of creating a graduate education site outside of Cincinnati.

• Continue to refine the delivery model for the Professional MBA program and look at expanding recruiting through relationships with Marietta College and Rio Grande.

C) International MBA Programs (Vision Ohio Goal 1)

• Expand operations in the India MBA program to move to 80-100 students.

• Complete the change of partner from Manipal to Christ’s College.

• Investigate the possibility of starting an Executive MBA in Bangalore.

• Continue to evaluate the viability of the Brazil MBA in terms of the number of students. Work with our partner there to try to increase the size of each class.

• Continue to pursue opportunities in China, taking advantage of our contacts generated through graduates of previous programs.

D) Masters of Financial Economics (Vision Ohio Goal 1)

We will continue to work with Economic Department to provide this high quality degree in Athens and Pickerington. This provides an additional opportunity for us to expand the number of graduate students we serve as well as provides development opportunities for finance and accounting faculty.

E) Complete a Review and assessment of all MBA Programs.

As part of our AACSB Accreditation, the college will be refining the core learning outcomes and creating an assessment strategy for our graduate curriculum. Part of this assessment will be the development of common distinctiveness elements that represent our competitive advantage, such as international experiences, integration and the application of knowledge.

IV. Faculty Development and Research Activities

Vision Ohio Goals: Sponsored Research and Creative Activities

1) Support growth in scholarly activity and research productivity that lead to increased sponsored research and national prominence.

2) Recruit and retain exceptional faculty and staff for creating and sustaining preeminent programs of learning, engagement, research, creative activity, and scholarship.

3) Provide support to departments, faculty, and staff to develop nationally prominent teachers, scholars, and researchers and to foster policies that support the accomplishment of the academic mission.

College of Business Actions:

Faculty Development is a major priority for the College and will be funded before other activities. We believe that faculty development is critical to the College’s ability to meet the University’s Vision Ohio goals. In addition it is the most important factor in being able to attract, and retain quality excellent faculty.

A) Sponsored programs (Vision Ohio Goal 1):

The primary contribution of the college in this area is in contracts with international partners for educational programs through our Center for International Business Education and Development. These activities generate close to $1 million in gross revenue each year.

• Maintain or expand our current level of sponsored international education programs, generated by the CIBED office.

• Encourage and provide support for faculty who complete sponsored research in areas such as the Sales Center and economic development (Voinovich Center).

B. Faculty Research Activities (Vision Ohio Goals 1, 2 and 3):

Faculty research is currently supported through departmental travel budgets to allow faculty to travel to conferences to present papers. New faculty receives startup research funds, typically for the first two summers. In addition, three competitive summer grants of $7,500 are awarded based on proposals. Finally, spending accounts of $500 are provided to faculty getting publications in top journals.

• Expand startup summer research support for new faculty with the goal of reaching two or three summers at $10,000.

• Provide research grants to cover expenses for faculty who are interested in doing international research with existing international partners.

• Increase and expand summer startup research grants. Initial objective is to provide ten summer research stipends at $10,000 per grant.

• Reinstate spending account awards to faculty for obtaining significant academic publications. Initially will target providing any faculty $400 spending account for obtaining refereed publication in field and $1,000 for an article on the department’s top journal list.

• Provide funds to be able to invite external researchers or specialists in certain statistical techniques (for which multiple faculty members are interested) and for faculty to attend training seminars in research techniques.

• Provide for named professorships to reward and retain our most productive research faculty members.

• Provide funds for bringing in scholars to present their research and work with faculty on collaborative research projects.

C) Faculty Teaching (Vision Ohio Goals 2 and 3):

The college has a reputation for innovative teaching and curriculum. Many faculty members have been recognized with teaching awards and all faculty are expected to devote significant efforts to the improvement of their teaching and the College’s and department’s curriculum. We value a balance between teaching and research at the College as reflected in the annual review that weights 50% a person’s performance on the basis of excellent teaching. As an appropriate reflection of that emphasis we will develop and maintain a plan and budget to support development of faculty teaching skills and recognition of excellence in teaching.

• Send two faculty members every year to Master Teacher Workshop at Georgia State. Our plan is to have every new faculty member attend MTW within the first three years of their arrival.  Then for all other faculty members, we would have as an objective to have every faculty member participate in a multi-day teaching development program of their choice.

• Have quarterly in-house teaching seminars/brown bag sessions and bring in outside speakers to discuss different teaching approaches twice a year.

• Develop at least two named professors to recognize outstanding teachers in the College, who as part of their responsibilities will mentor and coach other interested faculty.

• Reward publications in refereed academic journals that discuss successful new innovative teaching approaches.

V. Diversity & Quality

Vision Ohio Goals: Faculty, Staff, and Student Quality and Diversity

1) Recruit and retain exceptional faculty and staff for creating and sustaining preeminent programs of learning, engagement, and research and scholarship.

2) Provide support to departments, faculty, and staff to develop increasingly nationally prominent teachers, scholars, and researchers and foster policies that support the accomplishment of the academic mission.

3) Establish and implement recruitment and hiring practices that lead to an increasingly diverse and inclusive academic community.

4) Strategically recruit, support, develop, and retain academically talented undergraduate and graduate students.

College of Business Actions:

A) Curriculum – As part of the curriculum review discussed previously for our undergraduate and graduate programs we will review how we can strengthen students understanding of the importance of diversity, ethics, and personal responsibility. We also want to increase the number of business and government speakers that we bring to campus who can discuss these issues.

B) Diversity Recruitment (Vision Ohio Goal 4):

i) We will expand the funding for the Junior Business Executive Program for Minorities (JBEP). This program was created in partnership with Cardinal Health. The JBEP brings high school junior minority students to campus for a summer program that introduces them to business education at the university level. In the fall of 2005-06, the College of Business welcomed 21 minority students to the freshman class. In 2004-05 the freshmen class included 17 minority students. Only in it’s third year of existence for 2006-07, the still-developing, JBEP is expected to enable the CoB to attract increasing numbers of minority students each year.

ii) We want to increase efforts of using alumni to assist in recruiting minority students.

iii) Efforts are also underway to increase the numbers of Appalachian students both at the university and in the CoB. In the winter quarter of 2005-06, one of the CoB cluster classes is studying issues related to the recruitment of Appalachian students. The CoB will be reviewing the findings of this group and implementing those suggestions deemed to be effective. Initial discussions indicate that the group will make suggestions relative to partnerships with key high schools and a dedicated on-campus recruitment activity. The CoB will be an active participant in efforts at the university level and will create its own specific initiatives in this area as well.

iv) We will reinstate the position for Director of Diversity within the college or partner with the central diversity office if the university adopts a model of establishing central resources assigned to specific units.

v) We will continue to investigate bringing in diverse Executives-in-Residence who have excellent business experience.

vi) We are planning to contact minority PHD students before they are done with their program to bring them on board early. It is important to network with other schools to find Ph.D.s early in their careers and offer them visiting position before they complete their degree’s, so they can come to know the University before they start their national search.

vii) Explore the development of named professorships who represent different ethnic backgrounds and who can help develop “across the curriculum” initiatives that can address the issues of the importance of diversity, ethics, and personal responsibility.

VI. Communication & Alumni Activities

Vision Ohio Goal:

1) Develop and implement strategies for communicating, and marketing of all activities of the College so that a) we can attract high quality and diverse student body; and b) to improve our national rankings.

College of Business Actions:

A) Alumni Activities

• Develop a plan to better co-ordinate and develop a College wide alumni development effort that includes all of our undergraduate and graduate alumni. Develop programs to get more alumni involved in our recruiting, mentoring and placement of our undergraduate and graduate students.

• Continue to build on CoB Connect activities and Connections magazine to maintain contact with alumni.

B) Communication

• Develop common differentiating theme that can be used for all communications such as the MBA program’s “Leveraging Education Through Experience” All brochures and newsletters would reflect this common theme as to how we differentiate our student learning.

• Refocus the College’s external communication efforts to focus on better informing our peers of our strengths. This is consistent with the University’s objective of improving our rankings.

VIII. Enrollment & RESOURCE Issues

Vision Ohio Goal:

Implement enrollment management, operational efficiencies, and endowment strategies that support the accomplishment of the academic plan.

College of Business Actions:

A) Development of an Enrollment Management Plan for the College of Business

A critical strategic initiative for the College, is to work with the central administration of the University to complete a plan for enrollment management and space for the College. Our programs are in high demand and thus we have been able to achieve higher selective admission standards and higher retention rates.

Background: The CoB has grown its undergraduate program from 1600 student to over 1800 majors since 1997. In addition, our business minors have increased from 350 students to nearly 900 students in the last five years.

This growth was funded by profits from the Malaysia program, which has disappeared. Therefore, the operating budget of the college was never built to support the costs of handling these students. This has driven the need to maintain our five external MBA programs to prop up our teaching capacity. These factors have created an operating budget that is substantially under-funded. Through its ability to generate additional funds, the College has been able to subsidize the operating budget by generating an additional $600,000 in funds. Reliance on these external programs is risky. We constantly struggle to keep admissions up and run new cycles of all programs while partners continue to try to reduce costs or run into difficulties maintaining demands.

Under the new university budget model and in response to the university’s plan to increase enrollments, our overall enrollment strategy will be to grow enrollments in a controlled manner and in proportion to any additional resources that can be acquired. The general strategy would be:

• Gradually grow the size of the undergraduate program to 2000 students (500 student throughput) through a combination of increasing the freshman class size to 400 and increasing internal transfers within the university.

• Consider growing the number of business students on the regional campus if there are resource incentives created to support this effort. The current structure of these programs provides little incentive to the college to participate in this program. In fact, the use of the overload actually creates competition between using resources for this program versus using them in external programs that support the college budget. This activity is well-aligned with the university’s regional mission and could help support the overall enrollment growth targets for the university, but resource incentives would have to be structured to provide an incentive to participate.

• Consider growth in service offerings, particularly in the form of business minor variations targeted at other specific majors like journalism, engineering, etc. This has good potential for growth given the relatively small number of resources needed to deliver this program and the fact that it can be delivered with less expensive faculty resources. When the university moves to a budget model where resources are connected to credit hour generation, this will become an even more attractive option. The main question will be how much growth is possible in this area in terms of the potential demand.

• Maintain the size of the Athens MBA program with attention to maximizing the efficiency of delivery in terms of the number of releases needed to deliver the program. In addition, possibly shrink the program back to one cohort if overall revenue can be preserved through a focus on increasing fee payers and balancing subsidy loses against expense reductions.

• Maintain and potentially increase revenue from external programs to the extent that the college budget continues to be under-funded. Without rebasing to correct the budget shortfall, the college will need to focus on continuing to develop new external programs and maximize the profitability of existing programs.

B) Development of a Facilities Plan

Work with central administration to develop a long range plan for space. Copeland Hall is currently utilized beyond its capacity. The building was designed to accommodate 1600 business students. Copeland Hall is the most heavily utilized academic building on the Ohio University campus. With the possibility of increasing enrollments along with the pressures listed above, the following types of space are needed.

• One or two classrooms of 80 seats for the Athens MBA program and Brazil Seminars. Space of this size is also sorely needed for undergraduate classes (particularly service courses in the business minor) so any times not needed for these programs could be used for undergraduate classes

• Several classrooms of 40 seats would be needed for the various international MBA programs, executive education seminars, and components of the Athens MBA that are taught in separate cohorts of 35-40 students. Any times not needed for these programs could be used for undergraduate classes.

• Five to ten Breakout /Seminar rooms are needed for meeting space both for faculty involved in the CIBED and graduate programs as well as student teams

• GA work space – an area of semi-private cubicles is needed to provide graduate assistants with space for completing their assigned work.

• General student work area – an area with computers and table space is needed for MBA students to have access to computers and complete course work.

• Office space – Private office’s for 15-20 early retired faculty and other temporary faculty. A large private office with up to 4 stations is needed for the Cardinal Health Virtual Internship Program. CIBED needs space for two staff people and the graduate program needs space for two staff people.

• Four administrative offices are needed for the Director of CIBED, the Director of Executive Graduate Programs, the Coordinator of the Athens MBA, and the Coordinator of the regional MBA/EMBA programs.

VIII. Assessment and Accountability

Vision Ohio Goal:

Accountability is essential to effect management and requires commitments to assessment, planning, decision making and continual improvement.

College of Business:

A) Assessment

1) Develop and Implement an Assurance of Learning Assessment Program:

As part of our AACSB Accreditation, the college will be refining the core learning outcomes and creating an assessment strategy for our undergraduate curriculum We will be considering assessment methods, including the use of the Electronic Student Portfolio, which is currently being used in the Management and MIS majors. Use of the portfolio will be expanded to core courses with an introduction to the portfolio occurring in the BA100, MIS201B and PRCM150 courses.

Review the core curriculum with particular attention to the following areas:

– Ethics

– Diversity, multicultural and Appalachian

– Leadership

– Team management skills

– Oral & written communication across the curriculum

– Service learning in the region to teach values of citizenship, public good and intercultural fluency

– Providing more actual business application experiences using in-class learning

Consider new models for cluster delivery to ensure more consistency across sections and between the sophomore and junior clusters. This might include the appointment of a leader for the cluster who is assigned this coordination task along with the assessment of the cluster outcomes.

2) Complete a Review and assessment of all MBA Programs.

As part of our AACSB Accreditation, the college will be refining the core learning outcomes and creating an assessment strategy for our graduate curriculum. Part of this will include the development of common distinctiveness elements that represent our competitive advantage, such as international experiences, integration and the application of knowledge.

B) Accountability -Below are the quality measures that the College proposes to use to judge its progress in meeting the goals of Vision Ohio..

Productivity & Quality:

o Number of Student weighted credit hours (SCH); a) overall, b) Group 1 and c) Group 2.

o Undergraduate Quality: More than 50% of all SCH will be taught by Group 1 faculty

o Graduate Quality: For all graduate programs more than 75% of all SCH will be taught by Group 1 faculty

o For all programs (graduate and undergraduate) on average more than 75% of all SCH will be taught by participating faculty (defined as full-time, voting CoB faculty members). For any one specific program the percentage will be 60%.

Faculty Research:

o Number of faculty who have published an article in a refereed academic journal (or equivalent) each year. Target is to average one every other year.

o Number of faculty who have published an article in a top refereed academic journal (or equivalent) each year.

Faculty Teaching:

o Number of faculty receiving Teaching awards

o Recognition from external organizations for our teaching innovations

Student Quality & Retention:

o Our student retention rate will exceed 90%

o The ACT and high school rank of our incoming freshman.

o Time to graduation will be at 4.33 years or less.

Student Residential Life:

o Percent of CoB freshman participating in First Year Experience Program

o Percent of CoB students involved in a residential learning community

o Percent of students members of CoB student organizations and leadership programs

International:

o Percent of undergraduate majors who have participated in GCP or international cluster program

o Percent of undergraduate minors who have participated in GCP program

o Number of faculty who have participated in international programs

Placement:

o Percent of undergraduate students who get jobs in their fields within six months after graduation

o Percent of graduate students who get jobs in their fields within six months after graduation.

Regional Service:

o Number of students enrolled in BBA program at the regional campuses

o Number of part-time graduate students coming from regional programs including the PMBA and EMBA

o Number of hours undergraduate students work on class assigned projects doing consulting for organizations located in the region

o Number of hours graduate students work on class assigned projects doing consulting for organizations located in the region

Diversity:

o Percent of our students who are ethnically diverse.

o Percent of our students who are from Appalachia Ohio.

o Percent of staff and faculty who are ethnically diverse.

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