CBA successes:
Revised program, student placement, funding goals

The College of Business Administration has accomplished a great deal during the past year. The highlight was the recent approval of a revised undergraduate business program.
After more than four years in development, the new bachelor of science in business administration (B.S.B.A.) program promises to make our graduates more marketable and better prepared to be successful in that first career position. The program introduces students to important soft skills such as teamwork, writing, and oral communication early in the curriculum. These skills are continuously reinforced and applied in other courses and experiences.

The new program also requires that management information systems and financial accounting courses be completed simultaneously as students complete an integrated project across the two courses. Additional degree components include a supply chain management course, applied statistics course, and an enterprise resource planning (ERP) component and business simulation. Most importantly, we will continue to improve the curriculum in order to maximize student learning and prepare them for careers.

Career placement remains exceptional

We continue to be proud of our career placement record. We place more than 90 percent of surveyed graduates. This result is a testament to the hard work of CBA faculty, our corporate relations director Rob Petree, our career services staff, and the many events these people direct such as the semiannual Career Days.

Another bright spot in the college’s efforts to help students find internships and jobs is the Corporate Spotlight program. Rob Petree oversees a very successful program that regularly invites different corporations to CBA. Interactions with students lead to many career and internship opportunities.

Kudos to entrepreneurship program

A well-done to the entrepreneurship program. It has become the second largest major in the college with more than 300 students. Congratulations also on receiving a second-tier or top-25 ranking among all regional entrepreneurship programs in the country, as announced recently by Entrepreneur magazine.

Campaign goals exceeded, but needs remain

Although the college has been without a development officer for four months, we have exceeded our $6.8 million New Vision of Excellence campaign goal. However, we still lag behind in meeting our student scholarship and programming endowment goals. Additional scholarship funds are critical to competing for higher quality students within the state. In addition, with continued budgetary pressures, we look to fund important programmatic needs from endowed funds.

CBA faculty anticipate black belt certification

One of our important new initiatives is our partnership with The Dow Chemical Company to provide Six Sigma black belt certification for 12 CBA faculty members. Dow has generously allowed 12 of our faculty to complete the regular Six Sigma training with Dow employees. Once certified, CBA faculty black belts will deploy the Six Sigma methodology in a number of areas including green belt training for undergraduates, the Management Consulting Institute in the M.B.A. program, and training for regional firms through the Center for Supply Chain Management.

The college has firmly established a strategic niche in enterprise resource planning through our relationship with SAP. We also look forward to developing another strong niche in Six Sigma to better prepare our students and serve other constituencies within the state. We are very excited about this partnership with Dow Chemical.

As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of the Exchange. Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to participate in college activities.

Daniel Vetter
College of Business Administration
Interim Dean