CONSULTANT RECOMMENDATION REPORT
Planning and Review Committee
Consultant Recommendation
I. Degree: B.S. in Business Administration
Date of Review: December 16, 2014
Program Director: Mark Fenton
PRC Consultant(s): Kate Edenborg and Urs Haltinner
Purpose of the Review: To assess the quality of the B.S. in Business Administration part of the
seven year cycle required of all degree programs at UW-Stout.
Committee Findings: The committee recommends that this program continue to function as one of
UW-Stout’s degree programs for the ongoing seven-year cycle, and that recommendations made by
the committee be implemented.
Abstract:
The B.S. in Business Administration program at UW-Stout is a competitive and hands-on program
with excellent and committed faculty and a very high (99%) placement rate. The Association of
Collegiate Business Schools accredits the program. Additionally, the BSBA demonstrated a total
2013-2014 enrollment of over 700 students. This program is characterized by –
 a strong record of relevant co-ops and real-world student experiences,
 expertly handled advising,
 and an increasingly active advisory board.
Its goals and performance are strongly aligned with UW-Stout’s polytechnic mission. The program’s
high enrollments are both a strength and source of concern. While its enrollment size is currently
stable some of its critical courses are often overloaded and taught as overloads by its professors. Over
the long term, a strong commitment to both enrollment management and faculty recruitment and
retention will be necessary to sustain the quality of this program.
II. Process Followed for Current Review:
The PRC consultants met with the program director several times during the process to review the
procedures and offer assistance. Data regarding several aspects of the program were collected from
students, key instructors within and outside the department, and program advisory committee members
through surveys. The data were analyzed
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III. Previous Review Year -- 2007-08
Previous Recommendations for Program Director:
1. Continue efforts to strengthen the emphasis areas available to students through the
development of related minors. Continue development of emphasis area in Supply Chain
Management.
2. Work to communicate effectively with students regarding the critical importance of
accounting courses in Business Administration programs.
3. Support the efforts of the Department Chair to control class sizes and provide sufficient
sections of courses to meet student needs.
4. Support the efforts of the Department Chair to advocate for sustainable teaching loads,
research support, and attractive salaries for incoming faculty and to address concerns about
failed searches and faculty recruitment.
5. Continue pursuit of accreditation with the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and
Programs.
Response from Program Director:
1. The program director is developing a Master Book to include all minors that a business
student might choose to complete his/her degree. A student can select a minor by leveraging
the emphasis area, business selectives and electives. The prepared minor options included in
the Master Book will list the courses needed to complete a specific minor and how they fit
into the business program. These are presented by the program director in the Introduction
to Business class with an explanation of how this could strengthen the degree and
employment opportunities. The Master Book will be available to students via their advisor,
the program director and online. Updating this material will be an ongoing project as we
continually add minor programs at UW-Stout.
2. In the Introduction to Business course, the overall structure of the degree program is
presented, including the business core and the strength provided by the accounting courses.
A comparison of other business degrees to our peer institutions including the polytechnic
universities will also be presented. The business program is developed to give students a
well-rounded background to prepare them for a career path in the business world. No matter
what their chosen career path, accounting is critical as it is the language of business. The
accounting information is needed to record financial position and develop future goals. This
is confirmed in all of the accounting courses.
3. The Department Chair and the program director will continue to monitor needs of
department courses. The department chair and program director will work diligently to add
sections where there seems to be an overwhelming need. Backlogs will be monitored,
especially those that prevent students from completing their degrees in an efficient manner.
4. Collaboration is occurring, with the Department Chair communicating to the Dean, the
Provost and the Chancellor to make them aware of the ongoing challenges to recruit and
retain faculty in the Business department. The department is currently seeking to fill an
academic staff accounting position and a tenure-track management position. In the fall, the
tenure-track accounting faculty search will be reopened. The department successfully filled
a tenure-track marketing position. All of these are stated needs for the Business department
as we continue to work toward meeting the needs of students as well as maintain the
excellence of the program.
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5. At the present, UW­Stout’s Business program and faculty are aligned with the ACBSP. In
June, the department chair and program director will travel to the 2008 Annual Conference
in New Orleans to learn more about the organization and the accreditation requirements.
This will be accomplished by attending sessions on Teaching Excellence, Re-growth of
Curriculum Alignment and Assessment Process and the Accreditation Process Track.
Previous Recommendations for Department Chair:
1. Work with the Dean and the Program Director to address concerns about class sizes and
numbers of sections offered. Consider advocating for enrollment caps and/or additional
FTEs. Work to address the program’s unsustainable reliance on faculty overloads.
2. Work with the Dean and the Program Director to address concerns about faculty
recruitment and retention. Consider advocating for salaries that more closely approximate
the national average. Consider dropping Ph.D. requirements for the position in Accounting.
3. Work with the Dean and the Program Director to address need for more time and support
for faculty research, as this will be an important factor in the program’s pursuit of
accreditation with the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs.
4. Work with the Dean to address concerns about the need to maintain and improve resources,
such as up-to-date textbooks, classroom desks and projectors. Hopefully, the construction of
the new Science Wing will partially alleviate some classroom availability and classroom
environment concerns.
Response from Department Chair:
1. It is currently the University’s policy not to have enrollment caps on the business program.
It is, however, important to secure additional FTE allocations to address the concerns of
class sizes and numbers of sections offered by the Business Administration Program. The
Chair, in consultation with the Program Director, has requested the assistance of the Dean to
provide the department with additional FTEs, which has inclined her to put in a request to
that effect. The areas that currently need redress, according to the Program Director, are
accounting, management information systems and principles of management classes.
Additional FTEs will alleviate overload overdependence in meeting students’ registration
demands.
2. It has been an ongoing challenge for the Department of Business Administration to recruit
for its faculty members. This is due to the department’s non­competitive salary offerings,
which have been supported by several data as presented to the Chancellor and Provost. The
Chair will work with the Dean to address this issue as follows:


Provide a strategic plan to implement the proposal presented to the Chancellor and
Provost regarding business faculty salary alignment with peer institutions.
Re-examine the need for PhD requirements for the accounting position. Some
institutions accept a CPA with a Masters in Taxation as a terminal degree for
Accounting Professors recruiting and tenure decision. Considering the fact that Stout
is not a predominantly research institution, it is, however, very important to address
the department’s shortcomings of research activities. This is more important as the
department prepares itself for accreditation with the Association of Collegiate
Business Schools and Programs.
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
The Chair plans to diligently work with the Dean to ask for and develop a system to
support faculty in the following areas:
* Continue funding annual professional memberships of business faculty members.
* Adequately fund business faculty to attend and present scholarly papers at
professional conferences.
* Encourage business faculty members to collaborate with peers on scholarly
activities.

In addressing the fourth recommendation of the PRC to the Chair, the Chair in
consultation with the Program Director will set up an ad-hoc committee made up of
representatives and lead instructors of business courses to review the currency of
textbooks.

It is hopeful that with the slated construction of the new Science Wing the
department has classroom space allocations that will address the current
technological outdated classrooms. In addition, faculty will be consulted when lab
modification and technology upgrade proposals are announced.
Previous Recommendations for Dean:
1. Support the efforts of the Program Director and Department Chair to sustain current quality
of instruction. Remain mindful of high faculty/student ratios, faculty salaries, research
support, and other challenges to recruitment and retention of quality instructors. Consider
enrollment management, additional FTEs and other options for keeping this valuable
program fully staffed.
2. Support the efforts of the Program Director and Department Chair to seek accreditation with
the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs.
Response from Dean:
1. Quality instruction is paramount to the business department as well as the college. Being
attentive to faculty workloads is integral to this core value. Being mindful of the number of
overloads assigned to faculty as well as the continued increase of student enrollments in
classes is a priority of the department and the college. A number of strategies are being put
in place to address these concerns.
The department of Business delivers courses that are used by programs throughout
the university. Staffing adequate sections is challenging. The department has
increased WinTerm and summer session offerings to meet demand. Despite the
increased use of these terms, each semester yields wait lists for a number of courses.
The department chair and program director have identified accounting, management
information systems and management as high demand areas. The dean will work
with the department chair to develop a hiring plan that includes both academic staff
for flexibility and tenure track to build the faculty.
In addition, a plan to address compression and salary issues of the business faculty is
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under development. The chair along with a senior faculty member have made a
proposal too thee Chancellor and Provost that requests consideration and support to
align salaries of the business faculty with that of peer institutions. This is integral in
the efforts to recruit and retain faculty in the business department.
The dean supports the movement to align Stout’s Business Administration with the
ACBSP (Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs). The department
chair and program director will be attending the annual conference of the ACBSP in
July 2008. A plan will be developed that includes a timeline for securing full
accreditation with the ACBSP. Budget will need to be developed that incorporates
support for increased research and scholarly activities of the faculty. The dean’s
office will provide support to the program director to develop the self-study and
prepare for the subsequent onsite visitation.
IV. Current Year Program Review:
Program Strengths
1. Provides students with strong experiential learning activities, including an eight week co-op
experience and a minimum 320-hour supervised work experience. (Source: program
director’s report, student surveys.)
2. Offers a broad-based degree and allows students flexibility in selecting areas of emphasis
through minors and concentrations. (Source: program director’s report, student surveys.)
3. Features highly capable faculty who are committed to excellence in teaching. (Source:
student surveys, program director’s report.)
Issues of Concern
1. Program Administration
 Students and instructors had concerns about class sizes and available sections. (Source:
student surveys, key instructor survey, program director’s report.)
2. Retention
 Students need explicit learning experiences related to the appreciation and competence
in working within a culturally and linguistic business and industry setting. (Source: 1
year and 5 year alumni surveys.)
 Students need more instruction in the areas of international and global business. (Source:
1 year and 5 year alumni surveys.)
 Students report some dissatisfaction with the number of accounting courses they are
required to take. (Source: student surveys, program director’s report.)
3. Program Faculty and Resources
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

Faculty resources are currently strained. High faculty/student ratios could negatively
affect the program’s pursuit of accreditation. (Source: program director’s report, key
instructor survey)
Concerns regarding retention, recruitment, and replacement of faculty continue to be
challenging. (Source: program director’s report, key instructor survey.)
Recommendations for the Program Director:
1. Identify key courses, instructors, and teaching strategies that enhance program graduate
cultural and linguistic competence across their life and work domains.
2. Advance graduate insight and competency in the areas of international/global business
beyond the designated INMGT 260 or INMGT 485 courses.
3. Identify explicit integrated global connections across all business courses to advance
international/global content beyond a singular course.
4. Identify faculty that can competently teach accounting for students that don't become
accountants—rather need the competency to drive business management and tactics to
measurably affect the desired business objectives.
5. Increase number of faculty allocated to accounting courses to reduce high faculty/student
ratio to positively affect student competence.
6. Distribute student advisement across business faculty to create a culture of student
belonging in an effort to positively affect student retention recruitment.
7. Continue student recruitment and retention strategies that attract students that can meet the
rigor of industry and accreditation demands.
Recommendations for the Chair:
1. Work with the program director to access key instructors in an effort to target courses,
experiences and strategies that advance graduate cultural and linguistic competence across
their life and work domains.
2. Support curriculum development designed to embed international/global business and
industry competency across all business functions.
3. Work with program director to hire and retain qualified faculty that can measurably affect
the desired accounting competencies that drive business management and decision-making.
4. Allocate sufficient key program faculty to reduce high faculty/student ratio to positively
affect student competence.
5. Work with the program director to distribute student advisement across business faculty to
reduce advisor to student advisee ratio.
6. Support program director student recruitment strategies to attract program students that can
meet the rigor of industry and accreditation demands.
Recommendations for the Dean:
Financially support the program director and department chair to:
1. Assist key instructors to identify and explicitly refine and/or modify courses; experiences
and strategies that enhance graduate cultural and linguistic competence life and work
domains.
2. Identify curriculum development to embed international/global business and industry
competency across all business functions.
3. Secure resources and support staff to:
a. Hire and retain qualified faculty that can measurably affect the desired
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accounting competencies that drive management and decision-making.
b. Distribute student advisement across business faculty to reduce advisor to
student advisee ratio.
c. Sustainably drive student recruitment strategies in an effort to attract and retain
program students that can meet the rigor of industry and accreditation
demands.
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