NIU College of Business STRATEGIC PLANNING COUNCIL XV MEETING MINUTES (Academic Year: 2011‐12) ~ Friday, April 20, 2012 ~ 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. STRATEGIC PLANNING COUNCIL XV (SPC) SPC Members: Tim Aurand (MKTG Faculty), Amy Buhrow (Coordinator AACSB/Assessment), Mike Cahill (Undergraduate Student Rep), Ann Carrel (Director, Executive, Professional, & Fast‐Track MBA Programs), Anthony D'Andrea (Director, Development, Senior Gift and Estate Planning Officer – COB), Michelle De Jean (Director, COB Marketing), Ken Elliot (MGMT Instructor, UBUS 311), Geoff Gordon (MKTG Chair), Charles Gowen III (MGMT Faculty), Lenita Hepker (Administrative Assistant to the Dean), Vijay Krishnan (MKTG Faculty), Chang Liu (OMIS Chair), Lori Marcellus (Director Undergraduate Studies), Sarah Marsh (MGMT Chair), Mark Misic (Director of Technology), Paul Prabhaker (Associate Dean, College of Business), Nancy Russo (OMIS Faculty), Denise Schoenbachler (Dean, College of Business), Rebecca Shortridge (ACCY Faculty), Pam Smith (ACCY Faculty), Kelly Stewart (Office Manager OM&IS), Beth Towell (Associate Dean of Undergraduate), Michael Welsh (Welsh Industries, Owner), Cassandra Young (Director, Alumni Relations), Jim Young (ACCY Chair), and Lei Zhou (FINA Faculty) SPC Members Unable to Attend: Curtis Batterton (Graduate Student), Virginia Cassidy (Vice Provost), Joe Cullinane (President – Joe Cullinane Enterprises, Inc.), Brain Mackie (OMIS Faculty), Peter Magnusson, (MKTG Faculty), Jane Mall (Director, COB Experiential Learning and Corporate Relations), Jessalyn Murray (Undergraduate Student Rep), Marc Simpson (FINA Chair)¸ and Dan Wunsch (Associate Dean for Administration), Guests: Lori Jackson (Coordinator, Retention and Recruitment) The Dean welcomed the group and reviewed the agenda for the meeting. She gave an overview of the agenda and importance of May 18, 2012 meeting. In May, the group will give input on the priorities given the current financial situation. The Dean asked for approval of the minutes from the January 20, 2012 meeting. Anthony D’Andrea made the motion, Michael Welsh seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as presented. Recruitment & Retention Update – Dr. Denise Schoenbachler The Recruitment and Retention SPC Action Team has been disbanded as their activities have become institutionalized within the College. Lori Jackson has responsibility for recruitment and retention and will continue to take suggestions, input, and feedback. Faculty and staff members have taken active roles in recruitment investing time, effort and energy and it is appreciated. They have participated in events activities bringing high school students to Barsema Hall, visited community colleges, and staffed open houses. Efforts such as these are important to building back the reputation of the College of Business and keeping our College top of mind. SPC XV Meeting Minutes ~ Friday, April 20, 2012 Page 1 As of April 4, AY13 freshman confirmations are up over confirmations at this time last year. The College is tracking ahead of NIU. Transfer confirmations are flat as this segment continues to apply through the summer months. There is optimism across the university. Dr. Chuck Gown reported that Amanda Carrier from the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology recently made a presentation in UBUS 310 on CEET’s recruitment efforts using social media. Michelle DeJean gave some information on current College of Business activities using social media and asked Dr. Gowen to share the Ms. Carrier’s presentation with her. University Admissions has been seeking more input on the messages we would like to communicate to prospective students in their recruiting materials. This has allowed the College to craft messages focusing on our strengths. The Dean has not been approached in regards to the College upper division retention requirements lately. To support discussions of this nature, we have conducted research on the performance of students with GPAs lower than the current requirements. Results suggest students not meeting the minimum GPA requirements performed worse in UBUS 310 and this difference was found to be statistically significant. The College’s Limited Retention Policies are currently under review. They have passed Academic Planning and Standards Committee and will now move to UCC for approval. Anthony D’Andrea inquired about the Vision 2020 goal of $10 million in new scholarships and how this goal connects to student recruitment. NIU has improved the timing and packaging of scholarship offers to gain a competitive advantage in recruiting gifted freshman students. We have used the Dean’s Scholar Program in the past to attract this segment of students. The University’s increased focus has had positive unintended effects on the Dean’s Scholar program. Several students who received offers from the College to participate in the Dean’s Scholar program also received scholarship packages from the university making the Dean’s Scholar aid unnecessary. However, these students still wanted to participate in the program. We’ve allowed and encouraged this. Development discussions should continue to encourage donors to look at scholarships as a means of recruiting outstanding freshman. Passport – Dr. Denise Schoenbachler A pilot group was formed this year. Unfortunately, we did not receive any funding from the NIU Great Journeys or Vision 2020 grant programs. We are very disappointed as the concept of measuring and tracking the engagement of students could be easily scaled university‐wide. We requested two years of seed money after which the program would be self‐sustaining with student fees. The seed money would fund a position and software. We will discuss the future viability of the Passport program at our May 18 meeting. MBA Update – Dr. Denise Schoenbachler Our delivery of an Executive MBA cohort in Chicago has been approved. The MBA team is working through university channels on securing physical space. A start date of March 2013 is planned. There is excitement at the university level about having a presence in Chicago. The long‐term potential for the MBA in the Chicago market is very large. The MBA team has been very successful in marketing the Fast Trak MBA program. A second cohort will start in January 2013. This cohort will earn a second degree from ENAE, a graduate business school in Murcia, Spain. The second degree can easily extend to students in the MIS, MST, and MAS programs. Jim Kelly has been working to place the Fast Trak students. The current class is 100% placed. Staffing the various MBA formats, graduate programs and undergraduate programs within the AACSB guidelines can be challenging. We will talk more about this at our May meeting. The Board of Trustees subcommittee passed our proposal for the Master in Financial Risk Management. It will go to the full board for approval next. SPC XV Meeting Minutes ~ Friday, April 20, 2012 Page 2 UBUS – Dr. Beth Towell Integration of the principles in UBUS 310 and 311 is our trademark. The College Curriculum Committee has oversight of these courses. They were last reviewed in 2008. Some changes were made as a result. The impact of UBUS 310 on student recruitment and retention was discussed at the January 2012 meeting. At the same time, similar discussions began in the College Curriculum Committee in response to assessment data and a change in the sequencing of UBUS 310, UBUS 311, and OMIS 351 in the junior year. Each department was asked to discuss potential modifications and bring comments to the College Curriculum Committee. Four options emerged: 1. Redesign UBUS 311 only 2. Replace UBUS 310 and UBUS 311 with four separate courses 3. Change UBSU 310 to ten credit hours and UBUS 311 to two credit hours maintaining the integration 4. Do nothing Related comments from the College Curriculum Committee include: 1. UBUS 311 has drifted from its original intent as a recitation. We need to decide what UBSU 311 should be, who should be involved in determining what it should be, if the global expansion project is right for the course, and what the delivery format should be. Student course evaluation comments reveal that they do not like the large lectures but love the small groups. 2. Assessment data show students perform worse on Finance content. The UBUS 310 team is making some changes for Fall 2012 to address this. There will be more integrated topics, three rather than four topic areas will be covered in each content block and tutor use will be encouraged. The changes are more psychological as the number of points per topic area will remain the same. 3. UBUS 311 enhances soft skills and provides assessment data for three college learning objectives. 4. Information Technology is important and decoupling OMIS 351 from UBUS 310 does not give us the complete integration we pride ourselves on. The College Curriculum Committee has been asked to consider the options over the summer and next steps will be determined in the fall. The impact of UBUS 310 on student recruitment and retention was revisited. Dr. Rebecca Shortridge shared feedback gained from Community College visits. Some like UBUS 310 but some feel that is prevents students from coming to NIU. Since transfer students come in without a GPA, there is concern that a C grade in UBUS 310 would mean an overall 2.0 GPA. The current format does not allow for flexibility for non‐traditional students. Mike Cahill, the undergraduate student representative, shared his positive view of the nine credit hour block. He felt he had more flexibility because the class was offered for three straight hours. He did not have gaps in between individual classes. Lori Marcellus shared her belief from conversations with transfer centers and admitted students that students already know about UBUS 310 and it is not a deterrent. The students seem to know that time management is critical to success in the course. She agreed that transfer students are at a disadvantage since they come in without a GPA. If they earn a C in UBUS 310, they would have a 2.0 GPA. However, Past analysis of transfer and native GPAs did not show a significant difference. Part‐time students only take one course, UBUS 310 their first semester. Without students applying, there is no way to tell why they don’t come to NIU. Talking to the transfer centers may help us gain a better understanding of the impact of UBUS 310 on recruitment. Ms. Marcellus does receive more requests for evening and online courses. In order to gain a better understanding of the situation, the Dean suggested an Experiential Learning Center market research project. The team could investigate the perceptions of UBUS 310 held by community college students, reasons why students apply but don’t come to NIU, and factors contributing to the student performance reported in SPC XV Meeting Minutes ~ Friday, April 20, 2012 Page 3 the assessment data. The goal would be to collect data to inform decisions beyond the anecdotal information we are hearing. Lori Marcellus is compiling a list of students with 2.75 or higher GPAs that have switched to a major in another college. She plans to contact those students, ask why they made the change, and provide a summary at the next meeting. The group discussed physical, staffing and sequencing considerations for the placement of UBUS 311 within each majors’ curriculum. When we look at this issue, we do not want to lose the integration of the principles and we want to keep the principles early in the upper division. We also have staffing considerations. James Madison University and Indiana University offer an integrated core. We may want to look at their structure, their challenges, and how they address those challenges. The Dean reiterated her openness to changing UBUS 310 and UBUS 311 as long as the integration and early principles remain. She also stressed the importance of getting quantifiable data to guide the decision making process. Dr. Schoenbachler asked the SPC members to continue to think and have discussions about what we should do with the UBUS courses. The College Curriculum Committee is the first group to discuss it. The discussions will continue. Strategic Objectives – Dr. Geoff Gordon Dr. Geoff Gordon presented a draft of the College strategic objectives. If anyone has feedback or suggestions, Dr. Gordon asked that they be sent to him by Friday, May 27. Dr. Gordon, Dr. Lei Zhou and Ms. Amy Buhrow used the 2005 strategic objectives as a starting point. Their goal was to change as little as possible while aligning the objectives with the new College mission statement and AACSB standards. They propose the following changes: 1. Add “(primarily from the Midwest)” to the stem to address AACSB Standard 3. Guidance for documentation asks schools to indicate by program the intended students and the actual composition of the student population (e.g., whether global, regional, local or characterized by any specific features). The focus on the Midwest is mirrored in the new university mission statement. 2. Add “high quality” to the first bullet point to address AASCB Standard 1. Guidance of documentation asks schools to show that the mission emphasizes the achievement of high quality in each degree program. 3. Change “learners” to “individuals” in the second bullet point to eliminate two forms of the word learning in the same sentence. 4. Add bullet point three to address AACSB Standard 2 ‐ The mission incorporates a focus on the production of quality intellectual contributions that advance knowledge of business and management theory, practice, and/or learning/pedagogy. The school’s portfolio of intellectual contributions is consistent with the mission and programs offered. We put primary emphasis on theoretical and practical contributions and secondary emphasis on pedagogical contributions because it seems to be a more accurate reflection of our portfolio. We will need to make sure this is consistent with what we report in the AACSB Business School Questionnaire. We also need to make sure faculty code the intellectual contributions correctly. Amy will work with the chairs to determine the best way to check the coding. 5. Change “recruiting” to “attracting” and add “and Post‐graduate” to bullet point five. The group discussed the meaning of the words recruiting and attracting. Recruiting implies we go out and get students while attracting means they come to use. They prefer recruiting. The importance of the post‐graduate students was questioned given its importance and the current faculty restraints. It was added because of the importance that has been placed on creating certificates to serve MBA students and graduates. The group asked that “and post‐graduate” be removed. 6. Change “maintaining” to “retaining” in bullet point six. SPC XV Meeting Minutes ~ Friday, April 20, 2012 Page 4 It was recommended that the balance of teaching and research be clearly stated and the points reordered to reflect this balance. Delivering a high‐quality… will be first. Promoting high‐quality… be second. Preparing a foundation…will be third. The AACSB team will look for this and it will assist prospective faculty members in determining what type of school we are. The inclusion of operations in the last bullet was also questioned. It was added to capture the role of staff in the College. The group asked that operations be removed and balance be inserted. Differential Tuition – Dr. Rebecca Shortridge Dr. Mark Misic, Dr. Shortridge, Dr. Dan Wuncsch, and Dr. Schoenbachler have been investigating differential tuition models at other schools. They were looking for the colleges’ logic in implementing a differential tuition; if it was taxed; if the college got to keep 100% of the money; how they used the money once they brought it into the college; the percent difference in the differential tuition and the regular tuition; and if it was phased in or all at once. Focused on schools that are our competitors, US schools using differential tuition models, the schools President Peters used in Vision 2020 benchmarking, our AACSB peer and aspirant schools, Nebraska and Tennessee. Engineering, Nursing and Music programs have surfaced over the course of the investigation. Their models have been analyzed as well. Schools use the money primarily to hire faculty, to update facilities or to pay for special programs like Passport. They differ in the rationale they provide online. Some schools are very detailed and explain the salary differential between business majors and other majors, provide fact sheets, explain what the money is used for and explain the process of adopting it. Differential Tuition Models are very different in cost structuring and required use of funds. Many schools have only recently introduced differential tuition. Future investigation will question the impact on enrollment. Dr. Sarah Marsh reminded the group of the financial pressure our students are under. We need to make sure we are providing high‐quality programs and student support. What’s Next? The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, May 18 from 10 a.m. – 12p.m. Members were asked to make the meeting a priority. Given the budget situation and loss of faculty, we need to revisit our strategic initiatives going forward. We still need another Finance faculty member to serve this year. Dr. Zhou was asked to help recruit. Dr. Carolinda Douglass will join the group as the NIU representative for the XVI SPC. She will attend the May meeting with Dr. Virginia Cassidy. We may need to look for another business community/alumni representative. Action Items and Wrap‐up 1. SPC members were asked to send strategic objective feedback and/or suggestions to Dr. Gordon by next Friday, April 27. 2. Amy will work with the chairs to determine the best way to check the coding of intellectual contributions. Meeting adjourned at 3:47. Respectfully submitted by Amy Buhrow. SPC XV Meeting Minutes ~ Friday, April 20, 2012 Page 5