NIU COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
STRATEGIC PLANNING COUNCIL XIII MEETING MINUTES
(Academic Year: 2009-10) ~Tuesday, May 18, 2010 ~ 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
STRATEGIC PLANNING COUNCIL XIII (SPC)
SPC Members:
Tim Aurand (MKTG Faculty), Sue Braffet (ACR Event Planner), Ann Carrel (Director, Executive &
Professional MBA Programs), Joe Cullinane (President – Joe Cullinane Enterprises, Inc.), Anthony
D'Andrea (Director, Development, Senior Gift and Estate Planning Officer – COB), Michelle De Jean
(Director, COB Marketing), Ken Elliot (MGMT Instructor, UBUS 311), Lia Gillet (Director, ACR), Geoff
Gordon (Chair MKTG Department), Charles Gowen III (MGMT Faculty), Lenita Hepker (Administrative
Assistant to the Dean), Sonja Herington (Director, Global Affairs & Special Projects), Len Lundstrum (FINA
Faculty), Jane Mall (Director, COB Experiential Learning and Corporate Relations), Lori Marcellus
(Director Undergraduate Studies), Sarah Marsh (MGMT Chair), Ian Mills (Undergraduate Student Rep),
Mark Misic (Director of Technology), Ron Parrish (MGMT Instructor/Business Rep), Denise Schoenbachler
(Dean, College of Business), Marc Simpson (FINA Chair)¸ Pam Smith (ACCY Faculty), Wayne Smith (iTest
Quality Partners Inc.), Beth Towell (Associate Dean of Undergraduate), Dan Wunsch (Associate Dean for
Administration), Jim Young (ACCY Chair), and Phyllis Zerull (BSBA Program Advisor)
SPC Members Unable to Attend:
Curtis Batterton (Graduate Student Rep), Virginia Cassidy (Vice Provost), Emily Cronauer (Undergraduate
Advisor), Chang Liu (OMIS Chair), Brain Mackie (OMIS Faculty), Christine Mooney (MGMT Faculty), Paul
Prabhaker (Associate Dean, College of Business), Nancy Russo (OMIS Faculty), Rebecca Shortridge (ACCY
Faculty), and Tim West (ACCY Faculty)
Guests:
Jay Beaton (MBA Alum), Amy Buhrow (AACSB/Assessment Coordinator), Patty Solomon (COB Technology
Services)
The Dean opened the meeting with discussion of the vision and mission statements:
Vision Statement
“Inspiring excellence… developing leaders…” Is this who we (the COB) wants to be? Not just
for students but for faculty and staff as well.
Discussion: Do we want everyone to be a leader? Don’t we want some doers?
Look at the term “leaders” as aspirational: informal leadership, peer leadership, servant
leadership. Creating an environment where everyone can lead. Not everyone can be a
leader, but everyone can be a servant leader. Building leaders.
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Discussion: How about taking –ing suffix off??
All agreed to take the –ing suffix off the proposed vision statement. New Vision Statement:
“Inspire excellence… develop leaders…”
Mission Statement
“Create innovative academic and business experiences through unique partnerships among
students, faculty, staff and the business community.” Is this what we do?
Discussion: Needs to distinguish us from competition. How does this compare to our peer and
aspirant schools?
Value in the way we do education, creating “experience driven” opportunities for
students. The COB creates uniqueness by the dedication of our alumni…our alumni
distinguish us. This should be reflected in the mission statement. Alumni should not be
encompassed of business community, should distinguish between the two.
Discussion on the meaning of the word “unique” and its use in the mission statement.
Partnerships are not unique, everyone works with partnerships. It is the experiences
and the involvement we get from our partnerships that makes us unique. Some
partnerships are innovative, so are unique. The experiences should be unique through
these innovative partnerships. Unique compares us with other people. This is who we
are… different, no one else provides this experience… essence of who we are and what
we provide.
All agreed to remove the word “unique” and add “alumni” to the list of stakeholders. New
mission statement:
“Create innovative academic and business experiences through partnerships among
students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the business community.”
The Dean will bring the new vision and mission statements to the spring All College meeting.
Spring ’10 SPC Retreat follow-up
Discussed initiatives presented at the Spring ’10 SPC Retreat. After the meeting, a subgroup
met and flushed out three key areas to work on: Outreach; Diversity/Recruitment/Retention;
and Add-ons - what distinguishes students and college? Dean has asked SPC for volunteers to
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work on the identified areas, as well as recruit other members of the College community to
work on these initiatives.
Outreach
Initiative
Outreach
Create external revenue generating opportunities: executive education, executive development
and training programs, etc. Dean asked for a group to work on goals/framework for this
initiative. What outreach activities do we pursue? External relations, executive education
center, etc…
SPC members present who volunteered be on this task group include: Sonja Herington,
Ron Parrish, Wayne Smith, Anthony D’Andrea, and Sarah Marsh.
Diversity
Recruitment
Retention
Diversity/Recruitment/Retention
A Venn diagram was created for Diversity/Recruitment/Retention at the subgroup meeting
because they all overlap in some way. For planning purposes, faculty/staff and student groups
should be separated. Student diversity/recruitment/retention is the College’s top priority. The
University has a group addressing faculty/staff diversity, which will trickle down to all the
colleges.
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The COB’s enrollments are on a significant decline. Need to answer the questions: how big do
we want to be, how do you recruit and retain, and who do you recruit?
In looking at diversity, we have diversity in the freshmen and sophomore levels; it is when they
get to their junior level that the COB loses them, how do we retain those students? How do we
recruit more?
The female student body, which used to be about 50%, is down to 30%, why?
Recruitment and retention will be different for each group targeted, whether those groups are
identified by ethnics, age, gender, etc. Need to separate diversity/recruitment/retention from
other student recruitment/retention. These areas still overlap, so when we form task groups
we need to have a liaison between the two groups, or have groups meet together so that they
interface.
The university publishes a lot of data on students: diversity, declared majors, gender trends,
etc. The Dean needs help knowing which data we need internally to help us with
diversity/recruitment/retention issues. Because diversity is an AACSB identified issue, we need
to address this concern quickly, use the data available and approach tactically. We need to take
a strategic approach when answering the question “how big do we want to be...where do we
want to be in the long-term?”
Add-ons
(ELC, Student Orgs,
etc…)
Core - Curriculum
Create a mountain instead of a pyramid??
Add-ons
What programs/things can we do to make our student experiences “special”?
Add-ons - identify pieces that will become part of the academic experience for every COB
student. Other colleges are expanding and requiring students to participate in “add-on” type
activities. This is part of our career services initiative (CSI). We will have freshman and
sophomore level add-ons and additional add-ons for junior and senior levels.
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We need to identify what programs/things would give our students a holistic experience. What
is missing? Something above and beyond the core curriculum that we do to help students build
their character and become better business citizens.
A program that will make students: 1) better prepared; 2) more confident; and 3) more aware
of the business community.
Need a group to identify values/inherent characteristics that make a good citizen. What are the
characteristics that go into “leadership,” going back to the mission statement? How do we
contribute to those? What are ways we can fulfill these needs?
Passport/backpack?? Visualization for students to keep track of their progress through
program – “value-add activities.”
The Dean asked SPC members to let Sonja know if they would be interested in working on any
of the newly identified initiatives. She also asked for SPC to inform colleagues to recruit them
to work on the initiatives as well.
SPC Meeting Calendar
Keep meetings on Friday, may change time to morning, early afternoon meetings. Next meeting will be
sometime late August/early September.
Thank you
The Dean thanked those SPC members whose terms expired: Jane Mall, Lori Marcellus, Ron Parrish,
Wayne Smith, Phyllis Zerull, and Curtis Batterton.
Meeting adjourned at 11:52 a.m.
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