Called to order: 11:06am
Present: B. Flynn
F. Lin
R. Savich
M. Stull
J. Wu
T. Yang
Absent: V. Seitz
L. Estrada (summary notes)
Guests: L. Hanson
Review of Summary Notes from June 3, 2009 (Flynn)
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Approved by e-mail following the meeting
Election of Graduate Committee Chair
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Yang was re-elected as the Graduate Committee Chair for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Update on Assurance of Learning (AoL) (Hanson) Two handouts
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Comp Exams o CPBA will be reporting to AACSB the actions we have taken to correct the deficiencies in two areas in our AACSB report we received from the visitation team earlier in the year. One area is AoL. o Updated AoL document for the MBA Program was handed-out. The task is to determine if the final version of this handout captures everything in the area of
MBA assessment since the AACSB team was last here. o Prospect of using some sort of template (second handout) to use the comp exam results for accessing management specific skills within the specific areas: ACCT,
FIN, MGMT, etc. o The Chair of each Comp Committee will respond to the two questions and rate the exams over all. The concern is this may be too subjective for purposes of assessment. Is the comp exam suitable to assess management skills in respective areas? Performance objectives are to be given discipline specific. o Strongest possible case needs to be made to AACSB, does it close the loop? o Comp exam is discipline oriented and the portfolio is general management skills
(Lin) o If we document where students are failing and need more assistance, it will help us to evaluate any weaknesses and change curriculum based on feedback o Will this template allow us to get the information that we need to evaluate student outcomes? How do we pull out what is learned from the comp exams and document it in a systematic way?

o What if a block of students struggle with one question, are there weaknesses across exams, any commonalities, is there a need to change or “beef up” a particular course? Going over this information can help create questions for future comp exams. This is good starting point. (Stull) o Comp Committee Chairs will be responsible for answering/evaluating/assessing comp exams by answering “template” questions and identify solutions. Comp
Committee Chairs are encouraged to have their committee members assist in the assessment. The Comp Committee Chairs are to gather data every quarter and submit a summary report at the end of each academic year. o Once instituted the results will be evaluated after a year. The Graduate
Committee will have the responsibility for summarizing the data and distributing the information to appropriate parties. o Five graduate committee members voted to support comp exam assessment, one abstained: evaluation for comp exam assessment will begin this fall quarter
2009
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GMAT o One specific curriculum action being taken in response to the verbal deficiencies in our MBA Program is to have a 10% verbal and 10% quantitative minimum score on GMAT. o The “P” form was first approved by Graduate Committee, since taken to CBPA
Curriculum and University Curriculum Committees and approved. It is now on its way to the Faculty Senate awaiting their approval followed by the signature of the
President of the University. Once it has been signed, information can be posted on website, in university bulletin, etc. o Dean Bowerman has confirmed that we need to wait for the signature of the
President and that he will be handling it with expedited care. We are not impacting, we are raising standards.
MBA Portfolios – Meaningful Competencies and Knowledge (Yang)
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Portfolios mainly consist of reflective essay indicating how they achieve the learning goals in the curriculum.
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Yang suggests that we add one more section such asking the students direct (essay) questions: o What kind of business can they manage or run with the (discipline specific) knowledge they learned from the MBA program? o Did student achieve learning goals from current curriculum? o Are they satisfied with the knowledge and education from our MBA program? o What, if anything, do they feel can be changed or improved through course curriculum. Like a “business plan”?
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From the stand point of assessment, this would be helpful. However, there is a limitation because it is student self-reporting, it does not demonstrate level of knowledge and

competency in these learning goals. Phrasing of question for portfolio is “crucial”.
(Hanson)
 This is really a “perception” of learning (Stull)
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Portfolios currently are supposed to show general management skills, not discipline specific. This is why we use only core courses. The strongest impact will be MGMT 685 which most students complete 6 weeks after their portfolio is submitted. (Lin)
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We have a very diverse group of MBA students. Many of whom do not have an undergraduate degree in business. Some students have never held real career type job/positions. (Flynn)
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Maybe we should require an internship be required for those who do not have work experience. (Lin)
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52 units for those who need the internship instead of 48 for those who do not? (Flynn)
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This issue would be a major curriculum change and will need to be brought up more appropriately at a different time, different discussion. (Hanson)
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Cultural/societal difference will also be at work here. (Savich)
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Yang will prepare sample questions and will share at a future Graduate Committee meeting for feedback.
Graduate Business Professional fee $140 (Yang)
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Suggestions for funding to forward to Graduate Business Fee committee: o Funds needed to develop a research methodology course(s) (Yang) – possible curriculum change? Research should not be in the MBA program. We are not educating them to be researchers; we are educating them to be managers.
(Savich) Since so few students write MBA projects any more, can we fill this course with 25 students? (Flynn) o Funds to Hire more graduate research assistants (Yang)
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The Graduate Committee supports the above recommendations with the constraint that the research methodology course needs further discussion before the developed course is forwarded to the CBPA curriculum committee.
MBA Comp Exam policy (tabled until next mtg due to time)
MBA Program Admission Standards/Strategic Plan (tabled until next mtg due to time)
Next Graduate Committee Meeting will scheduled for Thursday, December 3, 2009 at
10am in JB 278.
Adjourned 11:30am