Minutes of the Education Policy Committee
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Present:
Terry Schlabach
Kris
Eitrheim
Nathan Schlueter
Barb Wiese
Randy Richards
Bonnie Leonhardt
Michael Hustedde
Pam Long
Nate Mundy
Guests:
Jim Speybroeck
Richard Dienesch
a. Richards
b. Eitrheim
c. Approved
2) Delay program review of Philosophy Five Year Review until Fall of 2003
a. Mundy
b. Eitrheim
c. Approved
3) Discontinue Department of Information and Decision Science and blend that Department into the Economics and Finance Department in the College of Business.
a. Richards
b. Eitrheim
c. Approved
4) Common business core (see Appendix I, below)
a. Correction to proposal: Old course BUS 350 should be Writing Intensive, and new course BUS 349 should be Writing Intensive
b. Approval pending program review of new courses (April 15)
c. Leonhardt
d. Long
e. Approved
5) New Items
a. The committee would like to invite President Rogalski to attend a meeting and explain the concept of "core "
b. The committee would like an update from Paul Koch on the new assessment plan
c. Richards is putting together information on admissions to present at next meeting
d. The committee requests the VPA and Maureen Baldwin to explain changes in new articulation agreement
6) Motion to Adjourn
a. Eitrheim
b. Mundy
Submitted by Nathan Schlueter
Agenda for next meeting
(February 25):
1) Program review sociology
2) Randy Richard will lead discussion on initial admissions data from graduating seniors
Appendix I
Proposal to Establish a
Common Business Core
in the College of Business
This proposal was
developed, at the request by the Dean of the College of Business, by the ad-hoc
faculty committee on COB core requirements.
The proposal was amended by the Administrative Council (including the
Dean) of the college. The Core will
apply to the Departments of Economics and Finance, and Managerial Studies. The
Department of Accounting Law and Taxation will determine later this spring if
they will adopt the core. The faculty
of the College of Business, in general meeting, approved this proposal for
submission to the Educational Policies Committee on January 31, 2003.
The general concept of a Common Business Core: This concept is used in a large number of all schools and colleges of business. A common business core identifies the key areas of knowledge and competence that all graduate of that school should develop. It represents the faculty’s best judgment as to the critical knowledge a professional in business administration needs in his or her entry-level position. Majors within the college of business can then build their programs “on top of” the common core, knowing that students will have these competencies going into the major courses. The business and professional communities across the nation have supported this concept as excellent preparation for their actual and potential employees. A final consideration is that the common business core needs to be limited to a reasonable number of credit hours to provide flexibility for design of new majors (or redesign of current majors), to give students room to schedule electives, and to reflect only the critical courses.
General rationale for this proposal: The primary advantage of the common business core described below is that the number of required credit hours has been reduced from 54 to 30, leaving a maximum of 24 credit hours for each major. (This is close to the average number of courses of institutions like St. Ambrose.) This reduction in required credit hours will enable the majors to be revised and strengthened and to allow minors to be developed in these fields where appropriate. Given the endorsement of the concept of the common business core by business and industry noted above, the passage of this proposal should help St. Ambrose University and the College of Business recruit students and build a stronger image of “leading edge” academic programming in the professional community.
Listing of the courses in the proposed Common Business Core, compared to current requirements: In the table below are listed the current requirements for the programs in the departments of the College of Business. (Industrial Engineering is not included because their professional accreditation association requires a course structured derived from engineering, not business, curricula.)
Current Proposed
Course Course Common Business Requirements Title Core **
Acct
201 Accounting Principles I Acct
201
Acct
202 Accounting Principles II Acct
202
Bus 205 Elementary
Economic and -----
Business Statistics
Econ 201 Principals of Macro- Econ 201
Economics
Econ 202 Principals of Micro- Econ 202
Economics
Eng 217 Written Business ------
Communication
Math 151* College Algebra Math 151*
Phil 305* Business Ethics Phil 305*
Psys
105 Introductory Psychology ------
Bus 201 Legal Environment of Bus 201
Business
Bus 303 Corporation Finance Fnce 303
Bus 305 Intermediate Economic Stba 305 (new course)
And Business Statistics
Bus 309 Principals of Marketing Mktg 309
Bus 310 Principals of Management Mgmt 310
Bus 321 International Business ------
or 370 International Field Experience
Bus 350 Capstone Seminar Mgmt 349
Econ 312 Intermediate Macro- -----
Economic Theory
Econ 313 Intermediate Micro- -----
Economic Theory
____________________________________________
48 Total Credit Hours 30
*These two courses are not counted into the credit hour total for the core because they are undergraduate general education requirements.
** Where appropriate, new course prefixes (consistent with the next edition of the St. Ambrose University Catalogue) were used. These do not represent any change in course content.
Specific changes in the proposal and rational for these changes:
Bus 205 Elementary Economic and Business Statistics is dropped and its contents consolidated into a new, more rigorous and more focused course Stba 337 Statistics for Business and Economics. (see course description below). Math 151 and sophomore status become prerequisites to Bus 305 to allow adequate preparation for the increased rigor.
Eng 217 Written Business Communication is dropped as a requirement. The faculty of the College of Business will encourage business and persuasive writing in regular core business courses and through adding more writing intensive courses in the college.
Psyc 105 Introductory Psychology is dropped from the core as not being a critical competency for a business major. It will be retained as a recommended elective.
Bus 303 Corporation Finance will be retained in the common business core but will be restructured to meet the needs of non-finance as well as finance majors.
Bus 321 International Business or Bus 370 International Field Experience will be dropped from the common business core, but each major within the COB will incorporate an International Business course or International Business field experience reflective of its academic needs. (Several of the majors already have such a requirement.)
Bus 350 Capstone Seminar will be dropped from the core. WI-Bus 349 Business Policies will be designated as the new final integrating course for all students taking the business core in the College of Business, renamed and revised per the course description below.
Econ 312 Intermediate Macro-Economic Theory and Econ 313 Intermediate Micro-Economic Theory are dropped from the core as not being a critical competency for a business major. These courses continue to be required as part the Economics major.
Special note 1: Several departmental chairs have expressed frustration with the limited number of sections of Phil 305 Business Ethics available and note that advisors have often felt forced to waive the course in favor of a general ethics or philosophy course. The Dean will work with the Art and Science Department to assure that an adequate number of Business Ethics sections are available, voiding the need for frequent waivers.
Special note 2: None of the courses dropped from the core will be deleted from the offerings of the university or the Academic Bulletin as they are parts of other programs, will serve as electives, or may be incorporated into departmental majors.
Stbe 337 Statistics for Business and Economics. Principles and applications of descriptive and inferential statistics. Topics covered are data summarization, measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, fundamental principles of probability, discrete and continuous probability distributions, calculation of z and t scores, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, ANOVA, correlation and regression, non-parametric statistics, Statistical Process Control and decision theory.
Bus 349: Strategic Management and Policy. The study of the formulation and implementation of corporate and business strategies to achieve the objectives of the organization. This course covers the issues that general/senior managers (top management teams) deal with in ensuring organizational success. This emphasizes environmental, industry, and competitor analyses and includes stakeholder analysis of government, community, consumers, employees and the natural environment. This is the final, integrating course in the business core for all seniors. Prerequisite: Senior standing.
These course changes will be submitted with more detail in the appropriate departmental scheduled in April, 2003.
February 3, 2003