Summer is Over!

Posted by Joseph Phillips, Jr. on Monday, September 19, 2011 at 12:42 PM PDT

The academic year is starting this week and campus is getting busier and busier with the approach of fall classes.  [It is true that law students and EMBA students have been in class for several weeks, but they don't fill the campus up!]  On September 15th we had the Albers Convocation, a beginning of the year meeting for Albers faculty and staff.

On September 20th we host a welcome event for our new undergraduate business students, both freshmen and transfers.

At the Convocation, we emphasized that there are four important things we need to accomplish this year:

1. Earn reaffirmation of our AACSB accreditation.  AACSB is the top business education accrediting body in the world.  There are 633 schools worldwide with accreditation.  Accredited schools are reviewed every five years to assure they are delivering a quality business education.  A peer review team will visit us in late October.  We sent them our self-study report in late August, which we know they are pouring over now.

2. Revamp our MBA curriculum.  A team of faculty and staff started working on this last year.  They have come up with some interesting changes and are getting closer to making their initial proposal to the faculty.

3. Revise our undergraduate business core curriculum.  Now that the university has revised the university undergraduate core, it is time for us to look at the business core.  A task force of faculty began work in the spring.  Thus far they have looked at what other programs do and the trends in business undergraduate education.  Now they must get busy formulating a proposal.

4. Establish a system to measure the quality and impact of faculty scholarship.  This is a difficult topic for faculty.  In our current system of annual evaluation and rank and tenure, we are not doing enough to assess the quality of faculty research.  We need to establish a system that is fair and provides faculty with the right incentives and support.

A blogging expert told me there should be pictures posted on my blog.  I am not sure what pictures I have that are appropriate for these topics.  But, if we recognize that the start of the school year means summer is over (way too short one more time!), and it is a great time to look back and remember the highlights.  For me, that would be the trip to Peru and Machu Picchu in July and a vacation trip to Lake Tahoe the week before Labor Day.    

Summer is over!  Have a great school year!