CARL LAM
Staff Writer
The School of Business is starting to work toward the prestigious accreditation by the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB).
The process began earlier this week with a visit from their mentor that was assigned by AACSB. Dr. Russell Boisjoly, dean for the School of Business, explained the strength this accrediting body holds.
“It’s an organization that has the highest standards for business school accreditation. Were we to achieve it, we would be ranked within the top 30 percent of business schools of the United States and the top eight percent of business schools in the world,” Boisjoly said.
Fewer than five percent of business programs in the world are recognized by this accreditation body. If SUNY Fredonia were to be accredited, it would join the ranks of business schools like the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, the Harvard Business School and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. With all the prestige this accreditation brings, the process to get to that point won’t be easy by any means.
“It’s a process that takes several years and evaluates us in terms of the quality of our curriculum, students, teaching, and learning that goes one here,” Boisjoly said.
One of the biggest components of the entire accreditation is the review of the assessment committee within the School of Business. Dr. Linda Hall, professor of accounting, is the chair of the committee and has been working on this large component for quite some time.
“The assessment committee is responsible for what’s called the assurance of learning,” Hall said. “The assurance of learning is a continuous improvement process where we measure our students’ performance and graduates’ performance against the learning objectives that we set for our courses and our programs.”
The process will also look at various items like faculty research, internship and study abroad opportunities for students, community outreach and global alliances. All of this information will be used toward the accreditation and through the review.
Originally, the School of Business had plans to move forward with accreditation a few years back but, after some departures in faculty, the plans were slightly delayed until the department was back to full strength.
Over the past year, four new professors were added to the department’s roster, three of which are full-time, tenure track positions. Dr. Robert Kane, economics, and Dr. Lei Huang, marketing, are two of the faculty members that started their positions in mid-August. Dr. Lisa Walters has moved into a new visiting assistant professor role after serving as an adjunct for a number of years.
Another hire, which also filled a hole, was in accounting. The previous professor left the position nearly three years ago, and the position was being filled by temporary or adjunct faculty.
“We needed a Ph.D. in accounting and now we’ve got a person that we feel is going to be a significant contributor, Dr. Sehan Kim,” Boisjoly said.
According to Boisjoly, the School of Business has been operating as an accredited school for nearly half a dozen years in order to progress and meet standards set by AACSB.
“There are expectations as you are improving what you’re doing, and basically they’re looking for you to continue to improve until you reach a threshold level,” he said. “ The quality of the education has been consistent, and that’s why we’re getting pretty high marks right now and we should be able to able to advance through the process.”
Should accreditation be granted to the School of Business, every graduate will be able to say they went to an AASCB accredited school, and there are even more added benefits for students including induction into exclusive honor societies, scholarships and advantages in job seeking with large companies.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Terry Brown is heavily involved with all departments and schools going through accreditation. Brown said that the process benefits everyone.
“Accreditation is one way in which higher education assures quality control for our institution as a whole and for individual programs,” Brown said. “It’s also important because the whole process of accreditation will set a high bar for our faculty and students and that’s a good thing for us. And through the process itself, we become better.”
Following the visit of the mentor, the School of Business will request permission to perform a self-study and have a full site visit in the Fall of 2014. If the school clears all the hurdles, the report from the site visit will go to the full accreditation committee for further approval. The anticipated completion date is tentatively set for the spring of 2015.
Boisjoly didn’t even think twice before answering how confident he is that the school will achieve accreditation.
“I’m certain. It’s been a lot of work. It’s a university effort; it’s a School of Business effort; it’s a faculty effort, and a lot of students have worked very hard on this,” Boisjoly said.
Brown is also confident that the School of Business will achieve accreditation from the premiere associations in the world.
“It’s a high bar, and I have no doubt that we will attain it,” Brown said. “It is a process, and it does take time to get there. That’s why not everyone has it; it has to mean something.”