College of Business 2007-2008 Highlights

Programmatic Achievements—Initiatives undertaken and outcomes achieved in the following areas:
Student engagement and success

1)To address capacity issues for non-business students and to provide value to other on-line majors, the college agreed to develop and offer the Business & Entrepreneurship minor on-line through E-campus. Full minor scheduled to go on-line fall 2008.

2)To ensure students studying the combined program of our MIS and Accounting degree curriculum got full benefit in the market place, we applied for and received The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) certification. The results are that graduates reduce time to certification in IT audit by one year. It also makes our program one of only five higher learning institutions in the country and one of only 12 in the world to offer this certification.

3)Initiative to fundoffering additional business coursework demanded by employers in professional development; the college established a tiered sponsorship program for companiesdesiring to invest in their support. Course was approved by faculty to be included in the core and meet the WIC requirement for the core. The course is funded through development funds.

4)Initiative to make our MBA program more accessible to students. Faculty approved course work for a graduate level sequence of business topics, “Essence of Business” for delivering foundational knowledge in a condensed time and cost efficient summer session. This allows graduate students without a business undergraduate to finish the MBA in 12 months.Summer 2008 first offering.

5)To encourage student leadership and reward desired behavior a new scholarship program was launched. The Dean’s Leadership and Professional Achievement Award provides $1,000 scholarships for up to ten students each year who demonstrate the leadership and professional attributes the college wants to promote. Seven $1000 scholarships were awarded to start Fall 2008.

6)Continued support for experiential learning resulted in the OSU Investment Group (OSIG) being recognized for their disciplined investment strategies by receiving approval from the OSU Foundation finance committee to manage a $1 million fund on behalf of OSUF. Ten OSIG students and two finance faculty participated in a donor supported field trip to NYC to meet with OSU alums working in major investment firms in NY.

7)The Austin Entrepreneurship Program@Weatherford Hall maintained near full capacity of 290 students in residence at Weatherfordand redirected its focus to be “freshman friendly” with a goal of attracting the most creative and innovative students from around the world.

AEP revisedthe BUS 160 series of Introduction to Entrepreneurship course series (BUS 160, BUS 161, and BUS 162) which leads to the Certificate in Entrepreneurship that attracted higher enrollment and broader participation from the Weatherford community.
First full year of a permanent associate director for the residential college resulted in a student leadership group that is responsible for student-driven experiential opportunities for the Weatherford community and beyond. AEP students traveled to Tanzania, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, and around the state working with other organizations.
The AEP launched the New Enterprise Challenge as a business plan competition. The Challenge provided an opportunity for OSU students to present their business ideas to business experts including successful entrepreneurs, senior executives, venture advisors, and venture investors. The best business plans received cash awards: First Prize - $10,000; Second Prize - $5,000; Third Prize - $2,500.

8)An initiative to develop students’ skills to work in a distributed work environment continued. For the first time MIS students worked virtually with students at WesternWashingtonStateUniversity using Web-X technology.

9)Moss Adams accounting classroom was successfully completed. Result is a more professional learning environment for accounting students. Students report it makes a big difference in their perception of the program and the importance of their field of study.

Research and its impact

1)The college developed new policies to promote opportunities for research excellence. Besides travel and conference expenses, the college spent nearly $100,000 in direct support for research. Results included:

Three faculty were recognized with Fulbright Scholarships this past year. Faculty participated in international research in Belgium, Germany, and Poland.
Two faculty were invited to serve as associate editors for the top journals in their fields.
Faculty have published in the top journals in their fields. These include publications in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Operations, Journal of Management, and others.
NSF funding was continued for the Teach Engineering project.

Outreach and engagement – Initiatives to continue to advance the College as a partner of OSU and responsible for leadership in business.

1)The College honored some of the state's most prominent business professionals and educators during the 2008 Centennial Alumni and Business Partner Awards Dinner in Portland on May 1. In addition to recognizing community leaders, the event celebrated the college's 100-year anniversary. As a tribute to its centennial, the College acknowledged another 100 influential alumni and business partners at the awards ceremony.

2)The Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series featured Ursula M. Burns, the president of Xerox Corporation. Ms. Burns shared her views on the challenges and opportunities facing leaders in corporate America in a free public lecture attended by over 800 peopleon Jan. 10. In addition the College of Business Sustainability Lecture Series hosted 3 speakers open to the public with special invitation to people across the university and business communities.

3)The Austin Family Business Program(AFBP) continued to help people face the challenges of running a family business through workshops, conferences, advising, and recognition programs. Its 2007 Excellence in Family Business awards were announced at an event in Portland that attracted nearly 300 attendees. AFBP collaborated with the College of Forestry to produce a workbook, workshop, and DVD package titled Ties to the Land: Your Family Forest Heritage – Planning for an Orderly Transition. AFBP also celebrated 20 years of Excellence in Family Business awards with nearly 100 previous award winners attending and celebrating family and the program.

4)The AFBP teamed with Students in Free Enterprise to host college students from across Oregon to attend the inaugural Family Business Student-to-Student Conference on Saturday, March 8, on the OSU campus.

5)AFBP featured two COB faculty in executive education programs in marketing and strategic planning for family businesses.

6)The Collegehired Robin Klemm as the AFBP Director in April 2008. Robin had been serving as interim director since August 2007. Under Robin’s leadership the AFBP continued a strategic planning effort started in November2006.

7)The Austin Entrepreneurship Program (AEP)continued its initiative to expand its campus wide presence and support for OSU Research and Technology Transfer and completed its strategic plan.

8)AEP continued to expand and build upon success of AEP@Weatherford and the Visiting Fellows program. AEP students met with 17 Visiting Fellows this year.

9)The College of Business collaborated with the Portland Tribune and Community Newspapers to create an award that will be presented annually to recognize outstanding Oregon and southwest Washington high school business educators. The first award winners were recognized at the College’s Centennial Celebration and Awards dinner held May 1 in Portland.

Community and diversity

1)The college continued tosupport a culture that encourages a diversity of perspective by bringing in more than 150 business professionals to talk to students.

2)The college participated in the “4-H Bienvenidos” Latino recruiting event, giving two special group information sessions to interested high school students in these groups. One of the college ambassadors is Latino.

3)Two faculty members participated in the Hispanic Chamber Leadership Program for the Portland Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber.

4)The college faculty completed a diversity climate survey in the spring. Overall results were positive with areas of needed improvement identified in ensuring underrepresented and women faculty members receive adequate support for research. The results of the survey were presented and discussed at a faculty meeting in June.

5)The college hosted visiting scholars from Taiwan and Denmark.

6)The Women’s Empowerment Exchange continued to serve local professional and women business students. This group involved 50 women.

International-level activities and accomplishments

1)The college maintains its ties with international business exchange partners in Hong Kong, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark and Thailand. The college sent 110 students on exchange this year.

2)College representatives, alumni, and guests celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Aaruhus, Denmark exchange program in Denmark.

3)The college’s virtual project management initiative continued its relationship with the IndiaInstitute of Technology. Students from OSU and IIT shared ideas on the use of technology to collaborate across the globe.

Other appropriate initiatives

1)The college developed architectural plans for a new business building. A capital construction request for $56M was forwarded to OUS and approved. A feasibility study is underway to determine donor support for the project. The objective is to find a lead gift for approximately half of the construction costs ($22M to $28M).

2)College hit the 50% mark for its capital campaign goals and increased its annual contributions for the third year in a row.

Brief assessment of unit’s efforts in areas in (1): what worked; areas that need improvement; major barriers

Student engagement and success

1)Success stories.

The Aspen Institute ranked the college’s MBA program number 89 in the world in the Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey for 2007-2008. The survey spotlighted innovative MBA programs leading the way in the integration of issues concerning social and environmental stewardship into the curriculum.
The college posted 157 internship opportunities and 169 job openings.
The college provided over $580,500 in salary support to student workers. The college awarded nearly $402,000 in scholarships for 2007-2008
The Business Solutions Group (BSG) enjoyed success in helping student workers prepare for jobs. BSG will continue to seek ways to attract qualified students into the program.
The college continued to bring in business professionals to visit classrooms and interact with students.
Faculty and students participated in a number of class fieldtrips to regional business sites and manufacturing plants.
The College continued support for student engagement and experiential learning opportunities.
BSG provided student internships for over 40 students.
Project Management students received hands-on experience in planning, scheduling, organizing, and managing time-lines in overseeing charity related projects that generated donations and goodwill.
The college offered a prototype social entrepreneurship course.
This past year, C2C mentored and trained 30 students as they created solutions to solve real world marketing challenges.
Two graduate students were awarded GTA positions with C2C which allowed them to combine academic work with professional marketing experience.
C2C students had the unique opportunity to give formal presentations to CEOs, board of directors, and other high level professionals.
C2C project revenues for 2007-2008 were approximately $120,000 based on 10 projects/contracts. Clients included: Gerber Inc., Oregon Freeze Dry, OSU Federal Credit Union, Oregon Symphony Association of Salem, University Housing and Dining Services, Terra Magazine Synergies Magazine, OSU Extension Service, Oregon Wave Energy Trust, and OSU Foundation

2)Areas for improvement.

Backlog for enrollment in core courses has created access issues for business students.
Average class sizes of 50 students/section limits faculty ability to provide more hands-on learning.
The college hoped to see more students submit applications for the Dean’s Leadership and Professional Achievement Award. Only nine students applied for ten awards. The college will work on plans to promote this program throughout the academic year and aim for 30 to 40 applicants.
College had problems with the launch of the freshman experience course. Improvements have been made.

3)Major barriers.

Space constraints within Bexell continue to be an issue impeding BSG growth.

Research and its impact

1)Success stories.

The College has successfully hired faculty in entrepreneurship with UG degrees in science and engineering. The COB now has a critical mass of academically prepared faculty in entrepreneurship and innovation (5 faculty) creating a distinction for AEP and the COB as the most faculty in the area of any school/college in the western region.
The college developed processes to ensure professionally qualified faculty maintain their status in accordance with accreditation requirements. One approach to maintaining qualifications is to encourage professional faculty to publish articles in their area of expertise. Five professional faculty have successfully published intellectual contributions in practitioner outlets (e.g., Mid-Valley Business Journal).
The college established the KPMG Fellowship and the Mary Ellen Phillips Professorships to provide research support for accounting scholars.

2)Areas for improvement.

The college continues to gain experience in research grants. More faculty have submitted grant proposals. Several faculty pursued multi-disciplinary grants with colleagues from across campus. The college will continue to work on ways to encourage and support faculty in these endeavors.

3)Major barriers.

The college continues to have an exceptionally young faculty with a high number of tenure-track assistant professors. The college faces the challenge of trying to ensure assistant professors are given sufficient time to publish research for P&T while at the same time enlisting their participation in the service work needed to achieve success in the Capital Campaign.
The service demands of transforming the college place a heavy burden on the professors and associate professors.
Average class size of 50 students/section impacts faculty time for research.

Outreach and engagement

1)Success stories.

The AEP strategic planning efforts have resulted in focus and increased opportunities for finding new resources for the program.
The College leveraged $15,000 in Outreach & Engagement investment funding to conduct an extensive survey of NW businesses and their need for executive education. The results of the survey resulted in a plan to establish a shared position for a Director of Business Development with the University of Oregon’s College of Business.

2)Areas for improvement.

AFBP will be working to develop on-line courses for continuing education.
The college will continue to work on ideas for extending outreach opportunities throughout the state with a focus on the Portland metro area.

3)Major barriers.

The small size and heavy service load of the faculty limits the college’s ability to develop executive education programs with organic resources. The college will continue to seek opportunities to partner with individuals and organizations willing to develop executive education programs.

Community and diversity

1)Success stories.

The college successfully hired two women for tenure-track positions in 2007-2008.
The college recruited a highly qualified African-American male as a full-time fixed-term instructor for a new course in personal development for business professionals.

2)Areas for improvement.

More effective recruitment programs to attract a more diverse student population.
Constant vigilance on diversity issues is difficult. More effective models or processes need to be explored.

3)Major barriers.

Recruiting faculty from underrepresented groups remains a challenge.
Recruiting students from underrepresented groups also remains a challenge. The college met with admissions personnel to determine what steps could be taken to improve recruiting of African-American, Hispanic and Native American students into business.

International-level activities

1)Success stories.

The Arthur Stonehill International Business Exchange remains popular with business students.

2)Areas for improvement.

The MBA program desires to more actively recruit more international students. As part of this effort, the MBA program will work with the ELI to ensure international students entering the MBA program possess the communications skills needed for success.

3)Major barriers.

The lack of resources impacts the ability to coordinate new partnerships and explore new opportunities for collaboration with international programs.

Brief summary of major faculty and student awards

Faculty recognition and awards
The College’s accounting faculty group was selected by the Faculty Recognition and Awards Committee for the 2008 OSU Student Learning and Success Teamwork Award.
Nancy King and Clay Dibrell conducted research in Europe as Fulbright scholars.
Julie Elston participated as Fulbright fellowship in Germany. Her award is for the 2008 Fulbright German Studies Seminar "Science and Society: The Impact of Science on Policy Formation."
Twoacademic faculty members were named as Newcomb Fellows for meritorious and superior performance
Three Dean’s Professorships in Excellence were awarded to Jim McAlexander, Erik Larson and Ray Brooks.
The Mary Ellen Phillips Professorship in accounting was awarded to Jared Moore.
Roger Graham taught at theUniversity of Auckland as a Visiting Professor. The University of Auckland is New Zealand's number one university, and ranks in the world's top 50 universities.
Zhaohui Wu received AT&T Fellowship Grant of Industrial Ecology Research with two other colleagues. He also received thebest reviewer for 2008 by the Journal of Operations Management and was recently appointed as an associate editor for the journal.
Student recognition and awards
Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) is an International Honors Society that encourages and honors academic achievement in the study of business to foster personal and professional excellence. The OSU BGS Chapter was awarded Exemplary Chapter designation for 2006-2007. (Award given in Feb 2008)
Two officers of BGS were funded to the National Student Leadership Forum (held in Atlanta for 4 days) in 2008.
Thirteen BGS member students were awarded a total of $4,350 in BGS-sponsored academic scholarships.
The Epsilon chapter of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) was recognized as a superior chapter for seventh year in a row. Superior chapter status is the highest honor earned by a student chapter and is awarded only after significant professional service. BAP is a key component in instilling a sense of professionalism in the education of accounting students at OSU. The OSU chapter of BAP held close to 30 events which were directed at professional and charitable activities in 2007-2008.
The Epsilon chapter won second place at the BAP NW Regional Competition for the students work with Financial Literacy. The students teamed with Brass Media (a local not-for-profit) to educate high schools students on financial literacy.
Epsilon chapter volunteer activities included participating in Relay for Life, Zonta Auction,The Chocolate Fantasy for the CorvallisArtsCenter, and Brass Media. The chapter also held two financial literacy seminars in conjunction with US Bank.
Students Teri Young and Elise Abramson took fourth place at the 2007 Eller Ethics Case Competition at the University of Arizona October 25-27. This is the third time that an OSU College of Business team made it to the final round.
A team of four accounting students from Oregon State University’s College of Business won first prize in the 2008 Berntson Porter/ University of Washington Master of Professional Accounting Tax Competition in Seattle in January 2008. Rebecca Fouts, Laura Gray, Jaclyn Huehn and Juzi Yu solved complex tax-planning problems and took home a $3,000 grand prize after competing against 11 teams from five universities.
OSU accounting students continued to do well on the national CPA exam. Only 14 schools have hit the top-10 for the last two years in a row, for having the highest passing percentages on the entire exam or on individual sections of the exam, among first-time test-takers without a graduate degree. OSU is one of those 14.
The college’s Theta chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi enjoyed a successful year. The chapter advisor won the Advisor of the Year award and the chapter was named top chapter in the region. The Theta chapter showed tremendous leadership in sponsoring and co-hosting the college’s Winter Career Symposium. The Theta chapter also received recognition for having the largest percentage of members attend the annual Success Institute in Reno.

Results and Outcomes