College of Business Accreditation Re-affirmed
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 8, 2000
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
College of Business Accreditation Re-affirmed
California State University, Chico’s College of Business has had the accreditation of its undergraduate and master’s programs re-affirmed by the country’s leading accrediting body for business colleges.
The college received word Dec. 5 of the re-affirmation from the AACSB Ð The International Association for Management Education. Re-affirmation is the term used to periodically continue accreditation at an already-accredited institution. The College of Business has been accredited since 1972.
In a letter to College of Business Dean Heikki Rinne, AACSB Chair of the Board Larry Penley commended the college in three areas: responsiveness to the accrediting process, leadership from Rinne and former Interim Dean Marc Siegall, and progress by the college faculty in increasing scholarship and academic excellence.
“Our faculty won this for the college,” said Rinne. “They more than doubled their output of publications and were extremely responsive to the accrediting team. This re-affirmation is the best possible outcome for the college.”
In 1998 the college was placed in a status called continuing review by the AACSB, requiring the college to complete annual reports to the AACSB and show continuous improvement in areas such as curriculum improvement and faculty scholarship. The college will next be reviewed by the AACSB in 2006.
The AACSB, based in St. Louis, accredits business schools around the world. Of the approximately 1,200 programs in the U.S., only about 390 have earned accreditation. Even fewer have both their undergraduate and graduate programs accredited, as CSU, Chico does.
Rinne said the college’s challenge for the future is dealing with tremendous enrollment growth. The number of business majors this year is 2,235, a 15-percent increase over last year. Rinne said the college will be seeking increased funding for student programs and additional faculty.
In recent years, the college has established strong corporate partnerships with Cisco Systems, SAP America and other corporations. In 1999, Cisco Systems funded an advanced networking lab for the college. This year the college was named SAP’s first University Competency Center, and in 1998 won SAP’s largest University Alliance Research Award for its work integrating SAP’s enterprise-wide software into business classes.
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