Case for Supporting the CBA
Business Education at CSU Long Beach
The College of Business Administration (CBA) is one of the seven colleges of California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). The largest of the 23 campuses of the California State University system, CSULB is a comprehensive, four-year institution that was established in 1949 to serve the areas of Orange County and southeastern Los Angeles County. The College is home to over 6,200 business majors, including about 400 graduate students, thus making it the largest college within CSULB.
Since its establishment, CBA has a long and distinguished history of preparing its graduates to assume leadership roles in the world of business. It would be hard to imagine an industry that has not been shaped by our more than 37,000 graduates worldwide. The hallmarks of a CBA business education—quality, rigor, and relevance—remain constant over time. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) has accredited the College since 1971. Meeting the rigorous standards of the AACSB is a measure of a business school’s quality of curriculum, faculty, facilities, and students. Only 426 business schools worldwide are AACSB-accredited, and CBA is one of these elite schools.
The College is an excellent school poised to become a preeminent school that will prepare our students to meet the demands and define the future of business in the 21st century. We are one of only two CSU business schools among the 138 worldwide members of the Graduate Management Admission Council, the international standards-making body for MBA admissions, placement, and student services. We are one of only three CSU business schools that Entrepreneur magazine recently cited as among the top 50 regional programs for educating entrepreneurs in the nation. In 2000, the College adopted the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence as its roadmap to performance excellence. The only California business school to be recognized with the California Prospector Award, based upon the rigorous Baldrige criteria, we are ready to build on our commitment to quality and continuous improvement.
Our Vision of Excellence
Our vision is to become the College of Choice for business students in Southern California by providing a high quality learning and research environment that has a global perspective and that contributes to regional economic development. We seek to propel the College of Business Administration at CSULB to become one of the nation’s truly great business schools.
The College will serve students, businesses, and scholars as the premier source of leading-edge ideas and academic programs that are anchored in theory and that influence business practice. Achieving this goal will mean that the very best and brightest students in Southern California can remain in the region to find truly exceptional opportunities in business education. Our business partners will find the best student talent, the best ideas, and the best faculty—to serve as executive educators, consultants, and researchers—in the region. To achieve this vision, we will foster collaboration through academic partnerships and insist on quality and operational excellence.
Our Strategic Priorities
Collaboration with business leaders and a demonstrated commitment to quality and operational excellence will distinguish the College of Business Administration from other nationally accredited business schools in three areas of concentration.
Ethical Leadership
The College seeks to produce graduates who are not only competent in their disciplines, but are also honest and ethical citizens. Through our partnerships, we seek to incorporate business ethics and ethical leadership in the business curriculum, as well as to promote faculty research in business ethics and ethical leadership. A new Center for Ethical Leadership will enhance our leadership in this field, bringing together faculty, students, and business partners.
Management of Technology
Since the advent of the Information Age, the College has been at the forefront of information technology education. Our instructional facilities rank among the best in California business schools. Our Journal of Electronic Commerce Research is a top-tier journal in e-business in the world. The Center for Information Strategies and Technologies is a leading center in Southern California for research and community service in the area of information technology. Through our partnerships, we will develop educational strategies that will not only infuse the curriculum with technology, but also create educational programs that will examine the utilization and management of technology in tomorrow’s business environment.
Globalization
Our international initiatives include exchanges with leading business schools in Asia and Europe, with a distinctive competence in East Asia. We are expanding our international relationships to include articulation agreements with feeder business schools overseas to ensure smooth and effective transfer of international students into the College. A new Center for International Business Education will orchestrate our global initiatives to capitalize on our unequivocal commitment and our geographic proximity to the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Our Economic Impact
During 2002/03, the College of Business Administration had a total budget of $11.3 million. The College employed about 148 full-time-equivalent faculty and staff and had a total payroll in excess of $10.2 million. Since these funds are spent in California, they generate additional jobs, business activity, and tax revenues for the state. The economic impact of the College stems from the following:
- Employment Generation: When people are employed by the university, they create a direct demand for additional goods and services in the local economy. A conservative employment multiplier of 1.8 for U.S. universities means that about 200 more demand-side jobs were created in 2002/03 by CBA employment.
- Impact of College Spending: Another way that the University and the College benefit California’s economy relates to the local expenditures that they make associated with operating expenses, including purchasing office supplies, services, books and periodicals, and utilities, just to name a few. With a conservative multiplier of 1.9 for this type of economic activity, the College’s direct expenditures of $10.2 million in 2002/03 translate to almost $9.2 million in incremental gross state product.
- Impact of Student Spending: Business student spending (e.g., room/board/ utilities, books and supplies, transportation) constitutes a significant direct effect of the College on California’s economy. The College’s 6,201 business majors during 2002/03 spent about $97.3 million in Southern California.
Not all economic benefits and costs of the College are easily measurable. For example, the benefits to society of having a more highly educated managerial workforce in business and industry are great, but they cannot be estimated. Further, the College makes its facilities (in particular, classroom and computing facilities) available to local public schools and not-for-profit community organizations during off-peak periods. Finally, some fraction of what the College receives in General Fund support flows back into the state coffers as incremental tax returns due to the economic activity attributable to the College.
Our Resources
The ability to deliver quality programs is predicated in part on College of Business Administration’s resource base. When California State University, Long Beach was established in 1949, it was wholly financially supported by the State of California. In 1993, CBA received $6,137 (72% of total) of direct support per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student from the State. This fiscal year, we are receiving direct state assistance of $8,346 per FTE student (or $6,541 in 1993 dollars), and we anticipate this to decline.
We see the dramatic change in the state’s fiscal picture as an opportunity to flex our entrepreneurial muscle. It is also an opening to engage alumni and friends in an ambitious program to prepare our students to meet the challenges of the 21st century. To become a world-class business school, CBA requires at least $1.75 million of sustained private funding on an annual basis in support of the following:
- Recruiting and retaining top faculty
- Ensuring a superior academic program
- Attracting and supporting the best students
- Developing state-of-the-art facilities
- Ensuring leadership and flexibility in advancing the quest for excellence
Initiatives to Become a Preeminent Business School
Recruiting and Retaining Top Faculty ($10 million)
Our faculty is the cornerstone of every value-adding activity in the College of Business Administration. A great faculty attracts the best students and other top teacher-scholars, brings in valuable corporate partnerships, and conducts research that draws national attention. Endowed Faculty Chairs, Professorships, Fellowships, and Faculty Excellence Funds build the reputation of the College and are evidence of strong commitment to academic achievement. They foster a sense of tradition, and reward our best faculty with the tools to become more productive. In addition to providing year-round salary incentives for our most productive faculty, Chairs and Fellowships provide for support staff, research assistance, conference travel, and continuing education allowances.
Ensuring a Superior Academic Program ($10 million)
Our strategic objective is to be recognized as having the best graduate business program and one of the top three undergraduate business programs in the California State University. Academic Programs and Centers of Excellence further bolster our stature. Our existing and proposed centers will keep our curriculum relevant, allow us to conduct research that directly benefits our students and business partners, and enable us to provide service to our key communities. Developing interdisciplinary initiatives, as well as new and innovative research and outreach centers focused on relevant business practices, will promote our goal of academic and professional collaboration and strengthen every aspect of our academic program.
Attracting and Supporting the Best Students ($5 million)
The College must compete with top business programs to recruit and retain the brightest students from California and beyond. Our students are the future business leaders of California and the nation, and ensuring their success is a key element of the College’s quest for excellence. To continue attracting exceptional students, our scholarship offers must be competitive with other leading business schools.
Developing State-of-the-Art Facilities ($8 million)
Renovating and expanding the facilities in the CBA Building will strengthen our commitment to technology. Creating additional space will provide the physical resource needed for current programs and future growth. Classroom upgrades including the latest multimedia technology will further bolster our infrastructure.
Ensuring Leadership and Flexibility in Advancing the Quest for Excellence ($2 million)
A Dean’s Incubator Fund will provide the leaders of the College with support for forward-looking management initiatives and other essentials not budgeted from state funds, including marketing and external relations initiatives. It also will provide seed funds and working capital to seize unforeseen opportunities as they arise, and will help the College respond to student and faculty opportunities by allocating resources quickly and efficiently.
The Building Blocks of Our Success
Please join us in our pursuit of academic excellence and entrepreneurial leadership by investing in the College of Business Administration at CSULB. Every gift to the College brings us closer to our goal of becoming a preeminent business school in California. Our $35 million goal consists of the following fundamental elements:
- Recruiting and Retaining Top Faculty - $10,000,000
- Ensuring a Superior Academic Program - $10,000,000
- Attracting and Supporting the Best Students - $5,000,000
- Developing State-of-the-Art Facilities - $8,000,000
- Ensuring Leadership and Flexibility in the Quest for Excellence - $2,000,000
- Total -
$35,000,000
We welcome your full participation as we accept the challenge of moving the CSULB College of Business Administration up to the next rung of management education. With your help, we know we will succeed.