NEWSBRIEFS
ACADEMICS UPDATES HLC WORK CONTINUES
NEW MINORS—MAJOR OPPORTUNITIES
SVSU has established a committee
The College of Business & Management is offering a minor in family business and, according to Dean Jill Wetmore, there are many students other than business majors who might be interested. “Many graduates will end up working for family businesses—small and Fortune 500—whether as engineers, designers, accountants, professional writers, managers or marketers,” Wetmore said. “We sometimes think that only family members work for family businesses, and that is the furthest thing from the truth.” According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, family businesses employ 62 percent of the workforce, make up more than 80 percent of all business enterprise in North America and are responsible for 78 percent of all new jobs. Wetmore added that the new minor is a great complement to the Stevens Center for Family Business, housed in the College. “SCFB addresses needs from the business side, and this minor represents the academic side.” The College of Arts & Behavioral Sciences has announced a new minor in “leadership and service.” The minor’s genesis was in a President’s Forum meeting when a student asked
to review Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accreditation criteria. Work continues according to the timeline set for the university’s self-study narrative document that precedes a visit from the HLC in March 2014. Sixty-five professional staff, faculty and administrators serve on the various subcommittees charged with providing public certification of institutional quality. The first drafts of subcommittee reports/templates were submitted in February to the report’s lead writer, retired dean of the College of Arts & Behavioral Sciences, Mary Hedberg. Additionally, several committee members attended the HLC assessment workshop in February and the HLC annual meeting in April, both in Chicago.
Higher Learning Commission
SAGINAW VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
President Gilbertson, “Why don’t we have a leadership minor?” The question got the ball rolling, right up to the desk of John Kaczynski, assistant professor of political science and director of the Center for Public Policy and Service, who began the research and development process in summer 2011. Early in the process, the faculty team (see sidebar, “Faculty Team for New Minor”) agreed that the minor needed to do three things: students needed to learn not just theory, but application; the program would complement the cocurricular programs already involving leadership; and the courses needed to prepare students for leadership roles in various “communities,” defined in various ways. The curriculum includes core and supplemental courses and a capstone project, a three-credit course that involves a service-based internship in the Great Lakes Bay Region, Lansing, Washington, D.C., or Detroit. Classes were piloted in fall 2012 and winter 2013; regular classes for all interested students will begin in fall 2013. According to Kaczynski, the minor complements any major. “Courses that deal with communication, teamwork and the public good (to name a few) work for any student. The pilot class included students in nursing, business, education and political science.” FACULTY TEAM FOR NEW MINOR The faculty committee Kaczynski calls “the hyper-engaged who believe in applied service learning” included Peter Barry (philosophy), Joe Jaska (criminal justice), David Schneider (communication), Chris Surfield (economics), Gail Sype (management), Deborah Bishop (management), Brian Thomas (sociology), Bill Williamson (rhetoric & professional writing) and Joni Boye-Beaman (dean of the College of Arts & Behavioral Sciences). After the initial committee start-up, additional faculty support was offered from Ken Jolly (history) and Marie Cassar (psychology).
Pilot class of Leadership and Service minor with professor John Kaczynski (center right)
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