Minutes of the Graduate Studies Committee
for October 28, 2003

Present: Jerry Greenfield, Stuart Hanson, Vera Kolb, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Jay Sounderpandian, Scott Thomson. Excused: Clara New

Thomson called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. . He had been asked by the Secretary of the Faculty to convene the group. On checking the charge to the committee, he discovered that, having served as chair for the two previous years, he was not eligible to do so again. Kolb nominated Leeds-Hurwitz, seconded by Sounderpandian. Leeds-Hurwitz was elected unanimously.

Sounderpandian presented Currculum Change Requests for minor revisions to two courses in the MBA program (MBA 701 and MBA 796), which were approved.

General discussion of the web MBA program and how it is structured followed, since several members of the committee were unfamiliar with it. In addition to its own MBA program, UW-Parkside participates in a consortial web MBA program with three other campuses, UW- Eau Claire, La Crosse and Oshkosh .

The Parkside MBA program consists of eight foundation courses offered online by the consortium, eight required courses all of which are offered on campus and 16 hours of electives which could be a mix of consortial web courses and on-campus courses .

The consortial web MBA program consists of the same eight foundation courses, a different set of online required courses, and a set of online electives. To manage the consortial program, business deans from the four campuses meet once a semester to consider administrative issues, and the faculty reps meet at least once a year to consider curricular matters and assessment.

Recently, we have started offering the Parkside MBA program on-site for DaimlerChrysler employees.

Enrollment in the UW-Parkside MBA program declined sharply during the 1980s from about 240 to about 100, but has remained stable after that. An important reason for the decline is the intense competition from other schools. The strength of UW-Parkside MBA program is that it is accredited by AACSB, and there is no other accredited program in Kenosha-Racine area. Area businesses do recognize the value of accreditation, and consider our students immediately useful.

Greenfield suggested potential topics which the committee should expect to address this year:

1) Possible introduction of an entirely online MBA program at Parkside.

2) Possible re-introduction of the MPA program, which was proposed but was caught in the freeze on all new programs.