The mission of Butte College Business Education Department is to prepare students to be successful when entering the world of business and to continue in lifelong education. We value our students’ success and place respect, accountability, and excellence as our core values. Vision statements specific to each of the Department of Business Education Programs are as follows: • The Accounting Program believes focuses on preparing students to become detail-oriented and able to understand and prepare accurate financial data. • The General Business Program prepares students to be successful as they enter and pursue careers in business fields such as retail management, small business management, marketing, sales and advertising, in both profit and non-profit organizations, operating in today’s global environment. • The Economics Program provides students with intellectual and analytic tools necessary to gain an understanding of economic theory and policy as a way to address issues facing our society. • The Real Estate Program prepares students to take the California Real Estate Sales and Brokers exams and successfully list, sell and invest in real property.
The Department of Business Education includes 4 programs/disciplines: Accounting, Economics, General Business(Marketing, Management and Small Business Management), and Real Estate. In addition, the department has two major focuses, both of them central to the College’s mission: The Business Administration Transfer Program and The Department of Business Education Career Programs. • The Transfer Program offers an A.S. Degree and facilitates transfer to Bachelor of Science programs, such as the two degree programs offered by Chico State’s College of Business: Business Administration (BADM) and Business Information Systems (BIS). • The Department of Business Education Career Programs (with certificates, Certificates of Achievement and A.S. degrees) develop and enhance students’ work-related competencies. These programs facilitate local economic development and workforce training as they help to create a skilled, professional, entry-level workforce in Butte and Glenn Counties, and offers opportunities for skills enhancement of existing personnel. The following certificates are currently available: • Accounting Program Certificates: Accounting Certificate of Achievement; Account Clerk Certificate; Tax Preparer Certificate • General Business Program Certificates: Business Management Certificate of Achievement; Retail Management Certificate of Achievement; Marketing Certificate of Achievement; Small Business Institute Certificate; Business on the Web Certificate; Human Resources Certificate • Real Estate Program Certificates: Real Estate Certificate of Achievement; Real Estate Sales Person Certificate; Appraiser Certificate. The following Associate of Science (A.S.) degrees are currently available: • Business Administration AS (transfer degree to Chico State) • Business Administration AS-T (transfer degree to CSU schools) • Accounting • Business Management (including 3 options: Business Management, Retail Management and Small Business/Entrepreneurship) • Marketing • Real Estate.
To follow are the program review recommendations and a status update on each:
1) Hire a new full-time general business instructor and another economics instructor.
2) Investigate why catalog no longer shows recommended sequence of study for each business major.
3) Avoid scheduling classes that straddle two widely used timeslots which could lock students out of other classes.
4) The women’s restroom in the BE building is unsafe and must be repaired and updated immediately!
5) The door on the men’s restroom opens into the hallway; this is unsafe. This safety issue needs to be fixed ASAP!
6) BE rooms 105 a, b, c are small, overcrowded & not well ventilated. Student seating is not conducive to efficient group work. It is recommended that seating be re-arranged and to not schedule classes that incorporate group work into BE 105 a, b or c.
7) Staff and associate faculty morale survey is recommended to fully incorporate their input into unit planning and program review processes.
For instance, part-timers would likely want schedules that were more convenient to them (but which would make it difficult or impossible to staff all sections at the times students prefer). Part-timers would also want to choose their own books rather than using a common textbook across sections. While this would allow individual instructors preferred textbooks, the low volume would increase textbook costs, the different textbooks would make ordering more time consuming to the bookstore, and the different textbooks be less conducive to consistency and rigor across class sections. Perhaps a survey will be administered next year, but our fear is that requesting input and then not acting upon that input is more detrimental to morale than to have never
8) Untapped potential exists for enrollment growth in the department. Modest growth in the number of Introduction to Business courses and in Economics is merited. The college and department should also collaborate with Chico State to move Business Law to lower division as is common practice.
9) Increase in Real Estate offerings may now be appropriate as well. To accomplish such growth, however, expansion of the faculty and possibly facilities will be necessary, as addressed elsewhere in these recommendations.
10) Continued discussion needs to occur between disciplines that require the same courses for students to obtain a certificate or degree. It is evident that disciplines differ in the amount of time they may feel they need to focus on specific content. So, a determination should be made related to the required unit value of specific courses such as Excel.
11) Currently there do not appear to be any courses within any of the business programs that articulate with the high schools in the surrounding areas. The expectation is not for the department to accept agreements that don’t benefit students, but rather look into why agreements have not been renewed and pursue those discussions with high schools in an effort to offer agreements that do benefit students.
Strategy 1 - Hire Accounting Instructor
Complete hiring process for new full-time accounting instructor to start Fall 2016.
Replace Karen Taylor and add another accounting instructor to maintain quality and rigor of program.
Strategy 2 - Hire Additional Economics Instructor
A new economics instructor is necessary since finding part-time faculty available during the daytime is so difficult. We've barely scraped together our Spring 2016 schedule having convinced a couple Chico State instructors to help out this semester. I don't think these instructors will be available to teach going forward. If we want to add any additional sections, another full-time faculty member is required.
Strategy 3 - Focus on Teaching
Focus department and instructor resources on providing an outstanding education in the most convenient and efficient manner possible.
The college exists to educate and empower students. Accordingly, instructor time and energies should be focused on teaching. The department will support instructors as they work to improve lesson plans, stay current in their fields of expertise, find better examples to explain key concepts, and make class more fun and engaging. Strong teaching leads to student success and a strong reputation for the department which over the long-term leads to enrollment growth.
Strategy 4 - Explore Online AS-T Degree
Explore Online AS-T Degree
The Introduction to Business (Bus 20) will be offered online for the first time in Spring 2016. We are also working with Bill Hubbard to develope the Legal Environments of Business (Bus 8) class in an online format. Once this is completed, we will be able to offer all business classes for the AS-T online. Our department's fundamental goal is to provide an outstanding education in the most convenient and efficent manner possible. Offering core classes in an online format improves both convenience and accessibility for some of our students who are unable to attend face to face classes when scheduled.
Strategy 5 - Work with Chico State for our mutual benefit.
Work with Chico State for our mutual benefit.
Maintaining a strong working relationship with Chico State improves student success because students are better prepared when they transfer to Chico State. Maintaining dialogue with Chico State instructors also helps Butte College instructors improve their curriculum and allows discussions arounds best teaching practices.
1) Electronically enforce prerequisites!!!!
2) Either include the suggested sequence of study in the catalogue or implement the educational planning module so students know which classes to take first to maximize success in other classes.
We expect to receive no external resources.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Business Education, Accounting | Personnel | 11-000-513-1-059900 | 51100 | $0.00 | $99,187.00 |
| Complete Hiring Process for Accounting Instructor | Already approved in faculty prioritization process. |
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| 2 | Replace instructor laptop | Equipment | $2,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Replace Patrick's 6 year old laptop | Laptop is 6 years old and has significant issues (lag, inability to type at times, depleted battery). A properly functioning computer is necessary to provide students a quality education in the 21st century. The cornerstone of quality teaching is communication. Without a properly functioning computer, I can't interact well with students, faculty, or administration. An up to date computer is a necessity for communicating in the 21st century. |
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