The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) has reaffirmed the accreditation of SU's School of Management after several years of preparation on the part of the school and a successful site visit by an AACSB peer review team this spring.
"There was no question in our minds about the high quality of the school," says Dean George R. Burman, "but to have your peers come in and affirm what you do is extremely gratifying."
The School of Management's accreditation was reaffirmed with suggestions for improvement, which is the most common type of reaffirmation. A few schools are reaffirmed with no suggestions, and some are put under continuing review because of serious deficiencies. A few are turned down for reaccreditation.
The AACSB lauded several aspects of the School of Management's programs, including:
? its clear vision of its role within the University;
? its commitment to excellence in teaching, outreach and research;
? its decision to establish programs of entrepreneurship and innovation as a distinctive part of its mission;
? its strong faculty;
? the faculty's recognition of the role of educational technology, while at the same time deciding not to provide online degree programs;
? its commitment to enrichment experiences for undergraduates, such as the Management Learning Community;
? its commitment to make the necessary investment to strengthen the school, including salary enhancements, establishment of endowed faculty chairs, and support of faculty research and continuing improvement programs; and
? the M.B.A. Army Comptrollership Program, which fills a unique niche.
The AACSB stated that is critical for the School of Management to move to a new building, a project that is already under way--an architect to design the new building is due to be selected in June.
The evaluators also cited a need for the school to focus its programs more in order to use its resources wisely and to keep from spreading faculty too thin.
Burman says that while the tempo has picked up in recent months, the School of Management has been working toward reaccreditation since its last evaluation in 1991. "We developed our mission statement in the early 1990s and have refined it ever since," he says. "The faculty, students and alumni have all contributed to our continuous improvement."
Only those schools that meet the standard of overall high quality achieve AACSB accreditation. As a matter of fact, Burman says, only about a third of U.S. business schools, including virtually all of the top ones, are accredited.
Burman believes it is valuable for a school to go through the review process. "It provides some discipline for continuous improvement," he says. "It causes you to assess your actions all the time."
The peer review teams that evaluate business schools for the AACSB are composed of business school deans. Burman, who often serves on such teams, says it's helpful to hear what the deans of other schools think of your programs. "Our team this year was extremely good," he says. "They had very helpful observations for us."
