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Basis for the Decision/Program CommentsCriterion 1.1 Leadership StrategiesQueensborough Community College is one of six colleges to receive both Part 1 and 2 of the IPASS Grants. This initiative has created a visual "Roadmap" for students that will identify critical milestones in a student's college career and point to both college and student strategies that will help students successfully navigate and complete that career. This was verified both on site and on the IPASS website.Categories: Approach, Deployment, ResultsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 2.1 Strategic Planning ProcessThere are five Business Academies at the college and these academies are part of the Office of Student Affairs. The academy for the Business Unit is actually housed in the offices of the Business Unit and faculty, administrators and students praised the work of the advisors in keeping students updated on their course of study, performance and opportunities for help, if needed. Categories: Approach, Deployment, ResultsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 2.3 FinanceQueensborough College has shown continual growth in enrollment in past years and this has led to a continual increase in funding from the city and state. In interviews with faculty and administrators, the site team found that this has allowed the Business Unit to fund necessary and new equipment and professional growth opportunities when needs are identified.The approach to funding uses "baseline" approach which provides for ongoing funding needs to be included in the annual budget without continually needing to renew requests.Categories: Approach, Deployment, ResultsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 3.2 Stakeholder SatisfactionThe Business Unit excels in a variety of areas including the student offerings in Clubs, Competitions, Mentorship: These areas offer students plenty of business-related activities to apply and supplement their learning base. They include: a) Mock Trial b) Fed Challenge c) CUNY Capital One Community College Innovation Challenge d) Accounting Competition e) Santander Bank Program – Millennials Make It Happen f) Garfinkle Essay Competition g) The Vicki Kasomenakis Business Society Club Activities h) ASAP membership. Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 3.3 Student SupportThe college offers the business students academic advising through the Business Academy. This is a directed academic process that is identified on p. 19 of the school catalog. This academy allows for business students to utilize its services and be advised and mentored by business liaisons. Students confirmed that the academy does an excellent job of providing services that meet their needs. Categories: Approach, DeploymentVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 4.3 Student AssessmentThe college provides resources that serve all departments including the Business Unit with student retention and academic success resources. The team verified through interviews with staff, faculty, and business students that the school offers excellent student services in all aspects of admissions, academic advising, financial aid services, and student activities. It should be noted that the students indicated that faculty was outstanding and that the business academy is a great one stop shop for advising, tutoring, and other resources. An interview with Karen Steele, VP, provided that the college takes a holistic approach to student success and provides services throughout to help with this process. It is readily apparent that this philosophy has permeated throughout the Business Unit and is reflective in the business academy. In interviews with the students, they pointed out that the faculty is the main reason they go to QCC. Categories: Approach, DeploymentVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 5.5 Faculty LoadThe site team recognizes the business unit's current work towards decreasing faculty qualification exemptions and appropriately assigning adjunct faculty courses according to ACBSP qualifications. Efforts are being made to proactively address the current exemptions for future reporting.Categories: ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 5.7 Faculty and Staff Professional Development and Scholarly ActivitiesDuring the site visit, it was determined that the approach to professional development and scholarly research is well deployed as faculty are allotted time to research and publish scholarly work. The deployment of flipped classroom has been a driven initiative, supported in research, and faculty have a peer mentoring and student training process established.Categories: Approach, DeploymentVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 5.8 Faculty Instructional DevelopmentDuring the site visit, it was determined that the college fully supports faculty endeavors in professional development. The approach is deployed well and may vary in some areas. Opportunities for students are given in the flipped classroom concepts and mock trial competitions. Students were receptive of these opportunities and the value the faculty bring to the courses with this knowledge.Categories: Approach, DeploymentVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 6.1 CurriculumThe business unit demonstrates an established mentoring process for adjuncts with discipline coordinators and works towards ensuring they follow the same processes in place as full-time faculty for courses with common syllabi and course content.Categories: Approach, DeploymentVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 6.7 Learning and Academic ResourcesDuring the site team meeting with library services, it was noted there is a business liaison appointed to work with faculty and students. This individual caters to business students and faculty to assist in research databases and how to utilize library resources specifically for business. The relationship between the business unit and the library services is strong and well implemented.Categories: Approach, Deployment, ResultsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 6.9 Educational InnovationDuring the site visit, the team noted innovative, high impact practices among the business unit. Service-learning projects were well established and well received among students. During the student meeting, students commended faculty on the use of interactive activities to supplement their learning which led to positive personal growth.Categories: Approach, Deployment, ResultsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Opportunities for Improvement (OFI) (10)Criterion 1.2 Leadership Measures of PerformanceIn reviewing documentation and personal interviews, the site team saw evidence of faculty and staff evaluation but no evidence of a formal evaluation process for administration. A developed process for administrator evaluation may help to continually improve administrator performance.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 1.3 Leadership and CommunityAn opportunity exists for greater opportunities for involvement with the community based on interviews. For example, an expanded business advisory board could provide much input into the curriculum and provide additional internship and community involvement activities for students and members of the Business Unit.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 2.1 Strategic Planning ProcessWhile the college uses Starfish, it is used primarily as an early alert system. The college could expand the use of Starfish to include faculty communicating with students in additional ways such as praise for doing well. When interviewed, students said they would appreciate hearing that they were performing well, not just if their performance needed improving. The expanded use of Starfish could lead to a more continued and improved student performance.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 2.2 Current Strategic PlanAn opportunity exists for the college to improve the current communication process to better communicate opportunities or new initiatives to the entire college membership in a more timely manner.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 3.2 Stakeholder SatisfactionWhile the Business Unit informally acquires input and feedback from stakeholders, the site team observed opportunities for improvements in formal processes and inconsistencies for data collection, analysis, utilitization and follow-up with some groups of stakeholders.The Business Unit self-identifies that it currently does not have established formal follow-up procedures for data collected from the various stakeholder groups. Data received from stakeholders can offer improvement areas for all stakeholders. Creating a formal process may offer a means of improvements on a continuous timeline. It also allows for comparative data to be reviewed.Utilizing stakeholder feedback in program development and enhancement completes the loop and gives meaning to data collection which could lead to overall program development. Categories: Approach, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 3.5 Business/Industry RelationsThe Business Unit identifies that it uses the business advisory board and a business internship programs for building industry relations. However, the Business Unit does not identify how it takes the data collected from those opportunities and utilizes it for program improvement. It is critical that a continuous systematic process of follow up and communication within the business unit is instituted. The data collected will help focus on industry needs and essentially allow for program improvement. Follow up is critical in this area and a clear pathway of follow-up could help facilitate the use of information gathered. Categories: Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 4.1 Student Learning Outcomes AssessmentThe Business Unit self-identified that it does not formally compare student achievement in traditional vs hybrid or fully online classes. It was also verified that the Business Unit does not use benchmark data for student learning improvements. Although it did show comparisons of student achievement, a more comprehensive process of comparison could identify areas for which the Business Unit can improve or make more meaningful measurable outcomes. Comparative data allows for tracking mechanisms and in effect can lead to efficiencies of the processes and provide opportunities of analysis and results leading to continuous improvement.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 4.2 Program EvaluationThe Business Unit self-identifies that it does not currently share result information with all business faculty in a formal manner however it does propose to incorporate a more systematic method of deploying assessment findings in the future. They will use a three-step process to share findings: a) Share among faculty teaching the courses in a group meeting b) Share findings with the Coordinator of the program c) Post findings in the Department’s Blackboard course for all to review. It is evident that sharing of information with all faculty in a formal manner may allow for a group mindset but also gather faculty input in the matter. Categories: Approach, Deployment, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.The Business Unit identified through its self-study that they currently use course outcomes and assessments instead of program outcomes and assessments and have not identified appropriate program outcomes. Interviews with the Business Chairperson and VP of Assessment identified that the college realizes that course outcomes and assessment and program outcomes and assessment are two different types of outcomes and assessment. The college and Business Unit revealed that they are in the initial stages of creating proper program outcomes and assessment and hope to have them established by Fall, 2017. It was suggested that benchmarking with other business programs from other institutions might help streamline the process and create a more structured assessment process. A capstone class could be a great solution for providing program assessment.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 5.2 Faculty QualificationsAn opportunity for improvement exists to review future faculty hiring practices and to incorporate ACBSP qualification requirements in order to reduce the current number of Faculty Exceptions to the accepted ACBSP percentage. While on campus, the site team was asked if faculty with JD degrees could teach finance courses with FINRA certification. The team asked for direction from Dr. Steve Parscale. After researching FINRA, Dr. Pascale responded that faculty with JD degrees were qualified to teach finance courses if they met at least one more of the qualifications found in Column 4 of Table 5.1. This could change the faculty qualifications exception percentage if faculty with JD degrees do meet one of the other qualifications.
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