There are two ways you can join the effort.

1. Bring pencils with you to ACBSP Conference 2015 in June.

- OR - If you will not be attending the conference this year, or do not wish to bring pencils with you...

2. Mail a check or money order to the ACBSP Headquarters and pencils will be purchased on your behalf. 

 Pencils collected will benefit schools in the Philadelphia area. Current campaign total is a total of 344 pencils donated.

PLEDGE NOW>>

It’s time to get creative. Create a 2-3 minute video on “What ACBSP means to me, my students, and my institution” for a chance to win a prize, one including a free conference registration. You can use a smartphone, video camera, or utilize a film department on campus (if available) to create the video.

• Videos must clearly present your name, your title, name of institution, your city and state in the form of a verbal introduction.
• Please keep in mind, videos must be produced with tact and done in a professional manner.
• The top 3 submissions will be eligible to win a prize, with the first place winner receiving a free conference registration.
• Videos must be submitted by midnight (CDT) on May 1st, 2015 via dropbox to mkhan@acbsp.org.

For questions, or if you need assistance with sending in your submission, feel free to contact Maliha Khan, ACBSP Digital Content Specialist.

Enter Now »

Make sure you check out the conference catalog to pre-plan your schedule. Visit Choosechicago.com to check out all the the city of Chicago has to offer for your free time outside of conference activities.

For more information visit the conference website. We hope you enjoy the conference!

There's a new chief in town! Of course, we're talking about our new Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jeffrey Alderman! Comment on this post this say "hello" to Jeffrey and welcome him to the ACBSP family. We're glad to have Jeffrey on board and look forward to a bright future making sure... "every quality education program is accredited." To view his full executive bio, click here.

More than 1,000 attendees. Over 70 sessions. Great workshops. Interesting discussions. Great networking and more. What are you waiting for? Explore current trends in the business education industry. Learn more about ACBSP's accreditation process and commitment to quality assurance. Last of all. help us improve education. Experience ACBSP Conference 2015.

Are you on social media?  Help us engage with you by mentioning the hashtag #ACBSP2015 when posting on social media. We love to track the conversations taking place & engage with you. Share this post with colleagues and friends now.

Mr. Viehland, who announced his retirement from ACBSP last year, will conclude his work with ACBSP by February 28, 2015. Please join me in thanking him for all he has done for ACBSP. More on his retirement celebration activities is coming in future issues. First, I would like to thank the Executive Board, Board of Directors, Regional Council Presidents, Past-Presidents, ACBSP volunteers, and staff who contributed their time and resources to assist in the hiring of our new CEO. It has been a very busy term for our staff and the leadership team as we transition from the past to the beginning. Late in the month of December I sent an email to all members, announcing Mr. Alderman’s hiring. More will be told about our new CEO. He is a team-oriented manager who promotes others and service above self. He will be a highly effective leader as he plans to work with our volunteer leadership to build upon our current strengths while growing our global outreach.

Let’s look at a snapshot of 2014. We accomplished quite a lot together in the past year, and for that I am grateful. We set a new record at the 2014 Annual Conference in Chicago with more than 1,000 in attendance. We honored 32 institutions that achieved initial or reaffirmation of accreditation, including two that were granted separate accounting accreditation. In November, just over 100 business educators and others gathered in Athens, Greece for the second International Conference. Our membership has grown to more than 1,300 campuses in 62 countries.

One of the biggest announcements this year came at the conclusion of the Annual Conference when Doug Viehland, Executive Director/CEO of ACBSP for the past 12 years, announced his retirement. Since that time, your Board of Directors and the Executive Committee have been focused on a smooth transition between Doug and Jeffrey. I am happy to report that all is going well at “Home” — of course I mean our home office. We have some of the BEST staff in the world. They are very dedicated and please join me in thanking them for a great job.

Start preparing for ACBSP Conference 2015 to be held in Philadelphia this June. We have planned several activities that will be enriching, educational, and fun for all. Also, you will have the opportunity to bid farewell to our past CEO and welcome home our new CEO. This year will be a special conference. Don’t miss it!

For now, I thank you again for your membership, your service to ACBSP, and your commitment to providing the highest quality business education to your students. Please feel free to email me any thoughts and suggestions. We are committed to serving you. Have a great semester and again, Happy New Year.

On November 14th, ACBSP held a dedication ceremony for Dr. Percy J. Vaughn, Jr. Accreditation Library.  Dr. Vaughn, Jr. was in attendance, along with three of his children. ACBSP President (2014-15) Anthony Negbenebor was in attendance, along with several ACBSP past-presidents and other important guests. The ceremony was a nice intimate event, and an emotional one. This video includes all speeches from the event. To view more details about the Percy J. Vaughn, Jr. library, click here.

Attendees raised important questions and discussion points throughout the conference. During the opening session, Richard Stilwell of Insight Management Consultants said, “People tell me they want the next Apple. I say if you want the next Apple, bring me the next Steve Jobs.” Stillwell made the point: in today’s world, education isn’t enough. Students need hands-on experience in the field. Business professors need to incorporate practical reality in their educational concepts and curriculum in order to help students achieve success. 

A Business Discussion Panel was also held to further elaborate on the topic of Internships. The panel consisted of six members from various companies, such as Farmers Insurance and Commerce Bank. When asked about the expectations companies have when considering a student for an internship, the overall consensus amongst the panelists was that a student with a great personality and drive is ideal. Students that dress the part, have a decent grade-point average, and are well-rounded individuals usually will make the cut.

Robert Mayer, from MR Capital Advisors LLC, said he looks for students who have something to gain from the internship and also have something to offer to the company. Surprisingly, when it came to discussing the definition of a “decent grade-point average,” the responses varied. Four out of the six panelists stated that a 3.0 grade-point average is preferred. The other two stated that their company prefers the interns have a 3.2 or a 3.4 grade-point average. Attendees then asked why a 3.2 or 3.4 grade-point average? Why not a 4.0 student? The panel stated that a 4.0 student does not take failure well and often does not know what failure is like. Panelists also stated that sometimes companies do make exceptions if a student does not meet the GPA requirement. However, they look at whether the student was involved in any extra-curricular activities that may have taken his/her time away from studies.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Prema Arasu, CEO and Vice Provost at Kansas State University-Olathe. During the keynote session, Arasu discussed the gap between business programs and the corporate world. 

“When businesses go to educators, educators ask what the business needs. The businesses ask what educators are looking for. However, the dialogue never goes any further,” she said. According to Arasu, educators need to think outside the box and allow their students to have an inter-disciplinary mindset. This inter-disciplinary mindset will allow for students to fit into the workforce easily. Administrators need to allow business educators the flexibility to try new approaches within the classroom environment and also build the bridges with corporate companies to provide students with better experiences. 

Overall, the conference was a great success.  All agreed that there is room for improvement when it comes to businesses partnering with business programs to produce students who are ready to make immediate contributions to the workforce. We hope to see you at the 2015 Annual Conference in Philadelphia, to continue the discussion on “Partnering with Business for Student Success.”

To find out how you can get involved with your region, visit www.acbsp.org/regions.

Thank you to the Board of Directors and Personnel Committee for recognizingthat we need to share this story and bring staff on stage to be recognized for all they have contributed to this success with a special focus on my tenure with ACBSP. The conference was also a time of transition.

• We closed a time capsule on our first 25 years and we now look ahead to the next 25.

• During the business meetings, the members approved bylaws changes which create a new governing board with powers for accreditation activities, but not accreditation decisions, as these remain with the Boards of Commissioners, comparable to the power of the Board of Directors for operation activities. The accreditation staff will no longer report to the Executive Director/CEO but to this new board. The Executive Director/CEO will no longer serve as an ex-officio member of the two Boards of Commissioners or to the new board.

• The “Celebrating Our Success” presentation called attention to the fact that we have had two phases in our history — one of struggles during the first 12 years and one of success during the second 12 years.

As the title of this blog post implies, another transition is underway that was not stated during the conference. During the meetings of the Board of Directors and Personnel Committee on June 30, I announced my intent to retire by June 30, 2015. Members and others will ask, “Why he is retiring?” and most will be surprised.

Some should not be surprised as I have been stating that I would be retiring within a year or two and this was even mentioned in the position description in our search for a new Director of Operations/COO. I decided in May that now was the time but did not want this announcement to occur prior to the conference as this would have been a distraction for all the other celebrations and activities underway. Under most circumstances, I will be at the 2015 Annual Conference.

By the time of my departure I will have been with ACBSP for more than 12 years. This is longer than my tenure at any other association and the longest tenure of any ACBSP Executive Director. It has been my pleasure to help the volunteer leadership move ACBSP to new levels of success and service to our members. It is now time for someone else to move ACBSP to the next level and to create a third phase in our history, which starts now.

For recipients of the Teaching Excellence Award, Student Showcase, and Best of Regions Excellence Award, the Annual Conference is a time to be honored by colleagues and by ACBSP.

For representatives from colleges and universities that have achieved initial accreditation or reaffirmation of accreditation, the Annual Conference is a time to celebrate the hard work and dedication that resulted in a favorable accreditation decision. And for members who have just entered candidacy for accreditation, it is a time to observe best practices, to meet face-to-face with mentors and commissioners with questions about the accreditation process, and a time to learn more about  ACBSP and the services it provides its members.

Engaged Learning

“Engaged Learning in the Digital Age” was not only the conference theme, it was what was taking place among all in attendance, as session notes were added to mobile devices and photos and quotes were sent to the ACBSP Twitter account.

A Sense of Pride

The thread that connected conference attendees with the events taking place was a sense of pride in what ACBSP and its members have accomplished in the first 25 years. From a sea of blue ACBSP shirts during the Saturday “ACBSP Logo Day” to testimonials from past presidents and members at the Monday morning session, the sense of accomplishment and hope for future years was evident.

A visual summary of just some of the activities that took place in Chicago is available on Storify article, ACBSP: 25 Years Strong.

ACBSP has implemented an online reporting platform for self-studies and quality assurance reports, called Campus Labs. Campus Labs is running similar reporting platforms for regional accreditors such as North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, The Higher Learning Commission (NCA-HLC), and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The research and development phase started in 2012 and rolled over into 2013. The cost is $80,000 per year. ACBSP incurred the cost for the first two years. In 2014, we will start adding a $200 technology fee to annual membership invoices of schools in candidacy and those with accredited status.

This is a great value when you consider all the features that come with the system. Our members will have access to all their archived reports and feedback — no more shipping or mailing paper reports, no printing costs, plus access to many other Campus Labs tools for free. Campus Labs provides training and technical support. The platform has some great features for learning and reporting. A customized HELP tab will house user documentation and video tutorials. The system offers pre-loaded Standards and Criteria as well as quality assurance reports. Clicking on a criterion allows users to page through the requirements to respond, edit or add evidence. Business units can create a file folder system and upload evidence/documents into the Evidence File for referencing in the self-study or quality assurance report. Users with edit rights can type in the Institutional Response area or copy and paste text from Microsoft Word®. Users can link to sources of evidence in the narrative, including linking to specific page numbers in PDF documents.

A dashboard area displays the status of the self-study, including assigned users and internal due dates for institutional workflow processes. The site includes an activity log with a saved version of each change to the Institutional Response for each criterion. Users can export a printable file of the entire self-study to PDF or Microsoft Word®. Several business units volunteered to test the platform. The training for the test phase starts this week and several business units will start entering data and information into the quality assurance report template in October 2013. Other testers will be entering self–study data and information starting in November or December 2013. The process will be used by a majority of business units by the fall of 2014, and will become mandatory for all business units in 2015. I hope you enjoy the benefits as much as I believe you will.

Accreditation is a process of important steps that are required to achieve the full benefit of the work put forth. Obtaining accreditation is very much the same as obtaining a college degree. Obtaining a college degree is a process of important steps like reading, writing, presenting, thinking, etc. over a period of time. The success is not the degree or the accreditation; the success is the journey. The success is what people learn about themselves and their world as they work through the process of earning a degree, or earning the accreditation. Cheating, or taking short cuts, not only hurts the person doing it, but also disrespects the system that is designed to provide them the education or the accreditation.

Large-scale cheating has been uncovered over the last year at some of the nation’s most competitive schools, like the Air Force Academy and Harvard. A link to the full article published Sept. 7 in The New York Times is provided here: Students Cheating. In another example, it was not students cheating but a faculty member. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on October 8 that Yoshitaka Fujii faked nearly 200 medical studies over two decades. That full article is also available to subscribers through this hyperlink: The Great Pretender.

Another similar problem is contending with degree mills and accreditation mills. These counterfeit entities provide bogus degrees and accreditation. Sometimes the students are aware of the bogus degree and sometimes they are not. Either way it is detrimental to society. This link will take you to one of many sources of information about degree and accreditation mills.

It will benefit everyone to use the ACBSP accreditation standards and criteria properly. It is not beneficial to falsify data or information to be accredited. Even if it takes longer to complete the process properly, the benefits are worth it. Cheating is not beneficial in college or for accreditation. Do the right thing; do the work and reap the rewards.