Dorothy Donahoe Hall, A100
(661) 664-2157
(661) 664-2438 (fax)
email: cstarr@csub.edu
email: schbpa@csub.edu
http://www.csub.edu/BPA/
Interim Dean: Ronald W. Eaves
The mission of the School of Business and Public Administrations:
To serve our region by providing a professional business and public administration education that enables our graduates to serve effectively in the workplace and the community.Program Description
As a professional school, we are dedicated to educating students to become more effective and efficient managers in the public and private sectors operating in the complex and dynamic world of today. The primary skills emphasized in the school include effective written and oral communication, strategic planning, problem identification, and problem analysis. Emphasis is also placed on an integrated perspective to decision making in the context of the economic, social, political, and ethical forces that exist in the world today.
The demanding programs in the School build upon the general education curriculum that the prospective business and public administration student completes in the freshman and sophomore years. The knowledge and skills learned in this broadly based program are enhanced as the student enters the upper level professional programs of Business and Public Administration.
In pursuing its educational mission, the School must be responsive to the needs and desires of its primary service area as well as the market outside. The faculty of the School, recognizing this need, have pursued applied research interests both within and outside the primary market. These research efforts have been critical to the growth and development of the School and have contributed significantly to the basic educational goals of the institution. In recent decades the relevant geographical area of the school has expanded far beyond local, regional or even national boundaries. Decisions made today must consider the international environment within which most organizations operate. Research and teaching efforts of the School are designed to reflect this ongoing change.
The information explosion continues unabated. The effective manager must be able to locate, retrieve, consolidate and integrate relevant information across the disciplines. Management decisions cannot be made without consideration of the impact of marketing, operations, finance, human resources and other critical areas. Computer and communication technology facilitates the integration and evaluation of this data that must be understood and available at all levels of management. This means factoring computer applications and technology into all disciplines as a tool of management, not as a separate discipline.
The School recognizes that its student clientele will need to acquire a holistic understanding of management, be able to easily relate one functional area to another and draw on skills learned in a variety of functional areas for purposes of analysis and decision making. Consequently, both the undergraduate and graduate curricula are built on a strong core that places an emphasis on the development of generic analytical and management skills.
Excellence in education is a phrase that becomes a reality in BPA. The School is staffed with a faculty drawn from many of the top schools of business and public administration in the United States. As the School grows in response to ever increasing numbers of students entering, the faculty has grown . . . not only in physical numbers but in the necessary skills required to meet the new technological and conceptual changes occurring in the private and public sectors. An effective educational institution must be proactive to these changes rather than reactive. The lead time required to train future managers in new technologies can often be two to three years. This requires close contact with the practicing managers in the public and private sectors and requires close and continuous contact between the academician and the practitioner. The faculty of the School of Business and Public Administration interface with practitioners in their research and consulting efforts. Combining this approach with outstanding academic credentials yields a faculty truly capable of preparing the managers of the future as well as enhancing the managers of today, many of whom comprise the graduate student population in the School.
A particularly significant force that provides invaluable services and support to the School is the Executive Advisory Council. This is a group of twenty-eight senior executives from national, regional and local businesses and governmental agencies. This council advises the Dean of the School in matters concerning the needs of the public and private sectors, in the evaluation of the graduates from the programs, in the trends that are appearing in the various sectors and acts as a sounding board for new programs or changes to existing programs. The Public Policy and Administration Advisory Board is a group of city, county, state and national government administrators, as well as non profit and health care directors, who offer their expertise to the department on curriculum and the needs of the current public administration sector.
Structurally, the School of Business and
Public Administration is organized into three major departments: Finance
and Accounting, Management and Marketing, and Public Policy and Administration.
These three departments represent the six concentrations offered in the
School. The Management and Marketing Department also houses the Management
Information Systems concentration.
DEGREE PROGRAMS
Undergraduate:
Both the undergraduate and the graduate business programs are accredited by the AACSB – The International Association for Management Education. This is particularly significant in that only 310 institutions in the United States have both their undergraduate and master’s programs accredited. The National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration accredits the Public Policy and Administration masters program. The School of Business and Public Administration is one of the smallest in the nation to have their programs accredited by AACSB and NASPAA, a confirmation of the quality of the faculty and their dedication to excellence in education.Master of Business Administration (MBA) Master of Public Administration (MPA) Master of Science in Administration — Health Care Management (MSA-HCM)
Organizations -- The School has active chapters of Beta Gamma Sigma, the top national academic honorary for business majors, and Pi Alpha Alpha, the top national honorary for Public Affairs and Administration. The School also hosts chapters of Sigma Iota Epsilon, national management honorary, Alpha Mu Alpha, national marketing honorary, and Alpha Kappa Psi, national business fraternity. Students also participate in the activities of the University Accounting Association (UAA), the Financial Management Association (FMA) and Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE).
The Public Service Institute is a functional bridge between California State University, Bakersfield and the public service community of Kern County and the University’s service area. As such, the Institute brings together in a working coalition, management personnel from the public, nonprofit, volunteer, and health sectors with appropriate faculty and administrators from the CSUB community. Purposes of the Public Service Institute include:
Teaching Credential -- Single Subject -- The CSUB degree in Business Administration has been certified by the California Commission for Teacher Credentials as satisfying subject matter examination waiver requirements for the State of California Single Subject Credential in Business Education. This means that the Examination Waiver for Business Education has been approved for a CSUB graduate with an approved major in Business Administration. In addition, the student must be admitted to and must complete the Single Subject Credential program. Because the waiver program differs in some details from the basic program for the major, it is essential that credential candidates consult with the evaluator in the School of Education to assure that their programs will be approved.
The Intensive English Language Center -- The Intensive English Language Center (IELC) is designed to prepare international undergraduate and graduate students for successful academic study in American colleges and universities. IELC offers a language immersion program into American English. The non-credit program offers daily instruction in reading/vocabulary, writing/grammar, and listening/speaking. TOEFL preparation is available. All classes at IELC are taught by experienced ESL teachers. Class sizes are small with much individual attention given to each student. (For additional information see IELC, page 80).
Business Administration -- This curriculum is designed for the student who wishes to earn a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Business Administration. It has two major components: (1) required lower and upper division courses which provide a foundation for understanding business organizations, their operations, and their place in the global economic, political, social world; (2) a concentration of courses which permit an in-depth study of a selected aspect of business activity.