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Dear Editor,
In December 2007 Bentley faculty overwhelmingly approved a revised General Business Core (GBC) to be rolled out for incoming freshmen in Fall 2009. The revised Core’s overall design and course features are intended to be innovative and to keep the GB Core reflective of Bentley’s evolving strategy. To insure that current students who began their studies in the existing GBC would not have to change to the new core, which would require taking extra courses, Bentley has made a significant investment in running two parallel GBCs until 2012-13. In addition, to accommodate transfer and other students who need it, limited but sufficient sections of courses in the existing GBC will be offered beyond that time. In the phase-out, faculty teaching existing GBC courses are conscientious about updating them to insure that they provide a solid base of business knowledge.
The Dean of Business, represented by the Associate Dean of Business for Undergraduate Programs, is ultimately responsible for Bentley’s GBC for two key reasons. First, because all Bentley business majors complete it, the GBC is the distinguishing academic “stamp” of a Bentley undergraduate business education. In other words, it is “strategic.”
The GBC contributes to and reflects Bentley’s identity and recognized level of curriculum and undergraduate student quality among competing business schools and employers. Second, because a distinguishing feature of Bentley’s strategy is integration (our faculty’s ability to design and deliver courses as well as to conduct research effectively across business and arts and sciences disciplines), the GBC is where all students can learn to recognize and effectively navigate the links among not only the functions of business such as accounting, finance, marketing and operations, but also among business and its many societal stakeholders. The GBC, therefore, does not “belong to” any one academic department. It belongs to Bentley as an institution.
Staffing GBC courses is the shared responsibility of the Dean of Business Office, the GB Course Coordinators, and the chairs of academic departments. If they determine that certain faculty members are qualified to teach a particular GB course and these instructors are willing to do so, it is legitimate for them to be teaching it regardless of what their “home” departments or disciplines are. There are many examples of faculty with degrees in one discipline teaching in other disciplines across Bentley, not just in the GBC.
Most Bentley faculty and administrators view such cross-disciplinary teaching as a strength rather than a weakness.
In addition, regardless of the depth of a faculty member’s specialty knowledge, delivering a new course for the first time is a challenge, both for the faculty and the students. Faculty willingness to take on this challenge coupled with student tolerance of the inevitable unforeseen issues that arise enable Bentley to continually update and innovate, which enhances the long-term value of all its graduates’ degrees.
Because of differences in the designs of existing and revised GBCs, running them in parallel is especially demanding for two departments with majors that rely upon the GBCs for their “gateway” or first-level courses: accounting and marketing. The faculty must insure that their majors are academically prepared for upper-level courses and that they have the major-specific mentoring they need. Both of these departments want to attract majors, however, and they know it is in their best interest to strive to provide sound instruction and advising for students in both existing and revised Cores. All students, including non-majors, benefit from these departments’ efforts to attract and prepare majors.
For example, on top of the Accounting Departments’ huge effort to launch the brand new GB 112 Tools and Concepts in Accounting and Finance, for the fourth year in a row it also successfully ran for all GB 201 students its outstanding ethics program bringing practitioners to campus to interact with them: “The Accounting Profession Post Sarbanes-Oxley.”
In addition, there was no reduction in the quality or availability of review sessions or tutoring for any GB 201 student who wanted help. Departmental professors also continue to be available to both GBCs’ prospective and declared majors for advising.
Times of transition, such as the GBC shift, require all of us, administration, faculty, and students, to share information. That way we can have the facts, remain open to feedback, and be as flexible and resourceful as possible. If all of us could commit to creatively doing the best we can with what we have available, we will achieve our common goal: the best possible learning environment.
Judith Kamm, DBA
GB Core Coordinator
Associate Dean of Business for Undergraduate Programs
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