May 2006
Volume 1, Issue 3
We are pleased to welcome two new people to the College of Business.
Autumn Thomson has been hired as the new Project Coordinator for the Small Business Development Center. In this role, she will provide one-on-one confidential business consulting to small businesses in McLean County and work on projects such as the Business Plan Competition and E-Day with the Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. Autumn has a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations and Business Administration from ISU and served as Membership Director and Program and Events Director during her six-year tenure at the McLean County Chamber of Commerce.
Jamie Curtis was recently named MBA Program Coordinator. She will be responsible for the current and future Corporate MBA Programs offered by the College of Business. Jamie will also assistant pre-applicants seeking information about the traditional evening MBA Program and will be advising a portion of our traditional MBA students. Jamie, a 2002 Illinois State MBA alumnus, brings with her 8 years of full-time work experience in the insurance and financial services arena.
According to Rick Ringer, the new Organizational Leadership Minor will provide a wonderful opportunity for all COB majors to explore an important and vital part of organizational life: the role of leadership. Students will be exposed to both traditional and current approaches to leadership, and will have significant opportunities to enhance and develop their own leadership skills through a variety of experiences and activities. “As faculty, we certainly are excited about having a leadership minor. We believe that it will provide great opportunities for our students to broaden their experiences here in the college,” said Ringer.
Ken Newgren reports that the new minor consists of 19 credit hours with 7 of those hours, ECN 105 and MQM 220, already required for all business majors. Majors in the College of Business must take four additional courses (12 credit hours) to satisfy the requirements for the minor. The minor is not available for majors from outside the College of Business.
The required courses are:
MQM 221 Organizational Behavior
MQM 380 Leadership: Teams and Team Development
MQM 382 Organizational Leadership
Plus one additional course is required from the following electives:
MQM 383 Leading Organizational Change
MQM 384 Decision Making and Planning
MQM 386 Leadership and Organizational Culture
MQM 340 Seminar in Management
Newgren says the primary objective of the program for those electing it as a either a major or a minor, is to help students develop their interpersonal and team skills – the so-called “soft” skills of management.
A 2005 graduate, Kaushal Patel, works for Enterprise and was on campus for Enterprise Day in February. "I would like you to know that being at Illinois State University and the College of Business in the Organizational Leadership Major has been one of the greatest and most insightful experiences of my life. For all that I have learned I cannot even begin to explain. It is priceless. Thank you so much, and thank you to the College of Business for the opportunities it has allowed me to have. Without the wonderful staff and professors I could not have made it this far. So again I would like to say thank you.”
Kaushal said that he has received twelve job offers from other companies while working for Enterprise, further emphasizing the value of organizational leadership training available through the College of Business.
Iris Varner reports the export group now has five faculty members from five disciplines and two colleges involved in an exciting pilot project. The team has received financial support from the University and several organizations including Corn Growers and Economic Development Council of McLean County. The export group is working with a small Illinois busines, AgVantage which uses a by-product from ethanol production called DDGS. This by-product is used to make a variety of products like pallets, sheds,and highway signs. AgVantage works with a small business in New Zealand that puts RFIDs into products for tracking.
Varner and six students will travel to New Zealand at the end of May for five weeks and will work on marketing plans for these kinds of products. The students are Erin Demeter - Ag Business, Michael Grammer -Industrial Computer Systems, Kristina Matranga -Marketing, Josh Spencer-Entrepreneurship and Nathan Webster - Ag Business. Faculty members collaborating with Iris Varner are Mark Hoelscher - Entrepreneurship, Peter Kaufman - Marketing, Klaus Schmidt - Technology, and Aslihan Spaulding - AG Business.
The Business Bistro opened April 12th and offers a variety food and beverage options during the Fall and Spring semesters and provides later service than some of the other coffee venues on campus. This allows College of Business students taking evening courses to get something to eat or drink before their classes begin. According to Scott Christner, the COB will continue to evaluate with Campus Dining how to adjust the hours and menu to best serve customers while insuring the facility is being utilized. The hours for the rest of the semester are:
Monday – Thursday 7:30 AM to 7 PM
Friday 7:30 AM to 4 PM
The Pantagraph carried an expansive article on the McLean County Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University. The article also highlights the one-year anniversary of the SBDC. To access the article, visit http://www.asbdc-us.org/Illinois_0331.pdf
Several Fortune 100 and 500 companies recruit Illinois State business students. The College of Business keeps a listing of the top 50 companies who have hired the most of our graduates. The new interview suite in the College of Business is reserved for use by preferred partner companies who have established special relationships with the College of Business and its departments and specialized schools, institutes and programs. There are 102 companies who are preferred partners. During the past year the interview suite has been used 62 times by companies including: