Section 2: CORE REQUIREMENTS

The institution has a governing board of at least five members that is the legal body with specific authority over the institution. The board is an active policy-making body for the institution and is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the financial resources of the institution are adequate to provide a sound educational program. The board is not controlled by a minority of board members or by organizations or interests separate from it. Neither the presiding officer of the board nor the majority of other voting members of the board have contractual, employment, or personal or familial financial interest in the institution.

A military institution authorized and operated by the federal government to award degrees has a public board in which neither the presiding officer nor a majority of the other members are civilian employees of the military or active/retired military. The board has broad and significant influence upon the institution’s programs and operations, plays an active role in policy-making, and ensures that the financial resources of the institution are used to provide a sound educational program. The board is not controlled by a minority of board members or by organizations or interests separate from the board except as specified by the authorizing legislation. Neither the presiding officer of the board nor the majority of other voting board members have contractual, employment, or personal or familial financial interest in the institution.  (Governing Board)
 

The Institution

The Rawls College has:

All of the programs meet the AACSB standards for curricula, which include a coherent set of requirements for the courses of study.

http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/standards.asp.

The college curriculum was reviewed during 2002-03 by AACSB International and the Site Review Team Report (February 9, 2003) from that review is available in the office of the Associate Dean of the Rawls College.

The institution has a sound financial base and demonstrated financial stability, and adequate physical resources to support the mission of the institution and the scope of its programs and services.

The member institution provides the following financial statements: (a) an institutional audit (or Standard Review Report issued in accordance with Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services issued by the AICPA for those institutions audited as part of a systemwide or statewide audit) and written institutional management letter for the most recent fiscal year prepared by an independent certified public accountant and/or an appropriate governmental auditing agency employing the appropriate audit (or Standard Review Report) guide; (b) a statement of financial position of unrestricted net assets, exclusive of plant assets and plant-related debt, which represents the change in unrestricted net assets attributable to operations for the most recent year; and, (c) an annual budget that is preceded by sound planning, is subject to sound fiscal procedures, and is approved by the governing board.

Audit requirements for applicant institutions may be found in the Commission policy entitled "Accreditation Procedures for Applicant Institutions.  (Resources)

The Rawls College is in compliance with this requirement.

Routes of compliance:

• Support for faculty and departmental expenses from the university





• Contributions from alumni.





• Programs and operations of the Center for Professional Development.

(Not applicable for the Compliance Certification submitted by institution).

Section 3:  COMPREHENSIVE STANDARDS

Institutional Mission, Governance, And Effectiveness

The institution has qualified administrative and academic officers with the experience,
competence, and capacity to lead the institution.

The institution defines and publishes policies regarding appointment and employment of
faculty and staff.

The institution’s policies are clear concerning ownership of materials, compensation,
copyright issues, and the use of revenue derived from the creation and production of all
intellectual property. This applies to students, faculty and staff.

PROGRAMS

• The program was proposed by faculty members to the college graduate faculty committee,
  which approved it.
   
• The program was approved by vote of the college graduate faculty.
   
• The program was reviewed by the Dean of the Graduate School.
   
• The program was reviewed by the Associate Provost.
   
• The program was reviewed and approved by the Provost (document available in the
  Office of the Associate Dean (BA 103).

The process for the joint Anahuac program we believe to be sound. We followed the same process, except we additionally had this program reviewed by the Graduate Council, Academic Council, Board of Regents, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (see Rawls response to Core Requirement 2.7.4).

The Rawls College is in compliance with this standard.

The college has the following:
 

• Undergraduate Services Center  http://undergrad.ba.ttu.edu/current_map.asp
   

• Graduate Services Center  http://grad.ba.ttu.edu/GSChome.asp
   

• Business Academic Computing Services  http://bacs.ba.ttu.edu/
   

• Communications Skills Center  http://comskillscenter.ba.ttu.edu/
   

• International Programs Office  http://ibs.ba.ttu.edu/.

The Rawls College is in partial compliance with this standard.

• For the undergraduate program, the general education and major requirements are published in the 2004-05 Texas Tech University Catalog here: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/officialpublications/catalog/BAUNDER.html 
   
• For the graduate program, some of the details are published in the 2004-05 Texas Tech University Catalog here:  http://www.depts.ttu.edu/officialpublications/catalog/BAGRAD.html. 
  The remaining details may be accessed by program at

   o        http://mba.ba.ttu.edu/MBA/MBA_Current/MBA_Concentrations_C.asp
o        http://ms.ba.ttu.edu/MSBA/MSBA_Current/MSBA_Concentrations_C.asp
o        http://msa.ba.ttu.edu/MSA/MSA_Current/MSA_Concentrations_C.asp
o        http://phd.ba.ttu.edu/PHd/PHd_Current/PHd_Concentrations_C.asp

• The undergraduate core is the responsibility of the Undergraduate Programs Committee and the BBA Program Coordinator. The undergraduate major curricula is the responsibility of the respective discipline faculties, such as the Accounting Major is the responsibility of the Area of Accounting faculty, etc.
   
• MBA and the IMBA by the MBA Program Committee,
   
• MSA by the Professional Programs Committee in the Area of Accounting
   
• MS by Area faculty committees in the Finance and ISQS areas.
   
• PhD by Area faculty committees for each of the five academic areas.

The individuals responsible for academic programs may found at:
    http://planassess.ba.ttu.edu/JSRCOBA Programs 6 15 2004.xls

The institution’s use of technology enhances student learning, is appropriate for meeting the
objectives of its programs, and ensures that students have access to and training in the use
of technology.

• 16 fully functional multi-media classrooms
   
• four specialized computer labs,
   
• Internet access in every classroom and most student spaces in the building.

For further details, see page IN-3 ff. of Vol. I of the Rawls College of Business Self Evaluation Report (August 1, 2002).

Student assessment of technology and training may be found in Program Assessment Measures and Initiatives (January 10, 2003). For example, for the undergraduate program, see page 8.

• Accounting and Business Law
   
• Finance
   
• Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences
   
• Management
   
• Marketing and International Business
   

According to these spreadsheets, the Rawls College is in compliance with the standard:

No faculty in the Rawls college teach general education courses.

All faculty teaching undergraduate courses have at least a Master’s degree with 18 graduate semester hours in an appropriate discipline, with the following exceptions highlighted in light green in the spreadsheets with parenthetical number of classes (#) and doctoral students (D):

• Accounting:  Kelley (4)
   
• Finance:  Sheirmeyer (1), Blosser (1), and Mano (1,D)
   
• Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences:  Flamm (7)
   
• Management:  Faver (2), Ramachandran (1,D), and Chen (1,D)
   
• Marketing:  Levin (1,D)

As detailed in the spreadsheets, most of these instructors have significant work experience in their topic of instruction.  All but Kelley, Flamm, and Faver taught just one class during the year. The doctoral students (D) each taught one class for the year and were under the close supervision of a mentor faculty member. The total classes involved are 17 out of 381 total classes for the year. Only Flamm is a full-time faculty member and he brings an MBA and more than 30 years of work experience to his topic of instruction.

All doctoral students are required to enroll in BA 5395 during their first Fall semester. While most doctoral students have the requisite masters degree in their fields, those that are not, are not assigned as instructors until they have competed at least a year (18 hours) in the program.  Doctoral students assigned as instructors are supervised by course coordinators who are members of the full-time faculty.

More than 25 percent of the hours for each discipline are taught by faculty with the doctorate when taken across the year.

All faculty teaching graduate-level courses have earned doctoral degrees (or equivalent, in the case of the J.D. degrees for those teaching business law) in the appropriate discipline.

In addition, ongoing data on instructor qualifications are routinely kept for the purposes of maintaining ongoing AACSB accreditation, and are available from the Associate Dean in room 103, BA. 

RESOURCES

Section 4:  FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS

The Rawls College of Business is in compliance with this standard.

As part of the Strategic Planning and Assessment Reporting process, the college keeps track of student retention rates, overall GPAs, graduation rates, and to the extent possible, acceptance to graduate schools and job placement rates. (http://planassess.ba.ttu.edu/Rawls%20College%20Annual%20Report%202003.doc)

See also the bi-annual program assessment reports for each of the Rawls College academic programs found at (reference the 4.1 section):

               http://planassess.ba.ttu.edu

The Rawls College of Business is in compliance with this standard.

The Rawls College of Business maintains a curriculum that is directly related and appropriate to the purpose and goals of the college and the university. The college curriculum was evaluated last year by the AACSB and found to be in compliance with their standards.

The various academic programs of the college are appropriate to the mission of Texas Tech University and the diplomas and degrees awarded.  The college has program committees (Undergraduate Program Committee, MBA Program Committee, and Graduate Programs Committee) who oversees any curricular additions, changes, or deletions requested by departments.

The Rawls College of Business is in compliance on this standard.

Texas Tech University’s undergraduate degree programs require a minimum of 120 hours (p.43 of the 2004-2005 Texas Tech University Catalog, http://www.depts.ttu.edu/officialpublications/catalog), master’s of science degree programs (Master of Science (Major in Business Administration) and Master of Science in Accounting) require 36 hours (p. 70) and doctoral degree programs require at least 60 hours (p. 72). The Master of Business Administration requires 48 graduate hours (p. 202).