Business cutting enrollment

By Liz O'Brien

In line with the national trend of more and more college students opting to study business, enrollment in the Leavey School of Business is quickly breaching its capacity. In order to combat the overage of students in the business program, the school has developed a new policy intended to cut enrollment by more than a third.

"We're a liberal arts institution, with a business school," said Jo-Anne Shibles, assistant dean of undergraduate business programs. "As a liberal arts institution, the university -- and we agree with this -- has the focus of putting (the business school's enrollment) at about 25 percent. So we're going to work to get to that goal."

The business school is currently occupied by 38 percent of the student body, or about 1,833 students, according to Institutional Research. The school's goal would require reducing enrollment to about 1,206 students, a 34.2 percent decrease. The decrease will be phased in over the next few years through the new enrollment policy, which will begin the 2008-2009 academic year.

The policy, announced in a university-wide e-mail on March 10, requires that students currently enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering who wish to study business must submit a request-to-transfer form by April 15. This applies to students wishing to transfer out of engineering or arts and sciences altogether, as well as students wishing to remain in their college but seeking a secondary major or minor in business.

Current business students will not be required to resubmit applications and will remain largely unaffected, according to Shibles.

Beginning next year, first- or second-year students wishing to transfer must fill out a request form in the winter quarter, so they will know if they are accepted to the business program by spring, in time for the following year's registration period.

Students outside of the business school may still be able to take business classes if space is available, but priority will be given to students officially enrolled in the school. In addition, the school will continue to offer the upper division class business 170, a business course geared toward non-majors piloted last quarter. Business professor Bob Finocchio teaches the course, which is an overview of concepts based on the introductory class, business 70. So far, the class has garnered receptive feedback from non-majors, Shibles said.

The business school is designed to contain 25 percent of undergraduate students, according to both Shibles and Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Paul Fitzgerald, S.J.

Engineering should make up 15 percent, and arts and sciences 60 percent, but Fitzgerald noted that those percentages are not necessarily reflective of the current state of the student body. He estimated that engineers only comprise about 11 or 12 percent of all students, and arts and sciences constitutes about only 50 percent.

The business school has been feeling the effects of over-enrollment for some time, Shibles said, mostly in class size. The average class size on campus is 22 students, whereas business classes run closer to 32 students per class, and sometimes break 40.

As an alternative to limiting enrollment, the business school discussed instead increasing the number of faculty to accommodate the rise in students, but in a collaborative effort with the Provost's Office decided against it, said Shibles. Provost Lucia Gilbert declined a request for an interview.

Current students seeking to transfer into the business school or get a second business major or minor will not have to undergo a review process, as long as their transfer forms are completed by April 15.

However, beginning next academic year, both incoming students and current students wishing to transfer into business will be required to undergo a more selective application process to gain entry into the business school. The undergraduate business programs office will begin to determine the exact criteria for the application to transfer within the next month, Shibles said. Though requirements are still tentative, Shibles cited a GPA cutoff point and full-time enrollment as potential requirements for acceptance. After one year, the new enrollment policy will be reviewed and modified, if needed.

"For current students, if we're able to open up enrollment in the future, we'll open it up, inform students and make changes as necessary," said Shibles.

Shibles said the annual review of the enrollment policy would take into consideration the effect of the changes on engineering and arts and sciences.

According to Fitzgerald, there is a greater influx of students switching from arts and sciences than vice versa, but he did not anticipate that the change would have a significant effect on class sizes in arts and sciences. Fitzgerald added that many majors in arts and sciences are well below capacity, like philosophy, music and history, and could afford to hold more students.

"They're not trying to kick anybody out of the business school. They just need to be recruiting more environmental scientists or philosophers," Fitzgerald said.

Still, some of the more popular majors in arts and sciences, like communication or political science, both of which have classes that are often filled only a few days into registration, may be affected.

"It could be, in certain departments, like comm, psych or poli sci, that it may be felt a little bit more," said Greg Corning, associate dean of arts and sciences.

Corning estimated, however, that the change would only place around 250 more students in either arts and sciences or engineering.

"If you spread those students out over four years and several different majors," he said, "the impact on any given class, in terms of seats per class, will probably be pretty small."

Contact Liz O'Brien at (408) 554-4546 or eobrien@scu.edu.