Campus Connection

Business leaders throughout the world are learning UW-La Crosse means business. The UW-L College of Business Administration is featured in the July/August issue of “BizEd,” a bi-monthly magazine published by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, a leading accrediting body for business schools worldwide. With a circulation of 15,000, “BizEd” goes to deans and faculty and more than 1,300 institutions globally. “Being in ‘Biz Ed’ basically guarantees that you’ll have name recognition among business colleges worldwide,” says UW-L CBA Dean Bruce May. The feature focuses on the CBA’s transparent, faculty-driven assessment practices, which have gained a national reputation through a recent award from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The award is for outstanding institutional practice in student learning outcomes. Assessment and assurance of learning is becoming an increasingly important activity in all of higher education. Business schools and business educators are always sharing best practices in the area, says Tricia Bisoux, co-editor of “BizEd” magazine. “We heard about the CHEA’s recognition of UW-L CBA’s approach to assessment, and we thought UW-L’s success in building a culture of assessment among its faculty would be of high interest to our readership,” she says. Bisoux points to two key takeaways in the article. The first is that assessment must be a faculty-driven activity. When assessment is approached in the spirit of improving student learning, not criticizing faculty teaching, it is much more likely to inspire faculty’s enthusiastic participation in the process. The second is that designing a successful assessment plan is not an “all-at-once” proposition — it is something a school does on a continuous basis, experimenting with different approaches to discover what works best for its programs, she says. Read the article in "BizEd." In March 2013, the CBA was re-accredited by AACSB International, meaning it remains among the five percent of business programs worldwide that can meet these rigorous standards.