The College of Business Administration Achieves Accreditation
The leadership of John W. Lucas led to the 1965 undergraduate program accreditation of the College by the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, later known as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. In April, 2001 the accrediting body's membership renamed for the organization to be known as AACSB International. This accreditation has been reconfirmed periodically by the AACSB through its favorable reviews of reports and documentary evidence submitted by the college.
Many changes had to occur within the University and the college before accreditation could become a reality. Improvements were needed in library holdings, more faculty with terminal degrees in their teaching fields were needed, and the college had to meet a rigorous set of AACSB standards, one of which required a teaching load not to exceed 12 hours per semester.
A major impediment to achieving accreditation existed as a consequence of the College not being staffed by a sufficient number of faculty holding terminal degrees. The first person to hold the doctorate at the time of employment occurred in 1955 when Dr. George Harris was hired to teach finance. The next person hired with a doctorate in hand was Dr. Willis Rokes whose responsibility was to be that of developing the insurance program. The college lacked sufficient financial resources to hire all of the needed doctoral faculty from the marketplace. Instead, Dean Lucas selected faculty members with personal goals of earning doctoral degrees. Once the terminal degree deficiency was removed, the College was in position to seek accredited recognition.
Extensive support from Milo Bail, president of the Municipal University of Omaha was essential in helping business administration overcome deficiencies that impeded its quest for accreditation. The University standard of a 15-hour teaching load was a major barrier to the College achieving accreditation. In 19xx President Bail approved a 12-hour load for the business faculty, The remainder of university faculty received this lowered teaching load the following year. Reports from academic units provide some insight into how the Dean and the faculty worked to improve the College.
Excerpts from the 1947-48 business administration report include such statements as:
The department was handicapped by a shortage of staff.
This shortage of faculty situation prevented the department from putting into effect some of its plans for the development of courses, curriculum, etc. that had been on the agenda since before the war.
In spite of the demand on instructional time, we were able to return to our program of offering the course in General Insurance....
Modern technology for office equipment did not exist. Professor Holley, head of Secretarial Science, felt that a wire recorder for her stenographic classes would benefit her students immeasurably.
This report also noted that programs would be expanded to meet the needs of students to engage in fields of specialization. A major addition to business was noted when the report stated, "...the curriculum in retailing leading to a Bachelor of Science degree in retailing was established and approved by the faculty. " Dr. Bail offered the following praise for retailing in a brochure written for general distribution. "The University of Omaha is proud of this opportunity to cooperate with the Associated Retailers of Omaha in the education of young men and women for important positions in retailing.... With this program the University of Omaha enters upon a new area of service which we believe will make a significant contribution to citizens of Omaha."
This 1952 report to President Bail included a heading: "...looking ahead to the functions to be carried on as a College of Business Administration." However, before business administration could become a college, it had to change from being a department to that of being a division in order to achieve parity with other academic units. Lucas felt the complete business curriculum needed revision-including the designation of the academic areas. He wanted business to become a separate division within the University. He felt the proper nomenclature for business was College. The term, Division, was not generally used in academic institutions and, therefore, was unfamiliar to most people.
Within the college, several areas warranted increased emphasis. Accounting, especially, was deserving since it was the strongest field. Accounting was not alone in meriting additional resources. The looking ahead part of the report revealed the need to expand offerings in such areas as statistics, real estate, insurance, office management, office machines, marketing, transportation, and commercial art. The highly regarded status of retailing was emphasized in the catalog since Hurford Davison was listed a Director of the Department of Retailing. Davison's picture was part of the catalog, and a special faculty listing for retailing was included as well. Get Davison's picture)
John W. Lucas was especially aware of the need to attract and retain qualified faculty. "Our objective has always been to secure the best trained staff possible within the limits of the budget provided." He also expressed a desire for faculty to be assigned to teaching responsibilities in their fields of specialization. The lack of a sufficient number of qualified staff required that faculty members be spread over a number of fields where courses needed to be taught. The positive side to assigning faculty in this way brought about a condition where faculty usefulness was increased.
A reading of annual reports prepared by each college for university administrators reveals two guiding principles underscoring the College of Business Administration: Improve the caliber of faculty and achieve accreditation. Achieving accreditation relied on several factors in addition to hiring and retaining faculty terminally qualified in their respective teaching fields. These included a review of how well graduates of the college performed in their jobs, the reputation of the school among peer schools, and the quality of the curriculum. An unlisted standard included being invited to petition the AACSB for membership. Thus, Dean Lucas attended all AACSB meetings and seminars and built strong relationships with many deans from colleges of business. This was especially true with the dean of the College of Business at the University of Nebraska that was a charter member of the accrediting body.
John W. Lucas cast a jaundiced view of the unending request from the University Administration for more long-range planning to be done by colleges and divisions. He said in 1949, "Long range planning does not necessarily produce major accomplishments in the short period of a school year on such things as curricula, staff, students, interests, etc."
The 1950 report contained a plea from John W. Lucas that promotions in rank were needed for faculty whose records supported such advancement. Also, salaries should be increased for deserving faculty members and that further consideration should be made regarding some faculty whose efforts and contributions were such that they should be made permanent members of the teaching staff.