UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5
Friday, February 4, 1994
Regents Center students feel MBA program unfair
Work experience should be credited
By Gennifer Trail
Kansan staff writer
Certain students at the Regents Center in Overland Park feel that the Center's MBA program should take their work experience into consideration.
But some professors and students at the center differ on how or whether to solve this problem.
In Lawrence, 90 percent of those in the MBA program are full-time students but at the center, 90 to 95 percent of the MBA students work full time in a business environment, said Dave Collins, associate director of business administration.
"The Regents center MBA is designed for people working full time in the Kansas City area. That's the target market," Collins said.
The MBA program at both institutions differs only in the one-credit-hour class required in the Lawrence MBA, called,"MBA foundation skills," which teaches students to how to write resumes and find jobs. However, the same professors teach at both institutions.
"Most of us here at the Regents Center already work in the business world," said Rob Kinder, Kansas City, Mo., graduate MBA student at the center. "We work in teams every day. We don't need more teamwork exercises. There should be a difference between the MBA here and Lawrence."
Douglas Houston, professor of business, agreed.
"I understand that team exercises can be a real drain on time and effort
because the students at the Regents center work 40 hours a week and often have problems meeting," he said. "I believe a lot of the criticism is time constraint. It's a real issue."
However, Russell Hanna, Lenexa graduate MBA student at the center, said that learning teamwork in class was valuable.
"Most adults think they know how to work in teams, but they don't," he said. "Usually working in teams is geared toward cutting the amount of work."
Daniel Spencer, associate professor of business, said he was also a supporter of teamwork.
"I'm tailoring the learning environment more to the professional student at the Regents center, but I happen to be a believer that there's a lot to learn in groups there — as much as in Lawrence," he said. "I teach organizational behavior, so I feel very strongly about this."
Murray Levin, associate professor of business, explained why teamwork has become a more prevalent part of the education.
"In the past few years we have increased the number of teamwork projects by request of employers in the area," he said. "They said that they needed better-adapted team workers. As faculty, we struggle with the question of what we can do to meet the needs of professional students."
"There should be some recognition that we have work experience. Sometimes I think we're given busy work, as if we're not responsible," she said.
"You don't always have to turn in an assignment to be evaluated."
Jan Francis, Mission Hills graduate MBA student at the center, said that some of its courses were not suited to the needs of the students.
"I would like to see instructors
slightly modify the instruction by considering that we can understand the concept faster because we do have work experience," she said. "People would like to see a more accelerated program."
Jack Gaummitz, professor of business, agreed with Francis.
He said that the center's MBA should be different than the MBA in Lawrence in order to meet the needs of the non-traditional students. "You can cover more material and move faster because they have a better understanding."
Marilyn Taylor, director of graduate programs in business said the experience of the students at the center should have an impact on the way professors teach.
"I do feel strongly that the two programs can be differentiated, not in content, but in the transmission of knowledge," she said. "The students at the Regents Center don't need quite as much help. They're older. They're very self-disciplined."
Hanna said that he thought there should be a way to accommodate the differing backgrounds of students such as setting up a remedial course system. For example, if someone goes into the program with little experience in financial accounting, he or she should be required to take the class, instead of requiring all MBA students to take it.
Taylor, who is also a professor of business, said that the school of business was in the process of forming an MBA executive advisory council that plans to answer these questions and other issues.
"You get professors who will teach a little here and a little there to accommodate all students, but no one really learns," Hanna said.
STATE BRIEF
Emporia State students at odds with proposal
The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. — Student leaders at Emporia State University said they don't like Gov. Joan Finney's Partnership For Excellence proposal.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Dan Hubert, a student senator at Emporia State, said Mrs. Finney is blackmailing the Legislature by tying the partnership plan together with her proposal to take Washburn University into the Board of Regents' system.
"University and faculty members would love to have
their salaries increased," Hubert said. They opposed the Washburn proposal until Finney packaged it with the partnership plan, which would increase faculty salaries by up to 8 percent.
To pay for the salary raise, Regents would increase tuition.
"The students of ESU recognize the need for faculty salary enhancements," said Brad Barron, director of the Associated Students of Kansas. "However, we do not believe that it is our responsibility to subsidize these positions."
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