THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

 

 

TO:	Full Board
FROM:	Johanna Duncan-Poitier
SUBJECT:	Master Plan Amendment and Regents Authorization: Briarcliffe College, Patchogue Campus, Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree and a B.B.A. degree program in Management
DATE:	June 29, 2006
STRATEGIC GOAL:	Goals 2 and 4
AUTHORIZATION(S):

         

Summary

 

Issue for Decision (Consent Agenda)

 

          Should the Regents amend the master plan of Briarcliffe College to authorize the awarding of its first baccalaureate degree at its Patchogue campus? Should the Regents authorize Briarcliffe’s first use of the B.B.A. degree at the Patchogue campus?

 

Reason for Consideration

 

          Required by State regulation.

 

Proposed Handling

 

          This question will come before the full Board at its July 2006 meeting, where it will be voted on and action taken.  

 

Procedural History

 

Master plan amendment is required because this would be the Patchogue campus’ first baccalaureate program.  Regents authorization is required because Briarcliffe College is not currently authorized to award the B.B.A. degree at the Patchogue campus.

 

The Department has determined that the proposed program, if approved, would meet the standards for registration set forth in the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

 

Background Information

 

Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, Nassau County, established in 1966 as the Briarcliffe Secretarial School, was authorized in 1980 to award A.O.S. degrees and to offer an A.O.S. program in Secretarial Science. In 1982, the Regents authorized Briarcliffe to open a branch campus in Patchogue, Suffolk County, and offer an A.O.S. program in Administrative Science. 

 

At its main campus, Briarcliffe offers, among many other programs, the Associate in Occupational Studies (A.O.S.), the Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) in Business Administration, and the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Management degree programs.  At the Patchogue campus, Briarcliffe offers the Associate in Occupational Studies (A.O.S.) and the Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degrees in Business Administration. 

 

Briarcliffe proposes to award the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree at its Patchogue campus and to offer a B.B.A. program in management.  This would be the first baccalaureate program at the Patchogue campus.  Briarcliffe has offered the program in management at its main campus since 1998.

 

Recommendation

 

          It is recommended that the Board of Regents authorize Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, to award the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree at its Patchogue campus and authorize the College by master plan amendment to offer a B.B.A. program in management at that campus.

 

Timetable for Implementation

 

This amendment will be effective until July 25, 2007, unless the program is registered by the Department prior to that date, in which case master plan amendment shall be without term.

 

 

 

 

Information in Support of Recommendation

 

 

Academic Review

 

Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, Nassau County, was established in 1966 as the Briarcliffe Secretarial School.  In 1980, the Board of Regents authorized it to award the Associate in Occupational Studies (A.O.S.) degree and to offer an A.O.S. program in Secretarial Science.  In 1982, the Regents authorized Briarcliffe to open a branch campus in Patchogue, Suffolk County, and to offer an A.O.S. program in Administrative Science.  In 1996, Briarcliffe was accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the Department authorized it to change its name to Briarcliffe College, pursuant to §3.29(c) of the Rules of the Board of Regents.  In 2000, the Board of Regents authorized Briarcliffe to award the Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree and to offer its first baccalaureate program, a B.F.A. in Graphic Design, at its main campus.

 

          At its main campus, Briarcliffe offers programs in the discipline areas of Business, Engineering, the Fine Arts, the Physical Sciences, and the Social Sciences leading to the degrees of Associate in Occupational Studies (A.O.S.), Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.), Associate in Science (A.S.), Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.), Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), and Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.).  At the Patchogue campus, Briarcliffe offers programs in the discipline areas of Business, the Fine Arts, the Physical Sciences, and the Social Sciences leading to the degrees of Associate in Occupational Studies (A.O.S.), Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.), and Associate in Science (A.S.).  In the fall of 2004, across both campuses, Briarcliffe had an enrollment of 2,793 full-time and 494 part-time students.

 

Briarcliffe proposes to award the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree at its Patchogue campus and to offer a B.B.A. program in management.  This would be the first baccalaureate program at the Patchogue campus.  Briarcliffe has offered this program at its main campus since 1998.

 

The B.B.A. program in management is a broad-based business program designed to prepare graduates for entry-level positions in business organizations.  The program seeks to balance theory and practice and to give its students the oral and written communication, quantitative reasoning, critical analysis, technological, and information literacy skills needed in such positions.  It requires 120 credits, including a 30-credit college core, a 63-credit required business major, 24 credits of business electives, and three credits of general electives.

 

In Bethpage, enrollment in the B.B.A. program in management totals 326.  At Patchogue, the College projects enrollment to grow from 50 in the first year to 300 in the fifth.

 

Briarcliffe has a “one faculty” policy under which faculty members agree when they are hired that they will teach on either or both campuses.  Currently there are 20 full-time and 34 part-time members of the business department; four hold doctoral degrees.  In preparation for offering the B.B.A. program in management at the Patchogue campus, as well as Bethpage, the College is adding four new full-time faculty members in business, three with master’s degrees in business and one with a doctorate in business.  The chair of the business department spends three days each week at the Patchogue campus, and the former chair, who holds a doctorate in management, has management experience, and has published in business journals and textbooks, is among those business faculty teaching full-time at Patchogue.

 

In the summer of 2004 the Patchogue campus relocated to 225 West Main Street, Patchogue, doubling the amount of space to 65,000 square feet and improving campus facilities considerably, including office space for new faculty and space for support services for baccalaureate students.  The new facility has available space to accommodate a moderate increase in enrollment.  The library at Patchogue has been expanded, with special emphasis on information resources relevant to the B.B.A. program in management.

 

          Briarcliffe is proposing the addition of this program to its Patchogue campus in response to strong interest by its students at that campus enrolled in associate degree programs in business.  During the seven years that Briarcliffe has offered this program in Bethpage, interest in it has increased among students at Patchogue and a growing number of individual courses from that program have been offered there.  Enrollment in those courses at Patchogue increased 150 percent between 2001 and 2003.

 

During the fall 2003 semester, 88 students from the Patchogue campus traveled to Bethpage to complete their degree requirements.  In that same term, 175 students were enrolled in the associate degree program in business at Patchogue, and approximately 30 graduates had returned to continue their education.  The distance between the two campuses is approximately 35 miles; however, traffic can often make it a prolonged trip, and some Patchogue students do not have cars.

 

The Patchogue campus is located in eastern Suffolk County; population and business growth projections indicate that this is one of the fastest growing regions in New York State.  By 2020, Suffolk County’s population is projected to grow by 13 percent over the number in 2000, to 1.6 million.  Most of this increase will take place in the eastern part of the county.  Long Island’s projected overall population growth is reflected in the projections of enrollment through 2013 in the Statewide Plan for Higher Education.  While the Plan projects full-time undergraduate enrollment to grow by 8.2 percent statewide, it projects the number of full-time undergraduates on Long Island to grow by 20.5 percent, more than any other region of the State.  The Plan projects part-time undergraduate enrollment on Long Island to increase by 3.1 percent compared to only 1.0 percent statewide.

 

The State Labor Department projects that the number of management jobs on Long Island will increase by more than ten percent between 2000 and 2010.

 

In addition to Briarcliffe, three colleges and universities on Long Island offer B.B.A. programs in management: Adelphi University, Dowling College, and Hofstra University.  Adelphi and Hofstra are in Nassau County; Dowling is in Suffolk County.   Four institutions responded to a canvass of all colleges and universities on Long Island.  Three had no concerns about or objection to the proposed program - Long Island Business Institute, Business Informatics, and the Graduate School of Molecular Medicine. Dowling College expressed concern that the proposed program would compete with the B.B.A. programs it offers at its Oakdale and Brookhaven campuses.  It also pointed out that enrollment in its B.B.A. program in management peaked in 1999 and has remained steady since then, while nationally management degrees declined as a share of total undergraduate degrees granted in the late 1990s.

 

Briarcliffe responded that it wishes to offer the B.B.A. in management program at its Patchogue campus primarily to serve its own students.  According to Briarcliffe, students at Patchogue have shown considerable interest in earning a B.B.A. degree in management at this campus, rather than commuting to the Bethpage campus.  There is no direct public transportation between Patchogue and Bethpage, making the completion of the program at Bethpage by Patchogue students possible only if they have automobiles and the time to commute.

 

Given Briarcliffe’s intent to serve the needs of its own students, the growth projected for entry-level managers on Long Island, the overall business and population growth projected for the Island, and the department’s projection of enrollment growth there, the Department believes that the effect of the proposed program on Dowling College will likely be minimal.  That effect should not prevent Briarcliffe from meeting the interest of its own students in continuing their business education at the baccalaureate level at the Patchogue campus.  Briarcliffe has experience in offering the program at its main campus for the past seven years, has the faculty and other resources to offer it at Patchogue, and has planned appropriately for the addition of baccalaureate study at that campus.