Cornell's undergraduate business program in the Department of Applied Economics and Management (AEM) was accredited Jan. 9 by AACSB International -- the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The AEM program becomes only the second general undergraduate business degree program in the Ivy League, after the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, to earn this distinction.
Accreditation provides recognition of the content and quality of AEM's business program. The designation means that a peer group of scholars has examined and approved the undergraduate business program.
"Recognizing that only about one out of four business programs nationally get accreditation, this implies a fairly high standard," said Andrew Novakovic, the E.V. Baker Professor and chair of the department. "We have offered a very strong program for many years, but accreditation gives prospective students, employers, prospective faculty and others an external validation that says, 'yes, this is really a business degree program and it's a good one.'"
Susan Henry, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said: "Over the past century, this department has had a deep and rich academic history, and it is only fitting that we begin the new century with exciting prospects. Andy Novakovic and Ed McLaughlin [the R. G. Tobin Professor of Marketing and director of the undergraduate business program in AEM] have done a terrific job in shepherding the department through the rigorous accreditation process. Rightfully, we are all quite proud of this program."
AEM offers one undergraduate major, applied economics and management. Within this major are six specialties: business, food industry management, agribusiness management, farm business management and finance, environmental and resource economics, and agricultural and applied economics.
The department is home to 42 active faculty members, more than 750 undergraduate students and 60 graduate students.
AEM began preparing for accreditation in 1997. Over the following four years, deans and faculty from other university business programs visited Cornell to assess the department for AACSB.
At the end of the first site visit over three years ago, Paul Danos, dean of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, said, "I can't believe a program this good has existed so long and so completely escaped my attention."
John Kraft, dean of the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida, said that while the educational program has existed for over 90 years, this accreditation makes AEM the "newest 'oldest' business degree program" to become accredited in the United States.
"We are confident [AEM] can become a top 10 undergraduate business program based on student quality, faculty and the Cornell environment," wrote Kraft and Richard Cosier, dean of the Krannert Schools of Management at Purdue University, in their final report to the AACSB International's board of directors.
During the accreditation process, Cornell began to recognize the department's program as the university's general undergraduate business degree offering. AEM also began to assess itself against other leading undergraduate business programs and formed an advisory board of business and academic leaders.
The popularity of the department's classes among undergraduates in recent years has hurt student-faculty ratios, which became a problem for accreditation. The department redressed this problem by gradually hiring new faculty. In the past three years, the department has hired five faculty members and plans to hire five more within the next three years.
For more information, see the department's web site at http://aem.cornell.edu/.
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