B-School Mulls MBA Overhaul

Business School faculty members are considering a dramatic proposal to overhaul the school's flagship MBA program following an extensive internal review.

Robison Professor of Business Administration James I. Cash Jr., chair of the MBA program, presented the results of the one-and-a-half year review, titled "Leadership and Learning," to the school's faculty at a meeting on Friday.

Sources familiar with the proposal said it includes plans for a significant restructuring of the first-year curriculum, a shift from a two-semester calendar to a trimester-based system, and a decreased emphasis on the school's trademark case-study method of instruction.

The plan also recommends that at least 25 percent of the course work emphasize group projects and teamwork. Currently, group projects comprise a small fraction of the work assigned Business School students.

But, contrary to press reports that surfaced last week, the sources said the plan does not recommend that the school offer a one-year "express" MBA program in addition to the standard two-year degree.

Professor Cash and Business School Dean John H. McArthur did not return phone calls to their homes yesterday. Loretto Crane, the school's director of communications, declined to comment on the proposal last night.

Business School officials said last week that the school's faculty would have 10 days to review the plan. The officials said they would not comment on the proposal before it is presented to students on Nov. 8.

But sources said the proposal has the endorsement of both McArthur and Cash, adding that many facets of the plan could be accepted by the faculty and implemented almost immediately. Other features might not be phased in until September 1995, and still others may be scrapped entirely.

The most dramatic feature of the plan is the proposed integration of the 11 courses currently required of first-year students into four full-year classes taught by groups of faculty.

According to the sources, the results of the review indicated that the current first-year curriculum--which includes separate courses in marketing, finance, accounting, strategy and ethics, among others--is too compartmentalized and not representative of modern business organizations.

The four new classes--dealing with product management, organiza- tional leadership, financial considerations andglobal strategies--will be comprehensive,functionally-driven courses that mirror today'smore integrated workplace, the sources said.

In addition, the proposal suggests a reducedemphasis on the case-based method of instructionin favor of more project-based teaching.

The case-study system, hailed as a pathbreakingmethod when it was pioneered by the HarvardBusiness School and subsequently adopted atcompeting schools nationwide, has more recentlybeen the target of sharp criticism for allegedlybeing ineffective and outdated. Case studiescurrently comprise virtually 100 percent of coursework at the Business School.

Other changes recommended in the proposalinclude allowing students to take two electivecourses in their first year. Currently,first-years do not have room in their schedulesfor electives.

In addition, the school is consideringswitching to a trimester-based calendar to betteraccommodate career recruiting. Along those lines,second-year students will only be required to taketwo courses in the winter term, to allow them todevote more time to job searches.

The proposal further recommends reducing thesize of student sections by between 10 and 20percent. Currently, the roughly 800 members ofeach Business School class are randomly dividedinto nine sections of about 90 members each.

The report calls for expanding theinternational focus of the school's curriculum. Itsuggests a review of the program's "diversity"content. And it recommends that the school examineits admissions requirements.

According to one source, faculty members arenow "more open" to the concept of admittingstudents directly out of college than they havebeen historically. The report also emphasizes thegrowing importance of technology, calling forincreased use of computer networks to link theBusiness School's classrooms, offices, librariesand dormitories

In addition, the proposal suggests a reducedemphasis on the case-based method of instructionin favor of more project-based teaching.

The case-study system, hailed as a pathbreakingmethod when it was pioneered by the HarvardBusiness School and subsequently adopted atcompeting schools nationwide, has more recentlybeen the target of sharp criticism for allegedlybeing ineffective and outdated. Case studiescurrently comprise virtually 100 percent of coursework at the Business School.

Other changes recommended in the proposalinclude allowing students to take two electivecourses in their first year. Currently,first-years do not have room in their schedulesfor electives.

In addition, the school is consideringswitching to a trimester-based calendar to betteraccommodate career recruiting. Along those lines,second-year students will only be required to taketwo courses in the winter term, to allow them todevote more time to job searches.

The proposal further recommends reducing thesize of student sections by between 10 and 20percent. Currently, the roughly 800 members ofeach Business School class are randomly dividedinto nine sections of about 90 members each.

The report calls for expanding theinternational focus of the school's curriculum. Itsuggests a review of the program's "diversity"content. And it recommends that the school examineits admissions requirements.

According to one source, faculty members arenow "more open" to the concept of admittingstudents directly out of college than they havebeen historically. The report also emphasizes thegrowing importance of technology, calling forincreased use of computer networks to link theBusiness School's classrooms, offices, librariesand dormitories