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4. Accounting 2007 Self Study

Accounting 2007 Self Study

Departments of Accounting and Finance
Business Division
Fall 2007

Program Review is a faculty-driven, shared-governance self-evaluation process for the facilitation of improvement of all instructional programs at Cerritos College.  The process solicits evidence-based documentation from instructional programs to assess effectiveness and identify areas of institutional and instructional improvement and provide justification for planning the allocation of financial resources.

It is our understanding that the 2002 standard of accreditation from ACCJC/WASC focused primarily on what students have learned as a result of attending college - student learning outcomes.  Our self study is done with the goal that it will provide evidence of a conscious effort to improve learning.

The Accounting and Finance Departments of the Business Division, later referred to as BUSA and BUSF departments, respectively, submit this report in accordance with the program review process authorized by the Board of Trustees pursuant to AB 1725. 

I.       Mission and Effectiveness

A. Mission Statement

Our programs’ goals and objectives are in line with the college’s mission and vision statement. The newly revised Mission of the college (as of January, 2005) is as follows:
"The Cerritos College Mission is to serve the community by building futures through learning." 

The newly revised Vision Statement of the college (as of March, 2005) is as follows:
“Cerritos College will provide unrestricted access to innovative learning and educational resources and is driven by the pursuit of unparalleled student success.”

The Mission of the Business Division is as follows:

MISSION                               
“The mission of the Cerritos College Business Division is to provide accessible, quality learning opportunities in the practices, tools, and technologies of business as well as instruction in specialized fields of enterprise.”

The BUSINESS DIVISION PHILOSOPHY STATEMENTS that went into creating the mission are as follows:

Students     Our students are our first priority and are the reason for our existence as an organization.  Our students learning takes precedence over our convenience.  We recognize each student is an individual with enormous potential and worth, unique needs, desires and ambitions.  We strive to meet the needs of our students with courses that are convenient, relevant, realistic and professionally designed and delivered.  It is our intent to create a learning atmosphere that stimulates inquisition, creativity, and productivity.

Employers     We actively solicit input from business and industry to ensure our professional knowledge is up-to-date and our courses are relevant. We endeavor to supply employers with students who are diligent, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, industrious, and ethical employees.
                                                 
Transfer       Our intent is to provide transfer institutions with students
Institutions   who are disciplined, industrious, enthusiastic, well founded in the fundamentals of their discipline, and ready to pursue upper division studies.

The Community We recognize our obligations to be a contributing force in the economic development and well being of our local community. 

We endeavor to be a resource and partner to secondary school programs and civic organizations.
                                                            
Instructional Divisions  We strive for the highest degree of cooperation and teamwork among instructional divisions and departments.  We recognize our role as a service organization to other divisions – supplying curriculum and instruction to meet their business education needs.  Our dealings with colleagues, both internal and external to our division, are honest, constructive, respectful, and productive.  We seek cooperative and collaborative opportunities with other entities within the college.

Central                                   We are dedicated to teamwork between faculty, staff, and                                              
Administration                          administrators; recognizing our efforts are necessarily interdependent for the common good of our students.

We are dedicated to assisting the central Administration
                                                in its efforts to meet the needs of our students through contributions of our time and talents and attention to deadlines.

Teaching                                   We are dedicated to constant growth and development as                                     
Profession                                professional educators.  We seek out and appreciate feedback that will assist us in improving our teaching abilities.  We are enthusiasts in our chosen disciplines.  We constantly endeavor to expand our content knowledge and our ability to convey it through a variety of professional development experiences.

The Accounting and Finance Department has published its mission on our department website located at https://www.cerritos.edu/browse/browse.asp?WID=20034&DID=200311   In addition, the mission is published on several instructor’s websites.  Our mission is as follows:   “We strive to provide students with the highest quality instruction, incorporating the latest technology when possible, in order to ready our students for transfer to universities, to obtain needed job skills, and to provide personal financial knowledge for their own benefit. It is our desire that our students become more productive at work, are prepared for transfer to the universities, and we enrich the surrounding community at large by building better futures through learning.”  We believe that our mission statement incorporates both the mission of the college, as well as the mission and philosophy statements of the business division.
The purpose of the Accounting and Finance Department is to serve students who seek to transfer to a four-year university, to earn either a Certificate of Achievement or Associate of Arts Degree in Accounting, Advanced Accounting, Microcomputer Accounting Clerk, or Advanced Microcomputer Accounting Clerk or Payroll Administration, or to enhance job skills. A large number of our students are Business Administration majors who plan to transfer to a university. Most of these students must complete our “core courses”—BUSA 100, 101, and 102. Some students attend Cerritos simply to take one course, or obtain a specific skill and have no intention of going on completing a program of study.  The remainder of our students are primarily accounting majors who seek to earn one of the certificates described above as indicated by the summary of the survey results on pages 22-24.
We believe that our programs’ mission shows the broad educational purpose of our departments, but is adequately tailored to our specific disciplines.  We believe it is directed at all components of our student population.  It incorporates the needs of our transfer students, as well as those specifically seeking job skills, and also those trying to learn for their own personal enrichment.  It also addresses the benefit of learning to the larger community around our institution. The commitment that our department has to the mission is also expressed in the first sentence. 

Our mission statement expresses the fact that we will provide the highest level of instruction and that we recognize the need to incorporate the latest technology when providing instruction. As you will read about in our report, we continuously assess our programs and try to improve them to facilitate student learning.  In consideration of our mission, we have made many program improvements, through our collegial departmental decision making process to enhancing student learning. These improvements are described later in this report.

B.      Improving Program Effectiveness

One of the ways that we support student learning is by offering a comprehensive range of courses. The Cerritos College Accounting Department offers one of the most comprehensive range of accounting and finance courses in the California Community Colleges system. Course offerings include: Introduction to Accounting; Financial Accounting; Managerial Accounting; Cost Accounting; Intermediate Accounting; Income Tax; Payroll Tax Accounting; Computerized and Spreadsheet Accounting; QuickBooks; Turbo Tax;  Personal Finance; Stock Market and Investments; Retirement Planning and Investing; Occupational Work Experience, and Tutorial lab courses. After researching local community college catalogs, as well as other catalogs of community colleges throughout the state, we find our curriculum and offerings to be of the highest breadth and depth around.  We offer more computerized courses than most community colleges.  Furthermore, we are one of the few community colleges to offer advanced level courses usually offered only at the university level. A description of each course is provided in Exhibit A.  We also have three courses offered either on-line or in a hybrid format.  We are currently working to expand our course offerings to include five new insurance courses and potentially a new insurance certificate. Details of the insurance program are discussed further on page 13 and the certificate and details of the insurance certificate is provided in Exhibit B. 

In the past year, many of our department meetings have centered around student learning. A summary of the items discussed at department meetings is provided in Exhibit C. This has been driven by a campus wide effort to incorporate student learning outcomes in all classes.  Various general faculty meetings and specific division meetings have been focused on this topic. In the past few years, faculty have attended numerous sessions which have discussed what student learning outcomes are and how to go about implementing and evaluating them in their departments. The college has brought speakers into general faculty meetings to discuss such topics as the “Visible Knowledge Project”, a five-year project aimed at improving the quality of college and university teaching through a focus on both student learning and faculty development in technology-enhanced environments, as well as other topics related to the implementation and analysis of student learning outcomes.

Based on the various literature available, as well as the various seminars attended and the information presented by speakers, our department believes that a learning outcome is a gathering and analysis of evidence of student performance matched against the expected ability. The assessment is the measuring of those outcomes and the improvement of offerings based on results of data and analysis.

We consider ourselves to be in the infancy stages of this process.  After being introduced to the importance and the process of establishing and measuring learning outcomes, we developed a set of student learning outcomes for the Fall 2006 semester in our gateway introductory course, BUSA 100.  They are as follows:

Students will satisfactorily record transactions in either a general journal or t-account format for a service company and/or a merchandising company.

Students will satisfactorily record adjusting entries in a general journal.

Students will satisfactorily prepare an income statement, statement of owner’s equity, and a balance sheet or identify and calculate key components of an income statement, statement of owner’s equity and a balance sheet.

These objectives were communicated to all accounting faculty.  In addition, the above items were approved by our advisory committee. The minutes from the Advisory Committee meetings are provided in Exhibit D.

Our department is now ready to move into the assessment phase.  In the next academic year, the department will be reviewing samples of student exams related to these objectives to assess whether they have been met.  As we progress through the process, other learning objectives will be developed for other courses.  Curriculum will be updated accordingly. 

The following courses still need student learning outcomes to be defined in the curriculum documentation:
BUSA 51, 101, 102, 130, 134, 171-174, 201, 202, 230, 231, 240, 241, 250, 251, 270, 280
BUSF 50, 126
The department does have a plan for continuing to incorporate this process.  In the upcoming Spring 2008 semester, we will require all of our instructors to list the student learning outcomes on their BUSA 100 syllabi.  Additionally, we will finish the assessment of the first year of outcomes.  If the analysis finds that our students are learning what we expect them to be learning, then we will expand the process to other course offerings.  If we find that they are not, then we will further review and refine the process to improve our methodologies and techniques used in the classroom before expanding the process to other courses. As we are only in the infancy stages of implementing student learning outcomes, our evidentiary evidence is evolving.  We hope to demonstrate significant improvements in this area by the time of the next program review.
Another way that the department has supported student learning is by continually upgrading technology used in our courses and in our labs.  Currently, we utilize the following software in our courses:
Office 2007 (including Word, Excel and PowerPoint) QuickBooks Pro 2007 MAS 90 Turbo Tax 2006
This can be verified by logging in to any of the computers in BE 10 or BE 11.
Funding has been made available to us to secure the software we need whenever updates have been needed.
In addition, we have made technology available through the use of various textbooks which incorporate technology to provide immediate feedback on homework, to help students (and faculty) assess the learning objectives of each chapter, and to assist students in their study efforts.  During the past academic year, we adopted the following textbooks in our core courses:
BUSA 100 – College Accounting by Price/Haddock/Price, 11th edition, McGraw Hill, 2007.  This book comes complete with access to a Homework Manager Program, an on-line homework submission and grading software program.
BUSA 101 and 102 – Financial and Managerial Accounting, 9th edition, Thomson Publishing, 2007.  This book comes complete with access to the ThomsonNOW program, an on-line homework submission and grading software program.
Through the course management systems noted above, faculty have the ability to greater assess whether students are learning and they have the ability to adjust daily lessons based on the information gathered.  In addition, faculty has the ability to go into any of the assignments and look at any problem worked on to assess errors and help the student understand and correct their errors at any time, and from any place where internet access is available.
In addition, all faculty who teach the above courses attended training sessions to learn how to use the technology and incorporate it into their instruction. Webinars and webcasts are also available for any faculty member desiring more instruction on how to best utilize the course management systems to facilitate student learning.  Evidence of the incorporation of this technology can be found by reviewing faculty websites or individual syllabi.
We have also requested that all faculty incorporate some type of technology into our core courses. We verify this during the evaluation of our faculty by reading the syllabi and making sure that there are assigned points to this item. In general, students have responded favorably to these computerized assignments, as indicated by the summary of the survey results found on pages 22-24. Our advisory committee has also embraced this implementation.  The minutes of the Advisory Committee meetings are provided in Exhibit D.
Other evidentiary support for our department’s concern with student learning is in the addition of our one-half unit BUSA 1T tutorial lab into all of our computerized courses. This ensures that all students have access to the technology and to an instructor to assist them with projects and assignments. This curriculum change was made in the academic year ended June 30, 2006.  A list of all new and updates courses approved by the curriculum committee is provided in Exhibit E.  In addition, we encourage all students to sign up for a BUSA 2T Homework Tutorial lab where they can obtain instruction on an individual or group level depending on their needs.  We post these lab times in the division and in all accounting classrooms.  In addition, the labs times are posted in substantially all syllabi, and on most instructors’ websites.  A schedule of the tutorial labs meeting times is provided in Exhibit F.
Our concern for student learning was also addressed in specific questions asked in the student survey that was distributed to all students during the Spring 2007 semester.  The summary of the survey results is provided on pages 22-24.
In the interest of student learning, many faculty members (as requested by the department) have implemented more group projects into their curriculum incorporating peer learning. 
In addition, at the suggestion of the Advisory Committee, the department has recently started an accounting club on campus to provide those with common learning goals and career paths a venue to gather more information and to network with those of similar interests.  Recently the club has held informational seminars and has had representatives from various campuses speak to club members.  A dedicated advisor and interesting activities have helped to grow this relatively new club. We expect involvement in this club to substantially grow by the next program review process.  A more detailed discussion of the accounting club is provided on pages 20-21.
Finally, our department has expressed an interest in using the electronic student response systems (SRS) Turning Point in our classes to be able to immediately assess in a live or real-time fashion whether learning is taking place.  A department member applied for a grant last year to purchase SRS “clickers” for all of our classrooms.  Although the grant request was denied, the faculty member was allowed to purchase enough of these devices for one classroom.  He is in the process of developing and using these response systems in his own classes/classroom this semester.  The department is eagerly awaiting the results to determine whether this teaching and learning opportunity is worth pursuing in a future grant proposal, and whether the expansion of this new technology to other classes would be worth pursuing.  The SRS system is explained further on page 11 and a sample of the reports generated by the Turning Point software are provided in Exhibit G.

 
II.      Student Learning and Services

A.      Instruction

Curriculum Planning
The overall objective of curriculum planning is to meet the needs of several identified “end-users”:  Universities who accept our transfer students; employers who employ our students, from Cerritos College directly and from the universities after they transfer; students as they manage their own financial lives, and, the community at large, who interact with our students on a daily basis.  Needs assessments are carried out formally through surveys of our students and through meetings with our advisory committee.  The meetings with our advisory committee have proven to be an invaluable resource for identifying the skills and educational requirements employers in the surrounding community are looking for in our students.  Needs are also assessed informally as instructors keep current on the latest software programs and develop curriculum to meet those needs.  Our full-time faculty have been instrumental in developing new courses in recent years and in updating existing courses to meet the changing needs of our students and prospective employers.

New and Updated Courses
The Accounting and Finance department faculty are continually working to improve our programs and the quality and variety of courses offered.  Included in Exhibit E is a list of the new courses developed and the updates made to our existing courses over the past five years.  We take pride in these courses and they have all been well received by the students who have completed them. 

We highly value the input received from our advisory committee and their recommendations are considered when we update curriculum, write new courses, and develop new certificate programs.  Some of the items the advisory committee has approved that we have implemented are:

•        BUSF 51, Retirement Planning/Investing, was added as a required course for our accounting certificates programs.  BUSF 51 replaced BUSF 50, Electronic Calculators/Business Applications, which is no longer offered.
•        BUSF 125, Personal Finance, has been approved as a general education requirement.  See pages 12-13 for more information on the BUSF 125 class.
•        The accounting club at Cerritos College held its first meeting on January 11, 2007.  See  pages 20-21 for more information on the accounting club.
•        Students are now automatically enrolled in a BUSA 1T, Accounting Microcomputer Tutorial lab, when they enroll in a computerized accounting class.  See pages 19-20 for more information on this process; a list of tutorial lab times is provided in Exhibit F.
Several updates have been made to our traditional courses in the past few years.   To meet the demands of the job market and the universities, our instructors are required to incorporate computer projects in traditional lecture classes.  For example, in our BUSA 100, 101, and 102 courses, instructors require students to complete homework or projects on the computer to introduce students to Excel, QuickBooks, MAS 90, or internet applications.  In addition, many instructors now incorporate projects that require students to research accounting issues by using the Internet.  Our two accounting labs have been instrumental in allowing students access to the computers and software programs and to allow instructors to assist students as they complete their assignments and projects.  Full time instructors routinely share data files, handouts, and instructions for the projects with part time instructors to ensure that all students are exposed to some type of computerized accounting during their studies.

To ensure students have access to our computerized accounting tutorial labs, students are automatically registered in a lab when they register for one of our computerized accounting classes: QuickBooks, Turbo Tax, MAS 90, and Excel.  One half unit has been added to these classes so the units for the class include the additional one half unit for the lab.

The Business Division has been instrumental in ensuring that funding is available to obtain updated versions of the software we utilize in the department.  Currently we teach the following software:  Excel, MAS 90, QuickBooks, and TurboTax.

As the needs of our students have changed and new technologies have been developed and implemented at Cerritos College, we have updated two of our courses to meet the needs of the students that would benefit from distance learning offerings.  A hybrid section of our BUSA 100 class has been added to our course offerings.  The class meets for one half of the class time in the traditional classroom environment and the remainder of the learning takes place outside of the classroom.  Lecture notes are provided on the instructor’s website and all homework assignments and quizzes are completed and submitted from a computerized homework site.  Tests are taken in class and supervised by the instructor.  One section of our BUSA 133 class is offered on-line.  Lecture notes and assignment requirements are provided on the instructor’s website and are completed outside the classroom.  The students are required to take all tests and quizzes under the supervision of an instructor as arranged by the instructor of the course.  Feedback, retention and success of these courses have been overwhelmingly positive since their inception, as indicated by the summary of the survey results on pages 22-24.

Effective in the Fall 2007 semester, we changed the textbook used for our BUSA 100 course to a book that provided access to an on-line homework site.  See page 20 for further discussion of the on-line homework sites.

Additionally, online course offerings of BUSF 125 - Personal Finance have been expanded. A section of BUSF 125 was offered in the Spring 2006 semester at The California Youth Authority.

Methods of Instruction
Methods of instruction vary from class to class. They include lecture, handouts, “chalk-talk”, e-mail, web-site tutorials, utilization of overhead and data show projectors, PowerPoint demonstrations, demonstration using the software mentioned above, computer lab instruction, on-line delivery methods, as well as others.  Our methods of instruction have been significantly facilitated by the conversion of all of our accounting classrooms into smart classrooms.  We maintain files on a shared website, www.cerritos.edu/busa so all instructors have access to computerized files and templates.  Individual course methodologies can be reviewed in curriculum outlines, copies of which are maintained in the business division office. The material is too voluminous to include in this report.

Through a grant from VTEA, the Accounting/Finance department purchased Turning Point software, a classroom set of electronic student response pads which allow a teacher (or presenter) to solicit student responses immediately and present results immediately.  Student response systems (SRS) have been shown to be effective at assessing student comprehension, engaging students in the course content, and improving student retention.  Professor Fronke was issued the classroom set of SRS and has begun implementing them into his BUSA 100, 101 and BUSF 125 classes during the Fall 2007 semester. The SRS system uses PowerPoint software to build slides that present multiple-choice, true-false, or open ended questions requiring a response from the students.  This tool allows the teacher to assess the comprehension of the students on course material.  Questions can be posed to solicit feedback from the students about how the course is structured providing the teacher with information for improvement.  A sample of the reports and results generated by the SRS is in Exhibit G. Initial surveys of students in Professor Fronke's courses indicate that use of the SRS is very favorable and promotes learning.  The survey results from Mr. Fronke’s class are provided in Exhibit H.  The SRS system was also used to gather information from members of the Cerritos College Accounting Club.  The survey results from the accounting club are provided in Exhibit G. Use of the SRS system is experimental for the Fall of 2007 and Spring of 2008.  Based on the results of the use of the SRS in the experimental phase, the department will assess whether or not to pursue additional grant funds to implement the system in additional accounting and finance classes. 

Grading Methods
Grading methodologies vary by instructor, but are based on point systems. Students may be evaluated based on points earned from homework assignments, classroom assignments, quizzes, examinations, projects, computer projects, writing assignments, group projects, case studies, ethics assignments, and discussion questions.  Specific point systems and grading methodologies can be found in substantially all instructors’ syllabi.  It is departmental policy that all exams and quizzes in accounting courses are closed-book.  However, exceptions to this rule are made for on-line quizzes as students take these quizzes offsite and enforcement of this rule is impractical.  Additionally, all BUSA 101 and 102 courses must include writing assignments and group work activity.

All instructors deal with academic honesty issues.  As a department, we encourage all instructors to utilize the college’s formal academic honesty policy as outlined in the course catalog. A copy of the college’s Academic Honesty/Dishonest Policy is provided in Exhibit I.   Some instructors incorporate this policy into their syllabi by direct reference.  Any issues that cannot be satisfactorily resolved at the student/teacher level are referred to the department chairs.  If it cannot be resolved at that level, it is forwarded to the Dean of the Business Division.  If satisfactory resolution still does not take place, students are referred to Holly Bogdanovich, Director of Student Activities at Cerritos College. Fortunately, the number of cases from our department that have been taken to the level past the department chair over the past five years is minute.  We take pride in that!

Course/Degree/Certificate Synthesis
While a large portion of our students transfer to a university to continue their studies, we do have many students that complete one of our many certificate programs and begin their accounting and finance careers immediately after Cerritos College.  Details of the certificates offered in accounting and finance are provided in Exhibit J.  We have included in Exhibit K our suggested “four semester plan” formats for all certificates.  (Please note that an aggressive student can finish some certificates in less than four semesters.)

The pre-requisites and co-requisites for each course can be found in the list of course offerings or they can be seen graphically in the flowcharts mentioned above.

The Personal Finance (BUSF 125) course content was changed to include economic, sociological and psychological elements.  The course now explores sociological and psychological aspects that affect why people overspend, how the social security system works, and the future affects on retirement planning and how the financial markets work.
These changes were incorporated in order to make the course more appropriate for general education based on the research that was performed by Professor Mark Fronke during his sabbatical leave.  The research included discussions and correspondence with the Cerritos College curriculum committee chairperson as well as representatives from the California State University and University of California Chancellor’s office.  Professor Fronke was appointed to the California Society of Certified Public Accountants statewide financial literacy committee where he met various educators and practitioners who had significant input into the content of the course. A revised course outline was submitted for approval for general education at Cerritos College, and the CSU and UC systems.  The course was approved for general education at Cerritos College by the curriculum committee in the Fall of 2006.  The course was approved for general education at the CSU system under Area E in the Fall of 2006.  The course was denied approval by the UC systems as “too practical”. It is the intention of the department to continue to pursue opportunities which promote financial literacy concepts to students and the community at large.  Professor Fronke has served as a guest speaker at the ABC Unified School District parents’ conference on financial literacy and money management.  Additional research is necessary to develop the proper approach to successfully gain approval at the UC system for students to have the option to take a Personal Finance course for general education credit. 

A major addition to the business curriculum is the development of an insurance certificate program.  A committee comprised of members of major insurance companies, community college business instructors, and one Business Division Dean conducted surveys that revealed a significant need for insurance workers.  The findings from the surveys revealed an interest by insurance companies in working with community colleges to provide basic insurance education in the community colleges.  Curriculum and a certificate program were created that include basic insurance courses, business courses and general education courses.  Creation of the curriculum involved participation by representatives from approximately 25 colleges throughout the state.  The Accounting/Finance department at Cerritos College is pleased to be in the process of having insurance courses and an insurance certificate approved by the curriculum committee.  The final curriculum certificate requirements, pending curriculum approval, are provided in Exhibit B.

Creation of this program comes at a time when enrollments are declining statewide in some areas of the business curriculum.  It is anticipated that the program would enable students to enroll in a major for which there is documented demand and one that would provide a living family wage.  The surveys that were sent out indicated that insurance companies had a difficult or very difficult time finding workers for their insurance offices.  While there is high-demand for workers in the field of insurance, there is only one state university in California that currently offers an insurance major; however, the focus of that major is risk management.

It is anticipated that insurance businesses will send recently hired university graduates and other newly hired employees with little or no background in insurance to obtain a Certificate of Insurance at Cerritos College.  It is clear there are opportunities for employment for many different positions in insurance businesses, therefore, it is anticipated that those obtaining an A.S. Degree in Insurance will readily find employment.

Student Learning Outcomes
Student Learning Outcomes are currently being developed and implemented.  Refer to pages 5-6 for a more detailed discussion of Student Learning Outcomes.

Evaluation of Learning Environment
Knowledge mastery and skills mastery are evaluated through different testing methods as described earlier.  As previously discussed, we used to review grade retention and grade distribution for each instructor as they are evaluated. We have included the available grade retention and grade distribution for the Fall 2001 through Spring 2006 semesters (data is not available for the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semester). 

Before the PeopleSoft implementation, the department co-chairs received grade distribution and retention reports for each class, by instructor.  These were very useful in evaluating deviations from departmental norms.  These reports are no longer available.  This lack of data limits the ability of the co-chairs to evaluate individual classes or instructor’s retention and grading patterns.
Statistics /Trends
The data for the Passing Retention Rates and the Successful Course Completion Rates was obtained from the Research and Planning section of the Cerritos College website.
Passing Retention
The graph below shows the retention rates for the accounting and finance classes for a five year period.  Passing retention excludes students who receive a grade of “F” or an incomplete.

 

The retention in the accounting and finance classes has increased over the five year period.  Accounting has increased 17.4% and Finance has increased 6.5%, resulting in an overall increase for the department of 17.2%.  The increase in successful course completion for the accounting and finance department has exceeded the increase in retention of both the college (3.6%) and the business division (5.1%). 
Successful Course Completion
All courses are also reviewed for successful course completion by the department co-chairs.  The graph below shows the successful course completion rates for the accounting and finance classes for a five year period.  Successful course completion includes those students who have received a grade of “C” or better.

 

The successful course completion rates for the accounting and finance department have increased steadily over the past five year period; Accounting increased 21.5% and Finance increased 7.8%, resulting in an overall increase of 21.3% over the past five years.  The increase in successful course completion for the accounting and finance department has exceeded the increase for both the college (1.1%) and that of the business division (6.7%).

We take great pride in the fact that we are continually improving our courses and teaching methods and our improvements are proven by the significant increases in our retention and successful course completion rates.

Percentage of Teaching Units – Full versus Part-time Faculty 
As illustrated in the graph below, the percentage of units taught by full-time faculty has declined, from 66.7% in the Fall 2004 semester to 58.7% in the Fall 2007 semester. As discussed more thoroughly on pages 25-27, the reason for the decline was the retirement of two full-time faculty members, Kepner Kieffer and Judith Chowen, effective in the Fall 2006 semester. The units taught by Professor Kieffer and Professor Chowen have been filled by part-time faculty members, as the college president declined to hire any of the three candidates brought forward by the hiring committee in the Spring 2006 semester.

Further, the college went back on its promise to “fly” the full-time accounting instructor position in the 2006-2007 academic year. We believe these actions are taking its toll on the department. We had three classes canceled in the Fall 2007 semester; all these classes were taught by part-time faculty. It is our experience that students feel more comfortable and confident taking classes taught by full-time faculty, as our full-time faculty has more interaction and name recognition with students.

We also lost a very valuable part-time instructor in the Fall 2007 semester to Saddleback College. This individual was recruited by the department in the Spring 2006 semester and taught at Cerritos College in the Spring 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters. He was formerly a partner in a large CPA firm in Orange County, and had taught a wide variety of classes for several community colleges and universities. He has an MBA degree and was in the process of completing the requirement for a PhD in accounting. In the Spring 2007 semester, he was hired as a full-time accounting instructor at Saddleback College. This individual had repeatedly asked the department co-chairs if the accounting position at Cerritos College would be made available. This instructor also told various members of the department that he had previously taught at Saddleback College and was hoping Cerritos College would open the position again. The department believes he would have made a substantial contribution as a full-time faculty member.

Another valued part-time faculty member resigned in the Fall 2006 semester. She was a finalist for the full-time position and was very highly thought of by the department. She told the department chairs that she was informed by the college’s Human Resources Department that the “committee did not find anyone qualified for the position.” She told the department chairs that if she was not qualified to teach full-time, then she did not feel qualified to teach part-time.  A more detailed discussion of our personnel resources is provided on pages 25-27.
Weekly Student Contact Hours (WSCH)
Prior to the PeopleSoft implementation in the Fall of 2005, the Accounting and Finance Departments' WSCH were tracked using the Daily Class Size Report. The department consistently used the report generated in the fourth week of the semester. After the PeopleSoft implementation, this report was no longer available. Per Dr. Young Kim, Research Analyst, Research and Planning at Cerritos College, the college generates a WSCH report based on enrollment as of the end of the semester. Therefore, the WSCH numbers generated before the PeopleSoft implementation cannot be compared to the WSCH numbers reported after the PeopleSoft implementation.

As the two sets of data cannot be compared, we have prepared two separate analyses of our WSCH.  The first analysis, shown below, shows the WSCH for the Fall of 2002 to the Spring of 2004, which has been prepared using the data compiled by the Accounting and Finance Department as of the fourth week of the semester.

 

The second analysis, shown below, shows the WSCH for the Fall of 2005 to the Spring of 2006, which has been prepared using the data compiled by the college and obtained from the Cerritos College website. 

 

The spreadsheets prepared by the department from the Daily Class Size Reports and the reports obtained from the Cerritos College website are provided in Exhibit L.  The WSCH is discussed at our department meetings or via e-mail.  A sample of the e-mail correspondence is provided in Exhibit M.

We are the largest department in business division and are continually looking for ways to grow our department and programs.

Evaluation of Learning Environment
The criteria for evaluating student learning vary by instructor. All instructors give examinations. Examinations in our core courses must include “solve from scratch” problems. Such problems force the students to develop solutions on their own, without assistance.  In addition, we assess student learning through quizzes, projects, homework and class work assignments.  In some courses, we have students assess their peers through group projects.  We also assess written and verbal communication skills in group settings.  As full time faculty, we are familiar with each other’s outlines and syllabi.  In addition, department chairs review part time faculty course content to insure that it is in line with the department’s objectives as part of the part-time instructors’ evaluations.  In addition, as part of every faculty evaluation (both full time and part time) we assess student evaluations to assist us in measuring the quality and consistency of instruction.  Any deviations from “normal” are discussed with the instructor. Corrective guidance is given and followed up in future semesters. 

Our department has created certain requirements to ensure academic rigor and consistency of student evaluation. As mentioned above, all examinations may not consist entirely of objective questions, but must include problems that must be solved from scratch. Further, the department requires that all tests and quizzes be closed book, with no notes allowed.  However, exceptions to this rule are made for on-line quizzes as students take such quizzes offsite and enforcement of this rule is impractical.  There are also limitations on the amount of “extra-credit” points allowed.

Logical thinking and critical analysis skills are developed and tested in a variety of ways.   We utilize discussion questions, exercises, and projects that do not necessarily have one right answer.  We encourage and demonstrate to our students how to solve problems in a variety of ways.  We encourage alternative ways of proceeding with the solution.  This is especially true of ethics studies and case studies.  Our publishers provide most of these and some of the instructors develop them independently. 

We evaluate both oral and written communications in most of our classes.  This is done through essay assignments asking students to summarize current financial events (i.e. by summarizing Wall Street Journal, Fortune, or Business Week articles) both in front of a class or on paper.  We encourage our instructors to incorporate writing skills exercises in all courses. Writing assignments are mandatory in BUSA 101 and 102.

Quantitative reasoning skills are pervasive in accounting work.  Students are constantly challenged to provide quantitative analyses on an ongoing basis in all courses, but especially in our core courses.  We see this as a definite strength of our department.

B.      Student Support Services

Skills
Including social and team building skills as classroom activities has increased recently as we followed the Accounting Education Change Commission recommendations in this area.  Instructors have been encouraged to lead group assignments and group discussions to further peer learning.  Instructors meet often to share successful projects with each another.  We have used e-mail to share these projects with part-time faculty.

The appreciation of cultural diversity has been expanded with the help of our publishers, who have included multi-ethnic examples of financial transactions in all of our major texts.  Also, examples of accounting methodologies and ethics studies in the texts have been expanded to include examples and challenges facing companies worldwide.  In addition, many instructors have attended diversity training through the efforts of staff development.

Our class offerings include ½ unit computerized and homework tutorial labs.  The labs are scheduled at various times and days during the week to meet the needs of the majority of our students and are offered as open entry/open exit labs.  A sample of the tutorial lab meeting times for the Fall 2007 semester can be found in Exhibit F.  The labs have proven to be an invaluable resource for our students, as indicated by the summary of the survey results on pages 22-24.  An instructor is assigned to each lab time.  The labs are available to students to obtain additional one-on-one help from an accounting instructor on topics they do not quite understand, to catch up on work missed due to absence, to check on the accuracy of homework assignments, or to complete the assigned homework assignments or computerized projects.  Once a student has registered for one tutorial lab, they are welcome to attend any of the scheduled labs.

We are very proud of the fact that we have been able to increase our students’ exposure to technology in the classroom.  We have attempted to inspire students to learn more about the software programs that are widely utilized in the business world, as well as expose them to the infinite possibilities computers and the internet offer the business world.  We offer several classes that teach some of the software programs used in the accounting, such as, QuickBooks, MAS 90, and Turbo Tax.  Additionally, all of our core classes require computerized assignments. 

Three of our courses, BUSA 100, 101, and 102, utilize software offered by the textbook publishers, Homework Manager and ThomsonNOW, respectively, that allow students to complete homework assignments and complete quizzes on-line.  One of the most important benefits of using the on-line homework sites is the ability to provide students with immediate feedback on their assignments.  The homework site immediately grades the assignment and the student is able to see which questions were answered correctly or incorrectly.  Correct answers to questions are not provided by the web sites, but students are able to re-enter responses and have the assignment re-graded.  The on-line homework sites also allow the students to work at their own pace and on their own schedule.  The internet based homework sites have been well received by the students, as indicated in the summary of the survey results on pages 22-24. 

Accounting Club
As mentioned earlier in the report, the department started an accounting club on campus in January 2007 to provide those with common learning and career paths a venue to gather more information and to network with those of similar interests.  The focus of the Accounting Club is two fold: first, officers of the club are treated like “real world" officers or employees of companies, with deadlines, responsibilites, etc; second, is to bring as much first hand information directly to the students about accounting, business, and finance.

The Accounting Club is open to all Cerritos College students and meets the first and third Thursday’s of each month.  Following is a list of past and future guest speakers of the Accounting Club:

3/8/07              Crystal Conley, USC                                        41 attendees
4/17/07            Berenice Manzo, UCSB                                   22 attendees
4/26/07            Mike Farina - Retirement/Investments   40 attendees
8/30/07            Clarence Banks, UCLA                                    71 attendees
9/27/07            Berenice Manzo, UCSB                                   29 attendees
10/4/07            Peter Moloney - accounting careers                  32 attendees
10/25/07          Crystal Conley, USC                                        56 attendees

As a result of the presentations from our guest speakers, UCSB has extended a day on campus with the Accounting Club specifically arranged for us to meet admissions, financial aid, faculty and department chairs.  Berenice Manzo, Transfer Admissions Counselor from UCSB, offered to read personal statements from students and give some general feedback.

At USC, several of our students have had direct contact, after the event and as a result of the event, with Crystal Conley, Student Services Advisor I at the Leventhal School of Accounting at USC, Brittany Valdez, Assistant Director of Admissions for Undergraduate Admissions at USC, and Kendall Simmonds, Professor, Leventhal School of Accounting at USC.

Clarence Banks, from the Undergraduate Admissions & Relations with Schools department at UCLA, gave an incredible overview of the university admissions process, regardless of where the student may apply. He also handed out cards and offered to help club members that requested it.

The Accounting Club is currently planning the guest speakers for the Spring 2008 semester and hope to have Mike Farina, Professor at Cerritos College, Steve Kroll, adjunct faculty Cerritos College, Jess Penilla, Director, Deliotte & Touche, and a member of the department’s advisory committee, and Kay Osorio, Controller, ABM Engineering, and a member of the department’s advisory committee.  We are also planning a year-end event with former Cerritos students that have gone onto a university or that are working in business or accounting.

The Accounting Club has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from its members and the guest speakers, as illustrated by the graph compiled by Turning Point software from a survey taken of the accounting club shown in Exhibit G.  The minutes of the accounting club meetings are provided in Exhibit O.  A sample of the scheduling of events and of the flyers distributed to advertise the events is provided in Exhibit P.

Technology Skills
As stated previously, one of the department’s finest accomplishments is using technology throughout the curriculum.  Having two computerized accounting classrooms and smart podiums in all accounting classes has enabled this to happen. 

The business world has benefited by the availability of high-powered computing systems that have become more affordable as technology has improved.  We have been training students in some of the most popular programs used on the market today, including: Excel, QuickBooks, TurboTax, and MAS 90.  We have utilized computerized tutorials and Internet research tools in many of our classes.  Instructors have incorporated technology into their methods of instructional delivery.  Furthermore, as discussed previously, we offer two courses, BUSF 125 - Personal Finance and BUSA 133 - Spreadsheet Accounting, online and we offer one section of BUSA 100 - Introduction to Accounting, as a hybrid course.  We have also introduced the clicker student response technology in one of our core classes, as discussed on page 11.

Both full time and part time faculty go above and beyond the minimum requirements to make themselves available to students at all hours of the day, seven days a week.  E-mail has become an indispensable method of communication between the students and faculty.  The internet based homework sites which are being used in our BUSA 100, 101, and 102 classes have enabled the faculty to be of much more assistance to students with homework questions when not on campus.  Faculty can view the actual assignment that the student is working on and offer specific assistance to answer the student’s question.  Additionally, faculty web sites have been a resource for students to access assignments and handouts that students may have missed due to absence.  Faculty can also post additional resources on their web site for students who need extra help with the course or assignments.  The faculty web sites also provide links to support resources provided by the college, such as advising, scholarships, and transfer information, tutorial lab times and locations, job and career resources, and professional associations and publications to assist the students with their education and professional decisions.

Survey Results
We surveyed 100% of our accounting and finance students in the Spring 2007 semester. A copy of the survey and tabulated results are provided in Exhibit N.  Below are the key results of this survey.

Approximately 56% of our students found our BUSA 1T and 2T labs helpful. Only 7% said they were not helpful.

Approximately 45% of respondents found our lab hours scheduled at a convenient time, with 26% responding the times were not very convenient. The majority of students (73%) reported afternoons and evenings were the most convenient times for them to use our labs.

Approximately 78% of BUSA 101 and 102 students found computer projects assigned in class either somewhat or very much enhanced their learning experience.

Of the BUSA 101 and 102 students, 72% said they had used the Personal Trainer on-line grading software. Of those using Personal Trainer, approximately 75% found it somewhat or very helpful. (Note: the publisher discontinued Personal Trainer in the Spring 2007 semester.  It was replaced with a product called Thomson NOW, which we are currently using.)

Two-thirds of our students considered themselves Accounting and/or Business majors. However, only half of them have declared an Accounting major at Cerritos College.  Most of the remaining students were attending our classes to improve work-related skills.

A large majority (83%) of students plan to transfer to a four-year college or university. Approximately 55% of these students plan to attend California State University, Long Beach, or California State University, Fullerton. A fairly large portion of these students (27%) answered they will be attending “other” schools.

Approximately 10% of students are taking classes as an employment requirement. The same number of students reported their employers are paying for the costs of their coursework.

When asked about the advice received from Cerritos College counselors, 46% of respondents said it was outstanding or very good; 21% rated the advice as unsatisfactory.

When asked about the overall quality of instruction received in Accounting/Finance courses at Cerritos College, 90% of respondents said it was outstanding or very good; only 2% rated their instruction as unsatisfactory.

When asked what they found most interesting and helpful to them in their studies, the instructor’s lecture was cited 58% of the time. This was followed by homework, 21%; computer projects, 9%; group activities, 8%; and 4%, publisher on-line resources.

Respondents found publisher on-line resources (30%), group activities (28%), and computer projects (16%) as the least interesting and helpful to them in their studies. Only 11% chose instructor lectures.

The majority of our students (58%) were informed about our classes from the printed schedule. The on-line schedule informed 26% of the respondents.

We asked our on-line course students in BUSF 125 and BUSA 133, and our BUSA 100 hybrid students, two questions. We asked them if the course content was clearly presented. The results were:
BUSF 125: 61% replied very or somewhat clear, with less than 5% replying unclear
BUSA 133: 72% replied very or somewhat clear, with less than 2% replying unclear
BUSA 100: 91% replied very or somewhat clear, with less than 3% replying unclear

We also asked our on-line and hybrid students if the instructor was responsive to their questions. The results were:
BUSF 125: 90% replied very or somewhat responsive, and less than 2% not responsive
BUSA 133: 81% replied very or somewhat responsive, and 2% replied not responsive
BUSA 100: 92% replied very or somewhat responsive, and less than 2% not responsive

We asked our students to report the best days to attend class in the day. A surprisingly large portion, 58%, replied Friday and/or Saturday.  However, when we asked the same students to report the best time blocks to attend classes, only 12% responded Saturday.

Our night students preferred Monday (25%), Wednesday (26%) and Friday or Saturday (20%) as their favorite days to attend classes. Only 8% of those students would attend classes on Saturday, however.

Based on the responses to the two questions addressed above, the faculty will need to consider whether another survey should be undertaken to determine the need for Friday and weekend courses, or whether to schedule more classes on Friday and Saturday. The answers to these questions were somewhat contradictory. Additionally, they are inconsistent with the enrollment experienced in the BUSA 100 class on Friday night, and the BUSA 101 and BUSA 133 sections on Saturday. These classes have not had high enrollment recently. The BUSA 101 section on Saturday was cancelled in the Fall 2007 semester; the BUSA 100 on Friday evening and the BUSA 133 offered on Saturday were allowed to proceed with low enrollment.

III.   Resources

A. Human Resources

We have an outstanding faculty.    The current full time Faculty is comprised of the following people:  Teresa Alenikov, Mike Farina, Mark Fronke, Peter Moloney, and Debbie Schmidt.  They have varied backgrounds that complement each other well.  All come from the world’s largest accounting firms and have performed audits on some of the largest companies in the world.  All of the faculty members are licensed as certified public accountants. Three of them hold graduate degrees. All instructors have spent a good deal of time upgrading their computer skills.  All of them incorporate computerized projects in the core courses.  One of them has taken a sabbatical leave, which has resulted in upgrades to the finance program.   The sabbatical leave was also instrumental in getting one of our BUSF 125 class listed in a section of the general education requirements.  A more detailed discussion of the BUSF 125 course is provided on pages 12-13.  All instructors are involved in campus activities, and all have contributed to the well being of the department. 

Our part time faculty is also experienced in a variety of industries.  They recently participated in training sessions led by two publishers and just recently enjoyed a lunch together after a training session.  Department Chairs interface with the part time faculty regularly and perform in-depth evaluations of them when they are due.  Many of our part time teachers teach or have taught a computer course.

The size of our full time faculty is not adequate to meet student needs.  In the last program review document, we cited a shortage of faculty as being a weakness of the department.  At that time, we had seven full time faculty members.  Since our last program review, the size of our full time faculty has been reduced to five people due to retirements.  When Mr. Tom Jackson (now a Cerritos College Board Member) and Mr. Bill Evans retired at the end of the 2001-2002 school year we hired two new accounting faculty to replace them.  When Ms. Chowen, and Mr. Kieffer left at the end of the 2005-2006 school year, we were again given permission to advertise for a full time accounting position.  Many hours went in to the process of interviewing.  Time was spent developing requirements for the position, creating the flyer, creating the interview questions, screening  thirty applicants, interviewing seven people, and sending three final candidates to the last step of the process – the interview with the President.  To our surprise, after the final interviews were completed, we were told that no one would be hired because Dr. Vela felt we didn’t have any “superstar candidates.”  This was a blow to the program.  It meant that many of our classes (30 to 42 units) each semester had to be filled by part time faculty members.  In addition, this severely impacted our night program where the majority of the load of classes were taught by the outgoing instructors.  Further, we were unable to obtain someone with special expertise in payroll and computerized programs to help assist in the advancing the programs.  Although we were very disappointed with Dr. Vela’s decision, we viewed this as a temporary setback as we were promised that a new position would be re-advertised and flown in the next academic year.  When that time came and we put in a request with the Dean to fill the position, we were told that budgetary constraints did not allow for the hiring of this replacement position. To date, this position remains unfilled. 

Finally, another impact of this was the loss of some key part time faculty members who became disgruntled and upset that they went through the entire hiring process, but no one was hired.  Because of these factors, we feel that our program does not employ a sufficient number of full time instructors to achieve the goals of our program and our program has suffered because of it.  Anecdotal evidence of this would include the cancelation of classes taught by part time faculty, the average class counts in classes decreasing, a lack of continuity with core courses at night because different part time faculty are teaching them, and discussions with students who generally like to “follow” a teacher through the core courses.  Although we consider the depth of our part time faculty to be a plus, they cannot be expected to devote the same effort and commitment that full time, tenure-track faculty members devote to teaching and contributing to the overall mission and effectiveness of the department and institution.  Please see the analysis of the ratio of full time to part time instructors on pages 15-16.

There has been a general feeling on campus that the President has expanded her power to control areas, such as faculty hiring, that are out of her purview.  The department believes that if the college’s hiring process was completed and that three quality candidates were brought forward for her final approval, that she had no right to turn down all three with the explanation that there were no “superstars” when a designated committee found them to be qualified in all areas assessed during the interview process.  In addition, Dr. Vela and Mr. Farmer’s promise to allow us to re-fly the position the following semester went unfulfilled due to “budget shortfalls” even though other faculty positions and numerous administrative positions were filled.  We feel these administrative decisions have negatively impacted our programs.  With the lack of a full time division Dean and with the current administrative make-up we are doubtful whether our needs will be met, and we are fearful of the impending effects on the future of our program. 

At the divisional level, our division has no permanent full time Dean.  Administration has decided that one person should take on the responsibility of two divisions.  This has led to a decline in opportunities for the division; not necessarily because of specific personnel, but because the job of two plus individuals have been placed on the shoulders of one person.   In addition, the disciplines within each division, as well as goals and objectives of the two divisions are not similar in nature.  This has led to a lack of outreach to the business community, a lack of bilateral communication between division members, a lack of promotion of our courses in general, and a lack of focus for the various disciplines within the division.  Further frustration has developed because of a lack of communication from an administrative level regarding their future intentions for the Business division. At the beginning of the last academic year, there was a renewed hope that a full time leadership position would be reinstated in the division.  The position was advertised and flown, the hiring process was started, and once again, before it was completed the hiring committee members were told that a unilateral administrative decision (without any input from the business division) was made to stop the process; once again the reason given was “budgetary constraints.”  To make matters worse, there was no official communication to the members of the business division for weeks after the incident occurred.  Instead, division faculty found out through “water cooler” talk and sent memo after memo trying to get an official response.  Memos were even sent to administration by the faculty senate president trying to obtain an official position from the administration as to why the hiring process was suddenly stopped.  Almost a month later, a very short note from Mr. Farmer was received.  This lack of a full time dean has impacted instructional programs, enrollment, outreach, the physical facilities, as well as the morale of the entire faculty. 
Our department follows Cerritos College hiring practices which insures that pools of applicants for full time positions are racially and demographically representative of the surrounding area.  Our five full time faculty members are Caucasian and comprised of three men and two women.  Our part time faculty is comprised primarily of Caucasians and Asian Americans.   According to WebCPA in 2004, the percentage of Asian/Pacific Islanders hired by CPA firms was 12 percent of the total number hired that year, with Hispanics or Latinos at 8 percent, while African-Americans actually decreased two percentage points, to 3 percent.  The website where this information is found located at http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=18901&searchTerm=Staff%20Diversity&print=yes. The total ethnic hiring in CPA firms was at 23 percent, up from 18 percent the prior year.  According to another AICPA study conducted a few years ago, in 2004, women comprised 56 percent of new graduates hired by public accounting firms.  The same study described the breakdown of CPA firm new hires as 82 percent white and 18 percent minority (specifically, Asian/Pacific Islander, black, Hispanic, Native American/ Alaskan Native and "other").  We rely on our Human Resources Department to make sure the hiring pools are racially and demographically representative of the surrounding areas.
Despite the 28% decrease in our full time staff, and despite the lack of leadership from a full time Dean, the department believes that our faculty work together as a team and come together to resolve differences as they arise.  Compared to the overall morale of the division, which seems to be at an all-time low, we consider the morale in our department to be considerably high.  We consider ourselves to be the most cohesive department in the division, which we feel is one of the reasons that we have one of the strongest departments as evidenced by our WSCH discussed on pages 17-18.  This is evidenced by the fact that there have been no grievances or complaints filed by students, faculty members, or anyone else against anyone in our department members during the period covered by this report.

We have no designated support staff, but budgets have allowed us to hire a few instructional support staff.  Department Chairs generally handle their own correspondence.  Business Division staff help us with curriculum as needed, and clerical support is usually provided on an as-needed basis.  The fact that the business division secretary was transferred over to the Technology Division has meant a disjoint in regular contact and communication with our own division secretary.  In addition, with fewer staff people, the division office has less coverage when there is an absence.  Since there is no Dean in place within the business division office, staff are unsupervised.   Currently the division office is only open four days a week (Monday through Thursday), even though we have students here on Fridays and Saturdays.  This has also negatively impacted our program. 

Professional and Staff Development activities are attended as required by the College.  In the past conference money has been made available to those that request it.  In addition, all five full-time faculty members are CPAs.  Most of them retain an “active status” on their license, which means that they must attend 80 hours every two years of professional development activities.  Those that do not maintain an “active status” fulfill the college’s professional education obligations.  Topics can be viewed by obtaining the staff development paperwork mandated by the college for each instructor.

We do not have any designated student services support.

Because of the above, the department believes that Human Resource Planning is not coordinated with institutional planning and does not consider the needs of the division nor the department, and is, therefore, not providing the optimum learning opportunities for our students.

B. Physical Resources

Facilities
The department holds classes in nine different classrooms.  Seven of the classrooms are considered lecture rooms, equipped with ‘smart carts’ for the instructor to use to display spreadsheets and presentation materials to the students.  Two classrooms are considered lab rooms which are equipped with 28 computers and an instructor workstation.

The classrooms are located in the Business Education and Social Sciences buildings.  While most of the classrooms are located within close proximity of each other to facilitate lab work during class sessions, one classroom is located on the third floor of the Social Science building.  Instructors in the third floor classroom have expressed concern about scheduling lab time for their classes due to the logistical difficulties of the classroom location.

In general, the Business Education classrooms are some of the oldest on campus.  Over the years, the classrooms have been retrofitted with cabling and electrical wiring to facilitate the increased use of computer technology.  While the retrofitting upgrades have created the necessary functionality of the rooms, certain potential safety hazards have been created with some of the exposed wiring (some of these have been corrected).

In recent years, the college has neglected the maintenance of the business education building.  Classrooms are not cleaned consistently resulting in dust and air conditioning soot on the desks and equipment.  Additionally, the classrooms and offices have cracked plaster, chipped paint, broken windows and missing ceiling tiles.  These problems were noted in our program review document previously and have continued.  The building has no smoke detectors.
In 1997, the building was listed in the ‘Facilities Master Plan’ as the number two priority for replacement, citing many of the issues addressed above.  The facilities plan called for construction of a new ‘Business and Computer’ complex by 2007.  Recently, the administration changed the building priorities to postpone the building of a new facility until at least 2017.  The department faculty are very disappointed that the building priorities changed without any discussion or input from the division faculty.  The district has spent considerable human and financial resources in attempts to remedy building operational problems.  Some of these have been resolved with duct cleaning, filters, air conditioning upgrades, and the addition of smart classrooms.

We use more and more technology in the delivery of our course content, the department needs to assess whether the current lecture/lab classroom mix will provide the proper access to the technology to all instructors equally.  With the current configuration, evening instructors have a more difficult time scheduling lab activities than daytime instructors due to the high use of lab rooms in the evenings.  The department feels that a third lab of computers is necessary to facilitate the increased use of computers in our classes.

Equipment
During the current program review cycle, the department received new computers for both computer labs.  Funds have been allocated for computer replacement and continued funding of software.  Due to the changes in how content is delivered by department faculty and the continued use of internet-based study tools, it is imperative that the department continue to receive funds to improve and upgrade the hardware and software necessary to serve the students. 

Institutional Planning
Institutional planning of facilities has not been properly integrated with the plans of the department.  Recently, the administration decided to change facilities priorities resulting in the postponement of plans for a new business education building which had been previously listed as the number two priority in the facilities master plan developed in 1997 by a previous administration.

Without input from the business division faculty, the administration moved the plans for building a new business education facility from being a top priority to ‘sometime in the future’.  In a recent publication to the community, the administration was silent as to the plans for developing a new facility for the business division.  The department faculty are disappointed at the change in priority as well as the lack of communication from the administration regarding the plans of the College.

The college has not provided a vehicle for planning for the past five years.  Unit plans which had been prepared every year, have not been prepared since 2002.  The last unit plan that was prepared in 2002 was presented to the department chairs at the last minute by the Dean without any input from faculty.   We feel that the planning cycle at the college has been severely neglected and encourage the administration to continue on the recent path to implement a new planning cycle.
C. Technological Resources

The accounting faculty have adopted technology-based instruction for all core accounting courses (BUSA 100, 101 and 102).  Virtually every publisher of accounting textbooks has embraced internet-based homework technology.  The accounting and finance faculty are committed to using the publisher’s technology to better serve the student population.  Since complete adoption of the technology-based instruction happened in the Fall 2007 semester, student feedback of the use of the technology is anecdotal.  Based on informal discussions with students, the new technology allows more flexibility and provides better feedback to the students in a very timely manner.  Please refer to the summary of the survey results on pages 22-24.

In addition, the online courses taught in the accounting and finance department (primarily BUSF 125) make full use of the TalonNet course management system.  On-line students are provided a more robust menu of options in order to facilitate content delivery, student interaction through discussion, and timely assessment.  The department faculty is committed to continued use of the TalonNet system by continually upgrading course materials available online.

D. Financial Resources

Accounting has been allocated the following resources:

•        All new computers in the two accounting labs
•        Turning Point Software (SRS clickers, p. 11)
•        Support software
•        Additional hourly support
•        All requests for orders have been filled
•        Potential for additional sets of SRS clickers for the entire department if the pilot is successful
•        All conference and training requests have been approved and funded
•        All classrooms used by the department are smart classrooms

However, for the past three years, the department (and the entire business division) has been governed by a Dean who splits time between the technology and business divisions.  The reduction of the management resources available to the department has resulted in a lack of proper planning.

Unit plans, if prepared, were not properly coordinated with the department faculty to develop the necessary priorities for proper resource allocation. 

Additionally, senior administration has rejected the efforts of the department to hire the necessary full-time faculty to support the program.  Significant time and effort has been expended by department faculty to recruit, screen, interview, and evaluate potential candidates only to have the President of the College reject them.  While no specific reasons were given, it is the opinion of the faculty that the decisions relate more to financial resource allocation issues than actual candidate qualifications.  A more detailed discussion of our faculty issues can be found on pages 25-27.

IV.    Leadership and Governance

A.      Decision Making Roles and Process

The leadership of the department has been consistent since the last program review.  The department is chaired by two faculty members (or co-chairs) that direct the BUSA/BUSF program. One is a daytime professor and one is a nighttime professor so the department has maximum coverage. The chairs also have split primary responsibilities in that one is responsible for the full-time faculty, the other part-time faculty.  The chairs also do an excellent job of sharing information, in that, if something is communicated to one, the other knows very quickly.

In the past, our goals were quantified in the “Unit Plan.”  When the last Dean was here, he developed the goals and shortly before the due date discussed them with the various department chairs within the division.  Because of the tight deadline, there was little chance for department input.  The last unit plan was completed in 2002.  This year the institution has implement a new unit plan concept that is much more directed and concise.  We plan on getting feedback from all department members and developing our own goals as the due date allows for much more discussion and input. The design of the unit plan will ensure that goals are set and specific activities for each goal are defined. We feel this process will enable the faculty to become more involved in this process.

Our department does take initiative in developing learning opportunities for students.  A few years ago a former Dean presented an opportunity for the department to add an insurance program.  That program has been under development for the last few years.  It currently has one course approved and scheduled for the Spring 2008 semester, with four others ready for the next curriculum meeting in January, 2008.  There is also a proposed insurance certificate, incorporating these classes, being developed by department faculty with the help of the Dean.  This new certificate and the related courses has required great coordination with the insurance industry through a consortium, and also with the key faculty members and the Dean. Training sessions led by the insurance consortium were attended by a department chair, as well as by some full time and part time faculty members on October 7, 2005, and October 28, 2005. We expect this new program to provide more opportunities for students.  A more detailed discussion of the insurance program is provided on page 13 and the insurance certificate requirements are provided in Exhibit B.

Furthermore, an accounting club was started to enhance student learning and student awareness of jobs in the accounting field and to introduce students to the strong accounting programs at universities in the greater surrounding areas.  The club had its first meeting January 11, 2007, and has been meeting regularly ever since.  Minutes of the accounting club meetings are provided in Exhibit O.  The idea for this club came from a recommendation by our advisory committee. The minutes of the Advisory Committee meetings are provided in Exhibit D. We are excited about the level of interest and future activities of this club.  Also, students have taken the lead in promoting the activities listed on page 20 by creating flyers, attending other classes to let the business students know of the club’s activities, and planning future events.  A sample of the scheduling of events and of the flyers distributed to advertise the events is provided in Exhibit P.  In addition, the club has decided to work with other departments on campus, such as Economics and Counseling to further the learning experiences for our students.  A more detailed discussion of the accounting club is provided on pages 20-21.

Recently, we took our first poll/survey to gather students’ feedback on the events that are being held by the accounting club. The results were very positive and are provided in Exhibit G.

We are in the early stages of implementing student learning objectives. We have unanimously adopted student learning objectives for our gateway course, BUSA 100 - Introduction to Accounting. During this current academic year, the department will be assessing the objectives. Based on what we learn from this process our plan is to create student learning objectives for our other two core courses, BUSA 101 and BUSA 102, and eventually for all of our courses. These student learning outcomes were also approved by our advisory committee.  A more detailed discussion of the Student Learning Outcomes is provided on pages 5-6.

All of the above have positively impacted our program, enhancing the education and opportunities our students receive.

Decision Making Policy
We do not have a written policy that provides for participation in the decision making process, nor one that specifies the manner in which ideas are forwarded from constituencies.

In fact in discussing this question with the Dean (via phone conversation on October 5, 2007), he stated that Cerritos College does not have formal written policies at the divisional level or at the department level related to the implementation of full participation in the decision making process.

We have all worked full-time in the accounting industry and some of us at various other businesses and have never come across a company that had such a written policy.  If we see a good model of such policy from other departments, or if the program review committee has such a policy, we would review it. 

Despite the lack of a written policy, the department is committed to full participation in all major decisions.  We continually gather ideas from various people and constituencies. For example, our advisory committee recommended that we pursue the insurance certificate and start an accounting club.  Both of these recommendations were followed. The minutes to the Advisory Committee meetings is provided in Exhibit D.

We recently received limited funding to purchase a student response system, (SRS) from Turning Point.  This is a software system that allows students to vote on questions presented in Power Point via remote controllers in real time.  The funding provided allowed the department to purchase one classroom set of student response systems or “clickers.”  One instructor has been using this in his classroom this semester. If the results prove to be successful and enhance student learning, then we will once again request additional funding to expand the technology into other accounting classrooms.   The accounting club has also utilized the technology to gather feedback from the club members. A more detailed discussion of the Turning Point software is provided on page 11.  The survey results compiled by Turning Point software are provided in Exhibit G.

All major decisions (new text books, learning objectives, hiring committee members, curriculum decisions, etc) are done at department meetings where the decisions are discussed, then voted on by the entire full-time faculty.  Many of the decisions reached by the department are by unanimous vote.

Teaching schedules are always distributed before being assigned and requests/acceptance is asked of each faculty member, rather than them just being assigned their classes. Selected e-mail messages of the scheduling process are provided in Exhibit Q.

Department chairs are in regular contact with the Dean to exchange ideas and obtain guidance when needed.  The ‘part-time’ dean is supportive and provides helpful feedback as his time permits with his dual assignments.  He has been supportive to resource allocations for our program.

We operate under the assumption that all our dealings with internal as well as external agencies will always be done with honesty and integrity.  This is the way things are supposed to be done, so documentation is difficult to compile.  Most telling, there are no complaints currently in process with the dean or the administration regarding any of our faculty.

In our department, group discussions are open and honest.  When the situation merits, a vote is taken and majority rules.  Many times decisions reached are unanimously.

There have been some documented instances that do show support of the honesty and integrity of the department:

1) The department chairs noticed Houghton Mifflin had told them the price that was going to be charged for the books, then the publisher turned around and charged a higher price to the campus bookstore and, thus, to the students.  The department chairs called the publisher and demanded that the lower price originally quoted be charged and it ultimately was.  The e-mail correspondence on this issue is provided in Exhibit R.

2) Thomson Publishing sent emails to the department chairs offering them $500 because of problems the department had been having with the homework software, Thomson NOW.  Both department chairs declined the offer.  The e-mail correspondence on this issue is provided in Exhibit S.

3) When other members of the division wanted to go against current personnel practices and evaluate a former Dean, the department, going against the grain of the division, decided to not participate even when pressured to do so.  Because of personnel issues, these e-mails are not included in this report but can be verified with the Human Resources Office.

The Role of Leadership
The program follows the schools guidelines of having department chairs elected every three years.  In the last election the co-chairs were unanimously voted in. 

From time to time, the department chairs meet with the Dean to communicate their needs and concerns.  They also ask for his evaluation of what they are doing.

Most recently, Dean Peebles provided feedback to the department chairs. He said, “They are effective in representing the program faculty and do a responsive and accurate job in providing schedules and are also very responsive to changes in the industry by constantly reviewing and adjusting program course content and supportive material…”  He went on to comment on their effectiveness by saying, “…these co-chairs are able to effectively delegate program support activities to other faculty providing a very responsive approach to program support and operation.”  The e-mail message from Dr. Peebles is provided in Exhibit T.  Dr. Peebles comments on this document are provided in Exhibit V.

Ron Christie, the Dean of Business for six years prior to Randy Peebles, said in regards to the department chairs “…they “rose above the fray” of politics and petty infighting that was so common in the division.  It was apparent that they both had a single mission that all their efforts focused on; that being student success.”  He also said, “...their interactions with colleagues, management, staff and industry were of the utmost integrity.”  The e-mail message from Ron Christie is provided in Exhibit U.

There is no formal policy for evaluating the leadership.  This was confirmed by Dean Peebles (via phone conversation on October 5, 2007).  It is our understanding that if any type of formal or written assessment tool for department chairs was developed, it would have to go through a shared governance committee.

V.   Final Analysis

This page serves to summarize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the accounting/finance department in order to provide a bridge from the program review self-study to the individual unit plans that will be developed in future years.

Strengths

-         Current technology is incorporated into the program
-         Full-time faculty are well-trained and highly-motivated to provide the best learning environment for students
-         Computer labs have been kept up-to-date with current software and hardware
-         A wide range of courses are offered in both accounting and finance
-         Part-time faculty are diversified and qualified to cover specialized course offerings
-         New insurance program and certificate

Weaknesses

-         The department suffers from a lack of leadership by the administration as the Business Division does not have a full-time Dean
-         The addition of a full-time faculty member has been cancelled by the administration
-         The department does not have a strong link to accounting faculty at the four-year ‘feeder’ schools (CSUF, CSULB, CSULA, UCI, USC, UCLA)
-         The department does not maintain strong communication with local and regional accounting firms and private businesses who hire accountants
-         Advice provided by counseling is inconsistent
-         Physical classroom facilities are not properly maintained and are deteriorating
-         Reports that helped with the management of the department, such as the Daily Class Size Report and the report that showed the grading and retention statistics by instructor and by class, have not been available since the implementation of PeopleSoft.

Opportunities/Challenges

-         Continue to keep up with changing technologies in accounting education
-         Develop relationships with accounting faculty at local four-year schools
-         Develop relationships with major employers to provide opportunities for our students
-         Meet with designated business counselors to ensure information provided to students is current and accurate
-         Develop a marketing plan for the department which integrates with the Business Division plans
-         Continue to work with college administration to plan for upgraded facilities