Business, Marketing, Real Estate, Management
2022-2023 Program Review

The Business department encompasses multiple disciplines. They are as follows:

·      Business

·      Management

·      Marketing

·      Real Estate

The Business department serves both transfer and vocational students through our course, certificate, and degree offerings. The Associate Degree for Transfer is the #1 degree that students complete, and student enrollment remains strong. In addition, we also offer vocational classes within these disciplines for students interested in taking classes and achieving certificates and degrees for advancement at work, changing careers or simply self-improvement. The need to serve such a diverse set of students requires more effort than other disciplines in designing our courses, degrees and certificates as well as how they are offered. Multiple formats such as on-campus, fully online, and hybrid as well as a variety of short-term (5 & 8 week) and full semester courses.

The Business department consists of three full time faculty, all of whom fully participated in the program review process. At the current time we are working without the input of two full time faculty who retired over the last few years. As a result, we have had to increase our teaching workload as well as our administrative workload as the College has not approved these replacement positions.

The Purpose of the Business Department is to provide the following:

• To transfer to a university – Business Associate Degree for Transfer is the #1 transfer degree at American River College.
• The attainment of a specific skill set or knowledge in Business, Management, Marketing or Real Estate.
• To prepare students to take exams  for an industry certification/licensure.
• To ensure students meet the requirements for entry level jobs.
• To help students gain the necessary knowledge, and skills for career development and advancement.
• To continue lifelong learning and growth.

“American River College places students first in providing an academically rich, inclusive environment that inspires critical thinking, learning and achievement, and responsible participation in the community. American River College, serving the greater Sacramento region, offers education and support for students to strengthen basic skills, earn associate degrees and certificates, transfer to other colleges and universities, and achieve career as well as other academic and personal goals.”

The Business, Management, Marketing and Real Estate departments place students at the center of all of our decision making. We strive to give them real world information that is current and germane to their personal and professional lives so that they can be successful. The goal is to help students understand the world better through the knowledge that they acquire, and the plethora of courses, certificates and degrees is designed to meet their needs at a variety of levels.

Due to the pandemic the planning and implementation of our objectives over the last six years was hindered however, in spite of these setbacks, we made substantial progress in achieving our strategic goals based on the information below.

1.     Provide easily recognizable pathways through ARC

o   We were one of the first departments to create realistic Pathways for Degree Programs for both full time and part time students.  Big Thanks to Bill Simpson, who took the time to help us with this process. 

§  Business Administration 2.0 AS-T Degree (Full Time) Map

§  Business Administration 2.0 AS-T Degree (Part Time) Map

§  General Business A.A. Degree (Full Time) Map

§  General Business A.A. Degree (Part Time) Map

§  General Business Certificate (Part Time) Map

§  Entrepreneurship A.A. Degree (Full Time) Map

§  Entrepreneurship A.A. Degree (Part Time) Map

§  Entrepreneurship/Small Business Management Certificate (Part Time) Map

§  Computer Applications for Small Business Certificate (Part Time) Map

§  Soft Skills for the Global Environment Certificate (Full Time) Map

§  Management A.A. Degree (Full Time) Map

§  Management Certificate (Part Time, Fall Start) Map

§  Project Management Certificate (Full Time) Map

§  Conflict Management Certificate (Full Time, Spring Start) Map

§  Marketing A.A. Degree (Full Time) Map

§  Advertising and Sales Promotion A.A. Degree (Full Time) Map

§  Retail Management A.A. Degree (Full Time) Map

§  Retail Management (WAFC) Certificate (Full Time) Map

§  Real Estate A.A. Degree (Full Time) Map

§  Real Estate Certificate (Full Time) Map

2.     Provide easily recognizable pathways to employment 

o   We had a full-time internship coordinator who developed internship opportunities specifically for our division, worked with students to prepare them for the internship and followed up with students and the organizations that had employed them. This was an excellent resource that made a substantiative difference for our students in connecting them to industry and getting them started or helping advance them in their career goals. Although we no longer have a dedicated internship developer, Vivian Dillon and her department continue to provide great opportunities and assistance to our students.

3.     Connect students to people, programs, and services as an integrated educational experience

o   Homebase has been instrumental in connecting students to resources on campus as well as serving as a base to build community and connection between the students enrolled in Business, Management, Marketing and Real Estate classes.

o   Having a faculty member as the liaison between the fabulous folks within the Homebase has created a pipeline and easy way for faculty to assist students in accessing the many resources available to them.

o   During this time the ARC Business AST degree was chosen by the District to implement the fully online college. This was an amazing program that relied on 2 full time Coaches and the Degree Maps to support students as a cohort. While the program was showing clear signs of success, especially in dealing with groups that are disproportionately impacted, the program was cancelled by the District due to funding issues. This was a real setback in an extremely promising program that was showing real signs of making strides in closing the equity gap.

Strengths: 

·       Breadth of offerings.

o   We offer 7 Degree Programs.

§  A.S.-T. in Business Administration 2.0

§  A.A. in Entrepreneurship

§  A.A. in General Business

§  A.A. in Management

§  A.A. in Advertising and Sales Promotion

§  A.A. in Retail Management

§  A.A. in Real Estate

§  

o   We offer 16 Certificate Programs.

§  Computer Applications for Small Business Certificate

§  Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution Certificate

§  Entrepreneurship/Small Business Management Certificate

§  General Business Certificate

§  Internet Marketing Certificate

§  Marketing Essentials Certificate

§  Technical Communications Certificate

§  Soft Skills for the Global Environment Certificate

§  Marketing Essentials Certificate

§  Retail Management (WAFC) Certificate

§  Conflict Management Certificate

§  Leadership Certificate

§  Management Certificate

§  Project Management Certificate

§  Real Estate Certificate

§  Real Estate Sales Certificate

o   All programs are available in a fully online format.

·       Faculty are flexible and willing to collaborate with other departments and industry partners on innovative projects. An example of this would be the Los Rios College Online Cohort degree program piloted through ARC. Another example is the Western Association of Food Chains Certificate program. 

·       Consistently scanning the environment to find ways to react to the economy, the market, employers and student needs.

·       Multi-modal methods of offering classes (online, hybrid, and face to face) as well as a variety of time frames (5-week, 8 week, and full semester), helps to reach a greater number of students.

·       New STEM building has space for Business students to mingle, network and receive support through Homebase, the computer labs, and shared spaces.

Weaknesses

·       Loss of 2 full time faculty positions due to retirements and no replacements on the horizon. 

o   Very difficult to manage the workload coordinating classes and programs.

o    The ability to effectively support students is undermined by the lack of full-time faculty. 

o   Loss of long-term adjunct faculty in the last few years has also stretched our ability to staff classes.

·       Loss of FTE has not allowed for classes to be offered in multiple modes.

·       Too many certificates for us to adequately service and support them.

Opportunities

·       Growing Apprenticeship program grants through the State of California can be a growth area of enrollment for us.

·       The Government Training Academy may have contracts that need our classes to fulfill their needs.

·       We see the nuggets of opportunity in the disproportionate impact data. It will assist us as we embark on a continuous learning process of analyzing what is and isn’t working and creating a feedback loop to improve, expand and solidify what, how, and when we are offering needed courses.

Threats

·      Enrollment declines across the College and the District are of serious concern. While our enrollment decrease has not been as great and is rebounding, it is still a cause of concern.

·      The reduction in men taking our classes and completing our programs continues to drop precipitously, both at the College as a whole and within our programs specifically.  Sacramento County (who we serve as a community college) is 50.8 male, while our enrollment over the last 3 years is 57% female to 41% male. The consistent rate of declination of men as well as differential between males and females in our programs is a concern and needs to be investigated further to figure out why this is happening as it shows we as a department and as a college are not serving our community. 

The pandemic significantly impacted our enrollment but not our productivity. Nevertheless, it provided us with valuable insights into the numerous obstacles that our students encounter while pursuing their educational objectives. To tackle some of the challenges that our diverse and inclusive (DI) students face, our department has adopted some of the suggestions provided in ARC's DI Reports. Furthermore, we are committed to exploring further opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of our department.

Our department was aware that there was a bit of a gender gap in our classes however, we were stunned to see the extent to which it exists: 

·       Management enrollment is 66% female to 31% male.

·       Marketing had a severe mismatch of female to male students of 65% female to 33% male. This was a marked increase from 2021 when it was 58% female   to 41% male. To see an almost 10% decrease in our male students was quite shocking.

·       Real Estate also experienced a sharp increase in female enrollment and a corresponding decrease in male enrollment, which simply exacerbated the lack of equity that was in existence with a 57% to 40% female to male ratio in 2019 and in 2022 it became 63% to 33%.  

This data must be studied further, and we need to figure out why we are losing male students at such an alarming rate. The data for the Sacramento area is 52% female to 48% male so our numbers are not representative of the community we serve. Delving further into this we see that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the male to female ratio among Management occupations was 48% male to 52% this pattern holds true among other categories such as Real Estate, Marketing and Business as a whole. So, the question of why men are experiencing such a severity of dipropionate impact, both in enrollments and in graduation rates is of real concern as this gap is growing at alarming speed and we need to figure out how to better serve this population that makes up half of the community that we are supposed to serve. 

There was a decline among all groups from 2013-2021, in terms of certificates and degrees awarded but this can also be correlated with lower enrollments.  However, when looking at the DI data we do see that the level of disproportionate impact among African Americans (both in terms of passing rates and graduation rates) is a significant trend and has been a topic of concern for some time.  

Other notable aspects of enrollment primarily in the General Business classes:

·      Among Asians we saw a 4% increase from 8%-12%

·      Hispanics increased dramatically during this time from 19% to 30%!!

·      However, all of this pales in comparison to the 7% drop we saw among men especially when there was already such a discrepancy between male and female enrollments. In this discipline we also saw an increase in 18–20-year-olds while seeing a drop in every other age range. 

We surmise that the outreach to high schools, the free college for the first 2 years, and the Pandemic which put Universities all online contributed to the increase in those numbers, especially since we saw a decline overall in enrollments. All other age categories showed a decrease in enrollment. 

Ideal future:

·      Replacement of full-time faculty that have retired.

·      Internship developer dedicated to our departments/division.

·      Regular Career Showcase Series with diverse members of the Business community

·      Increased FTE to be able to offer all of our classes.

·      Growth and institutionalization of Home Base

Replacing our two full time faculty members is essential to the function of the department. Without a Marketing Professor and a Real Estate Professor we are hard pressed to stay current on updating our curriculum and introducing new curriculum as technology, trends, and laws change at a rapid pace. Our efforts to improve our retention and success rates, especially among those students that are disproportionately impacted is severely hampered by not having full time faculty in these roles.

An internship/job developer would be extremely beneficial to our students in terms of career success and retention. The majority of Business students need to work and having a job related to their career path will serve as a motivating factor to do well in school and it will guide them in their career journey.

We not only encourage our students to seek out the HomeBase, but the coaches come to our classes and actively present and interact with the students. This makes it even more likely that students will avail themselves of the physical Homebase space and it will foster a sense of community and belonging while ensuring academic success. Having Counselors who are experts in regard to our courses and programs and who are easily accessible to students is a game changer and we believe that the more Business students access Homebase the more successful they will be in reaching their goals.

In alignment with our Internship/Job developer we would like create Career Showcases utilizing diverse members of the local Business Community.  This will serve multiple purposes. It will allow our students to dream, to visualize and to realistically see themselves in the lives of those successful professionals and entrepreneurs speaking. It will also help to foster deeper connections between ARC and the community and specifically with the Business department. The networking opportunities of these events cannot be overstated.

The ability to offer classes that students want, and need has been hampered by the lack of funding. Innovating is difficult when we can’t even offer what we already have created. Thus, the ability to offer more targeted classes will be beneficial to existing students and will serve to recruit new students as we have classes that other colleges may not.

Our teaching approach emphasizes critical thinking and its application to students' personal experiences and local communities. We treat each student as an individual and seek to teach in a way that resonates with them.  To facilitate an inclusive learning environment, we assign group projects and ask students to form learning groups. This collaborative approach encourages students to learn together and uses different modes of teaching and learning and creates a sense of connection to other students. 

We have no control over hiring of replacement faculty, hiring an internship/job developer, or even being able to offer our full complement of classes so we will focus on what we can control. The department intends to actively connect with Home Base throughout the semester to create an ease for students between the classroom and the Homebase location. The department will strongly encourage all faculty to provide time for Homebase employees to give presentations to the classes at the beginning of the term. We will also encourage adjunct faculty to collaborate and coordinate with the Homebase to publicize events that are happening and to work directly with the Counselors to share the importance of the classes the faculty are involved in teaching. We will measure success by tracking how many of our classes are having Homebase coordinators present information about the purpose and services that they provide. After one semester of doing this we will track the number of students using Homebase. We hope to see an increase in usage and an improvement in our persistence rates as well as overall grade improvement. If we do not see that we will brainstorm other ideas with faculty such as, giving extra credit to those who attend sessions at the Homebase, or students who use it as a study area with others in a class, et.

We believe that the students experience at ARC is enriched by creating connections to the the college, the department, faculty, and other students that are enrolled in the same or similar programs. There is plenty of research that focuses on the effectiveness of cohorts in persistence and graduation success rates. Creating that sense of community is much harder in a community college settings especially in a large school like ARC. Creating a space where students can gather, connect and have access to services and help, specifically within their intended major/goal will assist in the effort to improve persistence and grades, especially for those disproportionately impacted groups.