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Proposal Submitted to the UEPC by the

Business Administration Department

Undergraduate Concentration in Business Analytics

November 5, 2015

Contact Person: Anh Nguyen

Undergraduate Program Committee Faculty Approval:

October 15, 2015

SEBA’s Administrative Council Approval:

November 4, 2015

UEPC Review: November 30, 2015

Proposed Implementation:

Academic Year 2016-2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

I. INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………… 3

II. CONCENTRATION IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS ADDRESSES A NEED ………........ 3

III. CONCENTRATION IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS SERVES THE OBJECTIVES OF

SEBA AND THE MISSION OF THE COLLEGE ……………………………………...... 3

A. Competitive analysis ………………………………………………………………………. 4

B. Industry/employment trends …………………………………………………………….… 5

C. Student feedback …………………………………………………………………………... 6

D. Business analytics careers ……………………………………………………………......... 6

E. Number of additional sections needed …………………………………………………..… 7

F. Number of additional faculty and other resources needed ……………………………….... 7

IV. CONCENTRATION IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS LEARNING OUTCOMES AND

STRUCTURE ……………………………………………………………………………... 8

A. Learning Outcomes ………………………………………………………………………... 8

B. Structure of the Business Analytics Concentration ……………………………………….. 8

C. Course Descriptions, Role of Courses in the Concentration …………………………….… 9

V. STUDENT POPULATION ……………………………………………………………… 11

VI. RELATIONSHIP TO PRESENT COLLEGE CURRICULUM ………………………… 11

VII. MANAGEMENT OF THE PROGRAM ………………………………………………… 11

VIII. IMPLEMENTATION, TIMING, AND ASSESSMENT ………………………………... 11

IX. LIBRARY RESOURCES ………………………………………………………………... 12

X. CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………………... 16

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I. INTRODUCTION

This is a proposal for a Concentration in Business Analytics. The Business Analytics

Concentration will be housed in the School of Economics and Business Administration. The

Concentration will consist of courses from SEBA and the Mathematics Department which will

address the concentration’s learning outcomes. The proposed Business Administration

concentration in Business Analytics aims to develop graduates who can extract value from data

and analytics for actionable business opportunities and decisions.

II. CONCENTRATION IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS ADDRESSES A NEED

Since the advent of Internet technology, companies have been collecting far more data than they

can analyze. Yet over this time analyzing large data sets — commonly called big data — has

become a key competitive asset, fostering new waves of productivity, growth, and innovation.

As a result, the Harvard Business Review has identified the business analyst position the “sexiest

job of the 21st century.” Despite this enticing description, we have a scarcity of talented and

qualified people who can elicit managerial implications from the data and present them for

decision making. This lack prompted a 2011 McKinsey report estimating that by 2018 the United

States will have 140,000 to 190,000 unfilled data analytics positions. Responding to this

situation, the Undergraduate Concentration in Business Analytics aims to develop students who

can perform sophisticated analytics for actionable business decisions, and thus have access to the

lucrative jobs in this new field.

Few schools offer Business Analytics as an undergraduate concentration. In the Bay Area, there

are only four schools offering a concentration/major in Analytics/Data Science. Clearly, the

breadth and depth of both new and old economy companies in the region indicates a market need

that Saint Mary’s could serve.

III. CONCENTRATION IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS SERVES THE OBJECTIVES

OF SEBA AND THE MISSION OF THE COLLEGE

The proposed BUSAD concentration in Business Analytics aligns with SEBA’s strategic plan of

advancing academic excellence and enhancing student success by developing new academic

programs with minimum cannibalization. This proposal is also consistent with the College’s

goals of raising academic profile and distinction – “Discovery in Dialogue” – and supporting the

student lifecycle – “Access to Success” – by developing opportunities for engagement and

intellectual sustenance through new programs.

This Concentration will draw on SMC’s liberal arts mission with its emphasis on critical thinking

skills. Scrutinizing big data to discern useful information requires minds that can identify what is

relevant and why. The proposed BUSAD concentration in Business Analytics will provide the

skills needed to mine the data by using first principles to recognize the nuggets of information

that will be useful for addressing problems, such as social-justice, in the world.

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Business Analytics is designed to be a student-centered concentration because it focuses on

enhancing students’ abilities, and guiding them to meaningful and sustainable employment. This

is consistent with SMC’s mission to develop the whole person, academically, spiritually, and

professionally.

The Concentration will also emphasize clear communication of the findings to various

stakeholders by preparing students to communicate effectively the problem formulation,

solution, and the course of actions, as well as to possess the skill set to influence others in their

organizations. Critical thinking and communication skills are the hallmarks of SMC’s liberal arts

tradition.

A. Competitive analysis

Since Business Analytics is a relatively new field, the market for an undergraduate concentration

is not very competitive. Only four Bay Area schools offer a concentration or major. The

University of San Francisco offers a Data Science major offered through its Mathematics and

Computer Science departments, but this program is theoretical and highly technical: it is not a

business degree and so we do not see it as a competing program. The degree by Devry University

is offered entirely online, so will not be in direct competition with our proposed degree. This

leaves San Jose State University and San Francisco State University as the head-on competitors

in the Bay Area.

San Jose State

University Lucas College and

Graduate School of

Business

University of San

Francisco

College of Arts and

Sciences

San Francisco State

University

Devry University

College of Business and

Management

Type Business Analytics

Concentration

Data Science Major,

with 3 concentrations:

Computational

Analytics, Economic

Analytics and

Mathematical Analytics

Concentration (BSc

in BA)

Online Business

Intelligence and

Analytics Management

degree specialization

Number

of

Courses

6 17 7 7

Required

Courses

1. Statistical

Analysis

2. Business

Analytics

Base Curriculum, 14

courses

Concentration, 3

courses

1. Managerial

Applications of

Business Analytics

2. Applied Business

Analytics

3. Database Concepts

in Business

Intelligence

4. Introduction to

Internet Analytics

5. Operations

Strategy

6. Operations

Analysis

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7. Business Analysis

Elective

Courses

Select four:

1. Supply Chain

Analytics

2. Soft Skills

3. Marketing

Research

4. Decision Making

Under

Uncertainty

5. Data Mining

6. Spreadsheet

Modeling

7. Data

Visualization

8. Simulation

Modeling and

Analysis

9. Analytic

Strategy

10. Introduction to

Business

Programming

11. Database

Management

Systems

Select four:

1. Data Analysis

with Computer

Applications

2. Computer

Simulation

3. Applied

Management

Science

4. Business

Forecasting

5. Data Mining

with Business

Applications

6. Quality

Management

7. Sustainable

Supply Chain

Management

Select three approved

electives.

B. Industry/employment trends

We are at the start of an era when analytics will be a key competitive advantage of organizations.

However, a McKinsey Global Institute report estimates that by 2018 the U.S. could face a

shortage of 190,000 data scientists and 1.5 million managers and analysts who have the know-

how to use the analysis of big data to make effective decisions. Added to these specialists, the

industry will also need over a million analytical managers who possess a specific blend of skills

in programming and database management, statistical analysis, and domain knowledge.

Similarly, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics expects management analyst jobs to grow at an

average rate of 19 percent over the next decade. Prior growth in demand for business analytics

jobs ranged from 50% to 500% as the figure from Indeed.com below shows.

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To address this demand, students who graduate with the proposed BUSAD concentration in

Business Analytics will provide employers with analytically trained specialists with knowledge

in the use of data and analytics to solve business problems, make informed decisions, and

effectively communicate the course of actions.

C. Student feedback

We presented the proposal to a Student Focus Group on October 30, 2015 and the SEBA Student

Advisory Board on November 3, 2015 to seek their feedback. Both groups unanimously

supported the Business Analytics concentration.

D. Business analytics careers

The job opportunities for graduates with data analytical skills are abundant as evidenced by the

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and McKinsey & Company. According to Computerworld’s

“Forecast 2014 Survey” business analytics expertise is ranked as the second most difficult skills

to find. The proposed Business Analytics Concentration is designed to meet this need by

equipping our graduates with business analytic skills needed to crunch huge data sets into

meaningful information to facilitate actionable decision-making.

The following are descriptions of three analytics jobs (from Indeed.com):

Business Analyst: As an entry level Business Analyst the individual will be responsible

for providing user support for the various applications developed by the Business

Systems Development team. This includes learning internal systems, answering user

questions, troubleshooting issues, testing new features, and managing ongoing

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enhancements to the internal applications. Additionally, the individual will make

recommendations on ways to utilize and leverage these applications across departments.

http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Kacee-Technology-Services-Inc/jobs/Entry-Level-Business-

Analyst-d9a4d97c8224ea5b?q=business+analyst+entry+level

Operations Analyst: The Operations Analyst is a key position in ZypMedia that helps

drive revenue and strategy for the company. A multi-faceted role, the ideal candidate will

embrace working in a fast paced environment and thrive at thinking analytically about

ways to solve problems as ZypMedia scales up. The analyst will interface with sales,

engineering and product teams to improve the existing product. The role is highly visible

throughout the organization and will give ideal candidates a great platform to grow and

be heard amongst leaders in the organization.

https://www.firstjob.com/jobs/1w1pyin_ydc2g/zypmedia-entry-level-analyst/

Quantitative Analyst: As a member of the team responsible for the supervision of Wells

Fargo & Company at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the individual will

work with other members of the Financial Resiliency Team to track and develop key

metrics and design analytical reports related to—but not limited to—liquidity risk,

investment portfolio risk, and performance measurement. Responsibilities relevant to this

position include working with large structured and unstructured datasets, utilizing data

visualization techniques, and developing and implementing analytical reporting that

enables supervisory decision making. This position requires effective collaboration with a

variety of subject matter experts.

https://frb.taleo.net/careersection/12l_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=425820&src=JB-10080

E. Number of additional sections needed

The proposed BUSAD concentration will require two new courses and two additional sections

for existing courses. Currently, there is only one section of BUSAD 137: Advanced Quantitative

Methods offered in the spring for our Finance concentration students. We will need to add

another section of BUSAD 137. We will also need to add one more section for the CS 21:

Programming I course which is offered every spring by the Mathematics Department.

F. Number of additional faculty and other resources needed

Although the Business Analytics Concentration will be housed in SEBA, the concentration is

interdisciplinary in that it will draw faculty resources from the Business Analytics Department

and the Mathematics Department. Currently the Business Analytics Department is in the process

of hiring a Visiting Assistant/Associate Professor with expertise in Data Science, who will have

a combine teaching load of six (undergraduate and graduate) courses per year.

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IV. CONCENTRATION IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS LEARNING OUTCOMES AND

STRUCTURE

A. Learning Outcomes

The Business Analytics Concentration is designed to fulfill three learning outcomes. Graduates

of this program will be able to:

1. Perform advanced quantitative analysis

2. Understand the connection between data analytics and actionable organizational decision-

making

3. Demonstrate proficiency with programming and software tools for analytics

B. Structure of the Business Analytics Concentration

The Business Analytics Concentration will consist of four courses that together fulfill the

concentration’s learning outcomes. There will be four required full-credit courses, which will

address and integrate the learning outcomes, as shown in the “Learning Outcome Map” below.

(The acronyms used are also shown below). These courses are drawn from SEBA and the

Mathematics Department.

Math 27: Calculus I is a prerequisite for all four of the required courses in the proposed

concentration. Therefore, students in this concentration are required to take Math 27 for their

math requirement.

Learning Outcomes (LO):

QA = Perform advanced quantitative analysis

AD = Understand the connection between data analytics and actionable decision-makings

TO = Demonstrate proficiency with programming and software tools for analytics

Unit Course Options Learning Outcomes

QA AD TO

Required BUSAD 137: Advanced Quantitative Methods √ √ √

Required CS 21: Programming I

√

Required BUSAD 138: Business Intelligence and Visualization √ √ √

Required BUSAD 139: Business Analytics & Big Data √ √ √

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C. Course Descriptions and Role of Courses in the Concentration

BUSAD 137: Advanced Quantitative Methods and CS 21: Programming I are existing courses.

BUSAD 138: Business Intelligence and Visualization and BUSAD 139: Business Analytics and

Big Data are new courses. These new courses will be offered primarily for business majors. They

will have a one-unit value and will include assessment methods consistent with existing SEBA

courses (e.g., midterm and final exams and class participation).

Business Administration 137: Advanced Quantitative Methods

Course description:

This course covers the theories and practices of diverse quantitative methods and procedures that

enable managers to judiciously use data in solving complex decision-making problems. Topics

include logistic regression, non-linear regression, time series analysis, decision analysis,

optimization, and simulation. Real-life examples and cases are presented from different

applications including finance, marketing and supply chain. The course involves an extensive use

of Excel and an introduction to SAS.

Prerequisites:

All lower-division common business core courses and Math 27.

Learning goals:

1. Understand the conceptual framework of quantitative methods in the decision-making

process.

2. Apply advanced statistical tools and techniques for quantitative analysis to support

conclusions drawn from empirical evidence in a variety of business situations.

3. Interpret the results of quantitative analyses and think critically about the potential issues

that arise when trying to draw conclusions from such results.

4. Use computer software to conduct quantitative analyses.

Computer Science 21: Programming I

Course description:

This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the role computer programming

can play in solving problems. Topics covered include top-down design with a structured

programming language, bottom-up testing, control statements, and structured data types. No

prior knowledge of programming is required. The class will use the Python programming

language.

Prerequisite:

Math 27 or permission of instructor.

Learning goals:

1. Appropriately use the vocabulary of computing and computer science.

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2. Demonstrate an understanding of the syntax and semantics of variables, assignments and

expressions.

3. Explain the purpose of existing code segments, modify existing programs and program

segments to meet new requirements or to eliminate semantic and syntax errors.

4. Document a program with written comments using both plain English and programming

terms so that a knowledgeable reviewer can immediately understand the logic of the

program. Select and use appropriate types and built-in data structures (int, float, bool,

string, list, and tuple) and control structures (functions, loops, decisions, and recursion) to

perform given tasks.

5. Perform basic algorithm design and analysis.

6. Indicate an intuitive understanding of program flow, memory use, and information

passing in Python. This includes storage, assignment, input/output and function

parameters/arguments.

7. Develop the logic of a program from problem specifications.

BUSAD 138: Business Intelligence and Visualization

Course description:

This course prepares students to develop systems to measure, monitor and predict the evolution

of key enterprise variables and performance indicators and present them in the form of usable

information supporting the business decision-making process. Students also learn techniques to

present analytical results visually and communicate the business insights revealed by analytics

effectively. Topics include data warehousing, business reporting and performance management,

visual querying linked multi-dimensional visualization, dashboards, geographical information

system (GIS). Structured Query Language (SQL) and Tableau will be used in the course.

Prerequisites:

All lower-division common business core courses and Math 27.

Learning goals:

1. Manage data for various business applications.

2. Discuss the process of formulating or refining business objectives, data selection, data

preparation, model selection and evaluation that lead to actionable business opportunities

and decisions.

3. Examine the implications of business intelligence and visualization on finance,

marketing, and supply chain.

BUSAD 139: Business Analytics and Big Data

Course description:

This course covers predictive modeling techniques. Students will also be exposed to a collection

of current practices and computer technologies used to transform business data into useful

information and support the business decision-making process. Topics include data mining, text

and web analytics, and big data strategies. RapidMiner will be used in the course.

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Prerequisites:

All lower-division common business core courses and Math 27.

Learning goals:

1. Gain a fundamental understanding of big data and learn how to apply complex analytics

methods.

2. Explore how predictive analysis can improve the business model and efficiency.

3. Examine the implications of analytics and big data analysis on finance, marketing, and

supply chain.

V. STUDENT POPULATION

Expected students include Business majors. We do not believe that there is much overlap with

our current BUSAD concentrations in terms of student target. The proposed SEBA concentration

in Business Analytics requires incoming students to possess sufficient aptitude for quantitative

analysis, and builds on their competence in analytical methods and tools. This is unlike our

current BUSAD concentrations that focus on Marketing, Finance, Global Business,

Entrepreneurship, and Digital Media and do not have quantitative requirements.

VI. RELATIONSHIP TO PRESENT COLLEGE CURRICULUM

The proposed BUSAD concentration in Business Analytics is unique in that it participates in a

newly developing field. Its particular focus is not available anywhere else on campus.

Furthermore, the Business Analytics Concentration provides Saint Mary’s College an

opportunity to get ahead of the curve by offering a much needed resource to the market in the

form of well-developed graduates who have been trained to extract value from data and analytics

for actionable business decisions.

VII. MANAGEMENT OF THE PROGRAM

The Business Analytics Concentration will be managed by the Business Administration Director.

The current Director is Kim Clark. The Director will advise students, address special action

petitions, answer inquiries about the Concentration, and lead Concentration reviews.

VIII. IMPLEMENTATION, TIMING, COSTS, AND ASSESSMENT

If the proposal is approved, we hope to launch the BUSAD Business Analytics Concentration in

fall 2016. The concentration is available to new incoming students. In addition, current students

will be able to switch from their current concentration and pursue the Business Analytics

Concentration if they fulfill all requirements. Since there is only two new courses, we anticipate

that the launch will not be difficult.

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The proposed concentration requires faculty time to develop the two new courses. Faculty will

be designated to serve as advisors for students enrolled in the new concentration. If the number

of students in the proposed concentration increases, the workload for oversight and advising for

the concentration may increase. In that event, workload issues for such faculty designees may

need to be revisited.

Due to its concerted efforts to obtain the AACSB accreditation, SEBA has developed the culture

of assessment. Although SEBA has successfully obtained the initial accreditation, the School

needs continuous assessment of all its programs to ensure the reaccreditation. The proposed

BUSAD Concentration in Business Analytics will be treated exactly the same as all other

undergraduate concentrations in that its learning outcomes will be assessed in an ongoing basis.

The Director of the Business Administration Program will lead the timely completion of the

necessary concentration assessments.

IX. LIBRARY RESOURCES (by Sarah Vital)

Overview

The following report summarizes current collection statistics for the business collection,

including books, serials, and online databases useful for the new area of emphasis proposed by

this new concentration. A review of gaps and areas of continued difficulty is included in the

conclusion.

Books and Videos

For the 2014-2015 budget year, minus the amount encumbered for continuing resources, the

business materials allocation is $24,333; this amount is used to purchase new monographs, e-

book packages, reference material, and videos in various topics to support the current

undergraduate and graduate Business Administration, Accounting, and Economics curriculum.

Because the topics within business are so varied, the collection is best examined according to

appropriate Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) instead of raw collection numbers.

The following table compares the SMC collection within eight key LCSHs related to topics

covered in a business analytics program with three universities with undergraduate

concentrations or minors this area.

LC Subject Heading SMC* CSU Fullerton1

Boston College2

Temple University3

1 California State University at Fullerton offers a Business Analytics concentration to their undergraduate Business Administration degree in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics.

2 Boston College offers an undergraduate “Business Analytics Co-concentration” in the Carroll School of Management

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Business Planning – Statistical Methods

8 (3) 15 8 11

Business Intelligence 73 (62) 287 169 191 Statistical Decision 22 (19) 275 286 174 Organizational Effectiveness 471 (386) 692 632 1.338 Data Warehousing 31 (27) 92 42 110 Data Mining 124 (96) 472 612 613 Commercial Statistics 62 (58) 229 384 122 Information Visualization 38 (29) 144 71 93 * Numbers in parenthesis represent the totals owned by SMC at the time of the resource review for the MS in Business Analytics proposal.

The holdings in Saint Albert Hall Library are obviously small compared to the much larger

schools with larger budgets and established programs. This comparison isn’t meant to judge our

collection so much as it is to provide attention to the areas of greatest need of improvement.

Since the proposal for the MS in Business Analytics last Fall, our collection has already

improved due to attention to our deficits while making new resource decisions. While we do

have a robust Interlibrary Loan program, Link+ cannot be relied on solely to provide reasonable

support for the proposed program, especially in light of increasing attrition of other participating

libraries and the concern that all of the CSU campus will withdraw from participating. All of

these subject areas must be strengthened in our own collection. Though already fairly large, the

current budget allocation for business alone cannot continue to absorb the needed funds to

strength the holdings in these subject areas. A one-time infusion of funds to bring the collection

to competitive levels would be helpful to ensure enough adequate resources for student research

and study right away.

Scholarly Literature and Electronic Resources

Periodicals

Peer-reviewed and scholarly journals are an area where the SMC Library stands out. SMC

currently owns or has immediate online access to many of the peer-reviewed, academic titles

recommended by Magazines for Libraries that cover subject areas such as business intelligence,

business statistics, and computer applications in business and management.

Title Print or Electronic holdings

International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining

No holdings

Journal of Management Systems No holdings Decision Support Systems 1995- present Journal of Competitive Intelligence and Management 2007-2008 Journal of Organizational Excellence 2000-present Journal of Business Ethics 1982-present Business Analyst No holdings

3 Temple University offers a minor in Business Analytics in their Fox School of Business and Management.

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Business and Society 1960-present Journal of Economics and Business 1995-present Journal of Business Research 1995-present Journal of Applied Business Research 1992-1998; 2009-present Journal of Business Strategy 1980-present Journal of Business and Economics Statistics 1983-2008 (rolling 5 year

embargo) Business Strategy Review 1990-present

Outside of those specifically recommended titles, over 11,000 additional business and economics

related titles are accessible electronically through one of the Library’s over 165 article and

dataset databases. Specifically, the “office and personnel management” and “industrial

management” are the most applicable sub-subjects in this area, providing nearly 500 titles

electronically to all members of the SMC community, including those outlined above.

The five titles currently not accessible can be reviewed for potential subscription pending

additional funding.

Indexes and Databases

As mentioned above, the Library subscribes to over 165 electronic databases. We break down

our numbers into major subject areas or disciplines, and 22 resources are classified as

“Business.” Of these, the following may be particularly useful for the coursework in and study of

business analytics:

For data and other special financial and statistical interest:

Mergent Online

Standard and Poor’s NetAdvantage

Morningstar Investment Research Center

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe

Key Business Ratios

Reference USA (includes OneSource)

Euromonitor Passport GMID

Data-Planet (also known as Statistical Datasets)

RAND Statistics

For periodical literature:

ABI / Inform (includes Wall Street Journal)

Business Source Premier

Business Abstracts (with full-text)

Econlit

Emerald

The Conference Board Business & Economics Portfolio

Data Sources

An area of concern for the Library collection’s ability to support an increase in focus on data

analysis, in this concentration and in the business modern, competitive business curriculum in

general, is our current lack of the most recognized data resources, such as CompuStat,

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Bloomberg, Statista, and WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services). These resources carry a

significant ongoing subscription cost. Our latest quote for a single Bloomberg terminal was

$35,000 annually; WRDS, including CompuStat data, typically costs about $50,000 annually.

Our current sources of data— including the Mergent databases, Data-Planet, Euromonitor, and

Morningstar—have been passable for surface level instruction and research in SEBA programs,

but more specific focus on deeper level statistics and data in programs from MS-FAIM to MS in

Business Analytics have revealed the need to provide access to these resources. Both the

University of San Francisco and Santa Clara University both provide access to WRDS (which

includes CompuStat) and Statista. Additionally, Santa Clara also offers a Bloomberg terminal.

Even with the Library budget increases in the last ten years, we cannot continue to absorb costs

of expensive resources without additional funding. Three lesser used resources (PROMT,

Mergent BondViewer, and ValueLine) were canceled to free funds to offset some of the cost of

new resources, but such cuts will be harder in the future. We are past the point of “cutting fat’;

the next cuts will be of valuable and useful resources. And the cost of these resources far

outweigh even cancellation of resources we already have.

To build a collection that adequately supports a competitive program, Saint Mary’s will need to

commit additional monies to funding these important resources expected by faculty, students,

and eventual employers.

Software

To this point, the Library has not purchased and administered standalone software. ITS and/or

departments fund the cost and ITS maintains the hardware and software updates needed for

specialized software (i.e., SPSS). Software for analysis (i.e., SAS Enterprise Miner, Business

Performance Experience) is undoubtedly a resource that will be needed for this program, so it is

important to clarify the Library’s inability to administer those resources as a general rule.

Information Literacy

AACSB Accreditation Standard 154 states that the learning experiences of the college business

curriculum should include such areas as communication abilities, ethical understanding and

reasoning abilities, analytic skills, use of information technology, and reflective thinking skills.

Business Administration is an information and data driven field. Searching for, retrieving,

evaluating, and using information sources is a vital learning outcome, and to this point has not

been formally or consistently met in the business curriculum. Business Administration majors

are beginning to see more formal approach to introducing information literacy skills in core

Business Administration courses. Any new courses to support this emphasis may benefit from

formal introduction to data resources and collection methods.

4 http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/business/standards/aol/standard15.asp

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The Business Librarian is available to be involved further in the development of assignments and

projects to best incorporate information literacy, and in creating alternative means of instruction,

such as online tutorials or learning modules. We can work together to find the best and more

seamless fit of this important learning outcome into the current schedules and curricula.

Conclusion

The largest concern regarding Library’s ability to support this emphasis, and the overall trend of

business research’s focus on data, is our lack of key professional data tools. Though many

resources remain on the “wish list” to bring us even with resources offered by our competitor

schools, pursuing access to WRDS with CompuStat is the priority. That resource would allow the

maximum amount of data accessible though not without a heavy price tag. The Library will still

need at least $50,000 annually to support this resource.

Additionally, the Library’s physical spaces and technological capacities are so constrained that

housing computers with the needed analytical software may be a challenge. A plan for how ITS,

the Library, and the School of Economics and Business Administration will work to address

these needs will be needed.

Regarding information literacy issues, the librarian will contact the department to discuss how

information literacy goals can be met in the courses.

X. CONCLUSION

As proposed above, because the impact on the College’s non-business course sections would be

minimal, if any at all, and there is a clearly demonstrated need to launch the Concentration in

Business Analytics to meet market demand and to provide our students with the quality

education we purport to provide as our first responsibility, the UEPC and Senate approval of the

new concentration is warranted.

November 1, 2015

Dear UEPC Chair and Members:

I am pleased to endorse the proposal for a new undergraduate concentration in Business

Analytics housed in the School of Economics and Business Administration. The

explosion of data and accessible computing has brought analytics to center stage,

particularly in the knowledge industries of Silicon Valley and greater California.

Despite the increasing demand for graduates who are proficient in analytics, we have a

scarcity of talented and qualified people. The Business Analytics concentration

provides Saint Mary’s College a unique opportunity to get ahead of the curve by

offering a much needed resource to the market in the form of well-developed graduates

who have been trained to extract value from data and analytics for actionable business

decisions.

The new concentration in Business Analytics aligns with SEBA’s strategic plan of

advancing academic excellence and enhancing student success by developing new

academic programs. This proposal is also consistent with the College’s goals of raising

academic profile and distinction as well as supporting the student lifecycle by

developing opportunities for engagement and intellectual sustenance through new

programs.

Since Business Analytics is a relatively new field, the market for an undergraduate

concentration is not very competitive. Only three Bay Area schools offer a

concentration or major. Consistent with McKinsey Global Institute report, industry

leaders perceive a substantial shortfall in the supply of analytically trained

professionals. Given this demand and supply gap, the proposed Business Analytics

Concentration aim to equip our graduates with business analytic skills needed to crunch

huge data sets into meaningful information to facilitate actionable decision-making.

I am pleased to support this proposal and ask for careful consideration and approval of

the Business Analytics concentration.

Sincerely,

Zhan Li

School of Economics and Business Administration

Dean

Saint Mary’s College of California

1928 St. Mary’s Road, Moraga, CA 94556

Tel. 925.631.4604 fax 925.376.5625

www.stmarys-ca.edu

Department name