TO: Beth Dobkin, Provost

FROM: Hisham Ahmed, ChairAcademic Senate

DATE: February 18, 2016

RE: Senate Action S-15/16-32CABusAd 111: New Venture Financing

At the February 17, 2016 meeting of the Academic Senate, the attached Proposal for Permanent Course Approval for BusAd 111: New Venture Financing was approved on the Consent Agenda.

The proposal was unanimously (7-0-0) approved by the Undergraduate Educational Policies Committee at the January 11, 2016 meeting.

This action was assigned Senate Action #S-15/16-32CA.

Attachment

cc: President James A. Donahue Dean Zhan Li

APPLICATION FOR PERMANENT COURSE APPROVAL: BUSAD 111 (NEW VENTURE FINANCING)

SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION September 29, 2015

(NB: BusAd 111 was part of the proposal accepted by the UEPC in May 2011 to reform the Business Administration major.)

1. School: School of Economics and Business AdministrationDepartment: Finance Course Number: BusAd 111Course Title: New Venture FinancingCourse Level: Upper Division

2. Justification for the Course: New Venture Financing covers methods and requirements for finding and managing funding to operate start-up and new venture businesses. Investors who provide funding through investment in start-up and new venture businesses span a wide variety of backgrounds, methods of operating, and ways of investing. Entrepreneurs operating start-up and new venture businesses must understand how to find, interact with, and meet the needs of these special investors in order to get the funding necessary to run successful businesses. Given the proximity to world-class entrepreneurs and new ventures in Silicon Valley, surrounding the Saint Mary’s campus, and the San Francisco area in general, it is important for students to have the tools necessary to start their own companies and/or work for existing start-ups or established companies with start-up operations.

3. Student Population: BusAd 111 is required for the concentration in Finance and the concentration in Entrepreneurship.

4. Relationship to Present College Curriculum: New Venture Financing is the perfect complement to other business courses in the Entrepreneurship and Finance Business Administration concentrations. Other courses cover the concepts and tools of how to run start-up and new venture businesses whereas New Venture Financing covers how to finance these businesses while also integrating the concepts of how to manage the financing with the concepts and tools covered in the other concentration courses.

5. Any extraordinary implementation costs: None. This course is best done (and has been done) in a computer lab as Excel spreadsheets used to solve finance problems and access to Moodle are used extensively.

6. Library Resources: See attached.

7. Course Credit and Grading Options: Students who complete the course will receive one (1) SMC course credit. Students and professor meet in class for three hours and fifteen minutes weekly throughout an academic semester. A minimum of two hours of student work will be expected for every hour of in-class instruction. Grading: Letter Grade.

8. Prerequisites: Lower-division common business core courses:

o BUSAD 10 Global Perspectives in Business and Societyo BUSAD 40 Statisticso ACCTG 1 Financial Accountingo ACCTG 2 Managerial Accountingo ECON 3 Micro-Economic Theoryo ECON 4 Macro-Economic Theory

The core curriculum math requirement BusAd 123 Financial Management

9. Course description for College Catalog: The study of raising capital for new ventures involving start-up businesses, financing a strategic unit or project within an existing company, and solving financial problems unique to small- and medium-sized firms undergoing rapid growth. Topics for this course include raising seed capital from venture capital, business angels, investment banking, and commercial banking sources; legal and regulatory issues that arise in new venture financing; exit strategies, and financial modeling to determine the financial health of companies and strategies for their growth. Prerequisites: lower division common business core courses, the core curriculum math requirement, and BUSAD 123. This course is offered in both fall and spring semesters.

10. Course Content: See attached syllabus.

11. Review of Experimental Offering: This course was taught several times in prior semesters by Professor Tom Cleveland. Adjunct Professor Kirk Knapp taught the course in the Spring 2015 semester. The course appears to be right on track for helping students understand the importance and value of knowledge taught in the course as

well as apply it to real world opportunities; several students in the Spring 2015 111 course were working on start-up ideas and/or companies simultaneously while in the class and stated that the course was helpful to them.

When Business Administration 111 (New Venture Financing) was first designed, all members of the finance, entrepreneurship and strategy faculty were involved. There is an adage in business “do it once, do it right”. By bringing together all of the constituencies we came very close. The course description as originally proposed was:

“The study of raising capital for new ventures involving start-up businesses, financing a strategic unit or project within an existing company, and solving financial problems unique to small- and medium-sized firms undergoing rapid growth. Topics for this course include raising seed capital from venture capital, business angels, investment banking, and commercial banking sources; legal and regulatory issues that arise in new venture financing; exit strategies, and financial modeling to determine the financial health of companies and strategies for their growth.”

The course description has not been revised because we got it right the first time.

The course learning outcomes as first proposed were:1) Knowledge of the ways that new venture capital can be raised.2) Ability to formulate strategies for financing new ventures.3) Knowledge of legal and regulatory issues for new venture financing.4) Ability to use financial modeling to determine financial health and strategies for

growth.5) Develop problem solving and critical thinking capabilities

The revised course learning outcomes are:1) Understand the typical venture fund structure and related venture capital

investment strategies.2) Understand the challenges of due diligence and financing strategies from venture

capital, business angels, and other sources.3) Be familiar with common organizational/legal issues that arise in new venture

financing such as initial capitalization, intellectual property, early stage equity incentive and compensation arrangements.

4) Employ different valuation models to analyze entrepreneurial firms.5) Be aware of corporate governance issues in the context of a start-up company.6) Review several financial models used for new venture financing.7) Analyze different exit strategies.

As you can see the learning goals have increased from five (5) to seven (7) and have been refined so that they are more concrete than originally proposed.

In addition SEBA has determined that there is a need for common learning topics within each course, in addition to learning goals. This guides all instructors, both ranked and contingent, in what needs to be covered, at a minimum, within the course.

The common topics developed for the course, through experience, are:1) Understand that “new ventures” is not just start-up entities but include strategic

units (usually independent) new ventures in an existing company, and, in particular, the new venture franchise company.

2) Understand thoroughly that new venture financing has become very tied to entrepreneurial ideas to get financing.

3) Understand that many forms of new venture financing exist and may apply more at various stages of the new venture development.

4) Investigate the role of Angel Investors in financing all stages of a new venture. How do Angel Investors consider financing, especially in contrast to Venture Capital Groups and Equity Investors?

5) Understand how Venture Capital Groups operate and how they make financing choices. How do the Venture Capital Groups rate themselves and how are the Group partners paid? Understand the role of Hedge Funds in making directly or indirectly new venture financing possible.

6) Follow live Angel Investor Groups and Venture Capital Groups in how they interview potential new venture financing and the role of their due diligence in deciding on financing a new venture.

7) Be aware of new venture needs such as common organizational/legal issues, protection of the new venture idea (patents, etc.), the proper preparation and presentation of a business plan, business model, and qualification/expertise of executive management to execute the business plan and business model.

8) What financial models (such as financial structure models) are used by new ventures to convince investors that the new venture idea is practical and achievable? What financial model can prove the exit strategy is possible by the promised time period?

We hope that this helps to explain what we have learned and how the course has evolved through the “experimental offering” period.

BUSAD 111 New Venture FinancingSt. Mary’s College of California: Spring 2015

Course Title / Time / Location / InstructorCourse: BUSAD 111 New Venture FinancingTime: Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays, 2:45 pm – 3:50 pm starting February 9thLocation: Garaventa 330

Instructor: Kirk O. Knapp, MBA, CFAOffice Hours: 2 pm to 2:45 pm before classes Mon-Wed-Fri [3d floor Galileo] or by appointmentPhone: 650-245-4547Email: kok1@stmarys-ca.edu kirkknapp@yahoo.comWebsite: Moodle

Course MaterialsRequired Textbook: Raising Capital: Get the Money You Need to Grow Your Business; Andrew J.Sherman, 3d Edition, American Management Association AMACOM, 2012: ISBN-978-0-8144-1703-4Optional Reading: Wall Street Journal - especially the ‘Marketplace’ and ‘Money & Investing’ sections

Calculation Tools:Required: Excel spreadsheets on a PC or Mac.Optional: a financial calculator, ideal choices are the TI BAII Plus or HP12C calculators.

Course Purpose/DescriptionThis course supports the study of raising capital for new ventures involving start-up businesses, financing a strategic unit or project within an existing company, and solving financial problems unique to small and medium-sized firms undergoing rapid growth. Topics for this course include raising seed capital from family, friends, and angel investors. Raising later stage capital from venture capitalists, private equity, business angels, investment banking, and commercial banking sources; legal and regulatory issues that arise in new venture financing; exit strategies, and financial modeling to determine the financial health of companies and strategies for their growth.

Required Prerequisites: All lower division Business Core requirements (All prerequisites must be passed with a C- or better) BusAd 123 “Financial Management” preferred.

Common Course Learning Outcomes:At the completion of this course, students will be able to: Understand the typical venture fund structure and related venture capital investment strategies. Understand the challenges of due diligence and financing strategies from venture capital, business

angels, and other sources. Be familiar with common organizational/legal issues that arise in new venture financing such as

initial capitalization, intellectual property, early stage equity incentive and compensation arrangements.

Employ different valuation models to analyze entrepreneurial firms. Be aware of corporate governance issues in the context of a start-up company. Review several financial models used for new venture financing. Analyze different exit strategies.

Instructional methods: Lecture, class discussion, case analysis, discussion of current events, and problem solving (in-class and as homework) comprise the instructional method.

Syllabus/Course Plan: The syllabus and/or which topics are covered and/or the order of topics may/can change; notification will be provided if applicable.

Pedagogy: We will cover the material in the course with lectures, classroom work, analysis of cases, and homework assignments. Class lectures will be focused on key concepts and the mechanics for working problems, with questions welcome. Classroom time will be divided between lectures and working on problems and/or cases. You should read and understand the descriptive material in the assigned textbook readings (plus lecture notes if available) and complete assignments before we discuss the concepts in class. Reading the chapters ahead of time will help you to ask good questions and make it easier for you to follow the lectures and work the problems that we do in class. There will be additional information in the textbooks that we don’t cover in class due to time constraints unless we find a specific need to cover it. Where useful and relevant, we will integrate discussion of real-world events with theoretical material, so keeping track of economic and stock/bond market events by reading books, articles on the web, and in the Wall Street Journal, etc. are strongly encouraged. Case studies will be either individual or group projects and chapter problem homework is individual, although you may want to converse with other students regarding how to work problems. Internet access will be useful for accessing investment information sources. You should expect to use a calculator and/or Excel spreadsheet(s) for class work, homework, case studies, and exams.

Assignments: Homework & QuizzesHomework: Homework assignments are used to reinforce learning after we have covered material in class or for preparation for upcoming classes. Homework will be assigned and provided as we go along in the course. Homework assignments are part of your course grade.

Quizzes: Multiple-choice quizzes may be used to practice and reinforce application of concepts either as homework in between classes or in class [may or may not be graded depending on the quiz].

Presentation: During the course, you will work on a team (or individually if desired or to fit your schedule) to analyze and present a solution to a venture financing case problem to be provided during the course. Information on how and when to do the analysis and presentation will be provided in class.

GradingGrading will be weighted as follows:Homework Assignments 20%Class Participation 10%Term Project 20%Midterm Exam 25%Final Exam 25%>= 92%-94.99% ‘A-’ >= 95% ‘A’>= 75%-79.99% = ‘B-’ >= 80%-85.99% = ‘B’ >= 86%-91.99% = ‘B+’>= 65%-67.99% = ‘C-’ >= 68%-70.99% = ‘C’ >= 71%-74.99% = ‘C+’Below 65% = FAIL

Guidelines for SuccessThe class atmosphere will be non-judgmental, open, and encourage creative academic thought. Students should feel free to express honest opinions, share relevant experiences, and build business relationships with others. Students should come to class with an open mind, heart, and inquisitive learning spirit.

Criteria for participation include quality and quantity of contributions, e.g. questions relevant to topics being presented / quantitative problems being worked on / homework assignments, questions that dig deeper into the concepts, and bringing up related real-life articles and experiences. In general, showing interest in the material by attendance, participation in discussions, asking good questions, and turning in assignments on time are a good baseline for class participation.

Specific Actions Complete assignments on time; read & study chapters before they’re covered

in class Be an active learner – take responsibility for your learning. The class is set up for you to learn the

material, so be proactive & take advantage of all the tools provided, from textbook readings, to ‘how-to’ guides offered in class, to questions you ask the instructor or other students.

Ask questions during presentations of key concepts as well as when working quantitative problems in class - questions demonstrate interest & will improve your participation score!

Interaction & knowledge transfer with other students both during and outside class is encouraged.

About the InstructorKirk Knapp is a member of the faculty in Graduate Business at Saint Mary’s College of California. He enjoys teaching and managing portfolios for clients and himself. After finishing his MBA at the University of California, Berkeley, he worked in Silicon Valley in strategic marketing [Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, Oracle, and two start-ups] and then went on to form his own independent investment advisory firm – Emerald Management - serving high net worth private clients while completing the CFP and CFA Programs. He also provides consulting to start-up companies and to investors in them.Mr. Knapp has a BSEE degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA in Marketing & Finance from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds the CFA Charter (Chartered Financial Analyst) and is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco.

Office Hours / Contact InformationThe easiest way to contact me is via e-mail at kok1@stmarys-ca.edu or kirkknapp@yahoo.com or by cell (650) 245-4547. If you wish to meet in person to discuss anything regarding the course, you can arrange ahead of time to meet me before class, after class, or at class breaks, or at my office in Moraga about 2 miles from the main Saint Mary’s campus on the Rheem campus.

Attendance Policy/Missed ClassesAttendance policy follows Saint Mary’s Undergraduate attendance policy.

Student Disability ServicesStudent Disability Services extends reasonable and appropriate accommodations that take into account the context of the course and its essential elements for individuals with qualifying disabilities. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student Disability Services Office at (925) 631-4358 to set up a confidential appointment to discuss accommodation guidelines and available services. Additional information regarding the services available may be found at the following address on the Saint Mary’s website: http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/sds

Academic Honor CodeSaint Mary’s College expects every member of its community to abide by the

Academic Honor Code. According to the Code, “Academic dishonesty is a serious violation of College policy because, among other things, it undermines the bonds of trust and honesty between members of the community.” Violations of the Code include but are not limited to acts of plagiarism. For more information, please consult the Student Handbook at http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/graduate-professional/graduate-andprofessional-student-handbook.

BUSAD 111 New Venture Financing: Topic Schedule

Date Topics

Week 01: February 9-11-13 [Read CHAPTER 1] Venture Financing Overview; Capital Formation

Week 02: February 16-18-20 [Read CHAPTERS 2 & 3] Legal Structure; Business Plans

Week 03: February 23-25-27 [Read CHAPTERS 2 & 3] Business Plans, continued

Week 04: March 2-4-6 [Read CHAPTER 4] Startup Financing

Week 05: March 9-11-13 [Read CHAPTERS 5 & 6] Bootstrapping; Private Placements

Week 06: March 16-18-20 [Read CHAPTERS 7 & 8] Commercial Lending; Leasing, Factoring,Government Programs

Week 07: March 23-25-27 Monday: Chapters 7 & 8, continuedWednesday: Review for Midterm ExamFriday: Midterm Exam

March 28 - April 6 SPRING BREAK

Week 08: April 8-10 NO MONDAY CLASS: [Read CHAPTERS 9 & 10] Venture CapitalWednesday: Midterm Exam Review, Chapters 9 & 10Friday: Chapters 9 & 10

Week 09: April 13-15-17 [Read CHAPTER 11] Venture Cap. continued & Initial Public Offerings

Week 10: April 20-22-24 [Read CHAPTERS 11 & 12] Initial Public Offerings

Week 11: April 27-29-May 1 [Read CHAPTER 13] Franchising, Joint Ventures, Co-Branding,Licensing

Week 12: May 4-6-8 [Read CHAPTERS 14 & 15] Mergers & Acquisitions & ResourcesDirectory, preparation/questions for Presentations

Week 13: May 11-13-15 Monday: Project PresentationsWednesday: Project PresentationsFriday: Review for Final Exam

Week 14: May 18-21 Final Exam

Review of Library Resources and Information Literacy

Update on Business Concentrations and new courses

BUSAD 10: Global Perspective in Business and Society ; BUSAD 110: Entrepreneurship ; BUSAD 111: New Venture Financing ; BUSAD 112: Small Business Management ; BUSAD 113: Business in the Digital

Age ; BUSAD 128: Consumer Behavior ; BUSAD 129: Global Marketing ; BUSAD 135: International Financial Management ; BUSAD 137: Advanced Quantitative Methods

The following report summarizes basic collection statistics for the business collection, including books, serials, and online databases. Pay specific attention to the report created in 2011 for the initial review of SEBA’s new concentrations, updates on how the collection has changed since are highlighted. An overview of gaps and areas on continued difficulty are included in the conclusion.

Materials Allocation

No additional funds were allocated to the Library budget specifically to support these new courses and program emphases, so changes in acquisition priorities and new resources to support the changes were all absorbed into the general allocation run every year. The allocation formula distributes the general budget dollars among about 30 subjects currently taught at SMC. This formula does recognize the high number of students enrolled as business majors, and that those students are moderate users of library materials and services (as captured in our many statistics), which results in currently the second highest single subject allocation for new books and media.

The past completed budget year (2013-2014) saw the most spent on business-focused resources yet.

Books / Media Standing Orders Periodicals Electronic Resources

TOTAL

$27,630.38 $38,945.99 $18,556.35 $97,120.57 $182,253.29

Note: Books/Media includes the purchase of and subscriptions to business related e-book and streaming video collections and not simply individual titles. This important distinction will be discussed further below.

Collection Statistics

The following are materials included in Albert— the Library’s online catalog— that are recorded as having Business related subjects.

Books- Print(includes circulating, reference

and storage )

Books- electronic

Periodicals Media(VHS & DVD /

streaming)

Electronic Resources

10,432 23,248 93 2,266 30

Books and Media

The totals above reflect the materials in the overall collection. New materials chosen for purchase are recommended / requested by the faculty or selected by the librarian from a variety of academic review sources. In the 2013-2014 fiscal year alone, we added 274 print books and 12,022 e-books to the business collection.

Electronic books are a key addition. Our subscription to the e-brary Academic collection greatly increased the number of overall titles related to business. Additionally, the new subscription to EBSCO’s eBook Business Collection and the purchase of the 2013 collection of Business Expert Press e-books— both paid out of the Business-specific funds discussed above— increased our electronic offerings by 8,000 and 59 unique business titles respectively.

With limited budget and extremely limited space, selection, purchase, and storage of that many new titles would be impossible in print. The electronic book packages were able to more than double our access to monographic titles in a single year.

Previously, video material was purchased title by title by request of faculty. The addition of our subscriptions to Alexander Street Press, Films on Demand, and Kanopy streaming video resources has increased our access to related video material significantly. These videos can be viewed anywhere at any time. Faculty can show the videos live in class to support instruction or have students view them via their course websites. Previously we had held 258 DVD and VHS titles related to business; the addition of 969 streaming titles last year has increased our access to video material by almost 800%.

These e-book collections, as well as a particular focus on strengthening the areas of these new concentrations, and adding streaming video collections have vastly increased the numbers in the subject areas examined in the previous report.

Keyword Books in

2011

Booksin

2015

Videosin

2011

Videosin

2015

Entrepreneurship 287 909 2 248

Venture finance 27 61 1 4

International finance 550 1245 5 78

Global marketing 65 220 4 74

Small/family business 378 1063 8 271

Quantitative methods 90 218 4 9

Digital business 52 371 1 56*

Consumer behavior 156 358 0 72

Globalization and (economics or business)

199 883 9 182

*a keyword search for “digital business” returned many false hits, so a subject heading search (Electronic Commerce) was substituted

Though, cautioning that many of these electronic packages (i.e, ebrary, EBSCO e-books, Films on Demand) are subscription services is important. We “lease” the content, and should the Library lose funding for these sources, the material will no longer be accessible.

Periodicals

Currently, we subscribe individually to 93 business-related periodical titles. The titles listed in Albert reflect only those titles and not the 11,449 additional business-related that are incidentally included in our subscriptions to licensed electronic databases.

Many of the most popular professional titles, such as Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, are available electronically, increasing 24/7 accessibility.

Electronic Resources

Prior to the new business concentrations being added, the Library had already begun to use strategic initiative funding to build up the electronic resource offerings, and business has been a large beneficiary. In just the last four years, we have added the following highly requested resources useful to business:

IBISWorld *

Morningstar Direct

Mergent Intellect

Mergent First Research

Business Source Complete *

Conference Board Business and Economics Portfolio *

EBSCO Business e-books

Business Expert Press (2014 titles only)

Cabell’s (Business & Economics section only) *

(Those marked by an asterisk are those specifically included as recommended in the previous review)

Software

An area of growth in electronic resources is datasets bundled with analysis software. Such products pose a challenge for the Library. We are limited with our physical and technological capacity to add workstation-based software and strongly prefer to add resources that can be IP authenticated and accessed “from the cloud.” However, we have one example of such a resource: the recently added Morningstar Direct, requested for support of the MS-FAIM program and other financial management courses, both undergraduate and graduate.

Loaded data and software products, such as Morningstar Direct are an area the Library will continue working with SMC Information Technology Services and the academic departments on to find workable solutions.

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 continue to be an area of interest in the modern business curriculum, and clarifying the Library’s inability to administer those resources as a general rule is important.

Library Web Pages

With the majority of business-related data and information moving to the digital world, the Library’s website has become the “front door” to the Library for these resources. The previous review for these courses included a recommendation from the former Business Librarian that the “Subject Guides” for Business be updated and re-organized to better highlight the resources. In the past two years, the page has up “remodeled,” and the changes have been met with great appreciation.

Currently, the Business Administration Subject Guide ranks third among the Library’s most visited subject guides. The webpage will continue to be updated and altered to make research as intuitive as possible.

Information Literacy Instruction and Reference

AACSB Accreditation Standard 151 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 one the Business Librarian is ready, willing, and able to assist with. In addition to the traditional guest lecture, 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.

A visit to a departmental meeting in the Spring of 2015 was helpful to present the faculty with information on the students’ previous research experiences and the gaps in the transitioning the students’ experience from the general resources they are used to to the business-specific resources they need for successful completion of assignments and they are expected to know and use in the post-graduation workforce.

A curriculum map was created to show logical points of information evaluation and research skills training, and suggestions were made regarding four specific courses in the business-core that in-person librarian visits or online instruction modules should be integrated. One of those courses is the new BUSAD 010, the business major’s first introduction to business-specific research and information.

I look forward to continuing to work with the faculty to implement a more formal “instruction schedule” that will benefit the students’ research skills in their classes and into their professional careers.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Library ResourcesTo this point, library resources are meeting the needs of graduate student research, and we are thrilled to offer access to so much professional and academic periodical literature. We’re additionally thrilled that so much monographic and video content is able to be purchased electronically and economically, increasing our collection size vastly beyond what our walls can hold and individual title purchase power can afford. But moving into the future, acquiring new continuing resources will remain a challenge.

Despite the College’s commitment increasing the Library's materials budget over the last 10 years in accordance to a WASC recommendation, the library budget is still limited and cannot meet all of the demands. This is particularly clear in business, where the resources requested are often very expensive electronic databases.

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

Based on use statistics and overall enrollment, Business Administration is allocated the second largest amount for monographs and annual purchases (behind only Education, which houses research intensive graduate programs and a doctoral program). Over half of that allocation (60%) is already committed annually to continuing resources to support the needs of the program. New ongoing subscriptions must come from this budget line and permanently reduces the amount of available funds for new books, reference books, and media.  Inflation of these large ongoing subscriptions is unpredictable and can cause further reduction in available funds. There is a tipping point nearly reached, after which almost no new books, reference books, and media can be selected.

As programs grow or focus changes and new resources are requested by faculty, we cannot continue to absorb costs of these expensive resources without additional funding. Two 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.

Yet, new resources continue to be requested and needed. For instance, faculty in finance are very anxious to have student experience and use CompuStat, a standard financial information and analysis tool. This resource, available through Bloomberg, has been quoted to us for $35,000 annually. Additionally, MSCI’s ESG Manager, the only available resource for researching environmental, social, and governance issues in companies and industries, is highly desirable for the increasing social justice focus of the SMC business curriculum. This, also, is an expensive resource, costing about $15,000 annually.

Information Literacy Another area of improvement is to better coordinate a scaffolded approach to information literacy instruction in the discipline, and to better delineate ways of teaching the research and information evaluation skills demanded by both AACSB and the College’s Institutional Learning Outcomes. As mentioned in this report, initial work has been completed in identifying logical and practical places within the core curriculum, but follow though and implementation is vital. Respectfully submitted,

Sarah Vital

Assistant Librarian

June 18, 2015