We, at Augusta University’s Hull College of Business, are extremely proud to hold the most prestigious accreditation for higher education schools of business (held by only 5 percent of all such schools worldwide!).
We are accredited by the Association to Advance College Schools of Business, known familiarly as AACSB International. Every five years, AACSB-accredited schools, such as AU/Hull, go through a Continuous Improvement Review (CIR), based on AACSB’s Accreditation Standards, which were most recently updated in 2020. Since we just went through our latest CIR in October, these standards are at the top of my mind, and one of the newer areas of emphasis in these standards is for the business school to demonstrate a positive societal impact.
While this is important for all AACSB-accredited business schools, it is particularly important for Hull College, as Augusta University is also striving to achieve a Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, a classification held by only 361 institutions nationwide. This classification recognizes “collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.”
Much like AACSB’s emphasis on positive social impact, the goal of Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is to positively impact an institution’s community.
While it is only recently that the AACSB standards emphasized positive societal impact, Hull College has been actively engaged in such efforts for many years through its curriculum, research, and activities with and in the community. In recent years, we have updated our curriculum to better meet the needs of the local and state economy.
In particular, we created an undergraduate concentration in Healthcare Management to address the need to reduce costs and more effectively deliver healthcare. We are about to launch a similar concentration in our MBA program. In a community such as ours in which we have three health systems, this is an important focus for our workforce development.
Our research has also focused on improving healthcare, public health, and improving the economy of our local area. Our faculty have worked with faculty on our Health Sciences campus to conduct such health-related research, while also working with local entities such as the Savannah River Site (SRS) to understand its economic impact. It was amazing to watch our faculty quickly conduct important research related to COVID and its impact in order to support local economic recovery.
However, our most visible contributions to society come through our co-curricular and extra-curricular programs and events held for both our students and the local business community.
For instance, we provide the annual Blanchard Distinguished Lecture Series in Ethics. Each year, we bring to campus a senior person whose organization is well known for its ethics to provide our students and the business community with important perspectives on behaving ethically. Our classes and student clubs also regularly conduct fundraisers for non-profits, the underprivileged, the military, and veterans.
We are also very proud of two particular programs that are positively impacting our community. In conjunction with ADP, we conduct a Women’s Leadership Academy (WLA) for AU female undergraduate students to provide them with the skills, confidence, and network to eventually lead organizations. Women are not well represented in the upper ranks of businesses or other organizations, and this program is meant to help improve that representation.
More directly in our community, we are proud to be participating for the second year in a row in the Jessye Norman School of the Arts “J-Tank” program, in which we help mentor households of students of the school as they begin to build small businesses. We participate in the J-Tank pitch competition and continue to coach these businesses to help them grow.
As you can see, Hull College is already well poised to support AU’s aspiration to be a Carnegie Community Engagement Classification institution. However, we are by no means, the only AU college in that position. Every AU college contributes to this community through medical and dental care from our health sciences colleges to supporting our area’s cyber mission through our School of Computer and Cyber Sciences to our College of Education and Human Development’s Literacy Center, to just name a few.
While it is nice to be recognized by AACSB and the Carnegie Foundation for our societal impact and community engagement, we at AU and Hull College are motivated not by that recognition, but by demonstrating our gratitude to this community for all of its support throughout the years.
This is a great community that provides committed support to this institution through its time, talent, and treasure which is necessary for AU to flourish. So, it is essential that AU does the same to insure the community flourishes as well.
As a local business, I know that you feel the same way about your community. There is a symbiotic relationship between local businesses and its community. Local businesses, both large and small, in Augusta and the CSRA, are more invested in their community than anywhere I have ever lived.
During this season when we should be most grateful, there is no better way than showing our thanks than by positively engaging and impacting our community. Keep up the great work, Augusta, and Happy Thanksgiving to all!