Update 2:40 p.m.: During today's Board of Trustees meeting, Provost Cynthia Hughes-Harris explained that the School of Business and Industry has "had many, many years of success without accreditation."The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools does not require business programs to be accredited by any specialized body. Such distinctions are entirely voluntary.
Hughes-Harris said that the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) wants SBI to have more faculty with doctoral degrees.
SBI's founding dean, Sybil C. Mobley, designed a non-traditional curriculum that has a strong emphasis on professional development. She picked professional development faculty members mainly based upon their success in corporate America rather than their graduate training.
Hughes-Harris added that when Mobley applied for AACSB accreditation years ago, the organization responded to her with a rejection letter that "was almost a carbon copy" of what current Dean Shawnta Friday-Shroud just received.
FAMU will reapply in 2014.
Original story (6:03 a.m.): The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) has denied the FAMU School of Business' application for accreditation by the body. Less than five percent the world's business schools are granted AACSB accreditation. As of December 2011, 643 member institutions hold AACSB Accreditation. Overall, 43 countries and territories are represented by AACSB-accredited schools.
FAMU sought this specialized accreditation to cover it's bachelor's and master's level business programs.
Founded in 1974, FAMU's 37 year-old, the highly regarded business school has long stood out for its unique curriculum, which focuses more on practical experience than book-based studies.
Therefore, one of the biggest issues that would have to be worked out is how to save the professional development component of the curriculum.
SBI students enrolled in the five-year master of business administration program were required to complete, among other things, three internships to give them practical business experience. And employers have been attracted to the school's students because of their hands-on experience.
Without the AACSB seal of approval SBI hasn't lost anything and will continue to offer the same high-quality education it has in the past.
"SBI already has high quality programs....accreditation (if achieved) will provide external representations of those qualities on a global scale," said John Fernandez, president and chief executive of AACSB in 2009.
Fernandez said then that achieving accreditation is a process of rigorous internal review, evaluation, and adjustment and SBI is "well on its way."