THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

 

TO:	The Honorable the Members of the Board of Regents
FROM:	Johanna Duncan-Poitier
COMMITTEE:	Higher Education and Professional Practice
TITLE OF ITEM:	Master Plan Amendment: Monroe College, B.B.A. in Health Services Administration
DATE OF SUBMISSION:	April 23, 2004
PROPOSED HANDLING:	Approval (Consent Agenda)
RATIONALE FOR ITEM:	Master plan amendment is needed to authorize an institution’s first program in a new discipline
STRATEGIC GOAL:	Goal 2
AUTHORIZATION(S):

 

SUMMARY:

 

Monroe College seeks approval of an amendment to its master plan to authorize the College to offer the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in health services administration at its Bronx main campus and New Rochelle branch.  Master plan amendment is needed because this would be the College’s first program in the discipline of the health professions. 

 

The Office of Higher Education has determined that the proposed program, if approved, would meet the standards for registration set forth in the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

 

Recommendation:  I recommend that the Regents take the following action:

 

VOTED, that the master plan of Monroe College be amended, effective May 18, 2004, to authorize the College to offer a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in health services administration at its Bronx main campus and New Rochelle branch.  This approval will be effective until May 31, 2005, unless the Department registers the program prior to that date, in which case master plan amendment shall be without term.

 

 

Monroe College

B.B.A. in Health Services Administration

 

            Monroe College proposes to offer an upper-division program in health services administration at its main campus in the Bronx and branch campus in New Rochelle.  The program will lead to the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree.

 

            The proposed program will provide students with comprehensive knowledge and skills and enable them to gain entry-level management positions in a wide variety of healthcare facilities.  The program will build on the College’s associate degree program in health office associate. 

 

            The major objectives of the proposed health services administration program are to provide comprehensive, coherent, and integrated educational experiences that prepare students to be effective and productive administrators.

 

Curriculum

 

            The proposed curriculum has been structured so that it will build on the knowledge of healthcare gained at the associate degree level and will provide students with an advanced understanding of the healthcare delivery system in the United States.  The program includes 24 major requirements and 12 credits in business electives. There are seven specific courses and one elective in the healthcare area and four in business.  They include Management in Healthcare I and II, Epidemiology and Public Health, The Continuum of Healthcare, Diversity in the Healthcare Workplace, Ethical and Legal Issues in Healthcare, Organization Theory, and Human Resource Management. The major area and business courses are complemented by 15 credits in general education and the liberal arts.  The proposed upper-division program requires a total of 60 credits. 

 

Admissions

 

            To be admitted to the program, students must have completed the College’s associate degree program in health office associate or an equivalent associate degree program from another accredited college, or substantial credits in appropriate course work at another accredited institution.  Applicants to the program must normally have a 2.5 GPA in their major area of study.

 

            Projected full-time enrollment in the first year is 60 students and 100 full-time students by the fifth year.           

           

Resources

 

            The College’s main campus occupies a total of 155,000 square feet of space in five buildings.  The College continues to make significant investments in equipment and technology.  Over the past few years, it purchased a college-wide computer system.  It is a fully integrated system that, combined with sophisticated telecommunications equipment, links the Bronx campus and the branch campus in New Rochelle.  The main campus has approximately 920 personal computers for academic purposes, or one computer for every five students.  Computers are located in classrooms, the library and Learning Center, labs, and the recently opened Internet Café.

 

            The book collection of the library at the main campus consists of approximately 96,000 volumes and receives 230 periodical titles.  In addition, the library provides access to four online databases including ProQuest, which indexes over 1,800 journal and newspaper titles, and Medline, which offers bibliographic references as a national healthcare database.  The library belongs to the Westchester Academic Library Directors’ Organization (WALDO) library consortium made up of over 30 libraries.

           

            A coordinator, four full-time faculty members, and six adjuncts will support the proposed program.  Degrees held by the faculty include the MPH, MD, DDS, and DPM.

 

            The Department’s fiscal analysis found the College in good financial condition.

 

Projected Need

 

            Significant job growth is anticipated in the area.  Based on data derived from the U.S. Department of Labor 2002 reports and the New York State Department of Labor data, the New York metropolitan region ranked as the second of the top 20 for total healthcare employment in 2001.  Employment prospects for health services managers anticipate growth rates of between 21 and 35 percent through the year 2010.

 

Planning Review

 

            Seven institutions responded to a canvass of all colleges in the New York City and Mid-Hudson regions.  One indicated support and five stated there would be no adverse impact on their institutions.  One college, New York City College of Technology (CUNY), raised objections, indicating that Monroe’s proposed program would target the same population as its BS in Health Services Administration.  However, the favorable employment prospects in the health service area for the New York metropolitan region suggest that a second program in Health Services Administration can be sustained.  Additionally, the two programs would offer students a choice between attending a public institution with an enrollment of over 11,000 located in Brooklyn or a proprietary college in the Bronx with an enrollment of about 5,500.  The Monroe program would also be offered at the College’s New Rochelle campus in Westchester County.