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YSU Dean's Vision Is Becoming a Reality
From Our Print EditionBy Dennis LaRueThe architecture of the next building that houses the Williamson College of Business Administration will reflect Dean Betty Jo Licata's vision of what Youngstown State University's business school should be.No architect has designed the structure for which she is working to have ground broken in YSU's centennial year, 2008. Nor has a site been chosen although it's likely to go up between West Rayen Avenue and West Wood Street, slightly south and just west of where the college sits between Lincoln and West Rayen avenues.As Licata sees it, the Williamson College building should be much more than a structure with classrooms for students and offices for faculty. "We want to build more bridges to the business community," the dean says. "We want to be even more of a resource to the business community. And more accessible." To that end, the new building would offer several conference centers where businessmen and women can meet with each other and Williamson faculty to discuss areas of concern, where students can meet business leaders and where the YSU business college can host academic conferences that professors from other universities attend.The conference rooms would also provide meeting spaces for public forums. And the new building would offer reserved parking for businessmen hosting or participating in conferences so they can easily and quickly enter and leave.The new building, tentatively to have 200,000 square feet of floor space and cost $20 million, would also offer team rooms where both undergraduate and graduate students could easily meet to prepare class projects, and study spaces for Williamson students. The classrooms in the new building, unlike most in Williamson Hall, would have windows. "Every classroom should have PowerPoint," Licata states, "and Internet access." Business graduates will take jobs where they'll be expected to prepare and make presentations, she says. Helping upper division students learn the art of the presentation will be cameras that videotape their efforts.Since her arrival as dean nearly a decade ago, Licata has worked to improve the quality of education Williamson students receive, to have that quality recognized, to have the Williamson faculty devote more of their efforts to research and intellectual contributions, and to interact more with the business community.Scott R. Schulick, then a candidate, was on the search committee who recommended that Licata be hired. Today a vice president of Butler Wick Trust Co. and a YSU trustee,Schulick recalls how impressed he and the committee were. "The way she manages the college," he says, "exudes professionalism. She sets a great example for her students -- she's well-respected. She's unflappable. She's focused on maintaining and improving quality."When she arrived in 1995, Licata found a solid foundation on which to build, she says. Her foremost priority was having the AACSB International Association for Management Education accredit Williamson College. Her five years as dean of Gannon University's business school during its quest for accreditation, Schulick says, recommended her highly.When the Williamson College received accreditation in April 2000, Licata observed, it was "an important external validation of the quality of our students, faculty, programs and services and alumni." The accreditation was the result of former YSU President Leslie Cochran's goal of having each school within the university pursue the highest accreditation available and, she recalls, "We had most of the elements in place here. It was in the third year of candidacy when I arrived. I was hired with the specific charge of gaining it. We did it with no new resources. "We organized our resources and documented the quality that had existed here for years."Perhaps the greatest benefit that AACSB accreditation provided was making it easier for Williamson to recruit the caliber of faculty it sought. "It's a competitive job market," Licata states. "There's a shortage of Ph.D.'s in business. AACSB accreditation was critical to our ability to recruit."Williamson College did not hire any new faculty between 1995 and 2000 but has since hired nine, she says, and will conduct a national search for another six, five to replace retiring professors plus a new hire in management information science. Fifteen new faculty would represent a 40% turnover, she notes.The faculty she hires, Licata says, "must be strong teachers with a track record in research." Ideally, they will hold doctorates in business administration from AACSB-accredited schools. She also wants professors willing to "interact with the business community, maybe providing consulting services."Such consulting services should not be limited to the business community (which often pays for them), she believes, but to the community as a whole (which more often does not). Licata herself sits on the boards of the Humility of Mary Health Partners, Mahoning Valley Labor Management Council, the Better Business Bureau of Mahoning Valley, National Association of Purchasing Managers Youngstown District Inc. and Youngstown Playhouse, still getting back on its feet financially, and is YSU's representative on Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Consortium.She also sits on Junior Achievement of the Mahoning Valley's board and has been an active volunteer. And she has been one of the biggest backers of Ohio Business Week which each summer sponsors a week-long summer camp at YSU for high school students from across Ohio."She's committed to our community, not just the business community," says Bruce Sherman, owner of Sherman Creative Promotions Inc., Boardman, who graduated from YSU's Williamson College with a B.S. in accounting. "But she's always forging relationships to the business community.She's always seeking ways to connect."Sherman points to Licata working with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber in selecting the Fabulous 20 each year (she collects and tabulates the data, keeping the candidates' financial information in confidence), initiating the Williamson alumni awards presented each YSU Homecoming weekend, and work with JA.Licata is "committed to her students," Sherman says, and works tirelessly to acquaint area high school students with YSU's business programs. "She's always seeking ways to showcase Williamson," he says, "and put in the extra effort."He tells this story. "I lost a bet. There was a fund- raiser [on campus] and I said she wouldn't get in the dunking booth. Well, she did and the students threw balls that hit the button" that dropped Licata into the pool.In building bridges to the business community, the dean has spearheaded the Williamson symposia, Sherman points out. Business leaders (sometimes Williamson alumni) from across the country take a day to speak to YSU classes. And Licata always arranges a breakfast where business leaders can meet these speakers."I've been with her in meeting after meeting," says John Donchess, shareholder in Packer Thomas & Co. and head of its tax department. "What strikes me is how results-oriented she is. She demands results." He praises her role in developing YSU's accounting program. "It's right up there," he says. "She had Pete Woodlock named accounting [and finance] department chairman."And Donchess sees the choice of David Stout to hold the endowed Andrews Chair of accounting as a coup and credits Licata for creating the environment that persuaded him to come to YSU.Licata is "focused on academic quality and she gets involved in alliances and networking with [that goal]," Donchess says. "She challenges the faculty to excellence, not just the book stuff, but to get involved and maintain relationships with the business community."Quality of life is paramount to attracting and keeping business here, the dean states. "We must continue to develop the quality of life to attract jobs," she explains. "Employers look for it."As part of an urban university in the midst of a still highly industrialized region, the Williamson College sits "in a perfect environment," Licata says, to put its students at the front lines of business.If a business major hasn't held at least one internship before graduating, it doesn't reflect well on the student, she says. "Employers look for it [on graduates' resumes]," the dean says, and the Williamson College's outreach program has put an internship within reach of every student.Indeed, one of Licata's causes is directing interested business majors to the non-profit sector through American Humanics', based in Kansas City. American Humanics presence at YSU, including internships, has been guided by marketing professor Jane Reid since its arrival three years ago."Interns earn [academic] credit," the dean says. "We hope they're paid. We tell students they must make time [to hold one]. College is much more than just taking classes. It's also about building leadership management skills."Licata runs the Williamson College by consensus. "There's more consensus building in higher education than other business environments," she has found. Williamson faculty, as are those at other accredited business schools, are well-informed, self-motivated and confident in their pedagogy and research.Like most engineering professors and unlike many professors in, say, the college of arts and sciences, business professors can more easily leave for jobs in private industry. "The majority of [business] faculty are highly educated free agents," she says, who would rather teach and research.To that end, she provides "reassignment time for scholarship, not release time," so they can publish papers and write books. At the beginning of each school year she meets individually with her faculty to review their goals -- they set their own goals -- and monitors their progress throughout the year.She also spends as much time as she can with students. Licata makes it a point to visit each freshman class to discuss what they can expect during their time at YSU and what awaits them upon graduation. "I work to be as available as I can," she says, "and to provide as much support as I can, financial and moral, to the students."She wants Williamson graduates, both undergraduate and M.B.A.'s, to be leaders whether they remain here or go elsewhere, including overseas. To develop their talents, Licata has developed a "student leadership council of 30," independent of YSU's Student Government, which meets to discuss students' concerns and solicit their views on where the college should be headed.Contact Dennis LaRue at [email protected]"