Council of 100 links cal state, Bakersfield, business leaders - B2C

Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, Nov-Dec, 2000 by Karen Singer

A few months ago, a group of leading local business leaders meeting at California State University, Bakersfield, heard economics professor Mark Evans talk about his department's efforts to compile databases of statistical details on the area, and about a school magazine containing some of these statistics. The presentation sparked lively discussion about how the entire county and region could benefit from using databases and Web sites with this kind of information.

"Talk about building and consolidating the databases at the university has grown directly out of the meeting," Evans said, adding a plan is now under way to do just that. Moreover, subscriptions to the magazine got a boost, and Evans and other economics faculty members received offers to serve on regional task forces, and to take part in consulting projects.

The positive feedback is precisely what university administrators had in mind in 1994, when they set up The Council of 100.

Conceived as a means to forge a link between the campus and the community, the council is "a way of making people in our business community aware of the quality of our programs and the people associated with them," Michael Chertok, vice president for university advancement, said. "And that's important for us, as a relatively small regional comprehensive university."

CSUB's effort to establish direct ties with its business leaders is part of a growing nationwide trend for universities to seek out and form alliances and partnerships with their communities.

These kinds of informal meetings between business leaders and academia have been going on for many years, said University of Vermont President Judith Ramaley, who has written about the importance of university and community ties. Ramaley recalls attending similar breakfast get-togethers in the 1980s in Portland, Ore., aimed at achieving 100 percent graduation from high school.

"The idea of community partnerships began to emerge in the late 1980s, and is being driven by two forces," Ramaley said. First, is "concern about citizenship and social responsibility," along with the idea a campus can instill those values in its students.

"The second factor is the workforce and community development," Ramaley said, pointing to the growth of programs, some government-based, which are providing funds for post-secondary institutions to work within their communities.

The Council of 100 concept grew out of discussions by a committee at the California State Bakersfield Foundation, which funds the project.

"We talked about how to get more people from the community involved, and decided to bring a group of leading business people here four times a year, and expose them to some aspects of the university," Chertok said.

Council members are a diverse lot, chosen mainly from business leaders, with a smattering of representatives from non-profit groups and government agencies. Most are at least 30 years old.

Each quarterly meeting lasts about an hour and a half, and features lunch and a presentation by faculty members or, occasionally, students. Over the years, presentations have covered a wide variety of topics, ranging from math, economics, and geology to music, literature, and fine arts--and have become a way to showcase the university's educational resources.

A discussion of research projects aimed at providing solutions to current agricultural problems, for example, introduced a new CSUB program offering an agricultural emphasis in its biology degree.

"This showed we are offering an innovative program that has to do with what farmers need in the 21st century, not just a traditional program where students learn how to grow crops and integrated soils management," university spokesperson Mike Stepanovich said.

Similarly, a council meeting in which management professor Moshen Attaran discussed the societal impact of technology proved a timely way to mention CSUB was constructing a new $14 million business school, which will have a business development center actively involved with local companies.

"One of the objectives of every university is to serve the community," Attaran said, adding the Council of 100 meetings are "an excellent vehicle" for CSUB to accomplish that goal.

Attaran acknowledged it sometimes may be difficult to measure the direct effect of council meetings, but said, "as long as business leaders know we are there and moving forward, it definitely helps the university."

Some presentations, however, do lead to tangible results.

After Attaran's presentation on how new technology, including the Internet, is changing the way we do business and educate people, State Farm Insurance asked him to deliver a lecture on management training to 75 middle- and high-level managers. He accepted the offer, which he said "was very well received."

John Pryor, chairman of the board of KIA, an insurance brokerage firm, points out many of the Council of 100 meetings might be "mind-broadening but they don't necessarily relate to what we do in the business world.