LIIEF Makes a $50,000 Donation to Stony Brook University!
LIIEF was pleased and proud to present Dean Manuel London of the Stony Brook University School of Business with a check for $50,000. This funding will further LIIEF’s mission to advance insurance education at Stony Brook, and will take us another step closer to reaching our goal of establishing an Endowed Chair in Insurance and Risk Management at the College. To all of our supporters who have helped make this gift possible, we thank you!
Stony Brook University’s College Of Business earns AACSB International Accreditation
By: Adina Genn, February 8, 2022, Long Island Business News
Photo by John Griffin
Stony Brook University’s College of Business has earned international accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, whose U.S. office is based in Tampa, Florida.
Earning the accreditation encompasses a multiyear process, prompting the schools that seek this designation to meet specific standards for each applicant, with the goal of creating the “next generation of great leaders,” according to the organization. These standards include “rigorous internal focus, engagement with an AACSB-assigned mentor, and peer-reviewed evaluation.”
The detailed process provides a focus on excellence in areas focused on strategic management and innovation; student, faculty, and staff as active participants; learning and teaching; and academic and professional engagement.
“Every AACSB-accredited school has demonstrated a focus on excellence in all areas, including teaching, research, curricula development, and student learning,” Stephanie Bryant, AACSB’s executive vice president and chief accreditation officer, said in a statement announcing Stony Brook’s College of Business accreditation. “The intense peer-review process exemplifies their commitment to quality business education,” she added.
On Long Island, several universities have earned accreditation, including the College of Management at LIU Post, the School of Management at New York Institute of Technology, the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University, and the Robert B. Willumstad School of Business at Adelphi University. At Stony Brook, once the College of Business was accepted as an applicant, the process to strategically grow its program while pursuing AACSB accreditation took about seven to eight years, said Manuel London, the college’s dean, who steered the process at the college.
Once the college had declared its objectives, it had to provide data over time to show it was achieving its goals. The process served as a “catalyst” that enabled the college’s leaders “to hold a mirror to ourselves” and be “accountable” to the college’s vision, serving the university and its students, said Amy Milligan, the assistant dean for Curriculum, Accreditation, and Student Services.
“It was a very holistic approach,” Milligan said. “We were a great business school before,” she said, but earning the accreditation serves as that outside validator that “confirms this for us.”
Stony Brook’s College of Business began to pursue the initial accreditation more than nine years ago, and was approved for eligibility in 2014. The college over the last decade has experienced a “transformation,” according to its leaders. As it sought growth, the college determined to hire and retain at least 24 doctoral level academic faculty. Over the last 10 years, the school grew from its 15 full-time faculty members, with only seven at the doctoral level. Today, the college has nearly 40 full time faculty members, 28 tenured and 37 PhDs.
“We now provide a wider range of programs and specializations in a variety of fields,” London said.
As the college grew, it met with leaders of industry, all the while keeping an eye towards accreditation, London said. And the hiring and developing of faculty was strategic. The college expanded the areas of expertise in accounting, marketing, finance and management. And the hiring emphasized diversity and inclusion. Of the full-time faculty, 55 percent are either women, underrepresented minorities or both. As the program evolved, opportunities in the business community began to grow as well, and the deans stayed ahead of the curve by looking to needs that would expand in the future while planning robust course offerings and interdisciplinary programs. This included coursework and programs in social media and consumer behavior, economics and political science, healthcare, real estate and risk management and other areas.
“This is where students get jobs,” London said.
And with the new accreditation, the university’s leaders say the college has an additional tool in its recruitment efforts. “The College of Business earning its accreditation enhances the brand of the program, which will allow us to continue to retain and attract industry partnerships searching for great Stony Brook talent,” Kimberly Joy Dixon, director of Employment Engagement & Diversity Recruitment at the university’s career center, said in a statement. Strategically, the career center “has collaborated with the College of Business to bring in employers to assist with career prep including classroom presentations, case studies/industry projects, and special programming with student groups,” she added.
Stacey Finkelstein, an associate professor of marketing, said that the accreditation serves as a recognition of the college’s “excellence in research and teaching, for providing experiential learning opportunities for our students that allow them to succeed in the next stages of their careers, and for our commitment to engaging with leaders in the local business community and leaders in the region more broadly.” Christie Comunale, whose roles at the university include serving as research professor of accounting, said that the accounting program has transformed over the years from virtually unknown to a department where students are “heavily recruited.”
“It is now the norm for the Stony Brook accounting student to receive multiple accounting internship and career opportunities from the private and public sectors including international, domestic, regional, and local public accounting firms,” she said.
And the process of earning the accreditation seemed to foster growth at the college. Comunale described it as multi-step. “This transformation is the result of many things including the currency of Stony Brook University‘s accounting curricula, which provides our students with the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in the profession,” she said.
She credited too, the college’s accounting faculty, “a terrific blend of accounting professionals and research-oriented accounting faculty,” she said. Other developments included the college’s launching of the Accounting Society, bringing in accounting professionals; a dedicated career center; and opportunities for accounting students to participate in community service and outreach activities. Earning AACSB accreditation, she said, “is just the beginning for Stony Brook University. Our goal is to become a nationally recognized, flagship accounting program and we are well on our way.”
I-Day 2021 was a great success!
The Long Island Insurance Education Foundation (LIIEF) was pleased to welcome professionals from 18 different insurance companies and organizations, along with dozens of Stony Brook University business students, to our October 27th event. Highlights of the day included our seminars, the first on Design Thinking and Customer Behavior, presented by Tiffany Florenz, VP of Customer Experience at NYCM, and the second on Climate Change and its Impact on Insurance Rates and Availability, presented by Steve Bowen, Managing Director and Head of Catastrophe Insight at Aon. Panel discussions focused on the state of the insurance industry and perspectives from Stony Brook alumni in the insurance field, along with a networking dinner, rounded out this great event.
Thank you to all of our panelists and presenters for participating, and thank you to our generous sponsors for making the event a success. A special thanks goes out to:
Event Sponsor
Kingstone
Cocktail Sponsors
Aon
NYCM
Seminar Sponsors
Interboro /UPC
Merchants Insurance Group
Dinner Sponsors
Borg & Borg
CNA
Long Island Chapter of the CPCU Society
The success of I-Day and the generosity of all of our supporters will help LIIEF advance its mission to strengthen and grow the insurance industry by developing insurance and risk management classes at the Stony Brook University College of Business. Ultimately, we hope to achieve the goal upon which we were founded, the establishment of an Endowed Chair in Insurance and Risk Management at the College. All of these efforts will help us to introduce students to the opportunities that abound in the insurance field and attract the talent that will carry our industry into the future.
Thank you again, and we can’t wait to see you at next year’s I-Day!
SBU’s New Risk Management and Insurance Club Attracts 132 Members!
LIIEF is pleased to share that the Insurance and Risk Management courses offered the last two semesters at the Stony Brook University College of Business have been a success. In fact, interest has grown among students to the point that a student has created a Risk Management and Insurance Club, which already boasts 132 members! Click below to read the article from the Stony Brook University News:
This is an incredible milestone in LIIEF’s efforts to advance insurance and risk management opportunities for Stony Brook students. More classes are being developed and new events are planned for the coming year, including the launch of a new College Mentoring Program. Mentors are needed!
Mentors needed!
Consider sharing your expertise with a student interested in a career in insurance and risk management. Register today!
LIIEF Board Member Published in The Demotech Difference
Check out this article about the importance of insurance education written by LIIEF Board member Robert Schmid, Vice President/Branch Manager for CNA’s Long Island office. This article first appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of The Demotech Difference.
Click here to read the article in The Demotech Difference
LIIEF Featured in Long Island Business News!
