A Message from the Dean

Dear friends,

Fall 2019 marks the launch of The Next Carson Coug (TNCC), our biggest undergraduate curriculum revision in over 25 years. The new program will move us closer to our goal of becoming the first choice for undergraduate business education in the Pacific Northwest. Ultimately, TNCC will enrich our state by producing a new generation of ethical and collaborative business leaders committed to creating opportunity for others.

The Next Carson Coug will ensure that students in all majors graduate with key skills and the ability to create value by:

• Acting ethically and professionally
• Making theory-based and data-driven decisions
• Identifying, assessing, and initiating opportunities to create value
• Gaining a global business perspective; being sensitive to and respectful of cultural differences
• Communicating clearly and persuasively, both orally and in writing
• Leading a team and acting as an effective team member

In this issue you’ll read some great things about our students. The success stories featured here provide a preview of the kinds of things we will be delivering to all our Carson Cougs as we move forward.

In our cover story, college leaders Suzi Billington and Tom Tripp explain in detail how faculty are creating new undergraduate courses and highly interactive, in-class experiences Carson Cougs will thrive in. Our Next Carson Coug section highlights student success stories such as Christine Sizemore, who overcame a significant lack of confidence to become a model Carson Coug with the communication skills that landed her a presales engineer position at Dell Technologies Inc. Isaac Weil’s story has a similar thread. Weil began college believing he would “just get by” but grew into an exemplary Carson Center student employee who learned to value himself and create value for others.

Our Boeing Scholars story illustrates business students working in interdisciplinary teams to create valuable solutions for some of Boeing’s most pressing problems, such as growing coral for carbon offsets to support the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts. The story of our hospitality students who won a prestigious wine label competition also demonstrates our emphasis on teamwork and leadership.

TNCC will add new courses to introduce freshmen and sophomores to business studies, and students will declare a major at the end of freshman year rather than at the end of sophomore year. With an earlier exposure to the college and our faculty, students will be better prepared to excel in their business major and to earn summer internships before graduation. We are aiming to reduce introductory class sizes from an average of nearly 200 to approximately 70 students per class, allowing our faculty to reduce their reliance on lectures while expanding hands-on learning experiences.

Many of you, including Phyllis Campbell and Ed O’Brien featured in this issue, have invested generously in the success of our students. To sustain our progress, we will need your continued support to deliver on the promise of The Next Carson Coug. With that support, we will build students’ technical acumen as well as the professional and “soft” skills that will allow them to solve real business problems.

I look forward to working together with you, our students, and our faculty to change the face of business education through The Next Carson Coug.

Go Cougs!

Chip Hunter
@ChipHunterWSU