Management Dept. Gets Real-World Input from Industrial Board

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, NM, Jan. 13, 1999 -- Thanks to a recently formed advisory board, New Mexico Tech students enrolled in the university's management department are now afforded opportunities to get insights into today's business world that most other college students don't get until after they graduate and are hired on by companies.

Last year, Tech's management department formed its own industry advisory board, comprised of seven successful businesspersons who hail from middle-management ranks and higher of various small companies and major corporations.

"The industry advisory board has provided Tech students with a viable connection between what they're studying in the classroom and what they'll eventually be doing once they get into the workplace," explains Peter Anselmo, an associate professor with Tech's management department.

"The reason I wanted to form this board was to provide a connection between our curriculum and the outside world," Anselmo says. "We needed to know if a market actually existed for this unique degree.

"The content and rigor levels of our curriculum are very high," Anselmo continues. "This is something we knew even before forming the industry advisory board.

"Nowhere else do business or management students have to take the science and math courses that all Tech students take, and in very few places do they get the intensive content they get here in their department course," Anselmo says.

"And, as such, we really ask our kids to do some hard work in the course of their studies," he says. "But, I think that having an advisory board can only help with student retention. After all, students must be reminded that there are indeed rewards out there waiting for them when they finish up their four or five years here at New Mexico Tech."

Initially, the advisory board was set up to serve as an evaluation team to answer just such questions as, "Is there really a market for a Tech management degree?" or "Is the management program's current curriculum addressing the needs and concerns of high-tech industries?"

So far, the answer the industry advisory board has given in response to these questions has been an emphatic "Yes!"

Working largely through his own industrial connections, Anselmo labored for about a year to put together the industry advisory board.

He relates that his efforts have achieved what he calls "a good mix" in the makeup of the seven-member board: one person from the AT&T office in Phoenix; one from Intel Corporation in Chandler, Ariz.; another from United Airlines in Chicago; one from Albuquerque's PNM Electric and Gas Services; and yet another from Correa Enterprises in Albuquerque. Anselmo rounded out the industry advisory board by also recruiting two Socorro businessmen -- Paul Torres from Los Torres, Inc., and Richard Ritter, a certified public accountant.

"With the exception of the local guys, the people serving on the board are not the CEOs of the companies they represent," Anselmo points out. "Most of the board members are people who are on their way up the corporate ladder and, as such, are very well-versed in thinking strategically. In addition, all these individuals are in touch with all that is happening in their respective businesses on a day-to-day basis and therefore can offer informed advice to our students in matters pertaining to today's business world. . . . Our local board members also have further added some very welcome and needed insights into the board, particularly with regard to the importance of small businesses to the local economy."

When he started putting together the advisory board, Anselmo says he strove to first find people who were willing to listen to his ideas about the uniqueness and value of the management degrees offered at Tech and how Tech's management program could benefit with the addition of an industrial advisory board.

"And, a lot of the credit for getting this thing off the ground has to go to those people--like Ed Jeung of PNM--who were among the first ones willing to help out with this fledgling project," Anselmo relates.

"Since then, it's grown on its own. And, with the high level of enthusiasm shown by board members, along with more hard work, the industry advisory board promises to become a self- perpetuating entity," he adds.

The industry advisory board, for example, which initially had been scheduled to convene only once a year at New Mexico Tech, decided on its own accord to meet at least twice a year, during Tech's spring and fall semesters.

At last semester's meeting, the industry advisory board had "very favorable things to say" about New Mexico Tech bachelor of science degree programs in management and management of technology, Anselmo recounts.

"In particular, they spent a good deal of time scrutinizing our curriculum," Anselmo says, "and eventually pronounced it to be pretty much okay.

"Interestingly enough, members of the industry advisory board all emphasized that many employers in today's job market are not so much interested in the details of a department's curriculum as they are in a department's ability to foster certain skills in its students--skills such as problem solving, programming, quantitative analysis, and clearly communicating ideas . . . and also general 'people skills.'"

Board members also provided favorable comments to management department faculty such as "You're doing the right thing," as well as sage advice to management students such as "Get as much as you can out of your science classes" or "Develop job-seeking strategies and become aggressive in looking for jobs."

In that respect, having an industry advisory board also can serve as a great recruitment tool to entice more new students into Tech's management program, Anselmo says.

"We also can work on further developing student internships with the various companies which are represented on the board," he adds.

"With the additional help and advice provided by entities such as the industry advisory board, our students can only be better prepared to be leaders in their respective fields and active participants in New Mexico's economic development," Anselmo maintains.