Meeting & Agendas

Curriculum changes have now been completed and are correct in the online catalog.

We have seen the number of students in Real Estate increase slightly this past year. Go to our internal page at http://www.austincc.edu/mkt/internal to view charts on enrollments if you want to see the actual numbers. This summer the administration declared that all sections would need at least 18 students to make. This had a very negative impact on summer enrollments college-wide and I believe it will have an even greater impact on fall enrollments. I hope our adjunct faculty will voice their concerns through their organizations as I will be voicing my concerns with my faculty senate.

We no longer have dual enrollment with CE and have worked this past year to help our students understand the difference between the two. I think it has had a positive impact on our reputation and our program.

We now offer a free Exam Prep (Fall and spring) for any student enrolled in our Real Estate courses. Student feedback is very positive and our TREC pass rates are beginning to increase. If you want additional information please ask James Crane, our instructor for this class.

Curriculum changes have been completed and are now in the online catalog.

Why am I sending both Real Estate and Financial Management information out together? There is a reason. Earlier this summer I had a meeting with Dean Charles Quinn about the future of the Financial Management Department. Financial Management has not had any graduates in several years and the enrollments continue to decline. The recommendation from the Coordinating Board is to sunset this program. I think there are several really good courses in this program that are very valuable to our students. If the program is not allowed to continue in its present form then maybe there is a way to save parts of it. This happened with Fashion a few years ago and we decided to combine Fashion with Marketing. This meant we could still offer most of the Fashion courses and those students could still get a certificate in Fashion. I propose to do the same with Financial Management and Real Estate. Financial Management as a stand alone degree program would no longer exist but could be combined with Real Estate. In fact a couple of courses in Finance have the Rele rubrics. I believe this will strengthen both programs and save Finance. GIPWE only allows 14 credit hours to transfer so there will be Finance courses that will no longer be offered. I don’t think that’s a problem especially if you look at the courses we don’t offer and the courses that aren’t making. Initially it looks like what could be saved would be BUSA 1313, Investments – BUSG 1303, Principles of Finance – BUSG 1304, Introduction to Financial Advising – BUSG 1341, Small Business Finance – RELE 1324, Loan Origination – and add BUSG 1193, Special Topics in Financial Planning. This is still an area that needs some work. The Advisory Committees in Real Estate and Finance would be combined into one Advisory Committee as they were when we combined Fashion and Marketing. I really want your feedback about this important issue. Please send me your comments by August 29, 2011 and I will compile those comments and send them out to everyone for review and further comment. I want to thank you in advance for your thoughts and suggestions.