September 13-14 - Nebraska State College System

FIRST YEAR REPORT TO THE
COORDINATING COMMISSION FOR POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
Peru State College’s Master of Science Degree
in Organizational Management
The Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education (CCPE)
requested a report be filed one year after legislative action supporting Peru State
College’s participation in the cooperative Master of Science in Organizational
Management program. This coordinated degree offered by each of the state
colleges was approved in 2006, with legislative action facilitating Peru’s ability to
grant this degree with an emphasis in entrepreneurial and economic
development occurring in April of that year. This report is to a) describe the state
of need and demand at the one year point, and b) confirm sufficient faculty
resources to offer the degree.
Need and Demand
To get a sense of the nature of the “need” for this program, the top 10
scholars in the program were contacted to write letters from their perspective on
the program’s quality and utility. Administrators received six letters in the one
week turnaround time allotted. These are attached. They clearly indicate
satisfaction with the program and they support the program’s unique relevance.
Discussions with all program participants over the course of the first year indicate
a wide variety of exciting potential outcomes as students begin to make plans for
required capstone projects. Student project intentions are in line with the original
vision for the program:
• Most students will be preparing detailed business plans and/or proposals
to improve local economic development activities.
• Several students are working on change proposals for large organizations.
• At least four students will be starting or improving non-profits (one of
which will be located in South America).
• A few students have unique project ideas involving grant applications.
• The remaining students are developing proposals to enhance community
college programming and are becoming more qualified instructors, with
particular capabilities in the area of entrepreneurship.
One interesting characteristic of the inaugural class of students is the small but
significant number of individuals who have entered this program having already
earned a graduate degree or who dropped out of another (out of state) graduate
program to pursue this one. These individuals indicated their interest was
because of the program’s unique area of emphasis.