Sean Reid, Jason Muenzen and Rasoul Rezvanian
This paper aims to provide students with a career edge, business students require more than concepts and calculations to be successful in their future career. They require…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide students with a career edge, business students require more than concepts and calculations to be successful in their future career. They require professional skill sets, mentors, relationship guides and as much real industry experience as they can gather before graduation. This study sheds some light on how a small business school (SBS) in a nonprofit private academic institution (NPAI) located in an isolated rural area of the USA has been able to tap its strong alumni relationships to provide mentoring and experiential learning opportunities to students using its student-managed investment funds (SMIFs) as the vehicle. Although this study uses a small, geographically isolated institution, the authors believe that the approach taken by this particular school can be replicated by any academic institution that strives to enhance student learning experience by promoting mentorship and experiential learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This study starts with a brief introduction (Section 1) and a short review of literature (Section 2) to highlight the numerous benefits of alumni engagement and student mentorship. Section 2 shows institutional background on the NPAI, the SBS and the SMIF. The major part of the study starts with a discussion on the set of rules to guide in the construction of a student-alumni relationship framework that could be easily modified to the unique characteristics of the institution. Next, the role and responsibility of the investment advisory board (IAB) and its members’ engagement with students are discussed. In the last part of the study, SBS is used as a case study to show how alumni contribute to SBS and enhance students’ experiential learning by contributing as mentor, IAB member, advisors to the FMIF and career mentorship. This study concludes with a discussion on potential areas of conflict and friction for alumni involvement.
Findings
This study shows that SBS in a NPAI has been able to tap its strong alumni relationship to provide mentoring and experiential learning opportunities to students using its SMIF as the vehicle. The authors believe that the approach taken by this particular school can be replicated by any academic institution that strives to promote mentorship and experiential learning.
Research limitations/implications
This case study is focused on a SBS in a NPAI that has a strong alumni relationship and enough resources to successfully tap on its alumni. It would be interesting to learn how this approach can be used in resource-limited public institutions.
Practical implications
As the case study shows, any business school that values experiential learning can rely on its alumni to enhance student learning experience by properly using its alumni resources.
Social implications
The results of this study show that business schools’ outreach opportunities and student experiential learning experience can be enhanced and business schools’ academic qualification and ranking, which leads to improvement in student enrollment, can be improved. Overall, the major beneficiary would be the business schools’ immediate and larger community.
Originality/value
The authors are positive that multiple universities are properly taking advantage of using their alumni relationship.
Details
Keywords
Tyler Custis, Meghan Hoben and Payton Larsen
The purpose of this paper is to explore why the stagnant version of amateurism that is being used by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its member…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore why the stagnant version of amateurism that is being used by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its member institutions to limit student–athlete compensation is creating labor law and antitrust violations, and ultimately contributing to a black market in college athletics.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative portion of the examination uses a review of historic and recent cases regarding labor law and antitrust violations and applies them to the college athletic industry. Furthermore, the quantitative portion creates a scaled revenue sharing calculation utilizing financial reports from university athletic departments and corresponding professional revenue-sharing agreements to discern an approximate value of a student–athlete’s participation.
Findings
The authors find that the current structure of the NCAA and regulatory framework perpetuate injustice for those who lack a voice in the system. Furthermore, the research shows a wage disparity of millions of dollars creating a lack of free market and black-market tensions to reach free market equilibrium.
Social implications
This research creates reasoning to restructure the NCAA system to adjust for modern commercialization and profits of the industry.
Originality/value
This paper highlights the legal and regulatory abuses by the NCAA, and demonstrates how the compensation gap created by these legal violations is creating a strain on free market flow ultimately leading to a black-market effect in the industry.