Here's a sampling of what's going on:

* The School of Business at Howard University is planning to offer an ambitious, Internet-based M.B.A. program (http://www.bschool.howard.edu).

* The School of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University is considering incorporating expensive, high-end enterprise software packages into its teaching process (http://www.ncat.edu/~business).

* The School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M University is building a state-of-the-art, technology-based cultural center called World Cultures Plaza, to allow its students to interact with students, business leaders and others, all over the world (http://www.famu.edu/acad/colleges).

* The School of Business at Jackson State University offers a master of science degree in systems management, which combines courses in business principles, technology, and management (http://ccaix.jsums.edu/~schofbus).

Marrying business and technology at HBCUs is necessary not only for the long-term viability of the business schools and the university communities they serve, but also for the future competitive prospects of the students they graduate. Technology has transformed the way global companies conduct business and communicate with one another. Through technology, the way business is conducted is changing day-by-day, even moment-by-moment.

"There's an expectation that all students have some experience, exposure, and skills that are derived from using technology as a tool to complement their area of expertise," says Dr. Barron H. Harvey, dean of the School of Business at Howard University in Washington, D.C. "There is a basic level of expectations that graduates of business schools will in fact have."

A new Web-driven business model -- e-business -- has descended on the corporate landscape, and business schools recognize they must prepare, adapt, and be proactive. In the e-business model, the entire value chain of a corporation is highly automated, linking customers, partners, suppliers, and employees under a single electronic infrastructure. As early as 2002, electronic transactions world-wide will top $5 trillion, according to one industry forecast, and most of this will represent business-to-business transactions.

Technology Explosion

"We recognize that we are in the middle of a superb technology explosion," says Dr. Glenda B. Glover, dean of the School of Business at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. "There is a thin line between a business school and an engineering or computer science program, because, when it all boils down, it is simply business."

HBCU business schools are bringing together business and technology on a number of fronts. They must start first with the curriculum and infrastructure. They also are collaborating with their expert brethren in the engineering and computer science departments. HBCU business schools, indeed, "are making a serious push" to update their programs with technology, says Dr. Eugene M. DeLoatch, dean of the School of Engineering at Morgan State University in Baltimore (http://www.eng.morgan.edu) and chairman of the nine-member Council of Engineering Deans of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

"Business schools have no choice," DeLoatch says. "You cannot send a student out of a school of business without that kind of exposure. There is an understanding that there must be an investment in the infrastructure in the business school to turn out competitive students."

Morgan's Concentration

At the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management, for instance, Morgan State offers an M.B.A. with a concentration in information technology. Core business courses in areas such as accounting, corporate finance, advanced marketing, and international business management consume 18 credits, while the remaining 12 credits carry course titles like Management of Information Technology, Enterprise Networking, and Client-Server Technology. The Graves School "is immersed in hardware first of all. They've got it everywhere," Dr. DeLoatch says.

Dr. Morris H. Morgan III, dean of the School of Engineering and Technology at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., says schools of business and engineering will need to collaborate in a real way, not only for the benefit of the schools, but also for students.

Dr. Morgan is working closely with Hampton's business dean on a number of initiatives, including a five-year M.B.A. program that allows engineering students to take business courses to receive an M.B.A. with their engineering degrees. On the undergraduate level, a course once offered in the engineering departments, engineering economics, now is offered in business, Morgan says. He calls the collaboration "cross fertilization."

Curriculum enhancements bring the business schools closer to skill sets businesses are demanding of M.B.A. and bachelor's business graduates. Parallel to that, investments in cutting-edge computer hardware, software, training, and services give students the tools to build on their classroom skills.

Jackson State Style

In addition to technology-centered programs like the M.Sc. degree in systems management at Jackson State University, schools are infusing technology principles in virtually every discipline, whether that is marketing, accounting, finance, or human-resource management. At Jackson State, students must take core courses in computer technology, just as they take traditional Introduction to Business and Principles of Management courses. Dr. Glover says her school is adjusting courses at every turn to ensure that the necessary exposure to technology permeates each professor's syllabus. And the school works closely with IT experts and departments at Jackson State to ensure that necessary technology applications and equipment are available to business students and faculty. "It's not enough to be computer literate. We're at the age now where we must be computer proficient," Dr. Glover says.

"There are pressures to keep the curriculum updated. There are pressures to make sure the infrastructure is updated. There are pressures to keep the faculty trained," says Dr. Harvey.

Hampton's Business Move

As business schools add technical courses, they have to be careful to remain within their expertise, Hampton's Dr. Morgan says.

"They have to approach it very carefully" because of engineering accreditation requirements, he says. "We also have to be very careful on the engineering side about teaching business courses. If you're teaching a survey course that talks about issues associated with the history and development of technology, that's fine. On the other side, they can't get in and teach the hard-core engineering courses."

One approach to maintaining a sort of line of demarcation between business education and engineering education is the trend towards team teaching, Dr. Morgan says, a concept favored by the major engineering accrediting body, the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology. "On the design side, you set up projects where you put someone from the business school, someone from engineering, and someone from mathematics or science and put them together as a team and work on specific design projects. That's where you get the integration of everybody's input."

Black B-School Count

Eleven HBCUs are among the 383 business schools in the United States accredited by AACSB The International Association for Management Education (formerly the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business), the leading accrediting organization of business schools in the country (http://www.aacsb.edu). AACSB-accredited schools graduate 55 percent of all degrees awarded in the United States in business and management education.

AACSB accreditation demands that the business schools operate technology-focused curriculums, but that doesn't necessarily mean a school has to run full-fledged management information systems programs, says Dr. Milton Blood, managing director and director of accreditation for the St. Louis-headquartered AACSB.

"What we would look at is the extent to which students are learning to work with the kinds of technology they are likely to be working with when they graduate," Dr. Blood says.

Mission-linked

AACSB-accredited schools typically maintain advisory councils made up of business people from private industry and government in order to keep a handle on the currency of what they are teaching. So the schools have sufficient flexibility in how they set their missions, Dr. Blood says.

"These days, technology is often the area where business organizations have a competitive advantage or competitive disadvantage," Dr. Blood says. "Its success or failure can often depend on how well the corporation has incorporated technology and uses the power of technology to operate the business.

Students really need a sophistication when they enter those situations." Dr. Glover says AACSB accreditation has helped put Jackson State's business school on firm ground because of the necessary minimum standards a program has to meet. But Jackson State has gone beyond that threshold. JSU's is the only AACSB-accredited Black business school that offers a doctorate; the program is completing its second year.
"...We know that cyberspace and the Internet will be the absolute

bare minimum by the time these students are actually placed in the work force," Dr. Glover says.

Beyond Standards

Pressure on business schools to keep their curricula up-to-date with technology comes not only from the corporate world seeking future workers but also from students themselves, says Dr. Mark Kiel, chairman of the Department of Accounting at the School of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C.

Increasingly, students and their parents are buying the necessary hardware and services to access technology at home. One industry forecast shows, for instance, that by 2003 as many as 31.7 million American households will be accessing the Internet from high-speed data platforms such as cable modems, digital subscriber lines, fiber-to-the-home, and wireless broadband service, giving students near unlimited speed and capacity in using and accessing information.

"When we look for help in the computer area, we go to students," Dr. Kiel says. "Students come into the environment with very good technology skills. Mainly what we have to do now is adjust curriculum so that they can understand the impact of this technology on management, organization behavior, and those kinds of things. At a very base level, what we try to do is to make sure that the students who graduate from here are literate as it relates to technology."

HBCU business schools that are not AACSB-accredited are embracing dramatic technology enhancements to their curricula as well. The School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fla., which has been recognized as a "Top Five" business school nationally and has a master's-degree M.I.S. concentration, for instance, has a committee delving into changes and upgrades.

"What's we're trying to do is to infuse core principles throughout the curriculum, regardless of what discipline it is and ensure that (students) understand the proper concept as it relates to the way business is changing," says Dr. Daaim Shabazz, an assistant professor of global business at Florida A&M, who teaches courses in e-business.

Curricular Shifts

Dr. Shabazz says business-school faculty will be vital to curriculum changes. "We have to convince faculty that this whole idea of the Internet economy is making a difference in their disciplines. Some of them don't frankly see that yet. They feel that it's not really impacting them on this level yet. It's going to take a gradual process to maybe change the way they look at it," Dr. Shabazz says.

Black schools also face the challenge of readying their physical infrastructure to accommodate technology. That is the area where the need for financial resources are the deepest, for the historical landmark buildings which provide such a distinguished atmosphere on many campuses also pose unique challenges to administrators seeking to rewire and upgrade their schools.

Not only must facilities be wired for fast access through local area networks, but computers must be "available at everybody's desk and every classroom," Dr. Kiel says. Hardware, software, and computer networking today are supporting a number of applications, including e-mail, departments' and professors' Web sites, distance learning, and Web-based courses.

Classrooms in HBCU business schools now have become "smart classrooms."

NAFEO View

Stephanie Myers, a consultant with the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO; http://www.nafeo.org), which is conducting a study to assess the extent of computer networking and connectivity at HBCUs, says the business schools appear to be doing a good job at getting wired.

"It's very preliminary, but they're looking good," Myers says. "I think that the business schools understand the importance of preparing HBCU students for the marketplace. They are working to incorporate technology into the classroom and into the training for the students."

Black colleges and universities in general still need to do more with technology infrastructure, Myers says, citing preliminary results of the connectivity study. "There's still a need for more computers per student, more computers per faculty, and more training. These are general needs," she says.

The challenge for HBCU business schools, particularly programs not accredited by the AACSB, is to find the necessary financial resources, by convincing the upper reaches of their respective administrations to get behind their efforts.
"Deans-level people are the ears to their areas of expertise. And then they communicate that through the process to the upper administration. There's certainly a struggle for resources all the time, but the most important thing in any university is that you be measured by the standard that is out there that is measuring your discipline," Dr. DeLoatch says.

Hampton's Dr. Morgan says his school's administration has put a high priority on having the business school and engineering school work together to seek funding for infrastructure, even assigning university development officials to help the two schools develop joint proposals.

"It's clearly hammered home to the two deans about how we're supposed to interact. It's not superficial. It has to be real," Dr. Morgan says.

Partnerships with industry leaders that can supply equipment, financial resources, training, and support are vital for HBCU business programs, Jackson State's Dr. Glover says. The search for the necessary funding for programs, particularly in technology, has led to a redefinition of her job, she says.

"The role of a business school dean has evolved to the extent that it's about 50 percent development, where if the university can't meet the specific needs of a particular unit, then it becomes the responsibility of that unit head to ensure the quality of education is not diminished. My role is that of an external dean as much as an internal dean."

Marvin V. Greene can be reached at mvgreene@blackfamilynet.net.

The AACSB-accredited HBCUs

Clark Atlanta University
Howard University
Jackson State University
Morehouse College
Morgan State University
Norfolk State University
North Carolina A&T State University
Southern University and A&M College - Baton Rouge
Tennessee State University
Tuskegee University
Winston-Salem State University