Faculty Senate Meeting September 10, 2025

College of Business and Economics Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
Subject: Faculty Senate Meeting
Date: September 10, 2025
Time: 12-3pm
Location: 2nd floor conference room
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes (PDF)

Present:
Todd Inouye, Sukhwa Hong, Andrey Simonov, Benjamin Zenk, Chenbo Shi, Xuan Xie, Marcia Sakai (guest, online), Keisuke Nakao (vice chair), Helen Tien (online), Angela Faanunu, Hee Sun Kim (chair), Deborah Hughes, Wei Wei

Agenda Items:

1.) Approve Previous Meeting Minutes

• Motion by Todd; seconded by Sukhwa; vote: 12-0-0
• Reference: CoBE Senate Minutes - August 22 2025 (PDF)

2.) Director's Update (Todd)

• Proposals for MBA courses to be submitted.
• Professional development fund being tentatively $500.

3.) Chairs’ Update (Sukhwa)

• Propose external-funding efforts to be a part of the Strategic Plan

4.) Plan of assessment for WASCUC & AACSB accreditation (Ben)

• Motion by Ben; seconded by Todd; vote: 12-0-0
• Reference: 6-Year Assessment Plan Proposal 9-10-2025 (PDF)

5.) SPC update (Angela)

• Discussion on the strategic planning process this year.
• Reference: SPC 25-26 Update - Google Slides (PDF)

6.) Discuss an Associate Director/Dean position in the college (Todd)

• Six-year appointed position will be responsible for all current department chair duties, as well as duties and tasks associated with accreditation, assessment of learning, and strategic plan maintenance/alignment.
• The position will also take on administration of the MBA program when/if it gets approved.
• $750/mos stipend pre-MBA, $900/mos post-MBA stipend
• 2/1 or 1/2 course release per semester pre-MBA, 2/2 course release post-MBA This topic was tabled.

7.) Revision of AI-related courses, certificate, and concentration (Chenbo & Sukhwa)

1. Revise three existing QBA courses (QBA 200, QBA 367 and QBA 465) by integrating additional AI-related content into the courses and by changing the course titles, as attached; Also, rename the existing Certificate in Business Analytics to “Certificate in AI for Business” to reflect the curriculum enhancements Motion by Sukhwa; seconded by Chenbo; Vote: 12-0-0

2. Initiate a new BBA concentration "Business Analytics and AI" to provide students with a focused pathway in AI applications for business and reflect the current trend in industry and education. The six required courses for this concentration are: QBA 200, QBA 367, QBA 465, and three courses covered in Data Science program:

   • DATA 171 Data Science Fundamentals in R
   • DATA 172 Python for Data Analysis
   • DATA 373 Data Security & Privacy / DATA 470 3D Mapping of Ecosystems / DATA 474 Applied Informatics Motion by Sukhwa; seconded by Chenbo; Vote: 12-0-0

8.) Curriculum proposal to stop out the FIN certificate (Todd)

• None since 21-22 and certificate not updated since 2017
• To update curriculum: change its elective courses (6) from “two Finance courses (6) at the 300- or 400-level” to “two ACC, MGT, MKT, BUS, FIN, QBA, ECON, or TOUR courses (6) at the 300- or 400-level”. (Wei)
• To market: 1) students can complete the certificate and then apply those courses toward a future BBA/MBA. 2) students can choose a fully online pathway so working professionals or students from community colleges or neighbor islands can enroll. (Wei) This topic was tabled.