DeKALB — While Program Prioritization is a university-wide initiative intended to review current processes to see where adjustments — including possible cuts — need to be made, the College of Business has thrived under the initiative while stressing the importance of value creation.

Among all colleges on campus, the College of Business, along with Health and Human Sciences and Liberal Arts and Sciences, had a higher percentage of programs that were placed in either category one or two, according to the Program Prioritization 2015-2016 Academic Task Force Report released April 30, 2016.

Category one indicates a program is a candidate for enhancement, while category two indicates the program is making good use of its resources thus there is no need for change, according to the report.

“While the name Program Prioritization was not there in the College of Business prior to this exercise, that was part of the culture of the College of Business,” said Balaji Rajagopalan, College of Business dean. “We were always prioritizing programs and looking at where opportunities lie, where our strengths lie, where we can make improvements.”

Rajagopalan said while Program Prioritization helped bring focus to certain areas, the process was just continuing the work program officials were already doing.

There were three outcomes Rajagopalan said were a direct outcome of implementing Program Prioritization. The first is that the initiative highlighted the success of certain programs, specifically accountancy and information systems. Rajagopalan said these two programs were placed in the highest category, meaning more resources would be invested, according to the report.

Program Prioritization also shed light on action items, curricular and co-curricular, that could enhance the program as well as opportunities to grow existing programs, Rajagopalan said. For example, the College of Business signed an agreement with SAS — a business analytics application software — for a business intelligence and analytics certificate within the information systems program.

And finally, the process helped officials realize new programs should also be pursued. Officials are launching a new masters in accountingprogram at the NIU Naperville campus. Officials are also launching a new degree completion in B.S. and B.A. at the Hoffman Estates campus for transfer students from community colleges.

As far as the financial impact of Program Prioritization, Rajagopalan said that while there may be a strong focus on how much money is saved, he said the college of business looks at it a bit differently.

“As a business dean and a business person, I think more of ‘are we creating more value from our investments?’, “ Rajagopalan said. “Savings, in the short run, may help us, but in the long run, if we don’t generate new revenue, we will only have what little we have saved. So, our focus has been more on making sure that the investments that we are making are generating new revenues, are generating more value for our students. If you generate more value for our students, they will get good jobs, and that will spur higher enrollment, which will bring in more revenue.”

Looking at it from this perspective instead of solely focusing on how much money can be saved by making changes — or even eliminating programs — is a more productive way to approach the initiative, Rajagopalan said.

“That’s our thinking, to think through this not as ‘can we save a buck by doing this or two bucks by saving this,’ ” Rajagopalan said. “Our thought process is of value creation … that’s how we have thought about this exercise, and in that sense, we are doing extremely well in terms of creating value.”

Senior accountancy major Jesse Laseman said, as a student, he has not seen much change as a result of Program Prioritization mainly because he knows the College of Business was not a candidate for a reduction of many resources, based on the task force’s report. He does, however, have input on what administrators can do to improve the process.

“I think the only thing they can do to improve it is to be a bit more open about it,” Laseman said. “As students on campus, we really don’t know what’s been cut, what’s been going on, changes for next year or changes for years after that. As students, it would be nice to know what offices are closing or what the responsibilities are shifting to just to make it a lot easier for knowing where to go when you need this resource.”