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Friday AM Daily | February 28, 2020
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Ivy College of Business’ full-time MBA achieves gender equity
By Joe Gardyasz | Senior Staff Writer The incoming class for the full-time Master of Business Administration program at Iowa State University’s Ivy College of Business marks a milestone that a majority of MBA programs nationwide are still aspiring to reach — gender equity.
For the first time in the program’s history, an equal number of female and male students — 14 each — are enrolled in the newest 28-member Ivy Master of
Business Administration class at ISU.
The achievement has been seven years in the making, said David Spalding, who set out to raise the level of female enrollment shortly after joining ISU as dean of the business school in 2013.
"We have reached a goal here that some of the highest ranked MBA programs in the country have not yet been able to achieve, including Stanford and Harvard," Spalding said. Female enrollment is at near-equity for the college’s part-time MBA program as well, at 47% female enrollment currently, he noted.
Among the 25 most prestigious MBA programs in the country, only one so far — the University of Southern California-Marshall — reached that goal when it achieved 52% female enrollment in its 2018 class. Last year, 13 of the top 25 schools tracked by the graduate business education newsletter Poets&Quants had female enrollment of 40% or higher.
Spalding said to his knowledge, no other MBA program of comparable size to ISU’s has achieved 50% or higher female enrollment among a full-time class. The program at the Ivy College of Business is the only full-time MBA degree program offered in Iowa.
Having gender equity in MBA classes often translates to executive ranks of a company. However, it’s a heavy lift for business schools to reach, given that women are still in the minority of applicants for full-time, two-year MBA programs in the United States.
Nationally, only 39% of applicants to full-time, two-year MBA programs in the U.S. are female, according to the 2019 application trends reported by the Graduate Management Admission Council.
Everyone’s Business, an organization formed by USC students in 2017, led a push to encourage more women to enroll in the California school’s MBA program. According to that group, earning an MBA matters more for women. While only 34.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs have MBAs, a whopping 70.4% of Fortune 500 female CEOs have MBAs, the group said.
Spalding said a key step toward the Ivy College of Business attracting more women to enroll in the full-time MBA has been a focus on recruiting more high-quality female faculty. Consequently, the business school went from having the lowest percentage of female faculty in the Big 12 universities to the highest percentage. "More women in the front of the classroom draws more women into the classroom," he
said.
Notably, of the four research awards made by the business school last spring (based on quantity and quality of research produced over the previous two years), three went to female faculty members who had been hired within the past three years, Spalding said.
The dean acknowledged that class enrollment for the full-time MBA program has dipped in the past couple of years — down from 34 last year and 38 the year before that.
However, the latest application numbers year-to-date indicate 32 students have already applied for next year’s class. By comparison, just four applications were in by this time a year ago. Spalding attributes the uptick to the MBA program’s latest national ranking by U.S. News & World Report, which last October placed it in the top 100 program, at No. 47.
"So that gives me good confidence that
we’ll see a good increase in our full-time enrollment this year," he said.
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NEWS BRIEFS
MPO seeks input on local transportation projects
Greater Des Moines residents are invited to share their opinions on which local transportation projects they would like to see receive funding from the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Nineteen projects are under consideration, ranging from
roadways, bridges and transit buses to trails, safe routes to school and on-street facilities. More than $34 million has been requested from the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program, as well as the Surface Transportation Block Grant Set-Aside Program, which combined have about $13 million in available funding. Both grant programs are funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and administered by the MPO. Project descriptions and an interactive map of the 19 projects can be found online on the MPO’s website. Comments are being accepted through March 27, and can also be shared at a public meeting on March 24 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the MPO office, 420 Watson Powell Jr. Way, Suite 200, in Des Moines. The MPO also scores the projects on how well they help meet the regional performance measures established in Mobilizing Tomorrow, the region’s recently updated long-range transportation plan. The scores and public comments will be presented to a funding subcommittee of local elected officials, who will make a funding recommendation. The recommendation will be presented to the MPO Policy Committee in April for review and again in May for final approval. Once awarded, the grants will be allocated in federal fiscal year 2024.
Farm Bureau to host alternative farming conference March 28
Farms that grow strawberries, hops, cut
flowers and mushrooms? No, it’s not California — it’s the type of crop diversity found on family farms right here in Iowa. For those seeking to explore ways to step into agriculture through alternative crops and livestock markets, consider attending Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s Acres of Opportunity conference. Scheduled for March 28 at the Hotel at Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids, the daylong conference will feature a variety of small Iowa farm owners as well as experts on farm business management. Registration is free for Iowa Farm Bureau members and $55 for nonmembers. For more information and to register, visit the Acres of Opportunity conference site here.
Applications open for 2021 Youth Leadership Initiative class
The Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute is accepting applications for the Youth Leadership Initiative Class of 2021. Soon-to-be high school sophomores and juniors are invited to apply for the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute’s
Youth Leadership Initiative. The program provides students from public and private high schools with experiential learning and leadership opportunities that enhance self-esteem and encourage involvement in all levels of community life. Applications will be accepted until April 22. Current freshman and sophomore students who are interested in applying should review the program website before completing the application.
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YESTERDAY IN INNOVATION IOWA
Two startup accelerators announce 2020 cohort members
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Two startup accelerators announced inaugural teams for their 2020 cohorts this week.
BrokerTech Ventures of Des Moines and Iowa EdTech Accelerator of Iowa City will both welcome startup founders on March 2 as founders begin the five-week program for BrokerTech and 14-week program for Iowa EdTech.
Twelve BrokerTech Ventures startups will operate in Gravitate Coworking downtown. The accelerator was launched by Holmes Murphy in September to focus on technology startups serving insurance brokerages. BrokerTech Ventures will connect startup teams with a veteran mentoring network, seed funding for a portion of the team’s research and testing, and access to distribution for deployment. Following
the program, BrokerTech Ventures will host a Summer Road Show series from May through August. Read more
Sign up for the Business Record's weekly innovationIOWA e-newsletter.
Read more at innovationia.com.
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NEWS BRIEFS
State auditor proposes bill to jail public employees who embezzle
Iowa Capital Dispatch: A bill pushed by Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, a former prosecutor, would require jail terms for most public employees convicted of taking large amounts of money from taxpayers. Sand said he wants to stop public employees — including, for example, state lawmakers and people working for schools, cities and counties — from treating their employers like banks offering no-interest loans. To Sand, that’s what happens when public employees embezzle money from taxpayers and are merely required to repay their employer without serving time in prison.
Potential closure of ISU
dormitory to be decided in March
Iowa State Daily: Iowa State University is considering closing its Oak-Elm Residence Hall because of a high vacancy rate in dormitories throughout campus. Peter Englin, assistant vice president of residence halls, said vacancies have been on the rise this year. "For fall 2019, we opened with over 800 vacancies," Englin said. "We hope
it improves, but we are currently trending to have over 1,500 vacancies across the system next fall. We can save over $750,000 by not operating Oak-Elm."
Wells Fargo fined $35 million in SEC settlement over investment advice
Washington Post: Wells Fargo will pay a $35 million fine to settle accusations that it improperly recommended risky investments to some of its clients, including senior citizens and retirees, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. These clients were encouraged to buy a risky version of an exchange-traded fund, known as an ETF, according to the SEC’s cease-and-desist order. These "single-inverse ETFs" use complex financial engineering to deliver big profits when stocks fall. But these types of ETFs can lead to devastating losses when held for more than a day and are traditionally recommended only for sophisticated investors.
Today’s extra briefs:
- Dow drops 1,000 points this morning as pandemic fears heighten (Reuters)
-
Volkswagen reaches $900 million deal with consumers over diesel scandal (Reuters)
- Consumer spending still rising, but coronavirus looms as potential brake (MarketWatch)
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ONE GOOD READ
Senate passes bill banning government purchases of Huawei gearC|net: The U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation on Thursday that would prohibit government agencies from using federal money to purchase telecommunications equipment from companies considered to be a threat to national security, the Hill reported. The Secure and Trusted Telecommunications Networks Act would make it illegal to purchase gear from Huawei and ZTE. The bipartisan bill, which passed the House of Representatives in December, bars the FCC from using the funds to help carriers purchase equipment from those companies. It also would require the FCC to create a $1 billion fund to help smaller carriers remove and replace any "suspect network equipment."
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Does Your Organization Support Honesty?
The Truth.
ROWENA CROSBIE, PRESIDENT, TERO INTERNATIONAL
We might
expect honesty in our workplace conversations, but do we get it? If we all demonstrated honesty in our conversations at work and we actually received it, we wouldn’t use or hear these phrases. We would have no need to designate when we were being honest, nor would we need to ask for honesty. READ THE ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEO >
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KCCI TOP STORIES
Long-awaited justice center to be built in Warren County
Warren County supervisors have approved plans for a long-awaited justice center to be built in Indianola. The new justice center would replace the old Warren County Courthouse, which was torn down last year. In a packed public hearing at the Warren County Administration Building, supervisors approved a budget of nearly $35 million to build the new facility. The facility will be built on the same location and house the county attorney, sheriff’s office, dispatch, four courtrooms and an 88-bed jail. Read more
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Today:
Partly to mostly cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High 39. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Tonight:
A clear sky. Low 24. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Get the latest KCCI weather.
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MOBILE SPEED UNIT LOCATIONSToday:
3000 block of Hickman Road
1700 block of University Avenue
1400 block of 19th Street
See the
full week's listing on the Des Moines Police Department's Facebook page.
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BUSINESS RECORD IOWA INDEXThe Iowa Index is an unweighted average of all 20 Iowa-based public companies. Below is a live look at those 20, plus 15 additional companies with large operations in Iowa.
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