Service Education in Business

(Earn three units of graded credit in ACCT)

ACCT 199C: Special Problems

(Section 01)

Course Syllabus – Fall 2002

(Earn three units of graded credit in ACCT

TRACS Number: 16167)

Instructor: Curtis L. DeBerg

Office: Tehama 309

Phone: 898-4824

Office Hours: By appointment

Class Meetings: Wednesday eve, 6 p.m-8:50 p.m., Glenn 212

E-Mail: cdeberg@csuchico.edu

Prerequisites: You must be a SIFE “veteran” student. In other words, you must have been an active member of a prior semester’s SIFE team, and you must have played a leadership role on at least one significant project.

Materials You Must Buy:

You will be expected to purchase a workbook or other required learning materials,

depending on the community project(s) that you are assigned. This will cost $50 or less.

E-Mail Account:

You must send me an e-mail message of introduction by Friday, September 6. Please include your name, intended major, hometown, favorite hobbies, and what SIFE project or projects you intend to complete this semester.

Course Objectives:

The objective of this course is for students to participate in, and reflect upon, a service-learning experience entitled Service Education in Business. Students from any discipline, at any level, can earn three units of graded credit by signing up for this course. This course provides one avenue to integrate a service-learning component into the undergraduate learning experience. Because the supervising faculty member is a member of the College of Business, specifically accounting, the course is offered through the accounting department.

Students completing this project are required to contribute at least 50 hours by participating in Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) over the course of one semester. Hours will be accumulated by attending one meeting per week (15 weeks * 1 hour per meeting), plus participating in at least one community outreach project for at least 35 hours.

Service-Learning Defined

Service-learning is an educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community and/or university needs. The activity should allow them to reflect on their service in such a way as to gain a further understanding of course content and/or an enhanced sense of civic responsibility. In many cases, students should be rewarded for this service in the form of academic credit, bonus points in existing classes, or monetary compensation (e.g., scholarships, stipends).

What is SIFE?

Founded in 1975, SIFE is a non-profit educational organization that works in partnership with business and higher education, providing college students the leadership experience of establishing free enterprise community outreach programs that teach others how market economies and business operate. Currently, the SIFE organization consists of about 40,000 students at over 1,000 colleges and universities.

One of the most unique aspects of the organization is the annual regional and national contests to recognize the best community service and business development projects organized by participating colleges and universities. Competition against other teams has lead to dramatic increases in overall quality of projects during the past nine years. In 1999, the CSU, Chico was named the International Champion SIFE team from a field of over 300 competing, four-year universities. In 2000 and 2001, out team finished in the top 30 teams from a field of over 400 competing teams. In 2002, in once again made it to the “Fantastic Four” final round, where it ended up placing third in the U.S.

Another beneficial aspect is the added exposure to potential recruiters, given that many of the judges for the competitions are leaders from industry. For example, at the 2002 national competitions in Kansas City, judges included Len Roberts, CEO and President Radio Shack, David Bernauer, president and CEO of Walgreens, Ron LeMay, chief operating officer of Sprint PCS, and Tom Coughlin, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

What Projects are Undertaken by the CSU, Chico SIFE Team?

The students on the CSU, Chico team have created four major project areas that team members may serve: Local, State/National, International, and Internal/External Relations. One of the team’s main projects this year will be a high school business and entrepreneurship project called “CAL-High SIFE.” A key feature of the program is that the students, under the mentorship and consultation of the SIFE team, will be encouraged to start a real-life “mini-business” and also complete a major community outreach project.

To successfully complete these projects, the SIFE team strives to utilize all of its resources, including:

· Business Advisory Board

· Mass Media

· Non-business faculty and students

Also, the team does not undertake a project unless we can measure its success. Therefore, this year’s team will take great pains to quantify the success of our projects.

What Makes the Course Unique?

This course is unique in several respects. First, it has elements of both external service-learning and internal service-learning for students. Second, the team is multidisciplinary. Third, the team’s evaluation is externally-based, according to specific and measurable criteria. Fourth, the faculty adviser’s work can be compared to that of a baseball manager. The adviser oversees all aspects of the organization, with student leaders directing specific project areas. And while most of the students specialize in one or two areas, they all depend on one another to maximize team performance at the competitions.

One of the most interesting aspects of this project lies in its potential to contribute to a seamless education. Taking the baseball analogy one step further, university and community college students can be viewed as the major league players, high school students as AAA players, middle school students in the instructional league, and so on. In fact, one of the SIFE team’s mottos is “Students Helping Students.” All students have a common goal: to serve and to succeed. How each team performs together, in a competitive setting, provides an independent measure of success.

Course Requirements

Six requirements must be met in order to demonstrate that successful completion of this course.

1. You must attend the Wednesday night meetings in Glenn 212 at 6 p.m.

2. You must be a member of at least one Project Team, in addition to being assigned to at least one high school as its “Cal-High SIFE mentor.”

3. You must actively “mentor” at least two new students on the SIFE team this semester. This will require that you keep the students up to date on your project(s), and involve them in their successful completion.

4. During the semester, you must keep a “log” describing what you did and when you did it. The log must show at least 50 hours of service in order to earn three units of credit.

5. In order to relate your own business knowledge to a global market economy, you must read about the American fast food business (including the meatpacking industry) entitled, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser. Pay special attention to the effect of this industry on the U.S. economy and the workforce, and its implications on whether or not these industries really operate in a “free market.” A review of this book from Amazon.com states:

On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations.

Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young," insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? --Lesley Reed --

6. At the end of the semester, you must send me a 500-word e-mail reflecting on your experience. The paper should describe the project, explain what you learned, offer recommendations to improve the project, and indicate whether or not you plan to continue with the project after the semester is over.