By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published Aug. 17, 2009

People often think The Citadel’s walls are meant to keep cadets in and the rest of the world out, says Col. Ron Green, dean of the college’s School of Business Administration.

Green said the opposite is true: that the military college wants its students and faculty to be more integrated into Charleston’s business community. Both the business school and The Citadel as a whole are working to become larger players in local economic development.

The business school has launched several initiatives recently to advance that goal, including a new center that offers free help to small businesses and entrepreneurs. The focus on the community has been evolving since The Citadel transformed its former business department into the School of Business Administration several years ago, Green said.

A new strategic plan for The Citadel makes economic development one of eight priorities. (Photo/Provided)

“When you become a school, you become more concerned with the outside world,” said Green, who has been dean for the past two years.

But the heightened focus on advancement of economic development now extends beyond the business school. The Citadel’s board of visitors approved a new strategic plan in June that makes economic development one of eight priorities.

Sam Hines, provost and dean of the college, said the inclusion of economic development as a priority in the strategic plan came largely at the urging of Lt. Gen. John Rosa, who took over as president in 2006. The strategic plan has been in the works since that time.

“The Citadel will always be first and foremost about the S.C. Corps of Cadets and the production of principal leaders at the undergraduate level,” Hines said. But particularly through its graduate college, which has about 1,000 students, Hines said The Citadel wants to act and be seen as more of an economic engine.

Especially at a time when public and private budgets are strained, it’s important for higher education institutions to make their dollars go further for the region, Green said.

Business school initiatives
In July, the School of Business Administration announced the creation of a Small Business Development Center on campus.

Centers such as this one are the outreach arm of the U.S. Small Business Administration. They offer small businesses and startup ventures free help with business plans, bids for federal and state projects, approval for loans and more.

South Carolina has 16 such centers. The University of South Carolina, Clemson University, Winthrop University and S.C. State University already had on-campus centers like the one now operating at The Citadel, said John Lenti, director of the state’s Small Business Development Center Program.

Lenti said the locating of centers on university campuses benefits students and the local business community. Entrepreneurs can find out about the latest technology and business trends from students and faculty. Meanwhile, students have an opportunity to work with real businesses while still in school, giving them a competitive edge in the job market.

“And right now, what you look for, you look for an edge,” Lenti said.

The Citadel’s Small Business Development Center is the second in the Charleston area. It functions as a satellite of the established office in North Charleston, which has dedicated full-time staff members and a wider range of hours.

A counselor from the North Charleston office will be at The Citadel from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday each week.

The cost to set up the new office has been minimal, officials said, as the counselor was already on staff and the space belongs to the school.

An MBA student with prior business experience also is available to help entrepreneurs. Green envisions more students getting involved in the center in the future -- for example, graduate students could help a company with market research as a class project.

A year ago, Green started an MBA course that, like the Small Business Development Center, gives students consulting experience while providing free advice for local businesses.

The course, called the Strategic Consulting Experience, matches groups of MBA students with companies that need an outside perspective on a challenge — maybe a marketing plan, a competitor analysis for a new product or a human resources problem.
So far, about 10 local companies of varying sizes have participated, Green said.

MBA students are learning from the projects, but Green said they are qualified to be consulting by the time they reach the end of the degree program, when they take that course. Because most MBA students at The Citadel have full-time jobs, those in the new course also bring those work experiences to the consulting projects.

Beyond the business school
Hines said The Citadel’s new strategic plan, to be made public soon, calls for several new initiatives to advance the college’s economic development goals. Some will require funding for implementation.

“We’ve pulled together a number of different things we are trying to do locally, across all of our academic schools, to reflect a renewed commitment on the part of The Citadel to be of service to the region,” Hines said.

Among them: The graduate college is planning a new office that will seek grants for projects that leverage faculty expertise for the broader community.

Hines also has in mind partnerships with businesses that can strengthen the region’s work force. As an example, he pointed to a training program in project management that the School of Engineering created recently with SPAWAR.

SPAWAR, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Charleston, wanted to offer the training, Hines said, so The Citadel developed a certificate program to provide it.

Based on the success of the certificate training program, The Citadel is applying for state approval to offer a master’s degree in project management. Hines hopes approvals will be in place for the new degree later this year.

“This project management degree has a lot of applicability beyond what we’re trying to provide to meet SPAWAR’s needs,” he said. “There are lots of people in the community who would be interested in the kind of preparation and training that this project management degree could provide.”

Green said graduate schools that can offer training partnerships are important to businesses considering the region for expansion.

“Education doesn’t create jobs,” he said. “But it’s an attractor.”

Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129.

For more information about the Small Business Development Center at The Citadel, call 953-6007 or 740-6160. For information about the North Charleston center, call 740-6160.