Diverse Student Base, Community Outreach, Keys to MBA Program Success
By Shelly Dinkin and Andrew Sherrill

Dr. Suresh Gopalan - CSU's Newest Faculty Member

	Office: 330 Jordan Hall
	Ph: (706) 562-1669
	Office hours:
	MW  9:30-11:30 a.m. and 5:00-6:00 p.m.
	TR    9:00-9:30 a.m. and 1:30-2:30 p.m.
	F (by appointment)
	E-mail: gopalan_suresh@colstate.edu

     Dr. Suresh Gopalan is the newest faculty member in the MBA program at Columbus State University.  Dr. Gopalan accepted an associate professor position along with an appointment to chair the Rothschild Endowment for Management and Leadership.  Prior to joining the CSU faculty, Gopalan was at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. Gopalan holds the following degrees:  a bachelors degree in Commerce from Loyola College in Madras, India, an MBA from University of Southern Mississippi, and the DBA with a major in management and minors in marketing and economics from Louisiana Tech University.  In addition to his academic achievements, Dr. Gopalan has consulted with firms throughout the United States.  We wanted to find out Dr. Gopalan’s view of the MBA program at CSU, how he compares it to West Texas A&M, and what he plans to accomplish with the Rothschild Endowment.  The following is a summarization of our interview on October 20, 2000.

Q How does the Curriculum of the MBA Program at Columbus State Abbott Turner College of Business compare with the West Texas A&M program?

A In West Texas, you can specialize in a specific area.  You have 8 core courses and you can choose the remaining 4 courses.  They have 36 total hours required to graduate the MBA program versus 30 hours at CSU.  At WTA&M, you could choose your emphasis within the program, but you had 6 more hours required to graduate (compared to CSU), so both have their positive aspects to them.

Q Where do you see the CSU MBA program in 10 years?

A I think the program is at a crossroads; low enrollment is causing the university to reevaluate the program right now.  However, I feel that in 10 years, the program could be doing very well.  Looking at the size of Columbus, there is a lot of marketing potential.  The population density is capable of supporting a program of 200-300 MBA students, which is comparable to WTA&M.  Fort Benning, in my opinion, is an untapped treasure.  The MBA program must position itself in a way that will appear lucrative to the surrounding community; but many people in the Columbus area are still unaware of the steps the university has already taken to be competitive with other state universities.  Further, CSU is presently pursuing AACSB accreditation for the MBA program, which will add more value to the MBA degree that students can earn here.  There is a tremendous amount of potential, we just need to tap into the right resources.

Q What are some positive aspects of the MBA program at CSU compared to programs that you have worked with in the past?

A The main thing I see in the MBA program at CSU is good quality students.  We have a pool of students with very diverse backgrounds which adds a lot of breadth to the program. We have people who work in very responsible positions all over Columbus and the surrounding area who can apply the concepts learned here to their real world situations and who bring their experience to the classroom.  It makes teaching much more enjoyable when you have students of this caliber.

Q What could the MBA program do to enhance the student’s chances of success upon graduation?

A Dean Johnson does a great job of going to the community and explaining what we are doing in our curriculum; I plan to augment the Dean’s initiatives through my appointment to the Rothschild Management & Leadership Endowment.  Although we have community outreach programs intact, we can do much more to enhance our visibility within the community. Students should also cultivate strong relationships with the faculty and attempt to learn from them and grow on a daily basis.       

Q What is the Rothschild Management and Leadership Endowment?

A The Rothschild Management and Leadership Endowment was established to foster links between CSU and the business community.  I am the beneficiary of this newly created appointment at CSU and, in fact, this endowment is one of the primary reasons I was attracted to come to CSU.  One of the immediate benefits of the endowment is that it allows the MBA program to remain in contact with the nonacademic community while Dean Johnson is busy leading other initiatives, such as MBA accreditation.  I’m excited about my appointment because, while the overall objective of the endowment is established, the tactical objectives are mine to define and execute.  Thus far, I’ve met with Leonard Crain of the Columbus Better Business Bureau about initiating a Torch Award Program for local firms who demonstrate outstanding ethical standards, and I’ve been in contact with managers at CB&T to get better acquainted with their firm. If businesses request my assistance in special projects or training, I am confident the endowment will fund my special training, if needed.

Dr. Gopalan teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses at CSU.  Shelly is the plant controller at Knology in West Point, Georgia and Andrew is an engineer officer in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia.  Both are MBA students in Dr. Gopalan’s Organizational Behavior Seminar this semester.