Year in Review 2004-2005

COBA Philosophy
Background and Accreditation
COBA Organizational Structure
Academic Issues and Recruiting
Events and Activities of COBA
Student Business Clubs
Student Accomplishments

The College of Business Administration of Harding University was blessed again with another wonderful year. In all of our many classes and activities, we have attempted to intensely focus on our mission of preparing Christian business professionals for lives of service. The College of Business is about serving others: our students, our alumni, our future employers, and most importantly, our Creator who has given us this opportunity to serve. May our service in COBA bring glory to His name.

Our mission statement provides the foundation for our academic business classes. Each class is taught from a biblical and value orientation. With all the books on business and leadership, none are more central to our mission and educational process than the Bible. Because our focus is teaching excellence in the classroom, our faculty enhance the classroom with their own business and teaching experience as do our guest lecturers. Our Christian faculty members bring over 300 years business experience as well as over 330 years teaching experience to the classroom. Each class incorporates issues of faith, ethics, global awareness, technology, and written and oral communications. Many of our courses focus on teamwork and presentations to simulate their future careers in business. Our students work with professors who profess and exhibit high moral and religious convictions. We strongly believe that these convictions provide our students with an essential foundation for success in all areas of life, including the community, workplace, home, and church.

The 2004-2005 academic year included continued growth, many new as well as traditional events, and numerous accomplishments of both students and faculty. Highlights of the academic area included approval of our MBA program for a complete on-line program beginning in August 2005, the start of our international program of COBA in London in the summer of 2005, the “Marketing Yourself” seminar held by Mark Davis, our 2nd Leadership Seminar, and numerous adjustments made to improve our academic programs. COBA added three new members to our COBA Advisory Board. COBA had tremendous success in the state business plan competition with one team winning 1st place and a $20,000 prize. Another team implemented their plan with the City of Searcy through “Wireless in the Park.” Several other students and teams represented COBA well through their various competitions across the nation. The faculty were also heavily involved in faculty development, presentations, and publications. This year-in-review report expands on many of the various activities of the College of Business Administration for the 2004-2005 academic year.

COBA Philosophy

Our task in the College of Business Administration could be viewed as the “COBA Philosophy” as seen in the diagram below. The entire COBA philosophy fits inside and is integrated with the liberal arts education received by all majors at Harding University. Students come into COBA early in their college career, go through our process, and then graduate a few short years later. This process can be viewed as an analogy to the manufacturing process of a business. In this process, the students come in as “raw materials” in which the COBA faculty and staff (the “direct labor”) continually work on these students. The “work-in-progress” begins with a foundation of our mission statement, continues with a strong integrated academic program, and is further enhanced with business club networking and various competitions and activities. Eventually, the students emerge as “finished goods” prepared for lives of service. In this academic process, our students are viewed as products to be worked on, not customers to be satisfied. Although this viewpoint is a fine line to walk, our goal is to prepare these students so we can satisfy our ultimate customers (constituents) including employers, alumni, parents, and our Creator. As such, we are satisfying the needs of our students who eventually become our customers.

Although this philosophy has been our process for many years, this diagram was developed this year to better communicate what we attempt to do in COBA. This philosophy has been formally presented to our COBA faculty, our advisory board members, our seniors at the Ethics Seminar and Awards Dinner, and our incoming freshmen at the summer experience sessions. With improved understanding comes improved effectiveness and efficiency in our process.

Background and Accreditation

COBA strongly supports our accreditation organization and the mission upheld by this organization. This year, George Oliver, Allen Figley, and Bryan Burks attended the regional ACBSP annual meeting held in Albuquerque, NM in October 2004. The same three faculty plus Randy McLeod also attended the national convention held in Washington, D.C. in June 2005.

As COBA focuses on being a “teaching” institution, one of it’s strengths is having a faculty with both business experience and educational teaching experience. The 24 faculty members have accumulated over 300 years of direct business experience prior to their shifting to a full-time career in higher education. This does not include any consulting or part-time business experience performed while teaching. At the same time, these 24 faculty members have accumulated over 330 years of teaching experience at the collegiate level. This translates into an average of over 13 years business experience and 14 years teaching experience for each of the COBA faculty. Doctoral degrees are an important part of higher education. As such, COBA has 11 doctoral qualified faculty with 3 more faculty working on their doctorate degrees. In addition to their experience and degrees, many of the COBA faculty are on several COBA and university committees, are leaders in the community, and are elders and deacons in the local church congregations.

The College of Business Administration is accredited by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), a body focused on teaching excellence in the classroom. ACBSP requires high standards in regards to quality of faculty, teaching, and outcomes assessment demonstrating excellence throughout the business program. COBA received reaffirmation of our accreditation in 1999 for another 10-year period. In the fall of 2002, COBA submitted a required 3-year report resulting in the continuation of an unconditional status with ACBSP. In the fall of 2003, our MBA program was successful in receiving accreditation from the board of ACBSP. Annual reports will continue to be submitted until re-affirmation in 2009.

COBA Organizational Structure

The Executive Committee held their first retreat during the summer of 2003 in Branson, MO. This all-day meeting included discussions on the upcoming year as well as the future of COBA. Reports were presented from each of the academic areas of COBA as well as updates for the building and in the area of technology. Discussions followed concerning the assessment process, alumni surveys, faculty annual plans, reports for ACBSP, and merit pay for the faculty. A scheduling proposal, grade posting proposal, and standardized syllabus proposal were all approved by the committee. In addition to planning, this time proved valuable for enhancing our teamwork and communication for the future of COBA. Dr. Don Diffine was added to the committee this past year. His wisdom and experience has proven invaluable in this planning process.

New Faculty/Staff:

Academic Issues and Recruiting

On Campus Recruiting:
Harding University employs a centralized Career Counseling and Placement Office. Even though this service is provided campus wide, our business students are the primary users of this resource. Over the last year, over 50 companies came to campus to interview business students. Some of the visiting companies include Axiom, AFLAC, Alltel, American Express, Dillard’s, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Ernst & Young, FBI, Hormel Foods, J.C. Penney, KPMG, Motorola, Office Depot, Pennzoil, Quaker State, Rubbermaid, Sherwin Williams, and Wal-Mart. Their comments regarding our students are always favorable and they continue to return to Harding year after year.

Events and Activities of COBA

The center of any academic institution lies in the classroom instruction. However, the instruction and training must not stop there. It must expand into other events and activities throughout the academic year. These events and activities help cross class boundaries and cut across the different degrees to pull faculty and students closer together and better prepare the students for their future. All of our traditional events and activities were continued during this year with a few new items added to our agenda.

With assistance from the American Marketing Association, the College of Business Administration held its annual Business Club Cookout during the 2nd week of the fall semester. The purpose of the event was to lure the students with free food, to experience tremendous fellowship, and to expose our students to our eight different business clubs within COBA. The COBA faculty and staff cooked the hamburgers and hotdogs with all the fixings in front of our Mabee business building for over 300 students. After the meal, officers from each of our business clubs delivered presentations to prospective members outlining their plans for the coming year and encouraging involvement. The evening proved to be a tremendous success for kicking off our business clubs for the new year.

The Senior Ethics Seminar is a long-standing tradition in COBA celebrating our seniors and intensively focusing on the important topic of ethics in the workplace. This year’s seminar was held on Friday, October 1, in the Family Room at College church of Christ. Ed Jernigan, FBI Special Agent with the White Collar Crime Division, presented our morning devotional on “Lessons Learned from White Collar Crime.” The Honorable Tim Wooldridge, one of our Arkansas Senators, spoke to the students addressing the topic, “Politically Correct Business Ethics.” With a continental breakfast and a barbecue lunch provided for our students as well as door prizes throughout the morning activities, the seminar proved to be an exciting morning as well as thought-provoking for our seniors. We firmly believe this ethics seminar follows and supports our mission of COBA by better preparing our students for their lives of service.

The 2004-2005 academic year marked the second year for the COBA Advisory Board. COBA added three new members to bring the total to ten members of the board. The new members were Brooks Davis, Todd McCullough, and Donnie Miller. We held one meeting on Oct 17, Homecoming weekend. We held our second meeting on April 10, 2005. The purpose of this group is a purely advisory role to assist the COBA executive committee in directing the future of COBA. In addition, the advisory board members will assist in locating firms to recruit COBA students (both full-time and internships), promote the name of Harding and specifically COBA, and assist in providing feedback for our programs. The advisory board members are as follows:

Ryan Blickenstaff ’88 alumnus Nashville, TN
Corporate Controller, Homeland Security Corporation
Brant Bryan ’77 alumnus Dallas, TX
Private Investor, CRESA Partners
Brooks Davis ’89 alumnus Searcy, AR
President, Simmons First Bank of Searcy
Dave Finley ’87 alumnus Highland Village, TX
CEO, L.E.A.D.S. On-line
Jeff Hearn ’82 alumnus Harrison, AR
Owner/Manager of several H& R Block Financial Services and Radio Shacks
Jim House ’66 alumnus Searcy, AR
President, CEO of USAble Life
Paul Maynard ’87 alumnus Minneapolis, MN
Partner, Deloitte
Todd McCullough ’84 alumnus Franklin, TN
Doblin, Inc. in Chicago
Donnie Miller ’71 alumnus Searcy, AR
President, Regions Bank of Searcy
Mona Plyler ’77 alumnus Tuscaloosa, AL
Advertising and Sales Promotions Manager, Phifer Wire Products, Inc

COBA issued 3 issues of our student publication entitled the “COBA Connections.” The primary purposes of this newsletter are to improve our communications to our students and connect our students to the many opportunities within COBA and in their careers. More importantly, we desire to keep our students connected to their purpose in life. Topics included COBA at London, Leadership Seminar, Business Missions trip, opportunities in the MBA program, academic changes, advising/scheduling issues, placement opportunities, the American Studies Program, book reviews, and other relevant topics. Dr. Steve Williams has continued his role as editor of this publication. We are also making plans for a “COBA Connections” newsletter intended for our alumni and distributed as an e-newsletter in the future.

Over the week of spring break, Budd Hebert directed a Business Mission Seminar to Donetsk, Ukraine. Eight students went on this mission trip: Karen Burton, Oscar Caceres, Jaime Castro, Jacqueline Castro, Tania Grande, Daniel Oliva, Linnea Reed, Darwin Romero, and Greg Seiders. Roxie Benincosa, director of our accounting office for the university (not COBA), also joined the team for the trip. The one week seminar entitled “Virtue: The Importance of Personal Character in Business” was held at the State Institute of Artificial Intelligence in Donetsk. Partnering with Harding University was the Eastern European Missions (EEM) and the Bammel Road church of Christ in Houston. The seminar was a tremendous success with presentations made throughout the week followed by a “graduation” with certificates from the program.

The purpose of this seminar was to teach the participants how they can build and integrate their spiritual lives into their world of everyday work. The seminar became a vehicle to demonstrate that the good in all of us comes from God. The virtues studied in this seminar were taught from His word. Our ultimate prayer was for the students to desire to study the bible as each were given Bibles in Russian and English. Hebert is already making plans for another business mission trip next spring break.

On May 9, 2005, Budd Hebert and Bryan Burks met with Frank Farr, President of EEM and Richard Baggett, Director of Development for EEM to discuss the future of EEM and Harding University. All parties signed a partnership agreement supporting future spring break business mission trips. This is a significant step in the expansion of this program to teach basic business and Christian principles to university students in the former Soviet Union. We also talked about establishing a Center for Business Missions out of COBA in the future with expansion of these business missions to locations both internationally and nationally. These talks will continue in the upcoming year.


We held our second Leadership Seminar, a 3 credit hour course, in August prior to the start of classes. We had 23 senior business majors attend this seminar. This seminar is at Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, MO (approximately 180 miles north of Searcy). The agenda included speakers, discussions, presentations, and other exciting activities. The purpose of this seminar was to provide some of our top students with a challenging opportunity to mold and direct their leadership potential in areas of business, community, family, and church. The students stayed in cabins along the lake and utilized the Big Cedar Lodge facilities for classroom, outdoor activities, and other events. Our speakers this year included alumni and selected faculty from Harding University with diversified leadership experiences:

Brant Bryan, Private Investor, CRESA Partners
Paul Carter, former president of Wal-Mart Realty
Dr. David Burks, President of Harding University
Steve Hunter, Director of Retirement Programs, Walmart
Joan Bell, Vice-President of First Federal Bank of Arkansas
Jeff Hearn, Enterpeneur and Owner of several companies
Bryan Burks, Dean of COBA
George Oliver, Chair of Management Program
Mike Emerson, Director of Leadership Seminar

The 23 seniors who attended this seminar provided excellent ratings to our first leadership seminar. Our 3rd seminar is planned for October 2005 at the same location. The students will meet several times during the fall semester culminating with a 4 day seminar held at Big Cedar Lodge. We’re excited about this opportunity to closely work with some of our top senior business majors in this type setting. We are optimistic that this activity will become a highlight for seniors and will generate high demand in the future.

Our Delta Mu Delta induction ceremony was held on April 3, 2005 in the Founder’s Room on campus. Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society in Business Administration provides academic recognition to our top performers in the classroom. Invitations are sent to the top 20% of our juniors, seniors, and graduate students from the College of Business. We had 41 students who accepted this invitation and were inducted based on their academic performance through December 2004. Stephen Stewart, student president (MBA program), emceed the program. Following our dinner, Scott Rose, Partner with Rose & Miller Accounting Firm in Searcy, provided a keynote address to our students. This evening proved to be a wonderful opportunity for recognizing the academic achievements of many of our top students in COBA.

This year also marked the Tri-annual Delta Mu Delta National Convention. COBA sent four students along with their sponsor, Bryan Burks, to this event held in Fort Worth, TX. The students were Stephen Stewart, President, Darwin Romero, Sec/Treasurer, Marianna Figueroa, and Valerie Marrder. The three-day convention included a meeting with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, the Human Resource director of Radio Shack, and many other representatives with companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

On April 24, 2005, COBA hosted it’s annual Awards Banquet in the Founder’s Room of the campus dining facility. The goal of this year’s award dinner was to make it a celebration for our recipients. Dinner guests included the award recipients and their families, business club officers, members of our various competition teams, business mission students, faculty and staff with their spouses, and a few special guests of COBA. A year-in-review presentation was made by Bryan Burks highlighting our activities and accomplishments of the academic year to date. Dave Finley, President & CEO of l.e.a.d.s. online.com in Dallas, TX, presented the keynote address and challenge to our students. The awards given at this dinner will be listed in the “Student Accomplishments” section of this report.

COBA again hosted Senior Receptions in December 2004 and May 2005 for our graduating seniors and their families in the Mabee business building lobby. Both receptions were a tremendous success with students, guests, and faculty completely filling the lobby and hallways and overflowing into our classrooms. With appetizers and an end-of-the-year slide show in our classrooms, the evening was a success while meeting family and talking about their careers at Harding University and in the College of Business. This was a wonderful opportunity to spend a few more moments with our students and meeting their families before they left Harding University. We wish God’s richest blessings upon these graduates as they continue their lives of service in their respective careers.

The College of Business Administration will host our first-ever “COBA in London” program during the summer of 2005. This pilot program is designed for COBA undergraduate students. Utilizing business faculty, the curriculum as well as the activities and travel focus primarily on our global view of business in London, the world’s financial and commercial center. The summer of 2005 included 17 business students and 2 COBA faculty members, Mike Emerson and Mark Davis. The courses offered included:

IB 325: Global Business Environment (3-6 hrs)
MGT 430: Strategic Policy (3)
ECON 322: Personal Finance (3)
HUM 201: International Studies (3)

This six-week trip included a minimum of 9 hours of coursework plus opportunities to travel in London and Europe. Each week includes a field trip to a business in London through our various contacts and alumni connections. They are scheduled to leave on July 5th and return prior to the start of classes in August. We are excited to increase the global awareness of our students through this program. This program should be offered every summer based on demand of our students.

Student Business Clubs

In the midst of our students’ studies and extracurricular activities on campus, the COBA students have also been heavily involved in our business clubs. COBA has 8 different business clubs for the students’ involvement. Some are national organizations while some are more localized. Each of the clubs was involved in a variety of activities such as national and regional competitions and service projects. Due to the many activities of these clubs, this report will not attempt to summarize their activities. Any competitions won by a business club will be specifically mentioned in the student accomplishments section of this report. Each club was lead by student officers under the supervision of a faculty advisor. The clubs and their respective officers and advisors for the 2004-2005 academic year were:

Accounting Society
Matt Summitt, President
Aaron Grieb, Vice President
Faculty sponsor: Phil Brown
American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)
Amanda Henard, President
Amanda Long, Vice President
Faculty Sponsor: Rhonda Bell
American Marketing Association (AMA)
Marianna Figueroa, President
Darcy Flachs, Vice President
Faculty Sponsors: Mark Davis and Lori Sloan
Business Information Technology Students (BITS)
Matt Meadows, President
Justin Shubert, Vice President
Faculty Sponsor: Reet Cronk
Delta Mu Delta (DMD) honor society
Stephen Stewart, President
Darwin Romero, Secretary/Treasurer
Faculty Sponsor: Bryan Burks
International Business Society
Darwin Romero, President
Linnea Reed, Vice President
Faculty Sponsor: Budd Hebert
Phi Beta Lambda
Brian Ford, President
Courtney Hix, Vice President
Faculty Sponsor: Don Diffine
Society for the Advancement of Management (SAM)
Lesley Maxwell, President
Paige Good, Vice President
Jeff Jordan, Vice President
Faculty Sponsor: Allen Frazier
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Rebekah Wyant, President
Chantel Vinson, Vice President
Faculty Sponsor: George Oliver

Student Accomplishments

As previously mentioned, COBA held it’s Awards Dinner on April 24, 2005. The awards given to the students were voted on by faculty members in the respective departments and agreed upon by the entire COBA faculty. The Outstanding Christian Business Student Award, the top award given in COBA, was chosen by the COBA faculty among several excellent nominees. The recipients of all the specific COBA awards and scholarships presented at the Awards Dinner are as follows:

Brian Ford Outstanding Christian Business Student Award
Marianna Figuero, Matt Meadows, and Mark Watson were runners-up for our top business student award.
Aaron Grieb Senior Accounting Award
Matt Summitt Junior Accounting Award
Jonathan Guin Business Law Award
Stacy Faith Computer Information Systems Award
Emily Dubois Junior Economics Award
Jonathan Guin Senior Economics Award
Amanda Henard Health Care Management Award
Chantel Vinson Human Resource Management Award
Matt Meadows Information Technology Award
Darwin Romero International Business Award
Molly Roseberry Senior Management Award
Eli Clem Junior Management Award
Darcy Flachs Charles Walker American Marketing Scholarship
Marianna Figuroa Senior Marketing Award
Sarah Hernandez Junior Marketing Award
Mark Watson Professional Sales Award

Allen Frazier COBA Faculty of the Year Award

This year’s recipient of the Outstanding Christian Business Student Award from the College of Business Administration is Brian Ford. Brian is from Powell, Ohio, and is a double major in Accounting and Economics with a 4.0 GPA. He has demonstrated his leadership abilities through his numerous involvements within COBA. He is captain of the SIFE Economics team, President of Phi Beta Lambda, and Vice President of the Harding University College Republicans. He has been involved in the volunteer tax assistance program for the community and an accounting tutor for our students. He is also a member of Alpha Chi and American Studies Institute. During the summers, Brian has gained valuable experience through internships in the area of financial advisement. This past summer, Brian worked in Washington, D.C. writing audit procedures for the information systems for the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Housing Finance Board pursuant to the Federal Information Management Act. Brian has worked with his church back home in Ohio and has been heavily involved in teaching children’s classes. He has also been on numerous domestic campaigns as well as an international campaign to Mexico. He has accepting an accounting audit position with Deloitte, a public accounting firm, in Little Rock and will start in September.

The Economics Team received 1st runner-up at the Mid-South Regional Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Competition conducted at the Peabody Hotel and Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee in March 2005. They were also a national finalist in the SIFE intercollegiate Business Ethics Competition. SIFE is an international non-profit organization active on over 1,800 university campuses in more than 40 countries. This year’s entry was “Free Enterprise – Supporting the System that Supports America.” Our Economics team has a strong competition history with 24 past regional victories, six national first place trophies, and six other first runner-up trophies. In the past 25 years, the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, PA has presented the Harding Economics program a total of 16 awards in the categories of private enterprise education, advertising and public affairs, non-profit publications and platform address. This year’s team members were: Courtney Hix (Co-Captain), Brian Ford (Co-Captain), Matt Summitt, Lana Gilbert, and Justin Baines.

Members of Harding University’s chapter of Phi Beta Lambda, a national intercollegiate business organization, won awards in their respective events in the annual Phi Beta Lambda Competition in Little Rock in April 2005. COBA had a tremendous year with five out of six students finishing first in their respective disciplines. Based on these competitions, each of these five students traveled to Orlando, FL in June 2005 to compete at the national PBL competition. The state winners who competed in Nationals this year included the following:

Brian Ford Accounting II for Professionals
Cody Warren Business Law
Chantel Vinson Human Resources Management
Greg Seiders International Business
Matt Swindle Public Speaking

All five of the students placed in the top 10 in the national competition. Chantel Vinson placed first at the national competition. The winners at the national competition in Orlando, FL in June 2005 were as follows:

Chantel Vinson Human Resources, 1st place
Brian Ford Accounting II, 5th place
Matt Swindle Public Speaking, 5th place
Greg Seiders International Business, 6th place
Cody Warren Business Law, 10th place

Winners of the regional competition from the previous year (April 2004) competed in the national competition held in Dallas, TX in June 2004. Five of the eight students who competed at the national level placed in the top 10. The national winners from that year included:

Aaron Morris Accounting II, 2nd place
Jonathan Guin Business Law, 8th place
Brian Ford Economics, 7th place
John Rogers Marketing, 9th place
Lauren Younger Finance, 6th place

This first place award by Chantel Vinson in the area of Human Resources was a tremendous accomplishment. Don Diffine, sponsor for PBL and the Economics team, reports that “about 60 percent of Harding’s state winners have been top ten finalists at National PBL competitions since Harding started competing in 1983.” We are pleased with the national accomplishments from the previous year’s students.

The Society for the Advancement of Management (SAM) team won third place at the 2005 International Conference and Case Competition in Las Vegas, NV in March 2005. The Harding SAM team competed against twenty-two other universities in the undergraduate division of the case competition. Their entry was comprised of a written strategic plan accompanied by an oral presentation in front of a panel of judges. Team members were: Mariana Figueroa (Captain), Paige Good, Alan Kirk, Leslie Maxwell, and Mark Watson. The Harding team has placed in the top three on five separate occasions.

Two students on the team received awards for their involvement in SAM during the year. Leslie Maxwell and Alan Kirk both received regional SAM awards. Alan Kirk received 1 of the 15 national SAM student awards. This was a tremendous accomplishment for both students.

Harding business students did an excellent job this year presenting business plans for the Arkansas Capital Corporation Business Plan Competition. Of the approximately 60 business plans submitted from all over the state, COBA submitted 12 business plans. Three of these business plans made it to the top 12 plans in the state (each receiving $1,000). Two of the plans then made it to the top 6 in the state. Finally, one of these plans was awarded 1st place in the undergraduate competition winning $20,000. This was the highest award received by a Harding University team since our involvement in this program four years ago. Last year, Harding had a team finish 2nd place ($10,000) and the year before Harding had a team finishing 3rd place ($5,000) and a team winning the technology award ($5,000).

The awards were presented at a luncheon hosted by Governor Mike Huckabee in the Little Rock Downtown convention center to approximately 500 in attendance. John Tyson, Chairman and CEO of Tyson Foods, was the keynote speaker with Ned Perme, a local newscaster, serving as master of ceremonies. The Harding recipients were as follows:

1st place team: HU Buy
Team members: Jonathan Towell, Luke Dockery, Colby Blaisdell, Peter Kirby
Sponsors: Allen Frazier and Mike Emerson
(Note: Jonathan and Luke are COBA students, Colby is Interactive Media, and Peter is Computer Engineering)
Top 6 team: Keep-A-Kid
Team members: Sara Foster, Jeffrey Jones
Sponsors: Allen Frazier and Mike Emerson
Top 12 team: PS Wireless
Team members: Christopher Perry, Justin Shubert
Sponsor: Allen Frazier

The PS Wireless team of Christopher Perry and Justin Shubert actually put their business plan in action during the year. Working with the mayor of Searcy and many companies in the Searcy area, Chris and Justin implemented “Wireless in the Park.” This project converted one of the city’s park areas, Berryhill Park, into a wireless park. Faculty sponsors Jonathan Picklesimer and Jake Stewart assisted them throughout this project. The project culminated with a grand opening ceremony entitled “Wireless in the Park: Searcy Unplugged” emceed by the mayor and the city council along with several sponsors for the event on May 6, 2005.

The College of Business began administering the Major Field Achievement Test (MFAT) three years ago to our senior business majors. This exam provides assessment information concerning students’ business knowledge taught to all business majors in the “business core” classes in our curriculum. Approximately 80,000 students from 469 business programs across the nation took this exam in 2004. Over 600 universities use the MFAT as a measurement tool throughout the year. COBA is pleased to announce the following students as finishing in the top 10% of the nation with three students finishing in the top 5% of the nation.

Top 5%: Top 10%:
Justin Parkey Alan Newberry Ryan Chamblee
Greg Seiders Robert Dockery Stephanie Goertzen
Diana Green Joseph Tucker Lance Wiggains
Zach Johnson Adam Morgan Justin Sain
Nathanael Mahaffey

The COBA Business Team competed in the annual International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition in San Diego in April 2005. In this year’s competition, the Harding team performed well and placed 2nd in their world. The business team members included Dana Hunter, Valerie Marrder, and Lance Wiggains. The faculty sponsor for the business team was Mike Emerson.

The COBA CIS Team competed in the Acxiom Intercollegiate State Programming contest held in Conway, AR. They tied for 3rd place this year. The team members were Edgardo Canales, James Humphrey, and Justin Johnson. The COBA sponsor for this competition is Jimmy Behel


Many of the accounting majors worked in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) held in the Mabee business building. This was our first time to utilize computer software and electronic filing during this program. These students prepared over 230 tax returns for people in the White County area. In order to assist others they had to spend many hours in learning and preparation. David Allen coordinated VITA with his accounting tax II course each spring semester.

American Marketing Assosciation (AMA) took a business trip to Dallas, TX in the spring semester of 2005. Students had to qualify to make the AMA spring tour based on their involvement with AMA over the year. These 12 qualifying students with sponsors met with Vincent Thompson of the Dallas Cowboys, Sean Stevens of Brinker International, Brant Bryan and Michelle Davis of Cresa Real Estate Development, and Clay Christopher of Dallas Mavericks. They also visited with individuals from the companies of Kaye-Bassman & Associaties, Pappas, Inc., and Neiman Marcus. The trip was a huge success providing excellent contacts and information for our students. Other AMA activities for the 2004-2005 academic year included the Pizza Wars (raised $2,000 for Muscular Dystrophy Association), Hospice group ministering to families with a dying loved one, and marketing internships throughout the summer.

The International Business Society (IBS) was heavily involved this past year with guest speakers, group trips, and service projects. Through campus fund-raising efforts, they raised $2,000 for an orphanage in Donetsk, Ukraine. This money was delivered by the students involved in the business mission trip over spring break. A highlight of their year was approximately 40 students attending a Saturday morning Wal-Mart manager’s meeting in Bentonville, AR. They met Paul Carter, former CFO of Wal-Mart, prior to the meeting. They were also able to spend time with Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, and Mike Duke, President, following the meeting. IBS also had a tour of the NIKE plant in Memphis, TN. IBS was also involved in planning resume/interview workshops and a year-end banquet.

Several student athletes from the College of Business Administration received academic honors during the academic year. Four HU athletes, all business majors, were named to the Gulf South Conference 2005 spring academic teams. The recipients were:

Devin Watts Baseball Accounting major
Adrian Morgan Golf Accounting major
Catharine Carui Tennis International Business major
David Ferreira Tennis Accounting major