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During a press conference at the 2011 CONEXPO-Con/Agg
show in Las Vegas, Nev. on March 22 at 10 a.m. in Room N249-251, the
Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program - a business intensive
program that awards students with a four-year Bachelor of Science degree
in Concrete Industry Management - will announce the addition of
a unique Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Concrete
Industry Management. The program - which will be offered through the
Jennings A. Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State
University (MTSU) - is designed to expand the industry-academic
partnership by bringing CIM to the business world through an
Executive-type MBA in CIM and stand alone in its focused curriculum
on the concrete and construction industry.
"A continued interest has encouraged CIM and the
National Steering Committee (NSC) to develop a master's program that
suits the needs of the concrete industry," said Eugene
Martineau, NSC Executive Director. "Since CIM is still a young
degree program, most interest came from industry professionals with
business, liberal arts or technical degree backgrounds. All
those expressing interest in seeking this degree desired to stay with
their current position and complete a concrete industry
material-infused MBA delivered primarily through a distance learning
format."
Beginning in August 2012, with an initial recruiting
class of 25, the18-month-long program will be administered in 10-week
blocks. The program will be presented by the Jennings A. Jones
College of Business on the campus of MTSU in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The
format will include distance learning, webinars and on-campus visits
to MTSU. This distinctive program will be a partner structure for
networking and sharing experiences, while fostering a collaborative
learning environment and allowing national recruitment with limited
campus visits that are intensive and focused.
According to Dr. Heather Brown, Director and Associate
Professor of the CIM program at MTSU, "The Executive model for
specific industries has been developed at other institutions for
banking, healthcare, education and technical fields. It is our
intention to make this a top-notch program that serves the entire
country with a concrete and construction-infused MBA."
"We are very pleased to have this opportunity to
work with the concrete industry," remarked Dean Jim Burton of
the Jones College of Business at MTSU. "The undergraduate
programs have been very successful and we intend to make this MBA an
international example of cooperation between academia and
industry."
Industry professionals participating in the proposed CIM
MBA program will have a minimum of five years of experience in the
industry and hold at least supervisory positions or above in their
respective organizations. Academically, all participants will have at
least an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution of
higher education. While participants must have at least a bachelor's
degree, that degree does not have to be in business.
The cost of the pilot CIM Executive MBA program will be
$39,000 per participant with a minimum of 25 participants. This fee
represents the total academic cost of the program per participant.
If you are interested in learning more about the CIM
MBA, please contact Dr. Troy A. Festervand, Associate Dean, Jones
College of Business, P.O. Box 290, MTSU, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, fester@mtsu.edu, 615-898-2368 or Dr. Heather J. Brown, P.O. Box 19,
MTSU, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, hjbrown@mtsu.edu, 615-904-8060.
The CIM Undergraduate Program - Recognizing
the need for people with enhanced technical, communication and
management skills, the CIM program was developed in 1996.
Receiving tremendous support from the concrete industry, the
CIM program was the first of its kind in United States - a four-year
Bachelor of Science degree in Concrete Industry Management. The
business-intensive program provides solid management skills developed
specifically for the concrete industry. The program gives students
many advantages including entering the concrete work force with
exposure to the industry early in their careers, unlike others coming
in with generic business degrees. The program entails a broad range
of courses, from English and history to science and mathematics. A
series of required business courses such as finance, marketing,
management and business law are also taken throughout the length of
the program. The concrete-specific courses teach the fundamentals of
concrete, properties and testing, concrete construction and more. All
of these courses provide much more than what is simply in the text -
they emphasize problem solving, quality assurance and customer
satisfaction.
CIM currently has programs in-place at five universities
including Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), Arizona State
University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, California State
University, Chico, and Texas State University. The program has
been successful for both the industry and the graduates. To learn
more about the program, visit www.concretedegree.com.
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