SUNY Maritime College - GBAT Assessment Information

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GBAT Assessment Information

Global Business and Transportation Department (GBAT)

ITT program learning objectives:

Students who graduated from the ITT program shall be able to:

1. Identify issues clearly, formulate hypotheses, collect data, and evaluate

2. Apply leadership skills

3. Express ideas clearly, concisely, and persuasively

4. Integrate ethical viewpoints into one's life

5. Understand the dynamic issues of international transportation and trade

6. Know the basic prinicples, skills, and tools of international transportation and trade

Linkage of the GBAT Mission to the College’s Mission Statement

SUNY Maritime’s Mission Statement reads:

SUNY Maritime College provides specialized degrees in engineering, international business, marine environmental science, marine transportation and maritime studies including programs for merchant marine officer licenses and commissioning in the United States Armed Forces.

Five “guiding principles” are associated with it (see the posting on the College web site at http://www.sunymaritime.edu/About%20Maritime/mission.aspx)

The GBAT Mission statement is:

The mission of the Global Business & Transportation Department is:

We will graduate market ready students. They will have a theoretical foundation of knowledge and a practical level of experiential learning in international transportation and trade. The student acquires this readiness in an environment that fosters sensitivity to diversity, grounding in ethics, and develops leadership capabilities within an applied learning and technological setting.

Our separate assessment mission, a logical follow-on, is:

We will design and maintain an assessment method that improves the educational programs of the Global Business and Transportation Department (GBAT) at SUNY Maritime College by evaluating its progress towards goals, its integration with other parts of the campus and university, and its success in helping students acquire a specific set of skills and body of knowledge.

The GBAT mission statements devolve from the college mission statement in several ways and they are best articulated by focusing on the five “guiding principles” of the college mission.

1. A learning environment that stimulates and encourages intellectual and personal growth, scholarship and creativity

The GBAT mission’s emphasis on “an environment that fosters sensitivity to diversity, grounding in ethics, and develops leadership capabilities…” is strongly supportive of the first guiding principle. In fact as to:

a) Diversity- The student makeup of the ITT program is more ethnically diverse than other undergraduate programs at SUNY Maritime College (see pp. 17-18 of this document). GBAT also has two full-time female faculty members and three female adjunct faculty in a college faculty that is heavily male-dominated. As a percentage, there are more female students matriculating in GBAT programs at SUNY Maritime College than in any other academic department on campus.

b) Ethics - The ITT program offers a Business Communications minor in conjunction with the Humanities Department; which includes a course on ethics, GBMG 348 Business Ethics, an ITT elective course. It is GBAT departmental policy that we strongly support Academic integrity. The following statement is taken from an ITT course syllabus:

c) Leadership Capabilities – The ITT program offers many opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate leadership. They include engaging in research activities for term projects as part of a team; some students become team leaders, but all are exposed to the concept that a team balanced in the contributions of all of its members produces successful outcomes. Primary research is often required for team projects and so students have to step outside their comfort zones, contact people for interviews, make first-hand observations, and develop and apply surveys, among other methods that invite self-motivation and the motivation of others. Another leadership opportunity contributed by the ITT program is the “Fast Track” program; students who excel and have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above are welcomed into this program that bridges the undergraduate ITT program and the graduate MS degree program in International Transportation Management (ITM). These students take up to three graduate seminars in substitution for outstanding upper division requirements in the ITT program in their senior year, and if they successfully pass the courses, the credits apply both to the ITT Bachelor of Science degree and the ITM Master of Science degree.

2. A faculty dedicated to teaching excellence while growing in areas of scholarship, research and service

All of our full-time tenured faculty perform in the manner that this guiding principle envisions.

3. A tradition of innovative, hands-on learning directed by a dedicated faculty

Hands-on learning comes to us from the tradition of teaching merchant marine officers on board a ship, in simulators, and in labs; the ITT business curriculum, in its own way, is no less hands-on. A primary example is GBUS 526 ITT Study Tour in which students engage directly with academics, business leaders and entrepreneurs, and government officials in four or five countries during the duration of the tour. Intensive case studies, an intensive term paper, and video documentaries produced by student teams are course requirements. The hands-on learning of which GBUS 526 is an example occurs in many other GBAT courses, including GBTT 457 Ports & Terminals Management wherein students are taken on guided excursions to port terminals, GBTT 351 International Logistics wherein students are required to attend meetings of professional organizations, and GBTT 453 Import/Export in which students must design practical import and export moves complete with all requisite documentation.

4. A structured community emphasizing leadership, responsible citizenship and self-discipline

ITT is a civilian program and membership in the Regiment of Cadets is voluntary; as a matter of fact, it is not unusual for ITT students to be in the Regiment. In fact in the recent past, the student commandant of the Regiment, and his executive officer, were both ITT students. All students coming into the college, including ITT freshmen, take LEAD 101; all students are able to participate, if they wish, in the SAIL program to gather leadership points throughout their 4-year career. GBAT policy regarding responsible citizenship and self-discipline is articulated in course syllabi, e.g. this is reprinted from the current syllabus for GBTT 351 International Logistics:

Assessment Objectives:

The mission of the Global Business & Transportation Department is:

We will graduate market ready students. They will have a theoretical foundation of knowledge and a practical level of experiential learning in international transportation and trade. The student acquires this readiness in an environment that fosters sensitivity to diversity, grounding in ethics, and develops leadership capabilities within an applied learning and technological setting.

Our separate assessment mission, a logical follow-on, is:

We will design and maintain an assessment method that improves the educational programs of the Global Business and Transportation Department (GBAT) at SUNY Maritime College by evaluating its progress towards goals, its integration with other parts of the campus and university, and its success in helping students acquire a specific set of skills and body of knowledge.

Please click here to view our Assessment Objectives slideshow.

GBAT Course Syllabi:

Please click here for more information regarding GBAT courses and the current syllabi that are available on-line.