Special Business Course

Responding to requests from some big Southern California manufacturers, Cal State Long Beach is adding a materials management curriculum to its School of Business Administration for the coming fall semester. It is only the fifth university in the country to offer such a program, and the only one in California, according to Mohamed E. Moustafa, dean of the business school.

Southland companies, including Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas, expressed a need for managers trained in the complex manufacturing processes used by many of Southern California’s high-tech industries, Moustafa said. Graduates will be prepared to manage any large-scale manufacturing operation, he said, noting that while “it’s not aerospace-oriented, they (aerospace companies) will be the greatest beneficiary” of the program.

McDonnell Douglas, which has a major aircraft-assembly plant in Long Beach, has a key role in selecting faculty for the program, he said.

Suggestions from the business community have also led to the creation of a new graduate-level program at Long Beach State. Beginning in January, the university will offer a master’s degree in engineering management, aimed at another niche created primarily by the aerospace and high-tech industries in Southern California.

The program is designed to train engineers with several years of practical experience to manage “at the project level,” Moustafa said, and will be offered under the joint auspices of the business school and School of Engineering.