Business Dean at Cal State Fullerton Asked to Resign

Thomas L. Brown, dean of the School of Business Administration and Economics at Cal State Fullerton, has been asked to resign after nearly 5 years at the helm of the nation’s sixth-largest undergraduate business school.

Brown, 44, was asked to resign before the fall semester, which begins Aug. 28, in a letter from Cal State Fullerton President Jewel Plummer Cobb.

Cobb did not state a reason in her letter. But several knowledgeable observers said that Brown has clashed with Jack W. Coleman, vice president of academic affairs and one of the most powerful administrators on campus.

Coleman, a retired Air Force colonel, was dean of the business school for more than a dozen years and is said to have retained a strong interest in its affairs.

Cobb, Brown and Coleman did not return phone calls Thursday.

Observers said Brown is disliked by some of the business school’s older faculty members, whom, they said, he pushed to do more research in order to upgrade the school’s academic standing.

Whether that animosity contributed to his firing was unclear. But the emphasis on faculty research and other changes made by Brown, they said, have increased tension among the faculty members, some of whom strongly support him.

Rumors of the dismissal have spread over the last week and were reported Thursday by the Daily Titan, the student newspaper. Editor Andre C. Meunier, who wrote Thursday’s article, said an anonymous caller last week told him of the situation.

Asked by the Daily Titan whether Brown would continue as dean, Coleman would say only that “a change is in the works.”

The emphasis on faculty research is not unique to Cal State Fullerton’s business school. Schools across the nation have been pressuring their faculties to publish more research because accreditation standards for business schools have become tighter in the past 15 years.

Cal State Fullerton’s business school has 7,000 students--most of them undergraduates--and about 150 faculty members. It is one of about 250 schools accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business.

An accreditation must be renewed every few years. The Cal State Fullerton school is up for review again in 1991. Research done by the faculty is an important consideration, as are, for example, the the curriculum, libraries and computer systems.

That means older faculty members at schools such as Cal State Fullerton that once emphasized education over research can find that the job requirements have changed since they were hired. They must now publish more research, and that change is said to have alienated some of them.

Some faculty members are also said to be worried that the school will emphasize research to the detriment of educating undergraduates, the traditional goal of the California State University system.

Observers said Brown became the focus of these faculty members’ irritation.

A flap last spring over one of Brown’s department chairmen--characterized in the school newspaper as a “dictator” by a professor in the accounting department--gave the business school a black eye.

Accreditation is important because it means more prestige and gives graduates a better chance of landing a job. And for a school, that often translates into more applications.

There is now increased competition among business schools for students. Applications to business schools nationwide were flat last year after the stock market crash in 1987.

Brown, who was previously assistant dean and director of graduate studies for the College of Business at Kansas State University, was appointed dean at Cal State Fullerton in 1984.

The dean’s job is also difficult because the school has trouble competing with more prestigious schools that pay higher salaries to their faculties. Pay at Cal State Fullerton is relatively low, and the cost of living--particularly of housing--is extremely high.

Coleman caused an uproar in the department of communications last year when, in an effort to upgrade the campus’ academic image, he recommended replacing full-time faculty members who did not have Ph.Ds.

Coleman became dean of the business school in 1968, and except for 2 years has been at the university ever since. He was named one of four vice presidents in the university administration in 1985.