A groundbreaking collaboration that transforms classroom theory into real-world impact
Innovation thrives at the intersection of academic excellence and business acumen—and the Leon Hess Business School is proud to pioneer exactly that convergence with the launch of BASIC (Building collaborative teams consisting of Faculty, Students, and Business Council Members). This fall, we’re embarking on an ambitious new venture that promises to redefine experiential learning while delivering tangible value to the business community.
Imagine student teams tackling real commercial challenges under faculty guidance, with Business Council members serving as mentors and project sponsors. Picture our brightest minds conducting market research, streamlining processes, and solving strategic puzzles—all while earning compensation and building professional portfolios that set them apart in today’s competitive landscape.
What is BASIC?
Building collaborative teams consisting of Faculty, Students, and Business Council Members to perform small projects for hire in a live commercial setting. Typical projects would be short in duration (8 – 12 weeks), non-mission critical (yet important), and appropriate for student/faculty teams to successfully perform to add high value. Every company has dozens of these projects such as: Research & rationalization/summarization of key strategy questions; Survey of customer preferences, product satisfaction; Desktop automation of manual process; to name a few.
We would typically charge $5k – $10k depending on the size and scope and projects would pay out 70% – 80% of fees to students and faculty in compensation leaving 20% – 30% of fees would be retained in Business Council budget to be allocated by the steering committee as charitable contribution.
Benefit to Monmouth University:
Experiential Learning & Actual Experience:
Students will participate on actual projects and deal with actual deliverables. They will be involved in the inception of the project, the breaking down of the work and the delivery of a tangible work product. Few students have the opportunity to work on the full life cycle of this type of project. The result will be a solid, differentiated work experience on the student’s resume.
Faculty Exposure to the Commercial Sector:
Faculty members will have opportunities to engage directly with professionals in the commercial sector; both the Business Council sponsor and the end customer. This represents an excellent means of collaboration between the commercial and academic communities and a networking opportunity for faculty who have limited exposure to the professional private sector.
Creation of Economic Value:
Students and Faculty will be paid to do work. In addition, net proceeds will go directly to funding Business Council Charitable activities such as student scholarships and awards and faculty research grants. The amount of funding would be limited only by the scale of participation in the program and the capacity to do more projects.
University Impact:
Monmouth University will be recognized for this forward-thinking, commercial-minded program. It will serve as the cornerstone of experiential learning and create a differentiated opportunity for students which can be promoted in marketing materials and presentations.
A Pilot was Proposed in Early March with These Objectives:
- Achieve preliminary buy-in on the pilot and identify inter-university approvals required to proceed – Approved by Richard Veit & Enthusiastically Supported by Patrick Leahy
- Determine flow of financials to support the pilot – Basic money flows have been determined and in process of setting up additional account in Business Council structure
- Achieve buy-in from business council and faculty members to participate – 2 Faculty Members on board with pilot participation, many other faculty members have express support/interest
- Secure commitment from pilot customers and set out detailed timelines to begin – First pilot customer is ready and second is pending internal signoff
We Need YOUR Help!
The Business Council members are critical to SCALE this program. Once we prove the concept this fall semester, there will be a great need for Business Council Member participation. Near the end of this semester, we will distribute more materials describing the program, how it works, and how companies can engage a BASIC Team – be the ambassadors and get the word out. We will be looking for additional opportunity, next semester and we need YOU to be on the lookout for appropriate projects to refer to the BASIC Team. As we scale, we will need more participation from the Business Council Members to support the faculty/student project teams. This is an ambitious undertaking that is truly differentiated. Business Council and Faculty support are critical to the success of this program.