Business faculty member elected to accreditation commission

The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs recently elected Chip D. Baumgardner, associate professor of business administration/management at Pennsylvania College of Technology, to its Board of Commissioners of the Baccalaureate/Graduate Degree.

The board recommends changes in accreditation standards, reviews and approves accreditation criteria and the procedures for evaluating and accrediting bachelor’s and graduate-level business programs, receives and processes accreditation applications for evaluation, approves and removes accreditation status of bachelor’s and graduate-degree programs, re-evaluates the programs of member institutions, and appoints committees as necessary. Commissioners represent ACBSP-accredited institutions. They serve three-year terms and are eligible for renomination to a second term.

Chip Baumgardner

“ACBSP is an organization dedicated to supporting continuous improvement and innovation, and having a dedicated faculty member, like Chip, on the board can only help our program continue our focus of providing the best education in business and accounting we possibly can,” said Brian D. Walton, assistant dean of business and hospitality. “Chip’s long-standing relationship and understanding of ACBSP standards have been a benefit to our program, and now he has a great opportunity to share his knowledge and expertise with others.”

Five degrees at Penn College are accredited by ACBSP: its bachelor’s degrees in accounting, applied management and business administration, and its associate degrees in accounting and business management.

“I am incredibly proud of the dedication of our business administration and management faculty, whose professional engagement and expertise ensure our students receive a high-quality education,” said Chenchen Huang, Penn College’s dean of business, arts and sciences. “Our programs are deliberately built upon the rigorous ACBSP accreditation standards, ensuring the business administration and management degrees we award are relevant, competitive and directly translate into successful career outcomes for our graduates.”

Institutions are required to go through a reaffirmation process every 10 years to maintain ACBSP accreditation. The process is rigorous and involves both a detailed “self-study” report and a site visit by a team of ACBSP-trained evaluators.

Baumgardner has long served as an evaluator visiting other campuses, frequently as a site visit team chair. In 2024, he became an ACBSP-certified mentor and an ACBSP-certified consultant.

Baumgardner holds a bachelor's degree from Penn State, master’s degrees from Penn State and Shippensburg University, and a doctorate from George Mason University. He holds a professional certificate in innovation and entrepreneurship from Stanford University, Innovation Engineering Black Belt certification from Eureka! Ranch’s Innovation Engineering Institute and the Six Sigma Black Belt credential.

He has taken the lead in implementing the innovation leadership curriculum at Penn College, which includes a three-course competency credential that can lead to an Innovation Engineering Black Belt certificate. (Penn College is the only college in Pennsylvania to offer the credential.)

He is a past president and ex officio officer of the Pennsylvania Economic Association and has authored and presented many papers on the topics of economics and distance learning.

ACBSP accredits business, accounting and business-related programs at the associate, baccalaureate, master and doctorate degree levels. Recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, ACBSP was the first to offer specialized business accreditation at all degree levels and the first to offer certificate accreditation. ACBSP accredits business programs at more than 1,200 campuses in 60 countries.

To learn more about Penn College’s accounting and business majors, call 570-327-4505 or visit www.pct.edu/accounting.

For information about Penn College, a national leader in applied technology education, visit www.pct.edu, email admissions@pct.edu or call toll-free 800-367-9222.