CSUMB President, Vanya Quiñones, received a letter from Sylvia A. Alva, CSU Executive Vice Chancellor, with the official approval of the Bachelor of Science degree program in Agribusiness Supply Chain Management (ASCM) at the end of October this year. The program will be housed within CSUMB's College of Business.

The Vice-Chancellor stated, "Upon the recommendation of staff within the Division of Academic and Student Affairs, I am pleased to grant approval for California State University, Monterey Bay, to elevate the existing Agribusiness concentration within the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration to a stand-alone Bachelor of Science degree program in Agribusiness Supply Chain Management with concentrations in Marketing Management and in Supply Chain Management and Operations, effective fall 2024."

Dr. Marylou Shockley, Interim Dean of the College of Business was pleased with the news. “Our goal is to develop a talent pipeline that meets critical industry supply chain needs."

Dr. Shockley is a key member of the ASCM Committee along with Kevin Murphy, Chairman of Ocean Mist Farms; Tom Shepherd, Former Vice President of Logistics Driscoll's; Clarisa Avila, Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations and Development; Rick Paradis, Associate Vice President of Development; and Sumadhur Shakya, Associate Professor of Agribusiness. The committee has been hard at work on the curriculum process and completing fundraising for the ASCM endowment. Plans include conducting a search for the ASCM Executive Director in 2023 and launching the program as early as Fall 2024.

The original proposal for elevating the Agribusiness Concentration in the BSBA degree
program to a new BS-ASCM degree was made by Dr. Shyam Kamath, former Dean of the College off Business back in 2013. The proposal was based on developing the ASCM degree idea with the Salinas and Pajaro Valley agribusiness industry with the support of Agribusiness Concentration faculty leads, Dr. Sumadhur Shakya and Dr. Scott Fausti.

Visit the Agribusiness Supply Chain Management degree program webpage to learn more.