Structures of SRBs
7:10 a.m. First alarm goes off. It’s ignored just like the next five alarms over the course of 30 minutes.
7:40 a.m. After finally being able to keep his eyes open, he manages to drag himself out of bed and hastily eat a bowl of cereal before 8 a.m. class.
8:02–9:15 a.m. He shows up a couple of minutes late, but luckily the accounting lecture hasn’t begun and he manages to slip into class unnoticed.
9:30 a.m. He somehow escapes the embarrassment of falling asleep in the first class, so he heads to the bathroom to splash some water on his face to wake up. He knows he needs to be fully awake for his next class.
10 a.m. Next class begins.
Most college students can relate to the above experience. It’s a very common scenario and overall structure that many students endure in their typical college routine. However, if you are a student enrolled in the Java Junction Management course at Goshen College in Indiana, your next class would be far from your ordinary 10 a.m. class.
According to a local article, students at Goshen College can apply to work at Java Junction, the completely student-run coffee bar on the university’s campus. The business department selects the next student managers through an application process, and the selected individuals are enrolled in a class called “Java Junction Management.” Here they learn all aspects of the business: operations, human resources, marketing, purchasing, and accounting. The students then take this knowledge and apply it to the coffee shop that they themselves manage.
What makes this SRB so interesting is the structure of it. The students involved in this company get college credit for running the business. Students are overseen by a member of the business faculty and receive a grade for their work based on the success of the business, as well as their own individual contributions to the management team.
At its inception, the college’s student life department led the development of the new space for the coffee shop. However, this department thought it was best to hand over all the operations of the coffee shop to the business department, so they could integrate it into their own curriculum. Michelle Horning, a professor of accounting at Goshen College, led the new project. Horning believed it was an incredible idea to pursue.
“When you walk in here as a customer, you might not necessarily perceive that there’s much difference between Java Junction and any other coffee shop,” Horning said. “But the way we run it is with a team of students. They take a class called Java Junction Management. We meet a couple times a week and talk about things, and I ask questions and give feedback. The students make all the decisions.”
The coffee shop offers a variety of products ranging from coffee, espresso, chai, and hot chocolate to specialty drinks and baked goods, while providing the managers with real life applied business experience.
Students seem to be attaining valuable experience working at Java Junction. Bryan Palmer, an American Sign Language major from Elmwood Park, Illinois, worked at Java Junction for four years. He believes the experience helped prepare him for his future career. “It’s so hands-on,” he said of the Java Junction experience. “There’s no textbook to this class. It’s as real an opportunity to run a business as you can get in college.”
Brian Sutter, a physics and informatics double major from South Bend and another student manager, says Java Junction offers a way to address real-world challenges not available in a classroom setting. “The fact that we can experience those real-world problems now is really a huge advantage of this Java Junction program,” he said. “How do I communicate in the most effective way to the baristas or to the management team? You can’t just stick to the purely business side, the numbers side. You have to improve your communications skills, your marketing skills, and your management skills.”
In addition, this hands-on approach allows students to conceptualize and understand the actual operations of the business in a different way than they had been taught in class. At Java Junction, managers are required to have weekly shifts to improve their understanding of how macro decisions impact the daily operations of storefronts. As Horning describes, “Having managers work in Java every week is an attempt to try to get them to learn what day-to-day life behind the counter is, and how you interact with customers to solve those types of daily problems.”
After more than 10 years of operations, Java Junction has expanded and is fully self-sustaining. All of its current profits go back to the store to continue to maintain and improve daily operations of the store, and the university doesn’t provide any other financial support. It’s a separate business that still has a fundamental impact on students’ educations.
Java Junction is an excellent example of how diverse each individual SRB’s structure is. In determining how an SRB functions and performs its essential responsibilities, there needs to be a clear delineation on how the overall implementation of strategies and daily operations is conducted in the SRB. This process is done by the set structure, or overall breakdown of positions and roles, within their given assigned responsibilities.
The graded component of the program, in addition with the class curriculum, sets Goshen College’s model apart from many other SRBs in the country. A university professor is specifically in charge of overseeing the program. That’s a very unique and specific structure the SRB chose to make.
When thinking about the type of oversight, there are some helpful questions to think about. Will the business be affiliated with the university, and will there be dedicated university staff supporting the functions of the business? Who has voting power within the company? What roles are occupied by which personnel? Are alumni advising students in some capacity? Will the business be a for-profit business, or a nonprofit organization utilizing the university’s nonprofit status?
