Business students at ASU’s West campus will experience changes now that their School of Global Management and Leadership has merged with Tempe’s business school.

The Arizona Board of Regents’ Academic Affairs Committee voted last week to disestablish the School of Global Management and Leadership, replacing its program with the expanding W.P. Carey School of Business.

“What [ABOR] has asked us to do is oversee the West campus activity,” said Kay Faris, associate dean at the Carey School. “This means that we are going to be phasing out the degrees that were offered through the School of Global Management over the next few years.”

Students who were enrolled in the school and plan on graduating before summer 2010 will still be able to graduate with a degree from the closing school, Faris said. Students graduating after summer 2010 can transfer into the Carey School to receive a Bachelor of Arts in business with a concentration in global leadership.

The plan to merge the two colleges together has been in place for some time. Faculty and students within the School of Global Management and Leadership were notified of the possibility of a merger in August, and the ABOR committee voted to officially disband the school on Thursday.

“I think the fact that our degrees are going to say W.P. Carey is going to be a little bit of an advantage,” marketing sophomore Sammy Hurtado said. “W.P. Carey is more renowned than SGML.”

Hurtado said he would like the change, even though it means taking on extra classes.

Also there is no intention to dismiss any of the management school’s faculty as a result of the merge.

“The faculty are being absorbed into the W.P. Carey School,” said Jane Carey, associate professor within the SGML management department. “Depending on their discipline, they’ll be absorbed into different departments.”

The Carey School’s departments include marketing, economics, finance, accounting, information systems, health management and supply chain management.

Accounting senior Eddie McDonald had two views on the merge.

“Since I’m a business student, there are always mergers and acquisitions and cost-cutting, so I agree with that aspect of it,” he said. “I don’t agree with it from a student perspective because they’re getting rid of the global perspective, and the program at West is a lot different from the W.P. Carey program.”

Reach the reporter at jsnyder3@asu.edu.