Kait Christensen | News Co-Editor
Business professors have recently released information about the new curriculum that will prospectively come into play this coming fall of 2013. Business professors have shown enthusiasm towards launching this new plan and have gone on to discuss when the changes will be made.
Dean of Business Ashok Subramanian explained in detail of why the changes were being made. Subramanian and professors have seen the changes in the world and have gone to change the program to better students’ life after graduation.
“I think all business programs around the country are in the process of re-inventing themselves and trying to find their identity. Ever since the 2008 recession and the economic ups and downs, I think business schools have begun to question their conventional business model and curriculum and so everyone is trying to find their identity, their strengths, what works for them and what doesn’t. That is what we are doing,” Subramanian said.
There are several changes that will be happening in the school of business. There will still be plenty of specific options for students to take, but there will also be more time to give students a broader sense of the business industry.
“It is in some sense a spectacular change and in some sense it preserves what we have, so it’s a mixed bag in that sense. To put it simply we have right now seven majors in business. That has been collapsed into two or reorganized into two. The fundamental problem with a lot of conventional business programs is that we are too slowed. We have functional areas of marketing, management, finance and accounting, and all that,” Subramanian said. “[Graduates] have a narrow functioning of the world. Business requires a 360 degree view. Business problems don’t just occur in accounting, finance, or marketing, it’s all over the place. You need to have those multiple perspectives come together to solve business problems, useful business problems.”
This new curriculum will combine different disciplines in the business major into two larger areas of interest. This may give students more opportunities to complete multiple majors in areas they would like to specialize in.
“What we have done is we have integrated all of those disciplines into a business major. With the result now, we are able to shrink the program down from 58 hours on average to 41 hours, which leaves room on the back end for those students who still want to specialize. They then get a chance to specialize in some of our tracks like entrepreneurship or sports management or human resource or financial decision making, accounting. They still have that. Now that’s the business major with a specialization,” Subramanian said.
Subramanian also went on to explain the second major choice that will be supplied by Buena Vista University (BVU).
“The second major we have is accounting. That is one professional discipline that we have in the business that needs to have its own identity and so we preserve that,” Subramanian said.
Subramanian explained that this plan will hopefully pan out in the fall with the incoming freshman. However, he strongly recommends sophomores to join this program.
“Sophomores, and juniors who are in the existing program, who came in under the old catalog will have the opportunity to transition if they want to. I would advise sophomores to transition, juniors are a little bit farther along so it may be beneficial for them to graduate under the old program. We will have to do it on a case by case basis,” Subramanian said.
The curriculum has not yet been approved, but will be going through Academic Affairs during March or April.
Subramanian said their focus will be on an integrated core to strengthen the students’ understanding of business as a whole. He explained students will be getting a first-hand taste of what business is like in world outside of the university.
“It’s a sequence of four classes that’s going to be team taught by faculty of different disciplines. The focus is really going to be on doing business you see. We are hanging our hats on a program that is going to produce business-ready graduates. A lot of doing business and a lot of experimental learning and practical learning is embedded in our curriculum. That’s part of this four sequence courses. They will be actually solving business problems in class. Dual faculty members from different disciplines, also industry people, are running some of these sessions so students get a first-hand taste of what business really is like,” Subramanian said.
Subramanian says that he is excited about the change in the curriculum.
“I feel pumped up. I am ready to go. We want to see this roll out. We’re very happy about this. This effort has come about from the faculty. It’s not something I’ve shoved down anybody’s throat. They have built, they have crafted this. They are one hundred percent committed to this. We are confident we will be rolling this out in fall,” Subramanian said.
Senior Seth Lindokken discussed how he felt about the new curriculum changes. He can see this being a very beneficial factor to the university if the proposal is passed.
“The proposal for the new major is definitely a big change from the current system, but I think it will give us an opportunity to create a unique experience for our business majors that you won’t be able to find at a lot of other universities,” Lindokken said.
Photo by David Ekstrom
