School of Business students may soon be able to pair their major with a specialized minor. A recent proposal may allow for business administration, accounting and economics majors to add marketing, finance or management minors starting in the fall 2015 semester. According to the Dean of the School of Business Denise Rotondo, if approved, the minor choices will allow for business students to specialize their studies.
“This will allow students to go a little deeper in those fields,” Rotondo said. “We have a lot of students that, career-wise, go in those directions.”
If approved by the curriculum committee, there will be no additional classes added, as most of the classes that will be required for these minors are already offered by the school of business under a “special topics” category.
“There’s nothing that could prevent a student right now from taking these classes, but they wouldn’t have that credential,” Rotondo said.
Rotondo emphasized that she believes that placing a label on the coursework will help make students more marketable to employers.
“I think it will give [students] more confidence,” she said. “The credential is an important way to give students and employers the shorthand understanding of what the student studied.”
Rotondo noted that she hopes that these specialized areas of study will help Geneseo students compete with graduates from other colleges that may have studied majors specific to finance, marketing or management. She explained that students will no longer have to explain that they have the equivalent of a degree in one of these fields.
“[Most] students don’t have the ability to sell that in an interview situation,” she said.
Now, students could have a minor to show possible employers what kind of classes they took and what they are specialized in. According to Rotondo, the proposal was made per student and alumni request. Rotondo added that she thinks that students and alumni will react positively to the addition of minors.
“The [students] I’ve talked to have been very excited about it,” she said. “A lot of alum I’ve talked to have said they had wished [the minors] were available when they were here.”
Rotondo explained that although creating a major in these fields would have been great, it would be too complicated of a process to do so. While it may be a possibility for the future, however, it would require State University of New York system approval, which could take years. “If system approval was not a barrier, we would have done that,” she said.
Providing additional minors only requires Geneseo approval, which could potentially allow students to pursue the minors next semester. If the proposal goes through, the minors would require between 18-21 credits. There may be enough overlap from a student’s major that they could take as few as three additional courses to fulfill one of these minors. A lot of the business school students know what they want to do as far as their careers go.
“We already have a lot of students doing internships in those fields. This will complement the experience,” Rotondo said.
Overall, Rotondo emphasized that the main goal is to ensure the best possible future for business school graduates.
“We are always looking for ways to give the students the very best education we can and to prepare them for successful careers after they leave Geneseo,” Rotondo said. “This is just one of many steps we will take to make that happen for them.”