Liberal-arts students get down to business

Revamped business minor attracts students from all fields, responds to desires of business community and exceeds enrollment projections

More than 600 non-business students are now enrolled in the integrative business minor program at the University of Colorado Boulder. The program underwent a massive overhaul and debuted its slick and slimmed-down 12-credit program in fall 2013—an appealing alternative to the former, clunky 24-credit program.

In part created to fulfill corporate needs for diverse employees, the program has far outstripped initial enrollment projections. The estimate for enrollment in the first semester was 150 students, but about 170 students will be in the first graduating class this spring. As of this semester, 60 students are on the waitlist.

Condensing the curriculum to better highlight key business concepts and translating the material into an approachable context for non-business students were key in creating the successful program.

Josh Neil, instructor of the accounting portion of the program, believes the revamped business minor’s emphasis on understanding basic business functions opens up a lot of doors.

There’s a certain point at which, no matter what you’re doing, if you don’t understand business on a fundamental level, then you’re not going to be able to go any higher.”

With an attrition rate of only 3.5 percent, the upgraded program is apparently appealing to students—and keeping them interested. Josh Neil, instructor of the accounting portion of the program, believes it’s because understanding basic business functions opens up a lot of doors.

“There’s a certain point at which, no matter what you’re doing, if you don’t understand business on a fundamental level, then you’re not going to be able to go any higher,” Neil explains.

Amy Tabor, director of Cross-Campus Business Programs for CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, says that keeping the students in mind is key. Most universities offer a business minor, but they typically don’t offer integrative courses targeted specifically toward non-business students. They just allow non-business students to take regular business classes.

Tabor says other schools don’t offer perspectives in disciplines outside of the traditional corporate setting, nor do they impart the skills necessary to understand business implications across multiple fields. Instructors see students making immediate applications within their individual fields and using the skills they learn in the minor classes at internships.

“The bottom line is that we offer an intentional program that meets the needs of non-business students,” Tabor posits.

Some of those needs include identifying the interests of non-business students from very diverse backgrounds. Neil says that sometimes it’s a guess, but by allowing the courses and program to be flexible and by listening to student feedback, they’re “dialing in” to what an integrated student body from all over campus finds significant.

 

The bottom line is that we offer an intentional program that meets the needs of non-business students.”

It seems to be working: Neil notes that many students approach him after class to tell him how they’re making immediate applications of business concepts to their daily lives and catching on quickly to business operations at internships.

Some of that feedback even included assigning a textbook to the accounting portion of the accounting and finance class.

Originally, there was an online homework component and extensive slides, but no standard text. Students indicated that using a textbook would help them to better understand accounting principles, so the program implemented a text for the first time last semester.

One particular feature of the business minor is that within the 12-credit, four-class framework, the two introductory classes are split into dual classes. Marketing and management are taught within one class and so are accounting and finance. However, the two subjects within each class are taught by different instructors. Students essentially take two eight-week classes in a semester, within the framework of a single class.

“I love it,” Neil says of sharing class time with another instructor. “We’ve had a lot of fun with it.”

When considering the essential principles to include within his eight weeks, Neil feels the limited time they have to instill accounting fundamentals helps narrow the focus to significant lessons useful to a person who doesn’t need a full-fledged business education.

“I don’t feel like there are any redundancies,” says Neil. “I don’t ever feel like I’m teaching something they don’t need to know, and I love that.”

The business minor was created with employers in mind. Corporate ions, such as Michael Long, CEO of Arrow Electronics, told the university they appreciated the skills and approaches of students from outside of business disciplines, but it took several years of training to teach them basic business concepts and skills. This means that potentially influential employees can’t affect the company as quickly as their talents might indicate.

For the first time this spring, Leeds opened a career fair to business minors. Roughly 40 companies were specifically interested in networking with business-minor students. Charles Schwab, a company that had not initially been interested in business-minor students, displayed a high level of interest in the diverse backgrounds and talents of the non-business students. The well-known wealth management company asked business school staff to direct business-minor students to their table. Tabor says that since the career fair several business-minor students have applied to Charles Schwab and consider it a good match for them.

Roughly 47 percent of the students within the business minor program are from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Business-minor students are required to attend professional development events from a range of options to learn how to effectively inter-marry their major and business skills. Students also have opportunities to learn the “soft” skills of business. Leeds offers seminars and events to help students create or polish resumes, learn networking and communication skills, and make themselves more marketable.

Students can apply leadership, networking and organizational skills firsthand while participating as Business Minor Ambassadors—a group of minor students who promote the minor and plan social events. Those events contribute to Leeds’ desire for the business-minor students to feel as if they are truly a part of the business school.

A four-week supplemental class is being offered to teach students the basics of Excel spreadsheets, data analysis and professional document presentation. Leeds recently hosted a presentation on creating a professional-looking LinkedIn profile, concluding with free professional headshots.

Overall, the business minor program has the individual students that make it up in mind. Neil says the program seeks to prioritize students’ needs to help them achieve their goals. The business program wants the students to “feel valued, cared for, looked after—part of a program, part of Leeds,” says Neil.

Roughly 47 percent of the students within the business minor program are from the College of Arts and Sciences. Science and math students make up 21 percent and engineering students compose another 17 percent; 13 percent of the students involved in the minor fall into the “other” category.

It makes sense that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students would find value in adding a component of business to their education, but the large number of arts and sciences students indicates how broadly applicable basic business skills are across many different disciplines—from the student who wants to open her own dance studio to the student who would like to keep the books for his own small business.

At the end of this semester, the first round of business-minor students will graduate. After that, Tabor expects not only to receive more corporate feedback, but also more attention from other universities seeking to follow CU’s example and implement their own integrative minor programs. Tabor even notes that business students may find themselves competing for typical business-related jobs with non-business students—but that that is a good problem to have.

“I love being a part of the program, because I believe in it,” explains Neil. “I think everyone involved in the program believes in it.”

Leeds feels it’s fulfilling a previously unmet need—to fill a gap in basic business acumen. Students are inspired to apply business fundamentals in their own lives immediately—by taking a more active role in understanding their finances, by understanding the ways companies try to appeal to consumers through marketing and by applying lessons in managing themselves and others at their student jobs.

As Neil notes, identifying and fulfilling needs “is just good business.”

For more information about the business minor, click here or contact Amy Tabor.

Magdalena Rost, a student majoring in classics and English (with a minor in business), is an intern for Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine.