The University recently announced that a new business minor will be available to students, beginning in the spring semester of 2017. The Homewood Academic Council approved the new minor earlier this summer.
The new minor exists under the Center for Leadership Education (CLE), within the Whiting School of Engineering (WSE). It is a joint initiative of the WSE, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) and the Carey Business School (CBS).
The business minor is comprised of five core classes, one elective and two foundational courses. In order to fulfill the minor requirements, students can choose from any of the previously existing CLE courses. Two new courses, Principles of Finance and Operations Management, have also been added in conjunction with the minor.
The business minor is an addition to the three other minors currently offered by the CLE: Accounting and Financial Management, which has been available to students as of fall 2016; Entrepreneurship and Management (E&M); and Marketing and Communications.
Student reactions towards the new minor have been mixed. Junior Hayden Rosenthal, president of the Rho Psi chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, the co-ed business fraternity, believes that a business minor by itself will not prepare students for their careers.
“You can have a business major and people won’t be ready,” Rosenthal said. “You need that real experience to be ready for the work world and the business world... I’ve been told by many people at many different firms that people tend not to care about what minor you have, unless you can spin it really well.”
Rosenthal also noted that many students already choose to pursue the E&M minor.
“People all across campus do the E&M minor. They like the E&M minor,” Rosenthal said. “It basically is the business minor already.”
However, Rosenthal acknowledged that the University is working to help students further their interests in business.
“With the new business minor, it’s a good idea at heart,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Sophomore Ting Fang, considered switching out of E&M and pursuing the new business minor. After doing some preliminary research, however, Fang decided not to pursue the new business minor because she was not able to see any major distinctions between the two.
“It said on the [information] sheet, that they were going to add more electives because [the business minor] is new,” Fang said. “The electives that they have now are basically what you would have taken if you’re doing the E&M minor. I didn’t see much of a difference, and that’s why I’m sticking with E&M.”
Similarly, sophomore Jack Karyo, is also more likely to complete the E&M minor because he believed the new business minor was not yet fully developed.
“I was looking into the business minor because it seems like more of a broad field than E&M,” Karyo said. “I’m really debating which one of the two I should follow because it would not be worth it to do both. Right now [I’m leaning toward] E&M because the business minor just doesn’t seem worked out enough.”
Provost Sunil Kumar, the former dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, explained how the business minor differs from the other minors offered by the CLE.
“The new business minor covers most of the major sub-disciplines within the field of business and therefore is less specialized than the other minors currently offered by the Center for Leadership Education, including the minor in Entrepreneurship and Management,” Kumar wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “This minor will be attractive to students who are not yet certain where to focus within the broad disciplines of business, communications, entrepreneurship and leadership.”
Vice Dean for Education of the Whiting School of Engineering Edward Scheinerman explained that the University created the minor because it believes that having a background in business will be helpful to many students after graduating.
“I think whatever your education be, whether you’re an engineer or a poet, or anybody else, eventually you’re going to earn a living,” Scheinerman said. “Having an understanding of the world of business is helpful to lots of people, especially folks that are interested in starting their own company or being in a management position. This is not an MBA. But it’s enough so that at least students will know what questions to ask and have a broad scope understanding of how things work.”
Professor of Economics Jon Faust, who is also a founding member of the advisory board for the minor, stated that the minor’s course offerings will be the most beneficial result.
“We actually significantly increased the range of business style courses and the main advantage comes in giving the students a wider array of courses where they can specialize in things they’re really interested in,” Faust said. “It also makes sense to then allow them to gather up those courses and to become a line on the transcript: a minor. But that’s secondary to offering a broader range of courses.”
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Director of the CLE Timothy Weihs stated that the Carey Business School’s involvement in the new minor will be through CBS faculty.
“Courses that fulfill the new minor will all be listed and offered within the Center for Leadership Education (CLE) and the Economics Department,” Weihs wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “However, some of the courses, particularly the finance and operations courses, will be taught by Carey faculty. They’ll simply be listed as CLE courses for ease of registration. So there is exposure to faculty who are active at the Carey School of Business.”
Students also responded to efforts to publicize the minor. Jack Karyo thought the University could have done a better job when announcing the minor.
“Since I didn’t hear about [the minor] through school channels, they definitely could have marketed it more,” Karyo said. “When you add new things like minors, it’s something that people would want to know about.”
Senior Sigal Landau, President of the Hopkins Chapter of the American Marketing Association praised the CLE and countered Karyo by stating that the CLE has been publicizing the minor to underclassmen well.
“I definitely heard about [the minor] at the end of last semester, and it was presented to freshmen during the CLE open houses,” Landau said. “I think that here’s been a really good amount of effort by the CLE to try and get [students], especially underclassmen to hear about it.”
Landau also praised the CLE for providing opportunities for students both in and out of the classroom.
“The addition of these two minors [financial accounting and business] shows that they’re trying really hard to make more opportunities for students,” Landau said.
She stated that since the business minor is a joint initiative between three schools, it will bring a new perspective to the program.
“E&M is a great overall minor,” Landau said. “But in addition, I think the business minor being combined with Econ and Carey is really great because it will offer a different approach to business as a whole.”
Sophomore Harrison Folk echoed Landau’s comments, commending the University in addressing the student body’s desire for having more business related programs.
“I think it’s great that Hopkins is offering this minor,” Folk wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “A lot of students have been upset that Hopkins does not have a business major, so this grants these students some relief. Hopkins also prides itself on graduating well-rounded students and this minor encompasses the well-rounded business person.”
