News > November 6, 2008

By R. Hunter Bratton | Staff writer

The Calloway School of Business and Accountancy recently announced that the business major, a popular program of study among many university students, will be changed this semester to the business & enterprise management (BEM) major. The BEM major will begin with the class entering Calloway in fall 2009.

Pat Dickson, associate professor in the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy, said the purpose of revising the major was to provide future business school graduates the means to pursue their desired employment. Concurrently, Dickson stressed how important it was for the university to remain loyal to their core commitment of educating the entire person. The BEM major both plans for flux in organizational requirements by the employment market and provides students the prospect of setting themselves apart in their vocation, said Gordon E. McCray, senior associate dean of the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy. “The new major is about far more than getting a job – BEM majors will carry with them an array of formative experiences that will pay dividends for many, many years into their careers,” he said.

Within the current requirements for a business major, students must complete no less than 30 hours of core classes and an additional nine hours of general management courses.

The new BEM major will continue the 30 hours of core requisite classes, but it will also require the completion of 22.5 credit hours that will enhance the education of a BEM student.

“Some students have not opted for the business major in recent years because it did not allow them to clearly define for potential employers who they are in terms of capabilities and skills nor did it help them see as clear a path to employment as we believe the new degree will facilitate,” Dickson said.

The business school predicts the change of the once stigmatized requirements to the program will strengthen individual education.

For the new BEM major, nine credit hours will be required as part of an elective concentration whereby students will have the freedom to chose from a wide range of approved areas of study such as marketing, international business and new business development. From these nine hours, BEM students will now have the ability to construct a concentration in areas of study that will advance competitiveness in their desired career paths.

BEM majors will additionally be asked to participate in Professional Development Workshops that will occur in their junior and senior years. These workshops will prepare them to enter the workplace as professional managers by fine-tuning skills such as professional communication, time management, innovation and creativity.

Also original to the BEM major is a leadership experience program course that students will take during the last semester of enrollment. Students should expect this course to be experiential, Dickson said. It will require students to be actively involved in the leadership process while asking them to understand leadership skills and styles.

Another requirement of the major will be the completion of a company internship that is focused toward the student’s concentration area.

These 200 hours of company work will have “an organized academic component that includes both a reflective overview and a personal portfolio,” Dickson said.

Although the Calloway personnel anxiously await the change in new major, current business students should not dread new requirements nor should they expect a new title at the top of their transcript; the change will not take effect until the class of 2010.