This fall, the Carroll School of Management will introduce a management minor that will be open to all Boston College undergraduates.
Students will have a choice of five course sequences: Accounting for Banking and Consulting; Finance; Marketing; Management and Leadership; and Managing for Social Impact and the Public Good. The first three sequences are based on the Carroll School鈥檚 largest concentrations, while the latter two are existing minors.
Carroll School administrators said the management minor offers a formal structure for students from 51茶馆鈥檚 other undergraduate schools who enroll in CSOM courses 鈥� 843 members of the Class of 2017 took at least one Carroll School course during their years at 51茶馆. The minor could also suggest a potential career path for undergraduates who are undecided or uncertain about their post-college lives, the CSOM administrators added.
鈥淭he creation of this minor codifies some things that have been in place for a while,鈥� said Carroll School Associate Dean Ethan Sullivan. 鈥淏ut in a way, the real motivation was the University鈥檚 Strategic Plan announced last year. The first strategic direction specifically calls for 51茶馆 to leverage the strengths of its undergraduate curriculum, and to integrate the liberal arts with professional disciplines as a means of fostering discernment among our students.
鈥淭his is a way of opening up students鈥� perspectives, helping them to see the different avenues where they may take their interests and talents, so they don鈥檛 have to pigeonhole themselves.鈥�
Sullivan said the idea for the minor grew out of efforts aimed at making the Carroll School curriculum more accessible to undergraduates across fields of study 鈥� such as the Summer Management Catalyst Program 鈥� while also raising the number of arts and sciences electives for CSOM students.
鈥淲e鈥檙e always thinking of how to build more, and better, bridges in and out of the Carroll School,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he school is part of a larger university, after all, and we want our students to experience as much of it as possible.鈥�
Sullivan noted that the Management and Leadership concentration has long existed as a minor for non-CSOM students; the Managing for Social Impact and the Public Good concentration, created two years ago, also has been available as a minor to undergraduates in other schools.
鈥淭hese two concentrations were useful for Carroll School undergraduates exploring areas like human resources or social innovation, for example, and particularly those who are interested in entrepreneurship.
鈥淏ut given the interest that students from the other schools have shown in these sequences of courses as a minor, we felt that the finance, marketing and accounting concentrations could also be beneficial to non-CSOM undergraduates. So now they have an opportunity to come out of 51茶馆 with a quantifiable certification in management that enhances their chosen major.鈥�
Sullivan gave some examples of how the minor could be utilized: A Lynch School of Education student foreseeing a career in educational administration might strengthen his or her credentials with a grounding in budget and finance. Courses on marketing principles and marketing research could be useful for a fine arts major. Connell School of Nursing undergraduates would be able to augment their clinical skills through studies in management and leadership.
鈥淭he possibilities are endless,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat students come to understand is that finance, marketing, accounting and other facets of business and management aren鈥檛 simply about numbers and dollar signs: They are disciplines that help in analyzing situations, asking questions and devising solutions. And it鈥檚 exciting to see the connections you can find between those disciplines and others, whether education, medicine, the arts and humanities, natural sciences or social sciences.鈥�
Sullivan expressed gratitude to department chairs and faculty members in the Carroll School and other undergraduate schools for their help in formulating the minor. He also noted that current juniors will be able to count previous coursework towards the minor, if it meets the criteria.
Sean Smith | University Communications