The Broad College of Business announced a series of curriculum updates last week, including a transition from a Bachelor of Arts in Business to a Bachelor of Science in Business starting fall 2025.
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs Richard Spreng said that, after some analysis, administrators found that most business colleges across the country either grant a B.S. or a Bachelor of Business Administration, so they decided to make the change.
He said he’s not sure of the history of why MSU has been granting a B.A., but it never should have been the case.
B.S. degrees are generally granted for degrees that require more quantitative analysis, and the new change “better reflects what the curriculum has always been,” he said.
Course updates
Spreng said the degree name is just a change in nomenclature. But in terms of curriculum, the college announced the introduction of four courses to the list of requirements: ITM 208, ITM 210, BUS 200 and BUS 400.
The ITM courses, Information Systems and Algorithmic Thinking for Business and Business Analytics respectively, are replacing CSE 102 and ITM 209, two technical courses previously required for the degree. The changes were made in favor of courses designed more for business students, Spreng said.
The new requirements are the same amount of credits, only it now integrates the Python and Excel skills taught in the CSE class with a business-oriented curriculum as opposed to a computer science course.
CSE 102 was also previously a requirement to be accepted into the College of Business, so the change in curriculum brings it in-house, Spreng said.
Teagan Dixon, the instructor for the ITM courses, is enthusiastic about the courses.
She said that, through talking with students over the years, she’s found that they often have a disconnect in their understanding about why they’re taking a Python course as a business student, namely in how that is going to be applicable in their jobs.
By teaching the content in an ITM course, she said she’s able to more clearly relate the subject to other business topics.
She also hopes to help students use generative AI to assist them with tasks.
“I think that students need to learn to use it, not as a crutch, but as a tool that's going to empower them to do more,” she said. “And I think if we can get them to learn how to do that, it'll be extraordinarily powerful in the marketplace for our students when they're competing against other business schools to get jobs.”
More broadly, Spreng said Broad is looking to integrate AI into various courses as opposed to having one standalone course on the subject.
Another course, BUS 200: Foundations of Business: Cross-Functional Perspectives and Practices, is a new three-credit introductory course designed to help students get a baseline understanding of various fields in business.
Spreng said that, while graduating students tend to be very knowledgeable about subjects in their major, they tend not to fully understand how various fields work in tandem with each other.
He also said the course is designed to provide information to students on careers in their chosen fields.
BUS 400: Preparing for Professional Success: Transitioning from University to Career, is a new one-credit course being introduced that is designed to help graduates transition from student life to professional life.
Spreng said the course follows feedback from alumni and employers who have said that students need more socialization in the professional world.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Outside requirements
In addition to their course requirements, the new curriculum updates have both added and taken away additional requirements for the College of Business.
Students are no longer required to take nine credits of courses outside the business college, of which Spreng said that the university-required general education courses students take already provide the holistic education the nine credits were meant to provide.
He said this gives students more flexibility when choosing business courses to take.
Additionally, the business college is also revising the integrative, non-curricular requirement for students. Over the course of their undergraduate years, students now have to accrue points in one of six pillars: global mindset, entrepreneurial mindset, philanthropic mindset, strategic leadership, culture and community and ethical mindset.
Spreng said Points are earned by attending certain lectures or doing certain asynchronous tasks, all of which are tracked through an app.
“These are mostly things that we're already doing. It's just encouraging students to take advantage of some of those [opportunities],” he said.
