By Katherine Schotz

Contributing Writer

Beginning with the class of 2015, students will have four new options in the School of Management. The new majors are Accounting & Financial Management, Global Management, Managing for Sustainability and Markets, and Innovation & Design.

“We want to be the best,” said Michael Johnson-Cramer, co-director of the School of Management and associate professor of management. “The average company 10 years from now faces four problems—how to be financially viable, how to become more global, how to be environmentally sustainable and how to be innovative.”

The new majors address these issues. The class of 2015 will have about nine common classes. From there, the students will take three to four requirements for the major track and then electives from other departments that they decide best fit with their focus.

The Accounting and Financial Management major still allows students to follow the CPA track but also prepares those students who want to go into the financial services area, such as a Wall Street firm. The Global Management major is aimed to help students understand the global business system and the challenges they will face in an international business. The Managing for Sustainability major deals with the environmentally-friendly but still economical ways to run a business. A possible topic within this major could be where a company’s carbon footprint fits in and understanding the triple bottom line, Johnson-Cramer said. The Markets, Innovation & Design major will teach students how to create and introduce a new product.

In creating the new curriculum, which began about five years ago, the faculty looked at where they saw the business world headed in 10 years. From there, the goal was to create a new curriculum that would leave students better suited for life after graduation. In the Global Management track, for instance, students will be taking a language course, said Tammy Hiller, associate professor of management who is also in charge of the curriculum committee.

The transition has started with some of the new classes already offered. Global Manager as Diplomat (MGMT 335) aims to make students aware of the challenges that they might face working in a company overseas and how to address these problems.

“I feel like this class will be one of the most helpful I have taken at Bucknell,” management major Michael Milstein ’11 said. “It wouldn’t just be helpful if I went abroad to work, but also if I worked with anyone else from another country. Inevitably at some point in my career, some of the work I will be doing will relate back to another country, and understanding the importance of cultural differences will prove to be very valuable for me.”

One of the main challenges in implementation of this new system is that there will be two sets of curricula in place until the transition is complete three years from now.

“All current students will still have the other classes that are required, but hopefully the new higher-level classes can be electives,” Hiller said.

The decision to change the curriculum also involved student surveys, focus groups and discussions with alumni to determine where there was a need for and an interest in new topics. A Management Technology track was discussed, Johnson-Cramer said, but there was not enough interest. In making the changes, the school hopes to address areas where the curriculum was either outdated or not covered.

The department was able to higher new professors to fill the need for specialized and more specific classes.  There is also overlap between the School of Management and the other colleges. One of the challenges, Hiller said, “was getting people to participate in programs that were thinking across different disciplines.”

The cooperation has been working. There is a class that incorporates Russian studies and teleconferences people in Russia, Johnson-Cramer said.

One of the other improvements in the curriculum is that students have more freedom with their classes.

“I really wish I could have been a student here under the new management curriculum,” Milstein said. “Although I do appreciate the depth of understanding I gained from all aspects of management, I would have liked to take more courses in areas that I was specifically interested in.”

Milstein is doing a radio show about the changes that will air Saturday at 3 p.m. on 90.5 FM or on WVBU.com.