UCLA’S campus has been flooded this week with a host of
business firm recruiters looking for a new class of entry-level
employees. The UCLA Career Center hosted Jobs for Bruins this
Wednesday and Thursday to give students a chance to meet with the
recruiters to jump-start their post-college lives.
All the while, the Undergraduate Students Association Council is
trying to create a business management minor that could put many
UCLA students on an even playing field with students coming out of
school with a business degree.
Currently, business is under the umbrella of UCLA’s
economics department. The requirements for the business economics
degree blend economic principles on the national and international
level, as well as game theory. This curriculum offers a
traditionally academic approach to economics.
If students wish to take courses geared toward finance and
management ““ skills used in the business industry ““
they can pursue an accounting minor through the UCLA Anderson
School of Management.
USAC’s Academic Affairs Commission is developing the
business management minor as a way to incorporate the finance
classes taught by the Anderson School with the business that is
found within the economics department. According to Academic
Affairs Commissioner Nat Schuster, this potential minor would make
UCLA students more attractive to business recruiters.
“As students, we are trying to gain skills that we can use
at the next stage in life,” said Schuster, a fourth-year
neuroscience student. “This would give students who wish to
go into business a better chance of getting into their
field.”
Schuster has been working since last spring with Vice Provost
for Undergraduate Education Judith Smith and Anderson Dean and
Chair in Management Judy Olian to get the business management minor
taught in Anderson, Schuster said.
Academic Affairs Commission project director Kelly Haddigan said
the biggest roadblock is finding out whether the minor would be
attached to Anderson or the UCLA College.
Less than three weeks ago, Schuster met with Interim Chancellor
Norman Abrams about the project. Abrams thought it would be more
feasible to teach the minor in the College because Anderson might
not have the funds to reshuffle classes, Schuster said.
Schuster said the minor would also afford students the
opportunity to focus specifically on business management if they
are not interested in studying economics and game theory.
Schuster spearheaded the project after consulting with a number
of different students and business recruiters who intimated that
schools such as UC Berkeley and USC, which have business schools,
might offer a broader resume to firms.
However, there are business economics students who don’t
see the proposed minor as a perfect solution, but rather as a small
step toward creating a separate business department.
“I would prefer UCLA to just have a business major outside
of economics,” said Jennifer Chinn, a second-year business
economics student who is planning to minor in accounting.
“But (the proposed minor) would be helpful for students who
don’t want to have to do the accounting minor.”
Matt Enner, president of the Undergraduate Business Students
Society, said he has consulted the Academic Affairs Commission on
the project as he has worked with a number of students and staff
members of the Career Center. During the career fair on campus this
week, Enner spoke with recruiters who reiterated that a business
management minor would give students a specialization that could
help them get jobs after graduation.
“For the students who would like to focus their studies on
business that they’ll use when they leave college, this minor
would be for them,” said Enner, a fourth-year cybernetics
student.