By Rebekah Malkin
William Peace University will add a marketing major in the Fall of 2016, the university announced in a statement.
Currently Marketing is available as a concentration within the business administration major, which allows students to earn a bachelor of science degree. This is in addition to the current choice students have of 19 majors and various concentrations and minors.
“As an institution, we invest a lot of time and research into developing innovative courses and sought-after majors, to offer the best and most up-to-date curriculum for our students,” WPU President Dr. Brian Ralph said in the statement.
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For any students interested in the marketing major, which ends in the receiving of a bachelor’s of science, please email Dr. Nye at carolyn.nye@peace.edu.
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Carolyn Nye, the acting head of the business administration major, was a driving force behind the addition of the major. Nye has been a professor at WPU since 2000, teaching many of the marketing concentration courses.
Nye developed the programs for the major, and says that marketing is “one of the most sought after majors.”
Nye hopes to continue expanding the business majors offered, and Marketing is one of the first of these.
Nye is expecting enrollment of about thirty students or more for the major in the fall, with an expected first graduation date of December of 2017. According to Nye, the major will include many interdisciplinary resources with the current communications courses.
“Marketing is a great major,” Nye said. “Every company needs marketing…coming up with the product ideas and pricing, get customers, understand consumers… if you’re not selling something, you’re not in business.”
The current process for students and faculty to request new majors for consideration is very complex.
According to Dr. Charles Duncan, dean of academic affairs, the university has added about five or six majors in the last few years.
“They come through the faculty,” Duncan says. “ Some individual or group of faculty will propose a major and we vet it.”
This process includes evaluating the financial feasibility and gauging current student interest. The proposal then goes from Duncan’s office, to the curriculum committee, which may make changes or suggestions.
Then it goes to the President’s Council, the President himself, and then lastly, the board of trustees approves it. Duncan says that at the moment they will not be allocating many new resources to the major, and will use the professors they already employ.