Utah State University's College of Business has added a minor in international business to broaden its students' education and help graduates signal to future employers that they have formal training in the subject.
"Virtually every business is involved in international activity these days, ranging from small manufacturing concerns in Cache Valley to large corporate enterprises that are becoming established in the state of Utah," said David Luthy, senior associate dean of USU's College of Business."Our students as they go to work locally, nationally or internationally should have some background in international business," he said.
USU has long had business-related courses and classes in other fields that dealt with international matters. However, this is the first time that this type of minor has been formally established.
"No new courses are being added to the curriculum, but it's an opportunity for students to focus their study and receive recognition for the work they have done in the international dimension," Luthy said.
The minor involves certain required classes such as international business finance and a series of electives chosen from the new "regional studies list" of 29 courses dealing with such things as international history, sociology, political science, geology, economics and other topics.
The minor also includes a "second-language knowledge" section that offers students several options to learn foreign languages and the cultures from which they came. Com-petency can be demonstrated several ways, including getting a minor in a foreign language or passing a language competency test.
The international business minor grew out of concerns expressed by USU faculty members who formed a committee and developed a proposal with help and encouragement from David Stephens, dean of the Business College.
"We expected high interest, but there appears to be even more interest than we expected," said Luthy. "I know people in our student services center have had many students come for advisement materials and information about it."
When Steven Hanks, USU pro-fessor of management and human resources, began teaching a new course, "managing in a global context," this quarter, 48 students signed up.
Hanks said USU has been working for the past few years to internationalize its courses and broaden experiences for faculty members, including such things as presenting papers at international conferences to studying abroad.
Hanks said students outside the College of Business also have expressed interest in the minor.
Jared Peterson, a senior majoring in management, said he's thinking about reviewing the classes he's taken to see if they fulfill the requirements for this minor.
Just taking Hanks' new global management course has been a worth-while experience, Peterson said. "This class gives a really good representation of what you would find in the global community, so even if I were not to take the minor, I would have a very good idea of what it is to be an international manager," Peterson said.