Undergraduate Curriculum Goals

 The following document states the four curriculum goals identified by the College Undergraduate Curriculum Committee:

effective communication skills
behavioral skills
mastery of the major
problem solving skills.

Three "enablers" cut across all goal areas: global awareness, technology and practical experience. Specific objectives are then identified.

Effective Communication Skills

Global Awareness: To enable our graduates to communicate with sensitivity to cultural differences, national prejudices and geographic boundaries.

Technology: To familiarize our graduates with technologies used in conveying written and oral communications that facilitate teamwork and decision making.

Practical Experience: To provide our graduates with opportunities to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, to a variety of audiences.

Objectives: Upon graduation students should

  • be able to organize, present, discuss and defend positions effectively through formal written reports, position papers, memoranda and summaries.
  • be able to make clear informative and persuasive presentations, accompanied by appropriate visual aids.
  • effectively communicate orally in less formal settings, e.g., meetings and focus groups.
  • communicate effectively electronically, e.g., via email and the internet.
  • listen effectively to the ideas and opinions of others.
  • be able to understand how to communicate in other cultures.

Behavioral Skills

Global Awareness: To familiarize our graduates with individual behavior, group behavior, cultural norms and diversity, values and ethics and their interaction in a multi-cultural setting to improve organizational effectiveness.

Technology: To make our graduates familiar with behavioral issues pertaining to adoption, adaptation and proliferation of technologies in organizations, and how individuals and organizations cope with rapid technological change.

Practical Experience: To provide our graduates with opportunities to develop interpersonal skills, leadership skills, organizational and team-building skills to arrive at decisions based on consensus.

Objectives: Upon graduation students should

  • understand the role of cultural diversity in domestic and global business and be able and willing to interact with culturally and intellectually diverse people.
  • understand the impact of legal, ethical and ecological issues in business decision-making.
  • understand the concept of social responsibility and be able to act ethically and with integrity, both individually and as a member of societal and business organizations.
  • accept responsibility for their decisions.
  • be able to function effectively as a member of a team by understanding group dynamics and the value of negotiation, keeping an open mind, and compromise in successful teamwork.
  • be able to serve as effective team leaders who can provide vision, inspiration and motivation so that the team allocates work equitably while completing projects on time.
  • recognize the relevance of life-long learning in an environment of rapidly changing technical knowledge and skills obsolescence.

Problem Solving Skills

Global Awareness: To make our graduates familiar with various global parameters and models that are relevant to deriving creative business solutions.

Technology: To make our graduates familiar with various technologies used in modeling and solving business problems.

Practical Experience: To provide our graduates with the hands-on experience of creatively analyzing, modeling and developing solutions to business problems.

Objectives: Upon graduation students should

  • be able to identify, define and refine problem statements, and specify problem structures, boundaries, and constraints.
  • be able to use insights gained from the real-world to develop models to solve applied business problems.
  • be able to derive creative solutions by using techniques including: enumeration, algorithms, heuristics and simulation.
  • be able to evaluate the solutions' short and long term impacts on the business.
  • be able to develop implementation plans that continuously improve the outcome. 

Mastery of the Major

Global Awareness: To make our graduates familiar with the impact of the global economy, international laws and regulations on their respective areas of specialization.

Technology: To provide our graduates with broad-based knowledge concerning the impact of technological changes and the use of technologies in their chosen areas of specialization.

Practical Experience: To provide our students with opportunities to use the tools and techniques of the chosen discipline.

Objectives: Upon graduation students should:

  • have a current, broad-based understanding of the field and its terminology.
  • possess expertise in the tools, techniques and research methods of the discipline.
  • have specialized knowledge within the field.
  • understand the role the functional area plays in achieving the firm's goals.
  • be aware of career opportunities related to their major.

Date Last Modified 07/24/2008