Changes to course curriculum for the first semester in the Fisher College of Business has caused confusion for some students.
Jacqueline Elcik, executive director of the Undergraduate Advising Office for the Fisher College of Business, said that two things have happened during the semester change.
“One is, you can imagine with the curriculum, there were a lot of courses that just because we are moving from three terms to two terms needed to change,” said Elcik. “And then we also added new courses to our curriculum.”
Elcik said the accounting curriculum is broken down into three parts: general education, business core education and specialization. Depending on where students fell throughout those three categories, she said she would advise what courses students needed to complete for graduation.
One of the new courses for accounting majors and business students alike was Logistics Management 3380 in the business core section. Some have speculated that the addition of this course could cause business seniors without credit to have to go another semester if it was not completed by May of 2013. Elcik said that is not necessarily the case.
“There was a way, how we looked at the curriculum, where the student took so much of their core (education), they would move to the next stage,” said Elcik. “But if they hadn’t started their core (education), then…they needed to take that (logistics) course.”
But Elcik said the change should not affect students in the long run.
“I can’t imagine that we would hold a student up for graduation,” Elcik said.
Alexandra Saraceni, a fourth-year in accounting, said that these changes have not impacted her thus far.
“Personally, I have not had any problems with the semester switch,” said Saraceni via email. “When I filled out my Transfer Academic Plan, I was surprised as to how many courses I needed to graduate. I thought it was going to be more than originally planned, but it was actually less.”
However, some students have been negatively affected by the semester change in curriculum.
Phil Dumas, a fourth-year in finance, said that the new logistics course has caused some problems in his scheduling.
“There is Econ 520, which used to be a required class so I took that,” said Dumas. “And now they are making a logistics class instead of that. So I took a class that I don’t need anymore and now I have to take that logistics class.”
Dumas explained that he is not graduating on time and is expected to take another semester after this year.
“If I would have graduated on time, it wouldn’t have mattered,” said Dumas. “That’s not really fair to the people who aren’t graduating exactly on time for whatever reason. I work, so I can’t be full time all the time.”
Elcik said that because of the cost of education, she recommends students have a plan when coming to school.
“I never want to discourage a student from learning more, that’s not my intent,” said Elcik. “But I definitely want to make sure you think about how much it costs, what’s the return on investment if you stay.”