Business schools are reconsidering how they prepare students for the responsibility that rests on their shoulders: stabilizing the American economy.
Ball State University's Miller College of Business is making small steps in the classroom to address the current economic downturn, but it thinks its teaching methods are good enough to push through the tough times.
Indiana University's Kelly School of Business is making its own changes to meet its students needs.
Ramesh Venkataraman, a faculty member at the Kelly School of Business, said the school has recently changed its Business Law class to also include Ethics.
"Students don't just go into a company thinking about ethics," Venkataraman said. "They also don't say, 'I want to get ahead by cheating,' but it does happen. We want to put a bigger emphasis on ethics."
Kelly, a nationally ranked business college, also is offering versatility to its students by offering new co-majors, such as technology and management.
"This offers students more breadth of knowledge, but less depth," Venkataraman said.
Brien Smith, chairperson of the Department of Management, said individual professors at Ball State's business college are addressing the recession by offering current scenarios in the classroom.
"We are trying to give students tools to make decisions in good times and bad," Smith said.
He said it sounds bad, but the business college probably would not be changing its curriculum any time soon.
The Core Curriculum hasn't changed in 30 years.
Ray Montagno, associate dean at the business college, said next year a Personal Finance course will be added to the core curriculum.
Ball State and IU share ethics values.
"We're working to incorporate ethics and integration across the disciplines," Smith said.
A recent New York Times article addressed the issue of retraining business schools to meet the current economic trends. In the article, a professor said students spend too much time developing quick responses to packaged versions of business problems and don't learn enough about real-world experiences.
Smith said students at Ball State take theories from textbooks and apply them to the environment. He was disappointed when students in his Management and Strategies class made negative management decisions regarding the stimulus package.
Students at Ball State feel adjusting its curriculum would be a good idea.
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