academic catalogue

2023-2024 Catalogue

Business (BUS) Course Descriptions

BUS 105: Contemporary Business.
Goal: To introduce students to the diverse external influences that impact issues and decision-making within an organization.
Content: Students will analyze the business environment in the areas of economic, social, political, technological, and global issues.
Prerequisite: None.
Gen. Ed. Category: Exploring; Individuals & Communities; (SBS/PS).
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 106: Business Ethics and Society.
Goal: To introduce students to the expectations society has toward business behavior.
Content: Major issues facing organizations in both the profit and nonprofit sector will be researched, analyzed, discussed, and evaluated. Through case studies, students will evaluate a variety of complex business situations and how decisions of organizations impact the larger society and the community in which they reside by forming and justifying decision alternatives that reflect ethical concepts.
Prerequisite: None.
Gen. Ed. Category: Exploring; Individuals & Communities; (SBS/PS).
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 128: Computer Applications.
Goal: To study a variety of professional applications.
Content: Uses and methods of integrating various types of software through the construction of several projects.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 210: Women and Economic Development.
Goal: To study the impact of economic change on women by analyzing how age, sex, and race hierarchies modify changes in women's roles in different societies of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Content: This course will focus on the effects of economic growth on the socioeconomic status of women. Most importantly, students will study the means by which patriarchy has persisted in various parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America by redefining itself, even as economies have modernized.
Prerequisite: None.
Gen. Ed. Category: Synthesizing Perspectives; Women's Experiences; (SBS/PS).
Cross-listed as: ECO 210 and WST 210.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 300: Management Information Systems.
Goal: To analyze business strategies in order to recognize how technology solutions enable strategic outcomes, to identify information systems requirements by analyzing business processes, and to enable the student to gain experience solving real world business problems using different information systems applications.
Content: An overview of management information systems and how they provide value by supporting organizational objectives. Various concepts of business processes and alignment of information systems solutions to strategic goals are covered. The technical, business, and management aspects of management information systems are examined through the study of MIS theory and concepts.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 303: Principles of Marketing.
Goal: To understand the basic marketing functions: product policy, pricing, advertising, selling, distribution, and marketing research, and to apply them to practical marketing problems.
Content: The examination of the "4 P's" of marketing-product, price, promotion, and place. Practical application of these concepts by developing a global marketing plan.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 304: SEO/SEM (Search Engine Optimization and Marketing).
Goal: This course is intended to introduce students to the concepts of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine (or Social Media) Marketing, and teach them how to use these tools to drive top-of-funnel growth, also known as lead generation.
Content: SEO and PageRank: Page rank is vital in driving top of funnel growth. Students will learn how to use techniques such as landing pages, SEO-friendly copy, and link farming to boost page rank. Paid Search: Paid search is often among the most effective advertising channels. Students will become familiar with Google AdWords, learn how to craft effective paid search ads, and learn how to select the correct keywords on which to advertise. Students will also learn how to use the SEMRush tool.
Prerequisite: BUS 303.
Credit: 3 hours.
This course is offered online through the Rize consortium.

BUS 306: Advertising Strategy.
Goal: To investigate the underlying ideas, principles, and concepts used by management of a business to inform consumers of the availability of and attributes of products and services.
Content: Study of advertising background and theory, with an emphasis on different types of advertising media available. Practical application of these concepts by creating advertising cases.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 307: Sport Marketing.
Goal: To develop and apply the theories and functions of sport marketing and sales as applied across various sport management fields.
Content: Students will utilize research and development skills, sport promotion, advertising, marketing, and development of campaigns to investigate the sport industry. Demonstration and understanding of various sport and exercise/fitness industries, target audiences, and needs in marketing and promotion will be examined to provide a foundation for current/future practices in marketing.
Prerequisites: BSM 110, BUS 303.
Cross-listed as: BSM 307.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 308: Introduction to Healthcare Administration.
Goal: To examine the behavioral and organizational factors that affect healthcare managers and to examines some of the strategies for problem solving and implementing change.
Content: Included will be information on the U.S. healthcare delivery system and examine the historical growth of the healthcare system, trends for the future, and the various settings where healthcare is provided. 
Prerequisite: None.
Cross-listed as: HCA 308.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 309: Healthcare Operations and Quality Improvement.
Goal: To understand quality management and improvement is important in healthcare operations because of patient care, safety, and outcomes. 
Content: This course will address quality management tools and concepts, including root cause analysis and performance indicators.
Prerequisite: BUS/HCA 308.
Cross-listed as: HCA 309.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 310: Business Law.
Goal: To examine comprehensively the role of law and legal practice in the American business environment.
Content: Exploration of the differences between private and public law and also the differences between substantive and procedural law, with an emphasis on understanding the linkages between different areas of business law. Specific attention to such areas as classifications of legal subjects, the court system, dispute resolution, private law principles, public law, individual rights, business entities, and protection of society.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 313: Healthcare Policy and Economics.
Goal: To introduce students to U.S. health policy and how it is developed, and the requirements of the major regulatory agencies. 
Content: Major debates related to healthcare legislation will be discussed.  The course will also look at how basic economic principles influence policy decisions.
Prerequisite: BUS/HCA 308.
Cross-listed as: HCA 313.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 314: Legal Aspects of Healthcare.
Goal: To examine laws and regulations that guide almost every interaction in health care. 
Content: This course will explore the evolution of the laws and regulatory agencies that are actively involved in health care administration, and the contemporary issues that are likely to affect health care in the future.
Prerequisite: BUS/HCA 308.
Cross-listed as: HCA 314.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 315: Principles of Management.
Goal: To understand the basic concepts, theories, and research in management and to apply them to practical management problems.
Content: Examination of the principal functional areas of management-planning, organizing, directing, and controlling as well as environmental, legal, economic, ethical, statistical, international, and career issues.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 317: Organizational Behavior.
Goal: To examine the three components of an organization - the individual, the group, and the system.
Content: This course will study the relationships of these components, the effects on decisions, and the strategies to employ to best meet organizational needs.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 318: Human Resources Management.
Goal: To examine human resource strategies and to acquaint students with human resource functions in business organizations.
Content: Studying the major human resource functions-recruitment, selection, planning, job analysis, orientation, training and development, career planning, performance appraisal, compensation management, employee benefits, safety and health, employee relations, collective bargaining, and research-in an organizational context.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 319: Total Compensation Management.
Goal: To provide the student with an overview of the total compensation management function in business, as evidenced through the human resource framework. Major areas of activity will include job analysis, job evaluation, establishing pay structures, and benefits. 
Content: Strategic compensation, contextual influences on compensation practice, traditional bases for pay, incentive pay, person-focused pay, building internally consistent compensation systems, building market-competitive compensation systems, building pay structures that recognize employee contributions, discretionary benefits, legally required benefits, compensating executives, compensating the flexible workforce, compensating expatriates, pay and benefits outside the United States, and challenges facing compensation professionals.
Prerequisite: BUS 318.
Credit: 3 hours.
This course is offered online through the Rize consortium.

BUS 320: Investments Analysis.
Goal:
To acquaint students with the selection of common stocks, bonds, and other securities from the perspectives of both the individual and institutional investor.
Content: Basic concepts of investment management using risk/return analysis and empirical evidence to examine the securities valuation, the efficient markets hypothesis, portfolio diversification strategies, and investment decision-making in changing markets.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 328: Art of Business Leadership.
Goal: To examine the leadership theories and approaches used to effectively lead individuals, work-teams, and groups.
Content: Students examine the knowledge and skills successful leaders must possess in the following areas of leadership: understanding leadership variables, the power of vision, the importance of ethics, the empowerment of people, leadership principles, understanding people, multiplying effectiveness, developing others, and performance management.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 329: Training and Development.
Goal: To help students develop knowledge and skill in the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of organizational training as well as to help students build skills in creating effective performance improvement programs, a vital resource in talent retention that is often overlooked. 
Content: Instructional System Design (ISD), the ATD Competency Model, key roles for training professionals, strategic training, needs assessment, learning and transfer of training, program design, training evaluation, traditional training methods, technology-based training, development, career management, mentoring, legal issues, managing diversity, career challenges, and the future of training and development.
Prerequisite: BUS 318.
Credit: 3 hours.
This course is offered online through the Rize consortium.

BUS 330: Strategic Management.
Goal: To explore the processes and models managers use to make short and long run strategic decisions in corporations.
Content: Students study environmental scanning (both external and internal), strategy formulation (strategic or long-range planning), strategy implementation, and evaluation and control.  Strategic management will also incorporate the integrative commit of business policy with a heavier environmental and strategic emphasis.
Prerequisite: BUS 315.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 331: Employment and Labor Law.
Goal: To examine the scope and role of HR in the occupational health and safety arena, the fundamental components of comprehensive programs and, more importantly, the interplay between these considerations and how important HR professionals are in their success.
Content: OSHA requirements, risk management and loss prevention, management of safety & workers’ compensation, employee assistance plans, preventative health issues, emergency response and preparedness, and developing a culture of safety, amongst others. There will be focus on the fundamental components of a comprehensive health and safety program to protect the employees in an organization and costly liability.
Prerequisites: BUS 105; BUS 315 or BUS 317;  and BUS 310.
Credit: 3 hours.
This course is offered online through the Rize consortium.

BUS 332: International Business Management.
Goal: To investigate the economic, social, and political organizations that have an influence on managing international businesses and/or investments.  Students may analyze customer-driven strategies, quality of global competitive environments, global logistics, and international business activities in differing political, legal, economic, cultural environments, and other pertinent topics.
Content: The course will cover the changing nature of the global economy in differing political, economic, legal, and cultural differences throughout the world. Ethical issues trade flow, foreign direct investment, regional economic agreements, global monetary system, World Bank, strategic alliances, marketing mix, product development, performance appraisal systems and supply-chain management are among the topics which may be analyzed.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.
 
BUS 333: Business Information Systems.
Goal:
To understand how firms plan, build, and implement systems to process accounting information necessary to the business.
Content: A study of the fundamentals of business data processing techniques and systems. Technological advances and their effects on business are discussed.
Prerequisite: ACC 201.
Cross-listed as: ACC 333.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 334: Human Resource Risk Management.
Goal: To provide the student with an overview of various laws and regulations that determine the rights and obligations of employees and employers.
Content: Topics covered include the nature of the employment relationship and common law principles, prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of certain protected characteristics such as race and gender, wage and hour law, the Family Medical Leave Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and other similar areas of labor and employment law. The primary focus is on federal laws governing the employment relationship, but there will also be discussion of state and local laws.
Prerequisites: BUS 318, BUS 331.
Credit: 3 hours.
This course is offered online through the Rize consortium.

BUS 336: Social Media Marketing.
Goal: To introduce students to the particularities of advertising via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Students will learn how to build effective ads for these platforms, select their appropriate audience, and measure the success of their efforts.
Content: Social media content, running social media campaigns:, follower growth, and retargeting.
Prerequisite: BUS 303 .
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 337: Email Marketing.
Goal: To students how to craft successful email marketing campaigns when targeting business or individual customers. Students will also learn how to use email campaigns for customer engagement and activation. 
Content: Messaging and the subject line; email campaigns, conversion, engagement and onboarding; automation; metrics; and engagement.
Prerequisites: BUS 303; satisfaction of writing competency requirement.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 338: Digital Marketing Analytics.
Goal: To learn how to analyze digital customer behavior data using a range of tools, and use that data to test marketing hypotheses and improve customer acquisition. 
Content: Digital marketing funnels; analytics tools; A/B testing; data analysis; and rich data, vs. poor data.
Prerequisites: BUS 303; BUS 304, BUS 336, or BUS 337; and MAT 130 or higher.
Credit: 3 hours.
This course is offered online through the Rize consortium.

BUS 339: Viral and Organic Growth.
Goal: To teach students what drives users to share content, how to build shareable content, and how to run contests and perform other activities that tend to lead to viral or organic growth. 
Content: The psychology of virality; meme culture and marketing; influencer marketing and referral programs; and viral contests.
Prerequisites: BUS 303, BUS 336.
Credit: 3 hours.
This course is offered online through the Rize consortium.

BUS 340: Healthcare Information Systems Management.
Goal: To introduce the student to the principles of computer technology related to health care with emphasis on computerized medical billing, health care data collection, storage, retrieval, security arrangement, presentation, and verification. This course will also introduce the components and requirements of the electronic health record.
Content: Origins, sources and content of healthcare data; technologies used to manage and control healthcare databases; key components of healthcare databases; telecommunications technology; electronic medical record (EMR); project management; systems evaluation.
Prerequisite: None.
Cross-listed as: HCA 340.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 350: Entrepreneurship.
Goal: To awaken the student's entrepreneurial spirit and to make the student aware of the significant role that entrepreneurial thinking plays in the successful development of new enterprises whether they be for-profit or non-profit organizations.
Content: Class discussions and textbooks readings will explore entrepreneurial characteristics, entrepreneurial opportunities, and effective small business planning and management systems. Because the business plan serves as a model and framework for entrepreneurial thinking, the student will create a personal and informal business plan for a business or non-profit organization of their choosing.
Prerequisite: None.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 396: Special Topics in Business.
Goal: To provide an opportunity for exploration of a topic not offered as part of the established curriculum.
Content: Examination of special topics, problems, or issues in business that seem particularly relevant to student needs and interests.
Prerequisite: Dependent on topic.
Credit: 3 hours. A student may take a maximum of six to eight semester hours (two courses) of special topics in any one field.

BUS 451: Directed Independent Study.
Goal: To provide the student with the opportunity for independent study, under careful supervision, of significant topics in business selected in consultation with the instructor.
Content: Varies.
Prerequisites: Adequate course work for the placement selected and permission of the faculty advisor.
Credit: 1-9 hours.

BUS 452/199: Field Study.
Goal: To provide the student with intensive, specialized work experience in the area of business.
Content: Observation and participation in the work of business professionals.
Prerequisites: Adequate course work for the placement selected and permission of the faculty advisor; approval of the Director of Career Development.
Credit: 1-12 hours.

BUS 488: Business Policy Seminar.
Goal: To familiarize the student with the integration of the functional areas of business through study and discussion of real organizational problems from the perspective of top-level management.
Content: Emphasis on the development of conceptual skills in management, marketing, and finance that require the student to approach decision-making and strategic planning in terms of the total impact on the organization. Creation of a portfolio and an online computer simulation are integral parts of BUS 488. Near the end of the course, students will also take the Comprehensive Business Test (CBT).
Prerequisites: ACC 201, ACC 202, BUS 106, BUS 303, BUS 310, BUS 315, BUS 318, ECO 102, ECO 104, and senior standing. Should be taken during the student's final semester when all of these courses have been completed or are near completion.
Credit: 3 hours.

BUS 499: Honors Thesis (Fee required).

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