School of business alters requirements

Administrators say the new foreign language component of the program will give graduates an advantage in the global business environment.

A not-so-new requirement will hit the Smeal College of Business Administration soon. Starting this summer, all incoming business students will find 12 credits of foreign language on their audits, a general education regulation the school last held in 1953.

"Business is increasingly practiced across international borders and students who will become business leaders really need to know how to do their business and perform in this new world," said Charles DuBois, coordinator of Smeal College relations.

Starting with Summer Session 1998 enrollment, all bachelor's degree students in the college must complete 12 credits of foreign language proficiency. Incoming business students will also find themselves in history, literature, culture or civilization courses as part of the new requirements, DuBois said.

Currently, only students enrolled in international business majors have a language requirement, he said.

The new requirement is part of a larger overhaul throughout the school, DuBois said.

Earlier this semester the school announced a reassessment of its integrated junior-year core curriculum, affecting 2,200 students a year, said James B. Thomas, senior associate dean of the college. The new business core focuses on teamwork, Thomas said.

The new language requirement stems from a 1991 study by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, DuBois said.

The agency report found American business schools' curriculums overly narrow, he said.

Because University business graduates will know about other ethnicities and languages, they will have a complete set of skills to bring to negotiation tables, DuBois said.

"You know a lot more than nuances of the way that people from other cultures think if you know their language," he said.

But Tahreem Kampton (junior-finance) said he does not think students graduating after him with the new requirements will hold any real market advantages.

He said he interviewed with several major companies, such as IBM, and nobody asked about his language skills.

The companies were interested in his ability to work well in teams, Kampton said.

The new business curriculum's emphasis on teamwork impresses future employers the most, he said. But considering today's global economy, a language requirement probably does benefit students too, Kampton said.

"Since we're all becoming global we've got to give and take a little bit," he said.

"People take time to learn English, we should take time to learn another language."