A Program of Emphasis (POE) is a program somewhat similar to a “major” at other institutions. The POE allows students to take courses, work on projects, and pursue internships in two or more areas of study. There are two types of POE: designated or individualized (by the student).  


Designated POEs are the most similar to the traditional major.  


An individualized POE combines areas of study that interest a student. The program of study is designed  by the student in consultation with at least two faculty advisors. Individualized POEs are intended to meet particular student needs with unique combinations of courses. Approval requires students to write a rationale that describes how the courses they have listed help them reach the academic goals of the POE. An individualized POE may also focus on courses from one department. An individualized POE must contain a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 63 credit hours. A minimum of 18 credit hours must be at the 300 or 400 level. Students wishing to pursue this option must:

• Select an adviser in each department named in the title of the POE

• Create, in consultation with the advisers, a collection of courses to constitute the POE. If a course listed in the POE has prerequisites, these prerequisites must also be included in the POE.

• Create, in consultation with the advisers, a goal statement and a rationale, which explains how the courses included in the POE enable the student to fulfill the goals of the POE. Ultimately, the acceptance of an individualized POE will depend on the student’s ability to justify that a particular combination of courses will allow the student to reach the stated academic goals.  

• Solicit from all of the student’s advisers supporting comments attesting to the acceptability of the student’s academic goals, the appropriateness of the course selections and rationale, and the  overall coherence of the POE. The signatures of advisers’ without comments will not be sufficient.

• Submit the completed POE and the advisers’ comments to the Registrar for approval. Any POE that does not satisfy the requirements of a Designated POE is by definition, an Individualized  POE and must therefore be accompanied by a goal statement and rationale.  Advisors should pay particular attention to attempts which effectively weakens a Designated POE without contributing  sufficient complementary breadth or depth.


All Individualized POEs with a business course of study are required to include the following required Business “Core” courses:

EB-131  Financial Accounting

Introduces fundamental principles and assumptions of accounting as they relate to transaction analysis and basic financial statements.

3 CreditsS

EB-236  Managerial Accounting

Emphasizes accounting concepts for the internal use of management in planning and control. Course focuses on spreadsheet applications to analyze management policies. 

3 CreditsS,QM,CWPrerequisite: EB131. 

EB-202  Behavioral Analysis of Organizations

The broad focus of the course is to examine how individuals come together to form a successful organization. The course is broken into three major sections: people, organizations, and leadership. The course emphasizes student involvement and engages students in a variety of in-class exercises, case analysis role playing exercises, small group exercises, and an off-campus class experience or two. One or more off-campus experiences are required for the course. 

4 CreditsCW,S,WK-SIPrerequisite: Sophomore standing.

EB-211  Business Statistics

This course covers basic descriptive and inferential statistics, normal curve and z-score computations, and addresses hypothesis testing using Chi-Square, T-Test, ANOVA, and linear regression modelling.

3 Credits QS,S

EB-480  Senior Seminar

A capstone course for POE in Business. Through the use of readings, case studies and simulations, students in the course will formulate corporate strategy and implement it in a competitive environment. How firms may gain and sustain competitive advantage with the formulated strategy will be examined. In addition, students will also be trained to craft business reports on corporate strategies. The evaluation of performance will mainly depend on the content and the quality of the business reports.

3 CreditsS 


And one of the following Economics courses:

EB-105  International Economic Issues

Understanding international economics is increasingly important for private and public decision-makers. In a world of growing economic interdependence, the ability of policy makers to provide a stable environment for business is a key issue. Accordingly, this course develops the principle topics of international economics, including trade theory, the balance of payments, the cause and consequences of exchange rate movements, the flow of capital, currency crises and regional trade issues. The applied topics emphasized will be based on the most pressing current issues.

3 CreditsS,I

EB-222  Principles of Macroeconomics

Macroeconomic conditions affect individuals and businesses in numerous ways: employment opportunities, the purchasing power of wages and salaries, the cost of borrowing money, sales, profits, and competitiveness against foreign businesses. This course develops the theories relevant to understanding the business cycle, inflation, unemployment, deflation, exchange rates and balance of payments problems. It also examines the options and tradeoffs governments face as they seek to provide a stable macroeconomic environment through monetary and fiscal policies. Case studies of the macroeconomic performance and policies of diverse countries provide a comparative orientation. 

3 CreditsSPrerequisites: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior standing 

EB-223  Principles of Microeconomics

The optimizing behavior of households and firms serves as the focal point in this study of market-based resource allocation. Supply and demand analysis, spending and saving decisions of households, production and employment decisions of firms, alternative market structures, and environmental economics are among the topics covered. 

3 CreditsSPrerequisite: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior standing. 


And at least six additional EB credits at the 300 level or above (selected based on the POE title  and description)

Based on the above requirements, individualized POEs will have at least 29 credits of courses related to  the traditional areas of business.  


For the purpose of organizing and assessing the student outcomes related to the individualized POEs, department members use two classifications:

(1) individualized interdepartmental programs and

(2) individualized business programs.

The rationale for this classification is that expected student outcomes are different based on the quantity  of the business coursework completed in the individualized POE. The individualized interdepartmental program represents students who have combined coursework from two departments, one of which is business and one from an additional area of study, (ex. Business Communication). The individualized business program, on the other hand, represents students who have combined coursework from different business fields to create a degree that is a specialized study of business concepts (ex. Financial Management).


Students with an individualized interdepartmental program are expected to have gained an understanding  of business concepts with respect to the business “core” courses. 


Students with an individualized business program have studied the business concepts in more depth and are expected to achieve a  higher level understanding of the business environment. For the above definition purposes, a POE will be considered an individualized business program if the POE contains coursework of at least 45 credits of traditional business fields of study. 


The interdepartmental POE students will be held to the same level of mastery as the designated POEs on the senior capstone project. Although these students complete less coursework in traditional business areas, they are expected to have achieved a broad understanding of the principal concepts, theories, and practices of the other functional areas of business in addition to developing competency in communication, critical thinking, and teamwork. Because the Major Field Test assesses content knowledge, we expect interdepartmental POE students to individually score at the 30th percentile or above. Designated POE students take more coursework in business and are expected to score at the 50th percentile or above.