Manhattanville College in Purchase plans to increase the number of undergraduate majors it offers to reflect an increased focus on job placement in the business world.
The liberal arts college will now provide supportive services and professors who can teach business-related courses, including marketing, accounting, digital media production and sports studies this fall.
The campus will be filled with renovation projects and new faculty hires, catering to business-minded students who are preparing for the job market.
“We are working to help our students connect the liberal arts to life by expanding majors in areas that both require a strong liberal arts foundation and provide clear pathways to employment after graduation,” Gail Simmons, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said. “In today”™s challenging economy, we want our students to have more choices as they move through their degrees.”
Despite the renovations, influx of new students and the addition of faculty members, tuition is expected to stay the same and classroom sizes will remain relatively small.
“Tuition is not changing this year and while we know these new majors will attract students, we will continue our important tradition of keeping our class sizes small and emphasizing personal attention from our faculty,” Simmons said.
These new programs will receive strong support from the Center for Career Development, which keeps track of placing students in internships that could lead to jobs. All students at the college have the opportunity to work with the center starting their freshman year. Now students in the newly added majors can get connected with businesses near the college through the services provided at the center.
“Our already strong relationships with corporations headquartered near the college such as MasterCard and ESPN will support students”™ career aspirations,” Simmons said.
Some of the newer majors are laying the groundwork for pre-existing programs at Manhattanville College. The sports studies program, for example, will help students build the foundation to enter the sports business arena or pursue a master”™s degree in Sports Business Administration, which is offered at the school.
“We are not reinventing the wheel but rather building on what we have,” said Lawson Bowling, history professor and director of sports studies at Manhattanville.
Bowling, who serves on the National Collegiate Athletic Association for Manhattanville, teaches history and will be directing the sports studies program for the first time this fall. He said many job opportunities await students who want to pursue either areas of interest and even tie the two fields of history and sports together. He said several professionals in the sports arena have history backgrounds.
“Many of our history majors have become coaches, such as Patrick Scanlon who is Manhattanville”™s head varsity men”™s basketball coach,” Bowling said. “One of our history alumni works for CBS Sports in Chicago, and another, after a career first with ESPN, then ESPN-U, moved on to work for the Atlantic Coast Conference.”
