Beginning next fall, the Goizueta Business School will no longer offer business communication electives but will add two new secondary concentrations.

According to Associate Dean of the Goizueta Business School Andrea Hershatter, the business communication core class will still be required and is being enhanced.

The elimination of this secondary area depth follows the retirement of Senior Lecturer in Communications at the Goizueta Business School Deborah Valentine.
Hershatter said the rotating of secondary area depths, which are a “moving set of opportunities for our students that reflect our teaching strengths,” is nothing new to the B-School.

According to Hershatter, the primary area depths — including organization and management, information systems and operations management, accounting, finance and marketing — remain core to the curriculum. Secondary area depths such as international business, real estate, business law and business communication change based on what the faculty can best offer the students.

In addition to revamping the core business communication course, she said, next fall will feature two new area depths: analytic consulting and business and community.

“Some of the courses that lived inside what was the business communication depth are appropriate in the business and community depth,” Hershatter said.

Hershatter said the decision to eliminate these electives was made last year and should not have been on any student’s academic plan.

B-School junior Mary Gui said that she had been planning on pursuing a concentration in business communication and was surprised to find that there were no electives for the course next fall.

Gui, whose primary concentration is in marketing, said she had spoken with her advisor about pursuing a secondary concentration in business communication last year.

She said when she heard rumors last summer that the area depth was going to be discontinued, she contacted her advisor, who confirmed that she could still pursue the concentration.

“There was no announcement made; there was no e-mail sent, no notification. I would never have known if I hadn’t asked [Hershatter] directly,” Gui said.

Gui said she thought the business communication classes, which teach business etiquette and communication through presentations, e-mails, the telephone and face-to-face meetings, were very useful particularly in conjunction with her primary marketing area depth.

According to Hershatter, students who are still interested in completing an area depth in business communication can do so because of the B-School’s option for students to create their own area of concentration.

“There still exists the possibility for students to design their own depth,” Hershatter explained, adding that the B-School is committed to working with students in helping them pursue their interests.

Even without business communication classes, Hershatter said, there are courses available that would be able to fulfill a secondary area depth of business communication.

The B-School is always looking for ways to best prepare its students, Hershatter said.

“Our continual goal is to provide our students with the very best opportunities we can that focus on strong intellectual content rather than skill-based learning,” Hershatter said.

— Contact Alice Chen.