The Lundquist College of Business is now offering two new minor options with a third coming soon, expanding the reach of our hands-on curriculum to even more University of Oregon students.
New minors in entrepreneurship and sports business are available now, and a sustainability minor is slated for spring.
As we partner with the forthcoming Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, the new minor options further our mission of serving as a campus hub for turning great ideas and scientific discoveries into real-world business opportunities.
These new offerings will also spark even greater cross-campus collaboration because students pursuing a discipline other than business may now access curricula that are complementary to their career goals, explained Joshua Gordon, senior sports business instructor, director of minors program, and undergraduate program manager for the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.
Many UO students want business core competencies to complement their degrees, but it may not be feasible to double major in business.
Entrepreneurship skills, for instance, are highly useful in both for-profit and non-profit settings—from the hard sciences to planning, public policy and management; architecture; and beyond.
“With an entrepreneurship minor, students will gain the business confidence to go out on their own and be successful in their business—whether it be an architecture firm startup or a scientific research-based non-profit,” Gordon said.
For sports business, the target audience for the minor is those who may wish to use, for example, their exercise science degree to open a Crossfit gym. This differs from those pursuing a business major with a concentration in sports business, who may have an ultimate goal of working for the Portland Trail Blazers or a big name apparel brand.
“From journalism to exercise science to human physiology, and others, students in the minor will interact with the business side of sports,” Gordon said.
The sports business minor also answers a clear student desire for non-major sports business academic engagement. The Warsaw Sports Marketing Club, the University of Oregon’s largest student group, counts more than 400 members. Of those, only about 80 members are enrolled as business majors in the sports business concentration.
“This tells us a huge number of folks are eager to learn more about sports business, and the minor addresses that pent up demand,” Gordon said.
Finally, the forthcoming sustainability minor has clear crossover impact for environmental studies majors who may wish to pursue a career in the outdoor industry, as well as those interested in sustainable architecture, earth sciences, or economics, among other fields of study.
Additionally, employers tell us they want graduates with a diversity of educational backgrounds, and these offerings answer that call, Gordon said.
“Ultimately, business competencies are a core set of skills and learning needed in order to be successful,” Gordon said. “Our efforts around the minor are to offer both generalized and highly specialized minors to support the whole array of students across campus.”
Perhaps most exciting, Gordon said, is how these minors allow the Lundquist College to reach even further across campus as we aim to open the lessons of business to all.
“Acceptance into the business major is highly competitive,” he said. “These additional minor options allow the college to expand highly applicable business teachings to a greater audience.”
—AnneMarie Knepper-Sjoblom ’05