Course Requirements

This courses objective is to develop the ability to read, interpret, identify the differences and the relationships between the primary financial statements. This objective is met not only by analyzing the effect of business transactions on financial statements and financial ratios but also by recording essential transactions, measuring the amounts of assets, liabilities, owners equities, revenues, and expenses, and preparing the primary financial statements. This course also explains the difference between the cash and accrual bases of income measurement, the use of t-account analysis in determining important measures of business activity, and how the time value of money affects the measurement of liabilities. This emphasis on financial statements is facilitated by a semester-long study of the content of corporate annual reports culminating in a comprehensive annual report project. (Prerequisite: sophomore status with the exception of highly qualified first-year accounting majors.)

The primary objective of this course is to explore how accounting information is used to help managers make decisions with an emphasis on their planning and control activities. This objective is accomplished by exploring the terms that are used to classify costs, key business cost behavior patterns, cost-volume-profit analysis, budgeting, raw materials and direct labor variance analysis, short-run decision making using relevant costs, and performance evaluation. Students are also introduced to how product costs are determined in manufacturing, merchandising, and service businesses. (Prerequisite: ACC100)

This course provides the 21st Century foundation for business students who will need newly shaped perspectives, solid research and communication skills, positive ethical spirit, and new technological resources to work and make decisions in global economy. Through experimental learning, reflective observations, active conceptualization, hands-on research projects and multiple field trips, students learn the basics of business, the process of innovation and the role that business plays in society. Students are encouraged to develop their own innovative capacities, whether they want to start up a business of their own, augment the capabilities of a small business, step up to the myriad of non-profit challenges, or excel in corporate America. Students learn how to think systematically as business professionals, innovators and/or entrepreneurs. By first exploring the economics of business, in this country and beyond, students begin to recognize that all businesses are subject to ongoing trends, discoveries and breakthroughs that must be accommodated. Some represent threats; others opportunities. None can be ignored. Learning that the form of a business should follow the functions it must provide, students discover the range of options available to them as they contemplate career paths that may be of interest to them. Finally, students are provided with insight into each of the areas of functional expertise found in all organizations; i.e., finance and accounting, marketing and sales, customer support, operations, logistics, et. al. This course was formerly known as Innovations in Business. BUS 120 is the prerequisite for all business courses.

Financial Wellness is a practical approach to making informed and empowering decisions about financial health. Students explore values, feelings and knowledge related to money, acquire basic financial knowledge and apply this knowledge to short and long term financial decisions. Curriculum is customized to individual student learning, with four required modules and two elective modules.

This introductory course will provide major and non-major students with an overview of nonprofit and voluntary organizations and their unique role in today’s society. Topics include the difference between nonprofit, for-profit, and governmental organizations in terms of mission, impact, governance and leadership. Business practices such as human resource management, organizational development, and financial management will be explored in the nonprofit context. The relationship between the nonprofit and government sectors will be covered as well as the public policy and regulatory environment and its impact on the nonprofit sector.

A survey of the marketing structure for the creation, research, and distribution of goods and services for all types of corporations is examined. Specifically, the fundamentals of the marketing mix: product development, promotion activities, price objectives and placement of goods or services will be explored. Students will also examine how communication, distribution, and exchange activities affect consumer behaviors.

This course is an introduction to the basic functions and theories of management in the context of a dynamic environment. Emphasis is on the role of managers in making organizations effective and efficient, in part through developing an understanding of how to assess and capitalize on the changing internal and external environments, but most of all how to deal with the complexities of human behavior in the context of organizational management.

Organizational Development and Change provides students with the opportunity to learn critical theory and application in the field of Organizational Behavior and Change and how to use that knowledge to improve organizational development to adapt quickly and effectively to change. Students apply proven methods to help organizations achieve goals and build capabilities to meet future challenges. (Prerequisite: BUS235)

This course builds a bridge from students general education to the work they do in the field of business. With the aim of preparing students for both professional life and graduate work, this writing-intensive course introduces disciplinary strategies for preparing routine business correspondence, for investigating provocative issues, and for communicating to others about them. In this way, the course offers students time to learn and to practice more advanced skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening; in using appropriate software support in presentations; and in mastering information literacy in the field of business. The course emphasizes fundamental principles of communication with time-on-task and real world, discipline-specific models for communication tasks. (Prerequisites: ENG114, ENG122, and ENG124)

When developing and accessing programs and services offered through nonprofit organizations the program coordinator/manager employs a number of tools including needs assessment, program planning and program evaluation. This course will introduce students to research in support of the development of programs and services to the community and will include market research, the development and implementation of program services, and methods to monitor and assess program outcomes. (Prerequisite: BUS206)

In this course students will learn the concepts, tools, and the analytical techniques that are essential in conducting financial analysis. The course is targeted to teach students financial analysis and its linkage to business performance. The course will cover one of financial ratios to identify potential risks and opportunities, analyzing financial performance of a company, conducting financial forecast, time value of money, cost of capital and return on investments. (Prerequisite: MAT112, ECO212, ACC101)

Nonprofit organizations secure revenue from a number of sources including government contracts, private grants, individual contributions, and earned income. This course will focus on securing revenue in support of programs and services with a focus on grants and grant monitoring and financial reporting to private and public funders. (Prerequisite: BUS316)

This course is all about connecting the dots, linking various functions of business and understanding the interdependency between marketing, sales, advertising, operations/supply chain and other business functions. The purpose of this course is to enable the student to integrate the lessons learned in previous business, accounting, finance, international business and management courses through the use of case studies analyzed from the general managers point of view. Students will also learn the importance of score card and metrics that are essential for running a business. (Prerequisite: ECO212, BUS327)

This course provides the student with a hands-on exercise-oriented approach to learning. Understanding file management and functions of the operating system, developing a thorough knowledge of Excel, and acquiring database management skills will be covered. Students will be provided with practical examples that demonstrate the computer as a useful tool for presenting business data and solving problems. Topics will include creating professional-looking worksheets; using templates; building formulas and functions; creating and modifying charts, including pivot tables; working with Excel lists; managing multiple worksheets and workbooks; developing customized applications with macros and visual basic; utilizing financial functions, goal seeking, and what-if assumptions. Students will also design, create, and modify databases, run queries; and produce reports.

This course examines the elementary principles of economics involving individual and social choice, economic analysis, supply, demand, the market and the price mechanism. Major concentration is on macroeconomic principles relative to money, the banking system, national income analysis, inflation, unemployment and the dilemma of stabilization, competing theories in contemporary times and world trade, development issues and alternatives, and evolving economic systems.

Microeconomics studies theories of specialization, trade, income distribution and consumer choice; the theory of the firm; real-world market analysis; the problems of modern society; and the overview of evolutionary growth and change in the American economy.

This course introduces the integration of communication skills essential for effective reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college level. In this writing intensive course, students develop composition skills to produce collegiate-level papers modeling rhetorical modes and thematic content in addition to strategies for reading complex texts; presentation skills for personal introductions, verbal summaries of readings and response writings, and peer review of papers; and basic technological skills for word processing, e-mail, and introductory-level online research.

In this course students will apply the practices for effective reading and writing introduced in ENG114 to the distinctive language and forms of various disciplines. This course lays the foundation for academic and professional research and stresses the use of appropriate and effective information sources. Readings for a variety of academic audiences will provide students with strategies to communicate in the sciences, business and technology, psychology, liberal studies, and the social sciences. Research and documentation skills appropriate to the disciplines are stressed. In addition to leading students through the research process from start to finish, this course will examine the many ramifications of academic honesty. (Prerequisite: ENG114)

Selected readings in fiction, poetry, and drama introduce the student to literary types and techniques. These readings provide a basis for collegiate-level discussion, analysis, and the development of critical judgment. Building on the communications and research skills from earlier courses in the sequence, this course emphasizes continued practice in writing, and students complete a documented research paper using primary and secondary sources as one of the course writing assignments. Discussions and oral presentations based on assigned literature support the overall goal of the sequence: to enhance the advancement of the students, first academically and then professionally. (Prerequisite: ENG114)

This course introduces students to basic legal concepts, the structure of the American state and federal court systems, basic legal theory and practice, and provides an overview of several areas of law.

This course studies the legal environment of business, including an examination of the format and characteristics of corporations, partnerships, and agency law. The law of contracts is studied in detail. (Prerequisite: LAW 103)

This course is designed for diverse students to acquire a solid foundation in non-calculus mathematics. It uses practical mathematics to develop problem solving and analytical skills. Topics include linear equations, linear inequalities, matrix and its application, linear programming, and the simplex method. (Prerequisite: MAT104 or appropriate placement test score)

This is an introduction to the basic descriptive and inferential statistics for students from all disciplines. It emphasizes the development of statistical literacy and the use of computer for analyzing data. Topics include principles of experimental design; graphical and numerical methods for summarizing, describing, exploring and analyzing data; binomial and normal probability distributions; point and interval estimates for means and proportions; hypothesis testing; and correlation and regression (Pre-requisite: MAT104 or appropriate placement test score).

This course examines the theoretical, philosophical, practical and ethical perspectives related to the effective management and leadership of nonprofit organizations in the twenty-first century. Upon completion of the course, the student will possess an understanding of the historical development of the nonprofit sector; the multiple rationales for the existence of the nonprofit sector; the distinctive characteristics of nonprofit organizations; the structures, processes and complexities of organizational governance shared by volunteer board members and professional staff; the dynamic environment of the contemporary nonprofit organization; and the current issues of importance to nonprofit decision makers.

This course provides an overview of America’s tradition of philanthropy and its relevance for today’s fundraisers. Attention is given to changing expectations for ethical behavior and accountability along with changes in donor markets which impact the practice of philanthropy in the 21st century. This course also examines the theoretical basis and goals of fundraising activities, how to apply the theory to develop a comprehensive development program and a personal fundraising philosophy and framework.

Women as Empowered Learners and Leaders is an interdisciplinary course, designed to give all students entering Bay Path University a common experience and foundation for their education. This course is an introduction to the University, to academic study, and to various approaches to thinking about personal potential, to understand the process of becoming a learner, and a leader, and composing a life, to appreciate beauty, and work actively toward establishing community and justice in the context of being a woman at the beginning of the 21st century.

(This course is graded Pass/Fail.) In their junior year before the opening of the spring semester, baccalaureate degree students will be offered a special opportunity to learn up-to-date information about the current work world in an intensive two-and-a-half-day workshop format. Students will meet successful professionals who will discuss the challenges and opportunities of their respective fields and help students prepare for interviews as well as learn how to navigate the early stages of their new careers.

By WEL400, you will be ready to blend all the skills you have learned during the WELL program—leadership, critical thinking, research, writing, analysis, and public presentation—with a community service project. Empathy, respect, and tolerance are the core human values that are stressed. It’s what every good leader needs to confidently show the way.