Regents approve new business major at UW-EC

Jun. 13—EAU CLAIRE — UW-Eau Claire has received approval from the UW System Board of Regents to establish a bachelor of business administration degree in business communication — the first degree of its kind in the UW System.

The approval of the new major came on Friday, UW-Eau Claire said, expanding on the existing certificate program in this specialty. Though students can still earn the advanced certificate, those seeking to enter the growing business communications field now have the option of studying it as their major.

"UW-Eau Claire's strength in the field of business communication, which is widely recognized and appreciated by employers, has allowed the College of Business to design a cutting-edge curriculum and a degree that is only offered by a handful of universities in the country," said Brewer Doran, dean of the College of Business, in a university news release.

The new major officially will be available for students to enroll in fall 2023, but current and incoming students can complete many degree requirements in the meantime, as the 120-credit comprehensive program includes 29 credits of the core classes common to all UW-Eau Claire business degrees.

Course delivery for the program will be primarily in-person instruction with some hybrid, high-flex and online course options, UW-Eau Claire stated.

As noted in UW-Eau Claire's request for approval for this major, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business reports significant market demand for business-specific communication skills in the workforce, and according to COB faculty, student demand for this program at UW-Eau Claire has consistently grown, as well.

Paula Lentz, professor of business communication and program director at UW-Eau Claire, knows how well-received the new major will be by students seeking this option.

"The business communication certificate has been one of the most popular certificate programs on campus," Lentz said in the news release. "But we had many students in the College of Business who were saying, 'This is great, but it's not enough.' "

Based on recent UW-Eau Claire COB trends, enrollment projections for the new program estimate 33 declared business communication majors in 2023 and an additional 270 enrollees by the 2027-2028 academic year.

"Foremost, the BBA in business communication is a business degree," Lentz said. "It is a degree for students whose primary interest is business and, within a business context, an interest in business and workplace communication. This specific type of communication skill set is increasingly taking on discrete roles and functions in organizations."

Lentz said in the news release that employees with working titles within the business communication field are charged with coordinating written and oral communication across all the functional areas of an organization. That includes, she stated, departments such as operations, accounting, sales, information systems, computing, tech support and human resources — a web that becomes vastly more complicated as organizations are becoming more domestically and internationally dispersed.

"A business communication degree gives graduates the best of both worlds," Lentz said. "They are internal communications specialists who understand the core functional components of economics, information systems, finance, accounting, management and marketing that underpin the world of business."