I would like to share with you an update on a major revision to our undergraduate program (i.e., our Bachelor in Business Administration — BBA — degree).

This past fall, working closely with department chairs and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Jim Leady, we revised the Business Core curriculum to significantly reduce requirements and increase flexibility in our students’ plans of study. The new curriculum meets our ultimate objective to expand students’ academic opportunities and improve their journey here at Notre Dame.

The Business Core includes the business courses that all BBA degree students must take regardless of their major. The key change (pending any minor amendments that may be added via College Council votes) is that the new Business Core will reduce the number of required courses from 18 (49.5 credit hours) to about 10 courses (26.5 credit-hours) plus nine credit hours of “broadening” business electives.

Importantly, all undergraduate students will still experience a foundational course from each business discipline. The reduced number of core courses primarily involves the upper-level courses currently required; these in part will be replaced by the new nine credit hours of broadening business electives that students will take in multiple departments outside of their own major’s department.

The new Business Core provides students with greater choice in their individual curricula, enabling them to better design a curriculum suited to their particular academic interests and career aspirations. It will give students more opportunities to specialize in a secondary discipline, both in other colleges and within business, while maintaining the overall balance between liberal arts and business coursework. The reduced requirements and enhanced flexibility also will enable further course innovation in the future, allowing for our faculty to offer new courses aligned with their academic and social interests.

This change to the Business Core is the first step in our broader curriculum revision. After a rigorous, constructive and open debate, the College Council approved the revised Business Core outlined above by a 2:1 margin on December 3, with the expectation that the Council would consider various amendments over the coming weeks and months. The College Council subsequently considered several amendments when it met again on December 17 (none of which had a majority vote in favor of adding to the core) and will consider more amendments at its next meeting scheduled on February 17. I expect that meeting will conclude the first step of the revision process.

The next step is already occurring in our five academic departments. Each department is considering the impact of the reduced Business Core coursework on the requirements for its major. Some departments will adjust requirements if a course that was eliminated from the Core is critical for the major. The potential revisions to each of the majors will be completed this spring, allowing the new Business Core and major requirements to apply to the new First Year business students starting in Fall 2022 (i.e., the Class of 2026). None of the changes will apply to any of the students currently enrolled in our undergraduate program.

The third step is the curriculum innovation enabled by the substantially reduced Business Core requirements and the increased flexibility for our undergraduates. We envision the development of minors in each department that are open to all business majors, including cross-disciplinary minors with courses across multiple departments as well as cross-college minors.

In addition to the new minors, our hope is that BBA students may be able to double-major within business for the first time in the College’s history while maintaining the overall balance of a liberal arts education. We also hope to work toward offering a cornerstone interdisciplinary course with experiential learning for undergraduates similar to the Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program for MBA students.

As with any change, I realize that there will be significant disruption as the College transitions to the new curriculum. This transition may be particularly disruptive to faculty who have been teaching courses that will no longer be required in the new Business Core. I commit to fully supporting affected faculty transitioning to new teaching opportunities over the next several years as they retool to teach other courses.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the new curriculum design process and look forward to the future innovation in our undergraduate program.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn