Skip to main content

Westminster's Newest Offerings in the School of Business

Share on:

Posted on Monday, June 8, 2015

Marketing and sports management have hit the list of new majors available in Westminster College’s School of Business, which began this fall.

Sponsored by the School of Business, marketing majors will take courses in accounting, business, economics, and public relations. Courses will be framed around the managerial approach for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value to customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

“We are extremely excited to begin offering a full-fledged degree in marketing here at Westminster,” said Brian Petrus, instructor of business administration and economics. “For years now, we have been including much of the marketing subject matter within the business administration degree; however, with the unprecedented growth of social media and the associated changes to the way in which companies market goods and services, we, too, must change in order to provide our students with the most up to date information.”

All courses will emphasize the importance of planning, implementing, and controlling product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution management strategies as carried out by producers, wholesalers and retailers.

Students earning a degree in marketing will take courses pertaining to marketing management, marketing theory, consumer purchasing behavior, global brand management, and social media marketing. The culmination of general business courses and marketing specific courses will prepare students for a wide variety of career opportunities, including advertising, public relations, marketing, market research, branding, sales, customer relations, and more.

“I am very excited for the impact the new major in marketing will make on our future students,” said Dr. Thomas H. Stein, vice president for enrollment and marketing at Westminster. “In addition to marketing, after looking at student interest data, there are just over 40,000 students who indicated that sports management as an area of interest when registering to take the PSAT.”

The new sports management curriculum is designed to give students a theoretical perspective on how sports organizations are administered. Blending courses in public relations, communications, and business, the curriculum addresses everything from organizational structure and management to communication within sports organizations. The athletic department will help to deliver an experiential component of the program, facilitating hands-on experiences in the sporting industry on a regular basis.

"Over 50 recruited athletes inquire about a sports management major each year," said Jesse Ligo, chair, School of Business. “I'm looking forward to telling them the news that we not only offer it, but that it will provide deep-rooted experiences that come with a liberal arts education, leading to dynamic career opportunities in sports and event planning after four years."

The program prepares students for careers in promotion and marketing, facilities management, athletic or athletic conference management, personnel management, sports related business 
operations, sales, recreation, and non-profit management.

Students interested in marketing should contact Petrus at petrusba@westminster.edu and those interested in sports management should contact Ligo at ligojr@westminster.edu. For more information about course curriculum, visit www.westminster.edu/academics.