Students at Grand Valley State University will now be able to get a Bachelor’s of Business Administration (BBA) degree in human resources management, general management or operations management following the University Academic Senate’s approval on Friday.

The UAS approved the three majors in the Seidman College of Business with one nay and one abstention.

Formerly, students could get a BBA in management and emphasize in one of four areas, including the three categories listed above and management information systems.

Helen Klein, associate professor in the management department, said the transition is a category change—not a program change—and will not result in any changes in the current structure. The number of courses and degree requirements will remain the same, and no additional resources, such as faculty, facilities or funding, will be needed.

Klein said this curriculum change will make students more competitive in the job market.

“Employers like seeing students who have a major in human resources, for example, as opposed to a major with an emphasis,” Klein said. “I think in particular this will help the student and prospective employers who look at our program.”

The original proposal included making management information systems a major, as well. However, the Executive Committee of the Senate tabled this emphasis until a naming conflict can be resolved. It will likely be voted on at the next ECS meeting.

“I have an interview with Chrysler next week, and this was something difficult to explain to them—that I have this emphasis as opposed to a major,” said senior Stephanie Ewart, executive vice president of the Student Senate. “I had to point out the coursework that I’ve done. Going forward, I think this change will be a great thing, and it will help elevate Seidman and the business college in general.”

The management department had been considering making this change since March 2012.

“There are a number of reasons we want to do this,” Klein said. “It is my understanding that if you have a unit that has emphases in it, the emphases have common courses. We have no commonalities except for the fact that we have a business core.”

In addition, Klein said GVSU has enough demand to support elevating these emphases to majors. This year, there are 204 students with an emphasis in general management, 93 in human resources management, 67 in management information systems, and 24 in operations management.

Klein also pointed out that several of GVSU’s peer institutions, including Ferris State University, Central Michigan University and Michigan State University, also have distinguished these programs as separate majors.

“We started this program 10 to 15 years back,” said Jaideep Motwani, management department chair. “These are four totally independent programs. They should have never been emphases in the beginning.”