A new major and a proposed major may be headed toward Keene State in the coming years: Finance and Accounting.
KSC President Melinda Treadwell announced in a Feb. 9 all-campus meeting the two programs stemmed from a market review done in the spring of 2023.
“Those were the top two market-relevant programs that we could easily get to market for Keene State,” Treadwell remarked to the audience.
Treadwell said the college anticipates the programs will bring in 19 more students within two years of the program launches and 50 students by 2029.
James Beeby, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said in an interview the key aspects the college looks at when considering a program addition is alignment with KSC’s mission, as well as faculty resources to deliver it.
“We also listen to students that are here asking about these sorts of degrees or programs,” Beeby said.
Beeby said the strength of the existing Economics and Management programs made the addition of the Accounting program seem like a “natural fit.”
In terms of the Finance program, Beeby said it emerged through a request from Economics Department Chair William McColloch to rethink the existing Economics program.
Finance
McColloch said the idea behind the Finance program originated from the career paths of KSC alumni who came out of the Economics program.
“A lot of them ended up in the financial sector whether that’s with things like Fidelity [Investments]… Working with investment banks, and we’re really trying to accommodate those kinds of interests,” McColloch said.
In the spring of 2023, a proposal was made to modify the existing Economics program and transition it into the Finance program, McColloch said, noting approval was secured in the fall of 2023.
The major transition also brings academic programming tweaks.
“We have a lot less reliance upon some of the content in microeconomics that we used to teach and we’re largely replacing that with some new electives that are more finance-oriented or existing courses within Economics that have more of a finance orientation,” McColloch said.
According to a 2023-2024 program proposal form submitted to the KSC Senate Curriculum Committee, the program’s rationale is “…to better meet evolving student needs, and to foster great curricular collaboration between aligned disciplines,” the document states.
The document also displays an enrollment sample size of other colleges and universities which offer the program. Though the sample size is limited, it shows existing finance programs at colleges holding steady in terms of declared majors, or increasing, despite declining overall enrollment.
McColloch said he is confident the new program will not only yield declared majors, but would work well as a minor or as an addition as a double major.
“We generally didn’t have very many students that came in with a declared interest in Economics, most of our majors are students that found the program along the way,” McColloch said. “It is a low-credit major and because of that it’s something that’s all a little more conducive to double majoring or combining with other interests.”
The Finance program is slated to be released in the fall semester of 2024 and will be a 40-credit major.
Accounting
Management Department Chair Dave Beaudry said the proposal of an Accounting major was brought about by prospective student interest during open houses and accepted students’ days.
“[Students] were asking [if] there was a major or specialization in accounting because they were making their school decisions on the opportunity to enroll in an accounting program,” Beaudry said.
Another piece that inspired the major was the work the department does with the N.H. Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs that allow high school students personalized educational opportunities.
“One of the tracks that students in CTE focus on is accounting within the business area,” Beaudry said.
After the market analysis showed an introduction of a potential Accounting program would be in demand, Beaudry said work began on the major in the fall of 2023.
“Within the proposal itself it recognizes that we will need an additional faculty member focused in Accounting and that’s also been understood up through the Provost’s office and it also would require potentially some additional adjunct faculty members,” Beaudry said.
An upside with an Accounting program is the career outlook of potential majors, Beaudry said.
“There’s a definite path [if] you graduate with a degree in Accounting and then there’s a very visible job path [for students],” he said.
Though the program has not yet been approved by the KSC Senate’s Curriculum Committee, Beaudry said he expects action by the committee before the end of the year.
If the program is approved, it will be launched in the fall of 2025.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
