Finance major draws in students
Students now have the opportunity to major in finance. There are currently 26 students, with growth anticipated.
As underclassmen class registration for next semester draws near, students have the opportunity to pursue a new major: finance.
A finance major was officially introduced this fall. Under finance there are three concentrations: financial economics, mathematical finance and business finance. Students could previously obtain a concentration in finance under an economics, accounting or mathematics major. The idea of a finance major became more of a possibility in 2019 when brainstorming began.
Chair of the accounting and finance department Steve Welch, along with accounting and finance professor Lauri Miller, economics professors Sucharita Mukherjee and Parker Wheatley and math professors Bob Hesse and Karis Nairn, developed a proposal in efforts to make a finance major a reality.
The proposal process began in May 2022 and continued throughout the summer. In the development of this major, Welch said he looked to other programs around the state and country for inspiration about the finance major framework.
“It’s going fine. I think we’re increasing the size of the finance major, and it’s probably going to rival the accounting major size-wise in maybe a couple years,” Welch said.
Welch said the reason for adding a finance major was simple: student demand. The addition of a finance major follows in the footsteps of the finance concentration added to the economics major about three years ago due to student demand.
Currently, there are 26 finance majors: 17 of them are sophomores, juniors and seniors who transferred from their original major, and nine are first-years who declared the major this semester.
For the time being, no new faculty members have been hired, and the classes largely remain the same except for some curriculum changes to make classes more finance-focused.
Welch predicts that in the coming years, the finance major will likely pass enrollment for economics and that all three majors (finance, accounting and economics) will reach between 100 and 200 students.
The development of the finance major also makes credits equal among all finance-related paths. The financial economics concentration used to be 56 credits, and the accounting concentration used to be 64 credits. Now, all three concentrations within the finance major are 60 credits.
SJU senior Spencer Sansevere will be the first student to graduate with a finance major.
“I think it’s cool to be a part of the history of CSB+SJU and just being one of the first graduates under the new major,” Sansevere said.
Sansevere began his studies as a global business leadership major and accounting minor and quickly transferred to an accounting major with a finance concentration when he heard that a finance major was in the works.
As of now, Sansevere is the only finance major who will graduate this spring, while the rest of those pursuing a finance major will graduate starting in 2025.
SJU junior Jerry Patterson also switched to finance this fall. Patterson knew he wanted to do finance from the very beginning, and the lack of a finance major option made him hesitate to attend CSB+SJU. When hearing about the possibility of becoming a finance major, Patterson noted many positives, such as his passions for critical thinking, understanding both qualitative and quantitative data and applying theory and theses to his finance studies.
“Once the major officially did roll out, I was definitely very pumped to see that St. John’s is not only growing their studies, but helping students who want to do finance actually do finance,” Patterson said.
