Undergraduate Highlighted Courses

Spring 2024 Course Highlights

 

The Gabelli School of Business offers a broad selection of undergraduate courses from which to choose, sometimes, however, it’s difficult to narrow down options in an area that may appeal to you. The new Course Highlights listing provides course highlights from academic areas to help you focus on interesting classes that can be applied to fulfill your degree requirements. Use it to ground yourself before seeing your class dean or during your session. Each semester, new course options will be featured, ensuring that you can choose those that best fit your academic goals and objectives, while exploring subjects that spark your interest.

As you review the material, be mindful of important information, such as the days, times, and campus locations during and where these courses will be offered. Remember to check back every semester to learn about highlighted courses in each area.

  • LPBU-4467. ST: Global Immersion Rwanda
    Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m., RH Campus
    Prerequisites: LPBU 3223
    Attributes: SOIN, ENT, GLBB

    Professor: Dennis Hanno, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor, Leading People and Organizations

    Course Description: Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rwanda will examine the impact of the country’s history, politics, culture, and economy on the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Students will receive training and preparation on the challenges that startup entrepreneurs typically face, particularly in developing economies, and will develop innovative solutions to address them. Students will travel to Rwanda during the March 2024 break to gain first-hand knowledge of the context while applying what they have learned, working in teams on consulting engagements with selected entrepreneurs connected with Westerwelle Startup Haus Kigali.

  • ACBU-4436. Accounting for Derivative Securities
    Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m., RH Campus
    Prerequisites: ACBU 3435

    Professor: Paul Lynch, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor, Accounting and Taxation

    Course Description: Accounting for derivative securities is designed to provide accounting majors with a broad introduction to the structuring, pricing, and accounting for derivative securities. The derivative securities covered in this course include forward/futures, swaps, and options. The application of derivatives is focused on hedging activities, with emphasis on hedging interest rate and foreign currency risk.

    ACBU-3445. Corporate and Partnership Taxation
    Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m., RH Campus
    Prerequisites: ACBU 3442
    Attributes: ACMI, BUMI, ENT

    Professor: Stan Veliotis, Ph.D., J.D., LLM, Associate Professor and Area Chair, Accounting and Taxation

    Course Description: We focus on the taxation of corporations, partnerships, and LLCs and their owners. We also highlight multi-state corporate tax, trusts & estates income tax, accounting for taxes, international taxation, exempt organizations, and tax practice.

  • CMBU-4413. Digital Media & Promo Comm
    Mondays, 11:30 a.m. – 2:15 p.m., LC Campus
    Attributes:  NMAC, NMDD

    Professor: John Fortunato, Ph.D., Professor, Communications and Media Management

    Course Description: Digital Media and Promotional Communication focuses on how companies, organizations, and individuals use digital media to communicate and connect with all of their various stakeholder groups, including consumers. This course seeks to understand the media environment and apply it to the decision-making involved in a promotional communication context in terms of both message content development and message placement. Students will investigate how companies use digital media as a tool to address problems and achieve brand goals.

    CMBU-4412. ST: Understanding Audiences/Users
    Tuesdays, 2:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m., LC Campus
    Attributes:  CCMS, CMST, COMC

    Professor: Ronen Shay, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Communications and Media Management

    Course Description: Students will examine how legacy media audiences and users of new media platforms are measured. The measurement techniques students learn include Nielsen ratings and shares, Google Analytics, as well as surveys and focus groups.

    CMBU-75AT. Managing Diversity in Media
    Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., RH Campus

    Professor: Allie Kosterich, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Communications and Media Management

    Course Description: Today’s media managers find themselves at a critical moment in which audiences and communities are rapidly becoming more and more diverse. Managing diversity as a media executive comes with unique considerations that extend beyond the employee composition of the firm, as both audiences and the content distributed play a role in maintaining diversity and inclusion. In this course students will learn about how to better understand the race, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds of media audiences; the social, political, and economic effects of creating content that features diverse topics, casts, and themes; as well as the value of having a diverse workforce of artists, producers, and managers. Over the course of the semester students will develop a strategic diversity plan for a real-world media firm that includes: a stakeholder register, PEST analysis, business need & justification, diversity goal & metrics, and specific recommendations, actions, and tactics the firm should proceed with.

     

  • INSY-4414. ST: The Ethics of Data Analytics
    Tuesdays/Fridays, 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., RH Campus
    Prerequisites: INSY 2299 or 2300

    Visiting Professor: Carolina Villegas-Galaviz, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer 

    Course Description: The class provides a comprehensive understanding of the data market and Artificial Intelligence (AI) business from an ethical perspective. Data analytics opens a set of possibilities and improvements for decisions in business. However, it introduces new risks and moral challenges. This course aims to explore the ethical implications of data analytics within business, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. We will study concepts such as privacy, surveillance, power, justice, and accountability related to the production and use of data.

  • BLBU-3456. ST: DEI and Constitutional Law for Business
    Tuesdays, 2:30 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., RH Campus
    Prerequisites: BLBU-2234

    Professor: Kevin Jackson, Ph.D., J.D., Professor, Law and Ethics

    Course Description: Today, issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) increasingly arising in business create a pressing need for students to be equipped with a deepened understanding and broadened vision of the ever-evolving constitutional jurisprudence that is the lifeblood of our republic. The course centers on the U.S. Constitution, exploring the interface between diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives – which are aimed at increasing awareness of and seeking correctives for racial- and gender-based bias, power, and oppression -- and the legal and moral issues such initiatives pose for business and related institutions. The course provides principled frameworks that enable students to engage in legal, moral, political, economic, and cultural debate in a balanced, professional, and non-ideological way. Open exploration and discussion of opposing viewpoints on DEI-related constitutional questions and cases are fostered through the critical examination of alternative philosophy of law frameworks, consideration of various interpretive approaches to law, and practical application of relevant legal doctrines and moral theories to real-world dilemmas and challenges arising in today’s business contexts.

    BLBU-4449. ST: Sports and the Law
    Mondays/Thursdays, 4:00 p.m. – 05:15 p.m., RH Campus
    Attributes: BLEA, SJOR

    Professor: Mark Conrad, J.D., Professor, Law and Ethics

    Course Description: The law of professional and amateur sports is in constant flux. Every year there are changes in the industry and courts have been busy deciding a myriad of cases involving the rights of college athletes, the validity of contractual clauses, and the interpretation of league actions under labor agreements. Some topics that are covered involve the revolution in the rights of college athletes, the recent labor agreements between leagues and players, the expansion of sports betting in three dozen states and the growing importance of intellectual property for both leagues and players. Students may draft an endorsement contract; craft rules involving a league or federation, craft a collective bargaining agreement for college athletes or a name, image and likeness deal. International sports law and ethics will also be discussed as to how the War in Ukraine will affect the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris. The class will feature several guest speakers.

    BLBU-4452. ST: Securities Law
    Mondays/Thursdays, 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., RH Campus
    Attributes: BLEA

    Professor: Brent Horton, J.D., Associate Professor and Area Chair

    Course Description: Securities Law examines how the federal government regulates corporate offerings of stocks, bonds and other investment contracts. We begin with an examination of initial public offerings (IPOs) including disclosure requirements and timing. IPOs are then compared to direct listings and private offerings (and how the latter are dominated by wealthy investors and hedge funds). Finally, we discuss civil and criminal liability for violations of the securities laws, including securities fraud. Statutes covered include the Securities Act of 1933 and the Exchange Act of 1934.

  • MKBU-3431. Sales Management
    Mondays/Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., RH Campus
    Prerequisites: MKBU-3225

    Professor: Peter Johnson, D.P.S., Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing

    Course Description: In this class students will learn three important skills that will help them in all aspects of being a comprehensive marketing executive. These are: (a) Identification of most profitable customers; (b) Understanding the buying process; and (c) Techniques in marketing technology to manage a sales force.

    MKBU-4114. Marketing Technology and Innovation
    Tuesdays, 2:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m., RH Campus
    Prerequisites: MKBU-3225

    Professors: Luke Kachersky, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Marketing & Mohammad Nejad, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marketing and Area Chair

    Course Description: This course introduces students to the marketing applications of the latest advances in technology (primarily AI and 5G) and their implications. Students will understand the why, what, and applications of the covered technologies in marketing in order to assess the opportunities and challenges for businesses regarding new technologies. The focus is on the business side rather than the technical aspects.

  • SABU-3453. ST: Sustainability and Strategy
    Wednesdays, 2:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m., LC Campus
    Attributes:  OCST, ENT, SOIN

    Professor: Eun-Hee Kim, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Area Chair, Strategy and Statistics
    Course Description: Today managers are increasingly expected to not only create a profit and jobs, but also to simultaneously create social and environmental “shared value” from their investments and operations.

    SABU 4430. ST: Machine Learning for Strategy
    Wednesdays, 5:45 p.m. – 7:45 p.m., LC Campus
    Attributes:  OCST

    Professor: Nancy Wu, Adjunct Professor in ML/AI

    This course will teach you about AI and ML and how to apply them to business strategy. You will learn about the major techniques in supervised and unsupervised learning, and how to develop and implement AI and ML-powered solutions to business problems. You will also learn about the ethical and social implications of AI and ML in the workplace and beyond. The course is designed for both undergraduate and MBA students, and students with both technical and non-technical backgrounds. The course has two elements: more technical and statistical lectures on machine learning concepts, and case studies and insights from working directly in this field to apply statistical ML and AI concepts to business strategy.