Global studies: Indiana business schools adopt a world view.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

"IT'S A DIFFERENT WORLD we're living in now, and students have to be more strongly engaged in the world than ever before," says Patrick O'Meara, Indiana University's vice president for international affairs. "No business school can afford not to be global."

Such a view elicits nods of agreement at business schools across the state. Now more than ever, students are getting a business education infused with a world view, whether or not they actually declare a major in international business.

"We start our program from the beginning with a global perspective," says Dean Schroeder, associate dean for graduate programs in management at Valparaiso University. Setting the tone, he says, is the first required reading assignment: the Thomas Friedman book The World is Flat. International business, according to Schroeder, "is not something that you can afford to just have as a specialized course or an elective."

"We integrate globalization as a primary theme for business education," agrees Bob Clark, dean of the Schroeder Family School of Business Administration at the University of Evansville and director of the Institute for Global Enterprise in Indiana. The global focus comes through coursework, study-abroad opportunities and a series of outside speakers who address students and Evansville business leaders on international business topics. "We have a specific concentration in global business for those who want to specialize, but in general we weave global business throughout all of our business curriculum."

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And at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, the global perspective is so important that it is listed as one of the MBA program's six primary goals: "Each student will have an understanding of global influences on business decisions/plans and/or develop plans for managing a business in a global environment."

"The likelihood that any college student today is going to work in an organization that does business internationally is very strong," observes Doug Naffziger, director of international programs at the Miller College of Business at Ball State University.

Global studies on campus. "Currently, we have close to 30 students who have selected an international business major," says Ray Montagno, associate dean for research and outreach at the Miller College of Business. "They take a full complement of international courses and also a concentration in some functional area," such as marketing or finance. The major has...