Texas A&M University-San Antonio could see a new marketing minor program available this fall.
Dr. Arne Baruca, associate professor of marketing and chair of management and marketing department, said that proposing the marketing minor was actually pretty simple.
And the reasoning behind it: to introduce more non-marketing students to the marketing world.
Baruca says marketing can be beneficial to many other students, such as communications majors.
“We wanted other students, not just from our college, but those who are, for example, communications, journalism and others, especially knowing that credit hours are limited, so they have to have something else as well,” Baruca said. “I think that’s a perfect match for someone who is in communications to have a marketing minor. Maybe someone who wants to be in business.”
Baruca encourages students to have more than one degree.
“I always advocate for students to have more than one degree because you are more marketable. You have more chances to get a job,” Baruca said. “Many times we are not sure what we want to do. Sometimes I’m not sure what I want to do, right? So it’s always good to have options, and you have the options to squeeze more into whatever you have instead of having random electives that don’t really connect.”
Baruca explained how the idea for marketing as a minor came about.
“We have a digital marketing certificate, and it’s very popular. A lot of students are coming, even from outside of our College of Business. They’re uncertain of our major and they’re just trying to add something to their current degrees. Because of that, we just extended it.”
Baruca said the program is in its last stages of approval by the board.
“It’s not official yet,” Baruca said. “It goes through a process. I think it’s in the last stages of approval. We were told that it’s more than likely gonna get approved because we didn’t add anything new or hire new people, it was just what we had. We just repackaged it and made it a minor.”
Andrea Tovias is an A&M-San Antonio student who is passionate about her major in marketing.
“(Marketing) encompasses everything.” Andrea said. “For me marketing means social media and being responsive to people. I’m a people person, so I love communicating through people and being creative.”
Baruca says classes would be available both online and in person for anyone interested in a minor in marketing.
