Minors

College of Arts and Sciences

Actuarial Mathematics
The focus is on the application of actuarial mathematics to banking, investments, insurance, and pensions. Students learn advanced concepts in the mathematics of finance. Course work is required in statistics and actuarial mathematics and electives are chosen from finance, economics, and computer programming.

Africana/Black Studies
Africana/Black Studies is an interdisciplinary minor that gives students a critical opportunity to examine the global intellectual traditions and cultural contributions made by people of African descent. By considering African, African American, Afro-Latino/a, Afro-Brazilian, and Caribbean communities, students stretch their worldview and develop effective communication and innovative problem-solving skills across racial lines. In addition, by wrestling with weighty and pervasive issues such as racism and the persistent presence of colonialism in the global economy and socio-cultural network, the minor prepares students to be rigorous thinkers and responsible, ethical professionals and citizens.

Applied Statistics
Many disciplines are dependent on the information provided by statistics. Through this course of study, students can deepen and extend their knowledge and skills in statistics and enhance their ability to solve more complex quantitative problems.

Biotechnology
Biotechnology is the commercial application of living organisms that involves the deliberate manipulation of DNA. Biotechnology broadly impacts markets in human health, agriculture, and the forensic sciences. In the required courses for the minor, students will learn basic chemistry, biology, and the technology of manipulating DNA through “hands-on” lab experiences. In the elective courses they will be exposed to applications of biotechnology in diverse markets and begin to appreciate the profound legal, social, economic, and ethical implications of this technology for our society.

Chinese
The Chinese Minor is designed to provide students with an advanced level of language proficiency in Standard Mandarin and a solid foundation for the development of cultural understanding and communication skills across a broad array of social contexts and business settings in China.

Communication
Students pursuing a communication minor work with a faculty advisor to create a personalized, tailored course of study. In this way, they develop a coherent approach to the discipline that reflects their own interest in the field, with options ranging from interpersonal communication to writing and mass media to television production.

Economics
Minoring in economics provides students with skills that can be applied to areas of business, law, and other liberal studies. Bryant’s minor in economics follows two primary objectives: the interdisciplinary implications of economics and a core competency that integrates critical thinking, human capabilities, ethical sensibilities, and personal resourcefulness.

Environmental Science
Students who complement their studies with a minor in environmental science are prepared for positions in environ¬mental engineering and consulting firms, where effective communication between scientists and business professionals is essential. The minor is also a good foundation for employment with manufacturers who must comply with changing environmental regulations.

French
The French minor is designed to provide students with an advanced level of language proficiency and an understanding of the culture of France and the French-speaking countries where it has produced rich national literatures and diverse cultures (in Europe, Africa, Asia, Canada, and the Caribbean). French is now spoken as a first or second language by over 200 million people and is one of the official languages of the UN. It is the language of government, law, management, and business in many regions of the international community.

History
Students may choose among four tracks of study: United States history, European history, world history, or a specialized course of study. The history minor emphasizes student-driven inquiry, nurturing research skills, the ethical dimensions of history, and the awareness of diversity and differences in the human experience.

International Affairs
The International Affairs minor develops the knowledge of economics, history, law, and politics, and the skills in communications and critical thinking necessary to understand, and succeed in, the modern world.

Latin American and Latina/Latino Studies
Latin American and Latina/Latino studies is an interdisciplinary minor that provides extensive exposure to the history and cultural production of U.S. neighbors to the south, particularly those nations dominated by Spanish and Portuguese speakers. The minor also focuses on the Latina presence in U.S. society and its effects on the nature of social and cultural diversity. Developing a broad-based cultural and historical understanding of Latin American peoples is pertinent given the significant immigration from the region and rapidly developing hemispheric trade via such mechanisms as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Legal Studies
The legal studies minor is designed to encourage ethical thinking in legal problem solving. Studying law enhances analytical skills that are needed in professional life. Students can select courses that will prepare them for law school, give them information that will be valuable for a variety of careers in the United States and around the globe, or simply offer a better understanding of law and government.

Literary and Cultural Studies
The minor in English and cultural studies is designed to foster and sustain a cultural background based upon the mastery of those literary and cultural texts and methods that enter and inform the world of the modern citizen. Students design their minor in accordance with their own interests in consultation with their program advisor.

Math
Employers often seek graduates with mathematical and analytical skills. Students who desire a more in-depth understanding of mathematics may select this minor. All of the courses in this minor focus on problem solving. Many of the courses emphasize the use of technology and include various computer software programs that may not be covered in other courses.

Political Science
Government policies regulate the business environment and affect citizens’ private lives in areas such as health care and education. Political science is the study of government behavior and government-citizen interaction in public policymaking. Bryant’s curriculum includes American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political philosophy.

Professional and Creative Writing
Students pursuing a minor in Professional and Creative Writing develop their writing skills in a variety of settings designed to provide a full exploration of genres. Options range from feature writing for magazines and the Web, to newspaper journalism, to creative writing in poetry and fiction.

Creative writing classes are a perfect complement to Bryant's core coursework in literature studies, giving students the opportunity to engage in the process of writing a poem or story. Professional writing classes introduce students to the necessity of clear, concise workplace communication designed to accomplish shared organizational goals.

Psychology
The psychology minor fortifies students’ preparation for any career by expanding their knowledge and understanding of people. Psychological inquiry helps students learn to critically analyze information about human behavior. The specialized skills of this field can be applicable to many others.

Sociology
Students develop a sophisticated sense of the ways in which individual behavior is the product of social experience. Such study helps students gain insight in their own society and culture and provides a critical understanding of the global community. Students select courses from three substantive themes: stratification, social institutions, and the community.

Sociology and Service Learning
The objectives of the Sociology and Service Learning minor include those of the Sociology minor with the added compo¬nent of service in the community – and the benefits of the student’s development and to the wider community that such service brings about.

Spanish
The Spanish minor is designed to provide students with an advanced level of language proficiency and a strong understand¬ing of the cultures of Spanish-speaking societies. Besides equipping students with the necessary tools to become excellent communicators and rigorous thinkers, the minor also equips students to live and work within an increasingly international context. Given the numerous hemispheric trade agreements, the significant presence of Latina/os in the U.S., the considerable number of Spanish-speaking transnational immigrants, and the importance of Spain in the European Union, minoring in Spanish also grants the student an advantageous position in the job market.

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor at Bryant is an engaging, interdisciplinary program that teaches students to think critically and respond intellectually to multiple ways of thinking.  Students will examine current research on women, gender, and sexuality and evaluate the distribution of power in contemporary society.

The minor also explores the origins of women's studies, the social construction of gender, and the scholarly investigations of sexual identities.

College of Business

Business Administration
The Business Administration minor is required for all liberal arts majors and is designed to develop basic business knowledge and skills. This foundation allows students to begin a career directly following their undergraduate education, or to continue on to graduate school.

Computer Information Systems
Technology is an integral part of nearly every business profession. Business people everywhere rely on technology to complement and maximize their professional effectiveness. The CIS minor is designed to enable students to prepare for and leverage the ever-increasing role of information technology in the business world.

Entrepreneurship
The entrepreneurship minor is designed to give students a working perspective for small to medium sized enterprises, including the development of new enterprises. This minor helps students cultivate an understanding of entrepreneurship and the traits of entrepreneurial leaders. All enterprises, irrespective of their profit motives, require a sense of entrepreneurialism, including planning and execution skills, people and resource management, long-term strategies and shorter-term objectives, and financing. The entrepreneurship minor is a means of crating that base understanding of enterprise management.
 
Finance
Students have opportunities to develop the analytic and managerial tools needed for making sound financial decisions. Students in the finance minor select four courses, which include corporate financial management, investments, and the management of financial institutions. Courses in real estate finance, risk management, and international finance allow students to apply financial techniques to other business realms.

Global Supply Chain Management
The ability to manage complex global supply chains is key to success in the modern economy. Supply chain management involves coordinating and improving the flow and transformation of goods, services, information, and funds within companies and around the world, from raw materials to the final end user. It is an integrative strategy for complex business-to-business networks designed to enhance global competitiveness. The Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM) minor requires four courses that prepares students to fill the increasing demand for supply chain management professionals. The GSCM minor provides students with a working knowledge of the integrative value-creating supply chain strategies necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

Students can pursue an academic internship to fulfill one of the course requirements.

Human Resource Management
Students pursuing a minor in Human Resource Management at Bryant explore the different facets of managing people in an organizational context. Coursework will allow students to explore the full variety of HR functions and learn about the legal implications of managing people. They will also gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges of developing employee compensation and training policies, as well as how to manage people in a global setting.

International Business
Consistent with the University mission, the minor in international business facilitates the cultivation of a global perspective in our students that helps them achieve their personal best in life and business. Through a combination of two required courses that are integrated across business functions and two electives that focus on the international aspects of specific business functions, students develop a broader and deeper understanding of the issues faced by companies engaged in international business. This enhances international awareness and technical skills for competing and leading in the global business environment.

Management
The increasing demand for management skills at all levels of various organizations proposes the creation of a management minor at Bryant University. The objective of the minor is to allow both business and liberal arts students to gain an understanding of complex managerial issues that corporations are facing today.

Marketing
The marketing minor gives students a business and management perspective that is market-oriented. As a key business function, marketing is dominant in virtually all commercial, government, and nonprofit settings. All business professionals, regardless of primary expertise, are frequently called upon to be mindful of and involved with the formulation of marketing strategy, tactics, and other exchange-related decisions. The marketing minor is explicitly designed to help students master key marketing issues and enable them to be successful in any management role, including sales, business communications, business-to-business, retail services, and research.