How is HIS Different from current HRIM Major?

While the current HRIM major is operations-focused, the new proposed Hospitality Industry Studies major is analytically focused. Therefore, the test of rigor is whether the curriculum effectively complements the nature of focus, operational vs. analytical.

The objective of the HIS major is to provide a strong foundation of business fundamentals and domain specific knowledge hospitality industry so as to aid careers in support functions such as consulting, marketing, information management etc. Therefore, it is only natural that there will be more courses from Business in the curriculum here.

The proposed Hospitality Industry Studies has higher level analytical courses that are not required in the current HRIM Major. These courses are MATH 221 (Calculus), Math 202 (Intro to Stat Methods-II), MISY 160(Business Computing-Tools and Concepts), ACCT 208(Managerial Accounting), BUAD 306(Operations Management), BUAD 424(Business Ethics) and HRIM 495(Hospitality Feasibility Studies). In addition, students will also take advanced level courses based on their areas of focus. For example, for a focus area such as Transaction Advisory Services, students will take advanced level courses in Finance such as FINC 314 (Investments) and FINC 417(Real Estate Finance). Clearly, the rigor is stronger from an analytical standpoint when compared with the existing HRIM major, which is operationally focused.

Other courses that address domain knowledge that are not required (as in Core) in the current HRIM major, but included in the new proposed HIS major are HRIM 214 (Tourism), HRIM 314 (Hospitality Entrepreneurship) and HRIM 215 (Meetings and Conventions Management). All these courses are integral to establishing the domain knowledge requirements of an analytically driven curriculum as opposed to an operationally-focused one.