The University of St. Thomas introduced three new majors, one redesigned pre-existing major and 14 new minors for the Fall 2024 semester.
Data Science major
This redesigned major stemmed from the original applied statistics major. Students in those courses had the option to stay in their current field or switch to data science.
Junior Maia Toenies chose the latter. “I decided to switch due to a faculty recommendation that it would give me more valuable skills for a future job, like more coding and software skills, and that it’s overall a good major that a lot of companies could use,” she said. “There are lots of opportunities for data scientists in many different industries because of how palatable the skills are for any kind of company.”
Toenies said that the data science major requires more computer science courses and, while both majors use software for data analysis, she thinks data science is more software-focused than applied statistics.
In their courses, students will learn subjects such as statistics, computer science and mathematics, and how to understand data. Toenies said that students often pair this major with a minor in another industry they are interested in, from business analytics to psychology.
Some courses that this major requires are the new Intro to Data Science (DASC 130), Object Oriented Design and Programming (CISC 230) and Database 1 (CISC 450).
Sports Management minor
This minor, part of the Opus College of Business, was built by professors Kim Sovell and Kyle Goldschmidt. Sovell said it was developed to help students coordinate some of the classes already taught at St. Thomas into a minor that can be used to help them get jobs after graduation.
“I felt it was important because once we went D1 and we changed all of our conferences, I started comparing what we were offering here to what our direct competition schools were teaching. All except two, us and one other school, were offering a sport management minor or major,” Sovell said.
All students in the minor are required to take an introduction to sports management class, a foundation that will teach subjects such as law, marketing, accounting and running a venue. Other courses that students can take were already being taught at St. Thomas, like Sports Law, operations courses, and College of Arts and Sciences classes such as Women, Sport and the Body and Sports Economics.
“The Twin Cities has an amazing assortment of sports; pro sports, college sports, high school sports, but also participation sports. It’s not just always about the Minnesota Vikings and the pro teams that we have in town,” Sovell said. “Adding this minor on really will prepare students if they’re interested in working in the world of sport.”
Creative Writing minor
While the current creative writing major requires courses in literature, this new minor will be focused mainly on the creative writing classes that St. Thomas offers, but with literature as an option.
“It’s meant to be paired with a lot of different majors like marketing, DIMA, all those majors,” professor Salvatore Pane said. “A lot of students who are doing this have a less creative major, and this is their creative outlet.”
Students are required to take ENGL 121 or 190 as first-years; after that prerequisite, 12 credits are needed to complete the minor. These include writing classes like intro to creative writing, writing fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, video game writing and elective courses. The intent is to prepare students for work in careers such as editing and marketing.
“Students expressed a desire in having a fast-track through the creative writing program, so we wanted to make sure we met them where they lived, give them options. Some people can’t commit to the whole major, so we thought this was kind of a good middle ground for those students. I’m very happy it exists,” Pane said.
Sports studies minor
This interdisciplinary minor brings together courses in English, philosophy, communication studies and more.
“If there’s anything people seem to have in common these days, it is some connection to sport. So, perhaps then that gives us the opportunity to think about issues of race, class, gender, social identity, etc. That is a major goal,” said Debra Petersen, sports studies program director.
Petersen said that the departments are providing as many activities as possible so that their students can try things out and hear from professionals. One opportunity that her sports studies class will have this semester is a field trip to A Bar of Their Own, a sports bar based in Minneapolis that shows exclusively women’s sports. They will hear from founder Jillian Hiscock about gender and the media.
Petersen said the Twin Cities is the “perfect place” for job opportunities in sports.
“One cool thing about the minor is you can get permission to do an internship anywhere in the sport area and get credits for your minor,” she said.
Additional majors and minors
Here’s the full list of new majors and minors for fall 2024:
Majors
Nutrition
Special Education
Co-major in Film Studies and Media Production
Data Science (redesigned)
Minors
Accounting
Composing for the Screen
Creative Writing
Finance
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Human Resources Management
Irish Studies
Law and Compliance
Leadership and Management
Marketing
Neuroscience
Spanish for Health Professions
Sports Management
Sports Studies
Bridget Schmid can be reached at schm1520@stthomas.edu.