January 15, 2015
Personal Finance in the College of Business
Written By Dr. Len Rhodes, Department of Finance
Almost everyone agrees that we in higher education should do something about increasing personal financial literacy and capability among students. Believe it or not, there are still many institutions that do nothing to promote personal financial education on their campus. However, the College of Business has been doing something about it for some time now.
For the past 15 years, the College of Business has offered a personal finance class that covers all the basics of good personal finance decision making. The class covers all the usual topics that are in most typical personal finance classes, such as how to buy insurance, cars, homes, and other large purchases. The class covers investing and savings topics, budgeting, taxes, credit, and debt. However, the College of Business’s class departs from the typical personal finance curriculum by including other topics relevant to students. These include how to make the most of college, how to pay for college, and money and relationships. In addition, the content is always timely and relevant to the 18-22 college student. The professors that teach the class assess it each semester to ensure the content remains relevant and interesting. For example, the professors banned the “R” word – retirement – from class some time ago. As soon retirement is mentioned, students’ eyes glaze over. However, talk to them about the decisions they’ll make the first day on the job after graduation with regard to health care plans, leave policies, and – yes – retirement and the students perk up. Talk about risk management and all there is are yawns. However, show students how to save money on purchasing car insurance or what renters insurance is and you get their attention. Finally, the class is presented in an entertaining, engaging, and fun format. A lot of multimedia is used and student participation is solicited (read required). Student involvement is rewarded with gift cards and other prizes.
The easy, relevant, fun approach is very successful. The class is at capacity of 1,000 students per year. (The College offers two sections of 250 students each for each semester.) This level of student demand is particularly impressive since the class does not satisfy any curriculum requirement, nor does it serve as a prerequisite for any class on campus. It is a three semester credit hours class, but counts only as three free elective hours for the student. Yet, 1,000 students a year find room for the class in their schedules.