{"id":137176,"date":"2026-03-13T09:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137176\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T09:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:03:09","slug":"college-to-launch-finance-minor-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/137176\/","title":{"rendered":"College to launch finance minor \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a> <\/p>\n

Photo by Julia McSharry<\/a> for The Lafayette <\/p>\n

The new finance minor program, based out of the Simon Center for Economics and Business, will include two core economics courses: \u201cCorporate Finance\u201d and \u201cFinancial Accounting & Analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lafayette College faculty approved a new finance minor at its last meeting, superseding a certificate that commonly served as a finance department alternative. The new minor will serve students in the Class of 2029 and beyond.<\/p>\n

The six-course minor was approved by a 104-18 vote with four abstentions at the Feb. 24 faculty meeting, according to Clerk of the Faculty Joshua Smith. The motion to approve the minor was brought by a faculty education policy committee, after the college\u2019s economics department voted to approve the program at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were meeting on a every other week basis for the better part of a year and a half before we finally had a curriculum and a set of ideals,\u201d said Steven Swidler, a professor of business and finance in the economics department. He teaches \u201cCorporate Finance,\u201d a key course in both the financial policy certificate and the future minor program.<\/p>\n

The college\u2019s economics minor will be unimpacted by the finance minor, according to Swidler. The economics department also hopes to hire a tenure-track professor with a concentration in finance in the near future.<\/p>\n

The existing financial policy certificate, which focuses on economics, mathematics and computer science courses, will remain the only formal option for students in the Class of 2026, 2027 and 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though our certificate was in many ways comparable to a minor, the outside world didn\u2019t necessarily know that,\u201d Swidler said, adding that the certificate required more courses and often became too time-consuming for students to pursue.<\/p>\n

David Stifel, the college\u2019s economics department head, said that the minor\u2019s capstone will not be offered until the 2027-28 academic year. As a result, the Classes of 2026, 2027 and 2028 will not be able to pursue the new minor.(are we still worried about verifying this, because i kind of think we can cut that last sentence especially when we already say it serves class of 2029 and beyond?)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The minor consists of two core economics courses: \u201cCorporate Finance\u201d and \u201cFinancial Accounting & Analysis,\u201d in addition to an ethics course, skills course, an applications course and a capstone, according to the college\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

To fulfill the program\u2019s ethics course requirement, the college\u2019s website<\/a> lists classes in philosophy, history and civil engineering departments.<\/p>\n

Nisan Basciftci \u201826, an economics and mathematics major who completed the finance certificate, said the change could be a disadvantage for some students because double minors are not offered at the college. However, she said she believed the minor could boost students wanting to pursue finance as a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you interview for these roles, they ask you, \u2018What\u2019s your major? Do you have a minor?\u2019\u201d Basciftci said. \u201cBut no one asks you about a certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison Meyer \u201829 contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Julia McSharry for The Lafayette The new finance minor program, based out of the Simon Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-137176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}