BUS 302 FAQ's

The prerequisites for BUS 302 include junior standing and completion of all lower division core courses or their approved equivalents.

The Lower Division Core (LDC) courses are:

1. BLAW 280 (Business Law I)
2. ACCT 220 (Financial Accounting)
3. ACCT 230 (Managerial Accounting)
4. SOM 120 or MATH 140 (Statistics)
5. ECON 160 (Microeconomics)
6. ECON 161 (Macroeconomics)
7. ENGL 205 or BUS 105 or BUS 205 (Business Communication)
8. COMP 100 (Computers: Their Impact and Use)
9. MATH 103 (Mathematical Methods for Business)

No. ALL PRERQUISITES WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED. NONE CAN BE TAKEN CONCURRENTLY. Currently, BUS 302 is a co-requisite for most 300-level courses in Business and Economics and is a prerequisite for most 400-level courses in the College of Business and Economics. Because students without prerequisites will be at risk, the faculty teaching BUS 302 will check completion of the LDC before the start date of the semester. At the first class meeting, students whose records do not show completion of the LDC will be required to provide appropriate evidence of completion of the prerequisite courses. Those students who fail to provide the appropriate evidence will be required to drop the course.

The Gateway class was developed with significant input from our major stakeholders such as employers, alumni, the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics business advisory council, the CSU Chancellor, current students and faculty. Employers and other stakeholders indicated that CSUN students are hard working and technically well prepared. However, they felt there was a need for CSUN business majors to have a stronger background in teamwork, effective verbal and written communication, and ethics. Although faculty assigned work to be done in teams, the faculty did not provide any guidance on strategies that should be used in effective team building. In addition professors teaching in the upper division courses had struggled with inconsistent preparation in the lower division core areas.

The objectives of the BUS 302 and 302L (Gateway) classes are designed to respond to these concerns. They focus on building teamwork and communication skills, reviewing and integrating lower division core material and ethics, developing problem solving skills, and creating a supportive community of Nazarian College students and faculty. The successful implementation of these objectives has lowered student failure rates in upper division courses and provided the data needed to improve inconsistent LDC preparation both at CSUN and the community colleges.

This course uses an interactive and experiential learning method. It is not a lecture class because students learn best when they are engaged in the process of discovery. In addition, since the technical material comes from the LDC courses, it has already been taught. There is no point in repeating that material. The instructors’ role is to “assist” students in the development of skills that will enable them to think analytically, solve business problems, work effectively in teams and improve verbal and written communication. The course instructors are team coaches. They are there to help you learn and not spoon-feed the learning.

Check the FAQ’s section in the BUS 302L section of the Gateway web page.