A new multidisciplinary concentration program in economics, sociology and engineering is being sent for review to the College Curriculum Council on Tuesday.
The concentration - called the Program in Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship - will be instituted in the fall semester of 2005 if the plan is approved, according to Dean of the College Paul Armstrong.
The program will provide a structural framework to unify the separate business-related concentrations currently available in the three departments. Armstrong said these concentrations will be phased out over the next couple of years, to be replaced by three different tracks in the new program. The new concentration will likely be available to current sophomores. The executive board of the CCC has already seen the proposal, but Armstrong emphasized that it will likely undergo more changes if the full board accepts it.
The three tracks in the new program are Business Economics, Organizational Studies, and Entrepreneurship and Technology Management. While the program is a collaborative effort between the three departments involved, Armstrong said each track will be based primarily in one department.
The concentration is an A.B. It will require eight foundation courses, two in each of four different areas: quantitative skills, economic and market theory, organizational theory, and entrepreneurship and technology management. Under the current proposal, each track will have an additional six to nine required courses.
The concentrations that will be phased out if the new plan is approved are the Business Economics concentration in the economics department, the Public and Private Sector Organizations concentration in the sociology department and the Engineering and Economics concentration in the Division of Engineering. The timeline for phasing out the existing concentrations is subject to change.
The most significant change in the new program is that students will have to take foundation courses in all three departments. Faculty members involved in creating the program said courses specific to each track are very similar to the concentrations they replace.
Ann Dill, associate professor of sociology and concentration advisor for PPSO, said the new Organization Studies track is very similar to PPSO. According to Dill, the only large changes are the specific foundation requirements.
Similarly, Andrew Foster, professor of economics and chair of the department, said that the COE business economics concentration is not very different from the current one in the economics department. However, he said that the new program provides several advantages.
First, it is expected to reduce the number of students who double concentrate in these areas. Foster said COE will allow business-oriented undergraduates to take better advantage of the liberal arts curriculum, since they will have fewer required classes.
The COE concentration will have between 14 and 17 required courses - more than most A.B. degrees but fewer than would be required for a double concentration.
Additionally, Armstrong said the plan calls for the creation of new classes and the hiring of new professors. Specifically, two new courses in engineering and sociology are included in the foundation for all COE concentrators. The proposed classes are "Individuals in Organizations," in sociology, and "Entrepreneurship and Technology Management," in engineering.
Foster said the Plan for Academic Enrichment provided the opportunity to create the new program. "It gave us the chance to say, 'What could we do better if we had more resources?'" he said.
Both Armstrong and Foster stressed that the new program does not conflict with Brown's liberal arts curriculum and that the concentration is not a pre-professional degree. "We're not teaching skills for their own purpose," said Foster. "We're teaching courses about institutions and derivatives, but it also builds (students') skills as economists."
However, the program will provide opportunities for students to connect more concretely to the world outside of academics. Armstrong said the administration is looking at co-curricular options, such as richer internship opportunities with alumni and linking the curriculum to the Entrepreneurship Program, a student group.
Chris Yu '05, co-director of the EP, said he and others at the program are excited by the new concentration. "It gives students the opportunity to think about entrepreneurship as a viable career path," he said, adding that the EP will continue to provide support for students outside of the classroom.
There was strong interest in the development of the COE program from many different groups, including students, professors, alumni and the Provost's Office, according to Armstrong.
Dill, who chaired the committee that drafted the idea for the program, said a number of different proposals for research, courses and curricular development were unified under the new concentration program.
"It's about an effort to improve the quality of what we can offer to our students," Foster said. In terms of the field of economics, he said this program takes advantage of current trends in the field of finance, where there is increasing interplay between economists and financial institutions.
Dill described the new concentration as "cutting-edge" in the context of sociology curricula throughout the country. She and Foster both said they expect the program to attract more high-profile faculty and researchers to Brown.
Alexander Labinov '06, a former engineering concentrator, said that he thought the entrepreneurship and technology management track would help the engineering department attract and retain concentrators. He completed a year and a half of engineering requirements before deciding to switch concentrations because he wanted to explore further interests in sociology and other areas.
Labinov, who is the minority peer career liaison at the Career Development Center, said that one drawback of the new concentration would be that students graduating with this degree would not be able to compete as successfully in the high-tech industry job market as engineers who graduate with an Sc.B. They would, however, have strong math and analytical skills that Labinov said are highly valued in business and finance.
While planning for the new program began in the spring of 2003, very few students are aware of the proposal. Johanna Belda '05, the president of the Economics Departmental Undergraduate Group, said the economics department had not disclosed very much information about the program. She did say that many students interested in business wanted a strengthened business program.
Similarly, Danielle Saltzman '07, a PPSO concentrator, said that she did not know anything about the changes being discussed, but that so far, she has been very happy with her concentration.
While the current proposal is still in a draft stage, professors and administrators said they are open to other options. Dill said her department is discussing an additional track in the sociology concentration that would provide a curriculum in organization studies with a more purely sociological outlook.
"If it turns out three to four years down the road that the COE isn't meeting the needs of a group of students, then we'll bring business econ back," Foster said.
