There’s been a lot of talk and research recently about how to “revitalize the undergraduate business major, which is the nation’s most popular [degree],” reports The Chronicle. These students, who comprise about 20% of all college graduates, don’t seem to be receiving a very well-rounded education, especially when it comes to liberal arts.
The goal, according to William M. Sullivan and Anne Colby, senior scholars at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, is not only to introduce a stronger liberal arts foundation, but to ensure that business students understand that their liberal arts courses are not irrelevant to their business education and to their future career plans.
There is already a move towards liberalizing the MBA education, and a similar move appears imminent in the undergraduate business sphere as well.
NYU Stern’s program provides a model for the integration of liberal arts and business with its course in professional responsibility and leadership. The course provides an integrated syllabus combining business case studies with the study of classic liberal arts texts, including Confucius, Plato, Cicero, Machiavelli, Walt Whitman, and Chekhov.
