By Russell Garth

In 2003, CIC invited a small group of college and university presidents as well as business executives to discuss the importance of the liberal arts for business. Last month, CIC hosted a follow-up conversation—this time involving faculty members responsible for business programs in independent colleges—to focus particularly on the ways in which undergraduate education can create connections between the liberal arts and business (see Business and the Liberal Arts story). A publication about the symposium is forthcoming in the fall. In addition, CIC Senior Advisor David Paris and some symposium participants will be discussing their programs and the symposium at the Institute for Chief Academic and Financial Officers in the fall.

The most striking theme was one of integration—blending liberal arts and business content in ways that almost certainly distinguish independent institutions from their larger and public counterparts. Birmingham-Southern College (AL), for example, has created a gateway course for all business majors, “Foundations of Business Thought,” that uses readings from Thomas Aquinas, Gandhi, Mark Twain, Plato, and Aristotle. One key effect is to reduce the possibility that students will erect mental divides between their professional field and the general education curriculum.

Other institutions build the bridge in the senior year. Albertson College (ID) offers a newly created, year-long “Senior Capstone” course on management, which draws upon the total educational program of business courses, each of which contains ethics, writing, leadership, and international perspectives as well as required internships and courses outside of the business department. Ursinus College’s (PA) business program requires a “capstone” course that includes an independent research project, thus continuing broader institutional goals of inquiry and connections to the economics curriculum. Augustana College (IL), with a similar campus-wide Student Inquiry requirement, is asking students for a culminating experience that includes reflection on the multiple components of the entire program as well as an exploration of how the project will contribute to the common good.

Ripon College (WI) in 1995 created an interdisciplinary business major, with economics courses at the core but including a range of courses from communication, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and mathematics. The program’s overall emphasis is on leadership, entrepreneurship, and social responsibility. Importantly, Ripon also allows a self-designed option for students who wish to complement a business major with significant work in another field, thus leading to foci such as museum management or environmental administration. Students are able to gain credit, with the business major, for service-learning experiences as well as internships.

A frequent thread in these business programs is the infusion of ethics. College of St. Catherine (MN) faculty members have prepared 25 cases, which include teaching notes and background materials, that their colleagues can integrate into business courses. The accounting faculty at Emory & Henry College (VA) is developing an ethical inquiry course. Sweet Briar College (VA), building on a limited set of courses leading to a Certificate in Business Management, began a full-fledged major in 2003 that has already become the college’s largest major. One new feature included in this new program is a set of five required short courses in business ethics. Each is matched to one of the five required core business courses, runs for eight consecutive weeks, and uses both case studies and readings.

One institution has established an integrative program with a strong business emphasis—but without a business major. Hanover College (IN) recently had a business major, but in 2004 the college started a Center for Business Preparation (CPB), which has become the largest academic program on campus. Students admitted to the program must major in a liberal arts discipline; but the CPB includes a core curriculum of business courses, a project-based internship customized to the student’s major, an electronic Career Portfolio, and workshops addressing career skills such as interviewing, networking, and professional etiquette.

And—to circle back to the initial item on a business gateway course with heavy doses of the liberal arts—a number of institutions use business content and faculty members as both gateways and complementary activities for non-business students. There are several instances of business faculty members teaching in liberal arts core programs; at Franklin Pierce University (NH), for example, one of the core courses is titled “The Challenge of Business in Society.” In addition, the university’s Students In Free Enterprise program involves students from all majors working in teams with faculty mentors in outreach programs that teach students market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial skills, and business ethics.