A look at major constraints

I, like other Princeton students, returned to campus after Fall Break to find most of the leaves fallen, cold weather seemingly settled for the duration and an overflowing mailbox. The turning of the season marks a period of choices, of which the many letters from the college are only the most obvious indication. All students must now select courses for the spring semester, but for sophomores this decision takes on greater importance. For some, it's the last chance to explore departments before declaring a concentration in April. For others, it's the last foray into a beloved area of studies before departmental coursework and independent work absorb all junior and senior year class time.

The latter case doesn't have to be so, as a new booklet entitled "Major Choices" tries to tell us. The project of Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel, "Major Choices" encourages students to take the road less traveled, to choose concentrations based upon interest and not imagined practicality or correlation to success. It's a well-placed sentiment but, espoused in a 70-page booklet, one unlikely to carry much clout.

All Princeton students have by now understood that Dean Malkiel would like to wean us away from the "big five" departments: politics, history, economics, the Wilson School and English. These departments combined boast over a thousand concentrations – almost half the number of junior and senior students. In comparison, the departments of astrophysical sciences, German and Slavic languages and literatures boast nine, eight and six concentrators each, respectively. Clearly a great enrollment gap exists between the most and least popular departments.

Encouraging students to follow their academic passions may eventually promote a more even departmental distribution, but it's just a start. Instead of assuming that students enter the "big five" departments by default, or in pursuit of later professional opportunities, the administration should consider what these departments do well. Adapting the more popular departments' successful strategies to smaller ones could carry over concentrators, as well.

One attraction of politics, history, economics, English and the Wilson School is the majors' broad scope. A politics concentrator can pursue political theory, American or regional politics or international relations. History concentrators write theses on Enlightenment France and autonomous Krakow, student movements in Taiwan and U.N. intervention in central Africa. An economics concentrator can explore that field's relationship to law, ethics, public policy and the environment. English concentrators can read Chaucer, Shakespeare or Joyce, or explore theater and creative writing. Woodrow Wilson School concentrators define their own individual courses of study. These majors draw so many students perhaps not for their practicality but for their flexibility.

Language majors, on the other hand, are by nature of narrower scope. Concentration in Slavic languages and literatures — or in French and Italian, or Spanish and Portuguese or German — limits departmental work to courses on literature and culture. A student who holds that language is only a tool to explore a region's politics, history or economic situation will find that language concentrations do not allow these types of courses. In order to follow her interest, she must look elsewhere.

While the administration believes that the uneven major distribution results from students' preference for practical pursuits, it may in fact be the case that larger departments offer greater choices. Encouraging students to follow their passions may ultimately fall short unless smaller departments also accommodate students' interdisciplinary interests. Recognizing this, East Asian Studies has begun to offer more economicsand policy-based courses to compliment its culture and history courses. The religion department has exploded as students recognize the unique combination of history, law, ethics and politics inherent in this field. Comparative Literature, with its options for independent work incorporating philosophy, history, politics or religion, is also positioned for increase. If literature and culture departments allow replacement of one or two departmental requirements with related courses in history or politics, they will increase their appeal to students with interests in both fields. Smaller departments can best appeal to students with multidisciplinary interests by emulating the big departments' flexibility. By offering programs tailored to wider interests, smaller departments ensure that a student pursuing her academic passion is not forced to follow it down a different path. Emily Stolzenberg is a sophomore from Morgantown, W. Va. She can be reached at estolzen@princeton.edu.