Malkiel outlines plan for small departments

The University is now making clear the steps it plans to take to combat the trend of a large number of students concentrating in a small number of majors.

Last spring, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel began implementing a program to diversify undergraduates' choices of majors.

Politics, history, economics, English and the Wilson School consistently rank as the five most popular departments. Malkiel and her coworkers, however, are concerned that many students are drawn to these majors for the wrong reasons.

"We don't intend to admit fewer students to those departments," Malkiel said. "What we're trying to do is to speak to those students who are majoring in those departments because they see others doing it — because they think they have to."

Her intent for the program is to reach those students who feel pressured by either parents or peers to follow a certain path of study in order to get a particular type of job.

"It's the students that are in those [popular] departments by default instead of passion that we're trying to reach," she said.

To accomplish this end, the Office of the Dean of the College has created a threefold plan.

First, it wants to provide more information to students and their parents on the various opportunities available in different departments. Recently, the office published a pamphlet titled "Major Choices" that gives firsthand accounts from University alumni who obtained various undergraduate degrees.

The booklet's purpose is "to illustrate that studying any subject here can prepare students very well" for a variety of careers, Malkiel said.

The Office of the Dean of the College will also continue to collaborate with the residential colleges and Career Services to expose freshmen and sophomores to smaller academic departments before they choose a major.

As part of this initiative, they will bring in professors, upperclassmen and alumni of the smaller departments to educate underclassmen on the possibilities offered by their field of study. According to the Office of the Dean, 70 percent of undergraduates graduate with a different major than they planned on initially.

"It's fine that students change their minds after they get here," Malkiel said. "We would like students to be making decisions based on experience. The problem is when a vast number of students all change their minds in the same direction."

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As a final part of their plan to solve this problem, Malkiel and her staff have been working closely with the individual departments themselves. They encourage each department to appeal to its "natural constituency," a term she uses to refer to those students who have already demonstrated the skill and experience required to major in that field.

"I want those departments to think about communicating to those students the advantages to concentrate in these smaller departments," she said.

The Office of the Dean of the College suggested departments reach out to students with new and improved introductory department courses, field trips and summer programs of study. The cost of many of these innovations will be covered by the curriculum development funds raised by President Emeritus Harold Shapiro GS '64 during the University's 250th Anniversary Campaign.

Malkiel admits that it might take time for the plan to produce concrete results. "I think that the decisions that the Class of '07 makes come this April will be a good indicator," she said. "I don't expect transformation. I expect some modest redistribution. and I hope we'll see that."