Poets, Painters, and Portfolio Managers

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Robert Faggen, chairman of the literature department at Claremont McKenna and a prominent Robert Frost scholar, was one of several faculty members who raised objections to the master's program shortly after the announcement. Faculty had concerns ranging from specific aspects of implementing the program to its overall effect on the college, he says.

"There are a number of possible paths to success in the world of finance, and some of those paths include in-depth study of the humanities," Faggen says. "One would like to think that the overall quality of mind that is being cultivated in a liberal arts college does not become too narrowly focused on job training."

Still Committed to the Arts

But administrators at Claremont McKenna maintain that is not the case. The school decided to use the gift to create the program because administrators noticed a large number of students were graduating from college and going into the financial world, but not taking the time to get an MBA along the way, says Pamela Gann, Claremont McKenna's president. Adding a one-year master's program for students interested in pursuing a career in finance seemed like a logical step, especially since the school already had a strong cadre of professors specializing in fields commonly studied in undergraduate and graduate business programs, such as industrial organization and leadership psychology.

"We aren't in any way reducing our commitments to the liberal arts. We believe that is the best education for leadership," Gann says. "We are saying that we are a real world college and don't just work in theory. We are doing a disservice to students if we are not offering them core competencies like accounting, leadership, and finance today."

Indeed, this is a stance many liberal arts colleges are taking today as they design their economics programs to offer students more courses with real-world applications, as well as internship opportunities, says Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges & Universities. She estimates as many as one-third of the liberal arts colleges in the Annapolis Group, a consortium of 125 leading liberal arts colleges, already offer students some type of business concentration as part of their undergraduate offerings. However, most have not gone as far as Bard and Claremont McKenna, and created degree programs in finance, she notes.

A Place to Talk Business

"I think every liberal arts college in the country is taking a hard look at whether it is doing a good job preparing its students for real world employment," she says. "But there are many ways to do that, and it is not necessary to invent a new degree program for every job that a student might get."

In some instances, colleges are creating economics and business centers on campus to give students a stronger grounding in finance, without requiring them to earn an additional degree. This is the case at Cornell College, which created the Berry Center for Economics, Business & Public Policy in the fall of 2006. The center was a result of a $5 million gift from alumnus Jim McWethy, who wanted to create a place on campus where students could gather to talk about important business and finance topics, as well as find internships in the business field.

It was a good compromise for the school, which didn't have the resources or desire to create a full-scale business department or degree program, says Garner, Cornell's president. The center has so far been an unprecedented success on campus, Garner says. Students use the center to help them find internships in Chicago and other nearby cities, while others sign up for economics and business classes held at the center.

The Track to a Career

Most important, the center has widespread appeal for students from all majors; Garner led a reading group of Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt's book, Freakonomics, this fall, and of the 18 students who participated, only three were economics and business majors, he says. "I think we felt that students wanted a clearer sense of the track from a Cornell education to a successful career in economics, business, and public policy," Garner says. "The students didn't lobby per se for the creation of a center, but they did vote with their feet."

Students say studying business at a small liberal arts college, rather than a large business school, has its advantages. Vladimir Pick, 20, a sophomore at Bard enrolled in the dual-degree program in economics and finance, says he likes the personal attention from professors and the opportunity to take classes that give him a broader perspective on the world. In addition to finance, he is majoring in computer science.

"I feel most liberal arts colleges have been misunderstood as just being artsy and theatrical and so forth," says Pick, who eventually hopes to work as an investment banker on Wall Street. "I think this is a great opportunity for students who want depth in their education. The finance major gives you real business skills, but the program also leaves you the opportunity to explore whatever humanities interests you might have."

Damast is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.