Excellent op ed piece. My favorite gripe is repeated here:
"5. Missing majors (journalism, finance, neuroscience)
While Rice offers a plethora of majors, including the ever-popular ancient Mediterranean civilizations major, it still lacks some common tracks of study. Owls headed to Wall Street are forced into an economics major because of our lack of a finance major....."
...as I was leading up to my graduation with an Econ degree in 1971. Additionally, being prior to the advent of the Jones School, I was "forced" to leave my beloved Houston to move to the slums of West Philly to get my MBA. The Wharton School at U Penn is the oldest business school in the world, and Penn has long realized the value of both the undergraduate and graduate business alumni to growing and enriching [literally] the University. The undergraduate Wharton business degree is probably the most sought undergraduate major at Penn.
And THAT is exactly why the RICE faculty and administration will probably never allow an undergraduate business degree to be offered. It would decimate the more esoteric majors that are now home for many non-SE's ["academs" in my class nomenclature]. I have been told this explicitly in the past by various Rice and Jones School faculty and administrators. The terminology used to describe such business programs is "too commercial" [i.e. lower class than other disciplines].
WHAT a shame! A Rice undergraduate business major population in Finance, Management, Business Systems... etc. would be a source of enormous pride and financial support for an otherwise GREAT University.
If I have missed some developments regarding these issues, I apologize; but I don't believe the intellectual "snobbery" of the non-Jones School faculty and administration has changed significantly. Please enlighten me if I am wrong...........