One proposal to help assuage the current financial crisis is the establishment of a Business major.This proposal has been recently discussed at length among students and faculty, and it has also found support from University President Jehuda Reinharz. The availability of a Business major on campus would supposedly attract more career-minded students to Brandeis. While this suggestion has been met with much skepticism, I encourage the idea of instituting the major; however, I would advise Brandeis to incorporate its other departments, the International Business School and the career center into this program.

Business is a very far-reaching discipline that integrates many different subjects, particularly those in the social sciences. In creating a new major devoted to the subject, school administrators should take potential for interdisciplinary studies into account. Though they are important, courses that solely center on marketing, accounting and finance should not be the only ones offered to satisfy the major's requirements.

Rather, the University ought to design classes that are interdepartmental and cover topics as diverse as the psychology of investing, the sociology of management and labor relations, business law, the relationship between companies and government and corporate microeconomics.

There are numerous benefits to this initiative. It is consistent with Brandeis' core liberal arts curriculum in the sense that it engages the subjects that are under that banner in a meaningful and comprehensive fashion. The resources and faculty of multiple departments would be put to optimal and productive use, and students will learn how to apply their knowledge from a diverse range of topics.

Administrators should also associate the new program with the faculty and resources that IBS has to offer. Specifically, they ought to make this graduate-level institution more accessible to interested undergraduates, facilitate talks between faculty from both the business school and the College of Arts and Sciences to create the best possible outcome for the major and use the physical infrastructure that the graduate school provides.

This next proposal would save Brandeis money, since existing IBS classes, such as microeconomics, accounting and financial analysis, can be adapted to provide many of the odds and ends that are necessary for a Business major. In addition, it would create more unity and interaction between the graduate and undergraduate students, their respective faculty members and available resources.

Administrators should take note of another invaluable asset: the Hiatt Career Center. It would be wise not only to make internships a requirement for the major but also to ensure that Hiatt will aid students in acquiring satisfactory jobs by preparing their credentials.

Also, a productive internship in, say, an industrious company, bank or organization will acquaint students with a professional atmosphere and will generally help them get acclimated to the worlds of business and finance.

I have in mind a model for the Business major based upon Brandeis' popular International and Global Studies program, which combines topics like politics, economics, environmental science and anthropology with a mandatory internship in an international organization. The IGS program provides students with a rich learning experience and familiarizes them with the inner workings of globalization. By taking a similar approach, this Business major can also produce these positive results.

I'm always excited about new additions to Brandeis' academic world even though the school is under tough budgetary constraints. And in regard to the Business major, I might be especially thrilled if the school follows up on some of the items I've discussed.