Starting next year Bowdoin will offer a minor in economics and finance, the result of a unanimous faculty vote on Monday.
The proposal, which had been a topic of discussion since Fall 2005 when the economics department first introduced finance courses, arose in response to interest from students, the administration and members of the economics faculty, according to Chair of the Economics Department Deborah DeGraff.
"Students had been asking for certain business-oriented courses for a long time," said Associate Professor of Economics Gregory Paul DeCoster, who currently teaches Finance courses. "And ultimately finance courses, and now the minor, are our way of, in a sense, responding to that in a way that still remains very consistent with the spirit of a liberal arts education."
"Finance is about pricing outcomes in the future and this is pure economics. Economics is a classic liberal arts topic," added DeCoster.
He explained that the new minor was designed with students' careers in mind.
"The purpose of this minor is to give students access to knowledge that prospective employers in an evermore competitive market have come to expect," he said, "and to do so while providing students with greater flexibility in their education than they would with a major in econ."
The minor will consist of Introduction to Microeconomics and Macroeconomics (Economics 101 and 102, respectively), Finance I and II (Econ 260 and 360), Microeconomics (Econ 255), and an elective at the 200 or 300 level which students may select from a specified list.
This offering "will probably attract some new students, but also will probably cause some students who might otherwise minor in economics, or choose economics as a second major, to instead minor in economics and finance," said DeGraff.
"I think that it is pretty cool that Bowdoin is adding this as a minor. I think it is a way for econ majors to focus on a more specific area in their studies," said Chelsea Young '11, who plans to double major in economics and mathematics with a minor in Spanish.
"I think that for students who aren't very interested in econ, they can still learn about 'business' and how money works without having to major or minor in econ," said Young.
Students may be especially attracted to the new minor in light of the global recession.
"I think that understanding finance and the economy is always important, but I think at this point in time a lot more attention is definitely being paid to the economy, so more people might be interested in it," Young added.
However, the economics department does not intend to add a finance major in the future.
DeGraff explained, "Too narrow a focus on such a topic, just as too narrow a focus on any number of topics, would likely be considered by many to be contradictory to the philosophy of a liberal arts education."
According to DeGraff and DeCoster, economics majors who satisfy the requirements for the combined finance minor will be given formal wording to indicate on their diplomas and resumes that they have completed these requirements.
For the time being Professor DeCoster will remain the only professor teaching finance.
The minor in economics and finance will be included in the course catalogue for 2009-2010 and will go into effect next academic year.