TO THE EDITOR:
As University Entrepreneur-in-Residence and one of the founders of the E-Minor in the Department of Economics I could not be more pleased with the provocative and thoughtful essays on entrepreneurship in the Viewpoints column. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a continuing conversation about ways that innovation and entrepreneurial thinking can be appropriately integrated into a liberal arts curriculum.
Dean Kevin Guskiewicz has convened a “think tank” and other advisory committees to consider the curriculum in the College and how traditional disciplines can be applied outside of academia in ways that do not compromise the academic mission. The Institute of Arts and Humanities is planning a series of conversations on the future of the university with special emphasis on the basic principles that cannot be compromised without placing the very idea of a university at risk. Former Chancellor Holden Thorp and I are working on a book called Higher Calling that considers the same subject. As the dialogue continues I hope all involved will agree this is not a zero-sum game. Innovation need not come at the expense of the liberal arts and entrepreneurial thinking and critical thinking are often one and the same.
Virtually all of the instructors in the E-Minor are graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences and Steve Jobs said the most important college course he took was calligraphy. Let the conversation continue!
Prof. Buck Goldstein
Department of Economics
