Students in select programs in the College of Arts & Sciences can now declare their majors and minors through the WebSTAC academic portal. Previously, these students had to collect signatures from both their major department and four-year adviser and leave a copy of the form in each respective office.

The transition to declaring online is designed to save both students and department administrators the time it takes to fill out and deliver the current paperwork.

The program is in its pilot phase and is being tested by a few Arts & Sciences majors, including psychology, anthropology and International and Area Studies.

The new system is set to launch for Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering on Feb. 18.

The Olin Business School and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will transition to the WebSTAC system by the fall of 2011.

According to James McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the new system will cut down on errors and miscommunications, demand less time of students and faculty advisers, and be more eco-friendly.

With the launch of the program, students will be able to log onto WebSTAC and add majors and minors under the “Major Programs” tab on the left-hand side. Once students select a major or minor online, the system will automatically send an e-mail to an administrator in the department to set up a time to meet with the student and finalize the declaration.

“It’s a very high priority to create more occasions where we can just have more time to talk and have a face-to-face conversation,” McLeod said.

While the pilot program is still in effect, students must be “activated” by a department administrator in order to declare online.

The move to a paperless system for coursework at the University has been gradual over the last 15 years or so, McLeod said, beginning with the shift to online course registration.

“Our hope is to move to a system with virtually no paper processes, although this probably won’t happen anytime soon,” McLeod said

Sharon Corcoran, coordinator for undergraduate studies in the psychology department, has already helped several students declare majors and minors online. The students, she said, responded positively to the pilot program. Corcoran is hopeful that online declaration will eliminate the bothersome delays of the current system.

“It’s making everything work more quickly and more efficiently with less paperwork and less traipsing around on the part of students, trying to get signatures and delivering forms here and there,” Corcoran said. “It’s like a welcome step forward into the 21st century.”

Under the current system, students must deliver signed forms to both their major department’s office and to the office of their school.

Students are interested in this new method.

“I haven’t declared yet. I have, like, nine days to do it. It’d be a lot easier for me, a lot less stressful than running around campus trying to figure that out,” said Jordan Fischer, a sophomore who must declare his history major before the Feb. 16 deadline for Arts & Sciences sophomores.

Some students, like freshman Ana MarkdaSilva, thought that the program was already in place.

“Honestly, I already thought that WebSTAC had that. It seems convenient.” MarkdaSilva said.

One challenge Corcoran said she might have with online program is keeping track of which students she has already met with and which she has not. However, she does not anticipate any significant problems.

“We tried to make it easy to use,” McLeod said. “We hope that the students find it a time saver, and we certainly want to cut down on any mistakes.”

New ideas for the department include adding a larger research component, developing a methodology class and revamping the requirements.

“We’re rethinking everything from the core courses to the capstone experience. We’re even thinking about the graduate program,” Timothy Parsons, the new director of the department, said during a forum for majors and prospective majors on Monday.

Along with the Sigma Iota Rho Honor Society (SIR), Parsons hosted the forum to allow students to offer their suggestions and ask questions regarding the changes.

“I expected to learn what the department was tentatively thinking about, and I was pleasantly surprised,” said junior Gabriel Magraner, treasurer of SIR. “I think it went really well.”

There are currently about 200 International and Area Studies (IAS) majors. The majority of students who major in IAS specialize in Latin American or East Asian studies, and the department is trying to determine whether these programs should become separate altogether.

The department is also considering making Crossing Borders—a mandatory introductory course—into an optional, upper-level course.

All existing requirements are up for review. Students attending the forum greeted this news with interest, and several had suggestions about which aspects could be changed or added.

Some recommended increased peer or faculty advising for freshmen and sophomores interested in joining the department and the addition of more specific regional or thematic tracks.

Parsons welcomed all comments and encouraged the students to e-mail the department with their thoughts following the forum. He admitted that there are some constraints on the actions that the department can take, however.

“The only limitations are the usual: ‘person power’ and finances,” Parsons said. “But these are obstacles every department has to face.”

According to Parsons, interdepartmental meetings will occur to discuss the possibility of changing the structure, requirements and classes offered throughout the year.

Currently, the program is split into three elements, starting with the core course Crossing Borders and ending with a capstone program. The middle part, however, varies, as each student chooses how to focus his or her studies differently.

“I like this program because it lets me take every class I’m interested in,” sophomore Bonnie Friedman said.

In Friedman’s case, that means trying to get a new concentration in international relations approved.

“The department is pretty flexible, and lets me pick what I want to study,” Friedman said. “I might not be getting an entirely focused education, but I think I’m still getting the critical academic skills that undergraduates should.”

There are no deadlines for publishing the changes, though a broad outline might come out as early as January. According to Parsons, many of the new changes may be implemented as soon as fall 2011.

“I think it’s really exciting,” said senior Will Fischer, Student Union’s executive adviser for sustainability, leader of the Green Events Commission, and co-chair of the Special Executive Task Force for Sustainable Events. “It mirrors a nationwide increase in awareness of the idea of sustainability. I think it’s wonderful because I think universities need to pioneer the development of a more sustainable world. We are training the next generation of thinkers, scientists and engineers. It only makes sense that we follow what will be the big problems in our world.”

Many students nationwide are enthusiastic about the opportunity to engage academically in environmental issues.

“I don’t think there’s a significantly larger number of students who are interested in this here than at comparable universities,” Fischer said. “I feel like we’re pretty average in that concern. I think we’re feeling the interest a lot of universities are feeling right now.”

Student interest in “green” academic fields is rising due to the increased awareness of the importance of sustainability, according to Green Action President Peter Murrey.

“It’s really just an interest in the environment, realizing that we as a generation are at a crossroads,” said Murrey, a junior. “We are going to determine the future of how we interact with our planet. We need to be knowledgeable about how the planet works, how businesses work and how we, in general, impact our surroundings, and how the surroundings impact us as well.”

Additionally, the applicability of sustainability issues to a wide variety of fields makes it an appealing subject to study.

“[Environmental programs are] highly applicable to so many other disciplines: environmental economics, business, chemistry, philosophy,” Murrey said. “Students who traditionally had an interest in these fields and were interested in the environment before now couldn’t exercise that interest in the environment. But now they can broaden their horizons and incorporate the environment into these fields.”

At Washington University, there has been a marked increase in interest in environmentally focused classes over the past decade. The number of students enrolled in the environmental studies major, for example, has doubled over the past 10 years.

Many other departments are offering classes that incorporate environmental perspectives into other fields as well. For instance, in the political science department, students can take a course titled Environmental and Energy Issues. The engineering school offers courses on “Green Engineering.”

“Just about any class you can take is going to apply in some way to the environment,” Murrey said. “You can make your coursework fit a

Another reason students are choosing environmentally focused majors more than ever before is the demand in the workforce for employees with those skills. According to the AASHE, the Obama administration predicts that “green” jobs will grow by 52 percent from 2000 to 2016.

“I hope that in the next couple of years we will see growth in what we want to call the ‘green economy,’ and the idea of ‘green collar’ jobs,” Fischer said. “Hopefully, that ideal will start to really show itself, and jobs and positions all around the world will start to open up to people of all sorts of fields in developing renewable technologies, implementing renewable technologies [and] driving policy decisions. While it seems like a trend right now, it seems like a fad, I’m confident that it’s here to stay.”

Students’ majors across subjects within Arts & Sciences prove variable over the last decade. (Josh Goldman and Mary Yang | Student Life)

Students across the nation are seeking to major in fields that traditionally lead to secure employment, resulting in a drop in enrollment in the humanities and other liberal arts fields, The New York Times reported. At Washington University, students are embracing these majors, and the University is taking steps to ensure that they are marketable.

Patricia Katzfey, a career development specialist in the Career Center, said many different areas of the University are working together to ensure each student’s success.

“I think what is happening specifically here at Wash. U. is that a lot of departments are really taking the whole student into consideration, looking at how we play as a research institute and how we prepare the student for the real world,” Katzfey said.

The Career Center works to ensure each student develops certain core skills. These include communications skills, analytical skills, leadership skills and the ability to work in groups.

“Washington University is really trying to look at those core skills,” Katzfey said. “No matter what the student majors in, they are going to have core skills that will be sought after and will serve the student in whatever career aspirations may follow.”

But there are still certain majors that tend to lead to greater success in job searches.

“I think there definitely are some majors that employers have a preference toward, those that have a strong analytical background that definitely will help serve them in many, many corporate environments,” Katzfey said.

For students pursuing liberal arts degrees, the University offers the Praxis Program. This program integrates the liberal arts degrees with practical experience with the skills necessary to a successful job search.

“I think because the economy is the way it is, and the fact that we are all looking very seriously at how to continue our employment, how to continue our lifestyles and our economic tastes, we’re having to look into those practical aspects,” Katzfey said.

According to the Office of Student Records, there were 48 students in the Praxis program in spring 2003, compared with 78 in spring 2008.

Nationally, a number of universities have eliminated programs in less traditionally practical fields. For instance, the University of Louisiana cut its philosophy major earlier this year. At Washington University, such programs continue to be strong.

The classics major has demonstrated a significant rise in enrollment. There were five declared classics majors in spring 1998 and 37 in 2008. Philosophy has shown a similar trend, with 25 philosophy majors in spring 1998 and 48 in spring 2008. Overall, the humanities have consistently represented between 15 and 20 percent of Arts & Sciences majors from spring 1998 to spring 2008.

The most popular field of majors in the College of Arts & Sciences is social science, commanding 35 to 40 percent of majors. In particular, economics has seen a rise in majors, from the seventh most popular major in Arts & Sciences in spring 1998, with 75 majors, to the third most popular in spring 2008, with 315 majors.

It should be noted, however, that the total number of declared majors in Arts & Sciences at the University increased from 2,140 in spring 1998 to 3,818 10 years later in spring 2008.

The popularity of majors is responsive to changing trends in the workforce.

“You think business is always going to be important, but I think we’re going to see some shifts,” Katzfey said. “To which direction, I really couldn’t say for sure.”

Katzfey predicts the emergence of many “green jobs.” The environmental studies major has seen an increase in interest, from 53 declared in spring 1998 to 95 declared in spring 2008.

Additionally, she predicts that biomedical engineering (BME) will continue to be in high demand. Students at the University are responsive to this. Although there were only 40 BME majors in spring 1998, the department has since expanded to 235 majors 10 years later.

Although Katzfey believes engineering majors of all sorts will consistently be competitive in the job search, some departments are seeing a significant decline in enrollment. For instance, the electrical engineering major was one of the school’s most popular in spring 1992, with 201 majors. Currently, only 43 students are pursuing that degree.

Regardless of students’ majors, the Career Center is working with students and academic departments to prepare students for a successful job hunt.

“I think we’re doing all the right things to really prepare the student,” Katzfey said. “We want to be there to help them through all of the professional challenges [and] the emotional challenges that go with that, to help them with navigating that transition from this very nurturing academic environment to what the real world is like.”

Additionally, the Career Center is working with alums and prospective employers to determine the trends in hiring so that they can better prepare students.

“That’s also bringing a lot more practical, real-life experience and understanding to the student population,” Katzfey said.

Katzfey reminds students that it is ultimately their responsibility to seek the Career Center’s guidance, but the Career Center is then happy to give students all the tools they can to succeed.

“It starts with the student,” Katzfey said. “They have to take the lead, and we’re here to serve them.”

Becky Zhao | Student Life

In recent years, the world has become interconnected. This has broad implications and effects across many fields, including such areas as energy, science and medicine—and, most pertinently, education. In the past, majors and areas of study were fairly clearly defined. English, mathematics, chemistry, history—all of these were clear-cut, established majors. But with more access to knowledge and the increasing interconnectedness of our world, complete understanding of these fields requires at least a working awareness of a wide variety of subjects. For instance, to fully analyze or comprehend a book, shouldn’t one understand the political and economic situation it was written in? Universities have been reconsidering how subjects are studied and applied based on the other disciplines that link into them.

Mark Taylor, the chairman of the religion department at Columbia University, wrote a New York Times op-ed piece discussing this needed trend. He took an extreme position, advocating the abolishment of traditional departments, replacing them with broad-based topics such as “Mind,” “Language” and “Water.” These would be “problem-focused programs,” designed to combat the obstacles of the tomorrow. The programs would draw significantly from such areas as the sciences, philosophy, religion and ethics. While this is a radical re-evaluation, Taylor nevertheless makes an excellent point: We live in an ever-changing world, and our education must keep up with it. Sticking with academic majors established a century ago at Harvard—which have not truly changed since—puts both undergraduates and graduate students at a disadvantage in the future. If they have not developed skills involving comparative analysis in the university setting, when will they learn them?

Consider the current energy situation, for example. Our reliance on oil will not last more than another 50-plus years, at which point we must have developed a feasible alternative in order to continue to live the way we do. When our oil runs out, we must have already “solved” the energy crisis and created a working network of alternative sources, be it wind, solar or something that has yet to be developed. It is not as simple as merely taking scientists around the world and putting them to work on a solution, however. Problems unrelated to hard science must be addressed: Who gets the majority of the energy? Who will bear the burden of producing this energy? If there is not enough power to sustain the entire world, how should it be divided?

These questions cannot be answered by science alone. A wide variety of people, such as ethicists, politicians, economists, theologians and businessmen, must be employed. Obviously, each person involved must have a broad base of knowledge in each of the relevant areas in order to fully comprehend the problem. After finishing their formal education, people’s ability to learn outside of their area of study sharply declines; therefore, such a comprehensive awareness must be acquired while still in college.

Wash. U. has made admirable strides in this direction, with programs like the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities, philosophy-neuroscience-psychology, the American Culture Studies program and the International and Area Studies program. But like almost every college, the administration has yet to fully integrate our academic departments. Though I do not advocate the complete abolishment of majors as Dr. Taylor does, I suggest that the collegiate system be significantly altered. Rudimentary forms of these already exist at University of Chicago and Columbia University, in the form of the Common Core and the Core Curriculum, respectively. These structures exist to ensure that undergraduates have at least basic understanding of a wide variety of fields. It must be taken a step further, however, and efforts must be made to encourage students to view the fields as interrelated, rather than solitary. This is a must in order to ensure that graduates are fully prepared for the problems of the future.

In particular, the environmental studies major has enjoyed an enormous increase in popularity. Since 2004, the program has seen an increase from 80 majors to 142.

Jan Amend, director of the environmental studies program, said he anticipates graduating 50 majors in May—which will be “by far the largest class ever.”

Amend attributes this rise in popularity to what he calls the “Obama effect.”

“Obama has inspired young people to pursue careers and futures they are passionate about, to do something truly important with their lives,” he said. “For many, this begins with studying environmental issues.”

In addition, Amend noted that the president has “made a big push to fund science and technology, especially green science and renewable energy sources.”

Freshman Steve Fuller, a prospective environmental studies major, said he became interested in his prospective major because environmental issues are much more pertinent today.

“A lot more people are interested in it, because they realize how important it will be,” Fuller said.

University College has also seen a noticeable rise in degrees “much more applied in nature and much more in tune with economic trends,” said Steve Ehrlich, the school’s dean. He said he has observed a “flattening out” in some social sciences.

Ehrlich noted that there was still a “steady group” interested in the humanities, but that even these students are “looking at supplementing [liberal arts classes] in areas like finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, project management; very specific kinds of areas that can provide some very specific tools and skills to complement a liberal arts degree.”

“We have more and more people interested in what are the global implications of the trends today,” he added.

Carol Moakley, team leader of career development at the Career Center and co-facilitator of the Making Major Decisions workshop, said there has been a shift for reasons of “practicality” in career choices.

Notably, the decrease in interest in finance is “because of the flailing economy,” while paths to graduate school, government and public health have become more popular.

While a changing world demands changing skills from its future workers, school officials warn Arts & Sciences students that the values of a liberal arts education should not be sacrificed in the meantime.

“By tradition and philosophy, Arts & Sciences prepares students for life rather than a specific career,” said Matt DeVoll, sophomore dean and co-facilitator of the workshop with Moakley.

Ehrlich agreed, saying that “there’s always going to be a place” for liberal arts degrees.

“Thinking, reading, writing, speaking, problem-solving, understanding ethics, sensitivity to other cultures—[these skills are] particularly valuable in tough times,” Ehrlich said. “People have to know how to learn, how to change and adapt.”

Thus, even traditional humanities majors like English are still “practical degrees,” he said.

“I think [English] has the power to transform a person’s perception of the world and give him or her greater empathy and understanding,” freshman and future English major Emma Hine said. “I think a world without literature would be hollow, narrow and selfish.”

DeVoll and Moakley advise students to choose majors based on “personal interest and aptitude,” and to “study what [they] love.”

“There’s really no such thing as a more or less lucrative major,” DeVoll said. “Any number of majors can lead to the same job, and the same major can prepare students for any number of jobs.”

He urged freshmen “not to look at the major alone as a gateway to a career” but rather to engage in “experiential learning” as well.

“The experience and networks that students develop are critical to the ability to land a first job, much more so than a particular major,” DeVoll said.

Ehrlich lauded attempts to use liberal arts degrees in “innovative ways.”

“Good solid liberal arts programs have always been a combination of theory and application,” he said. “Given the economic times, it’s frankly up to us as educators to help students translate their skills that they’re learning here a little more effectively and creatively into very practical job opportunities.”

“In issues like the economy and the environment, we’re going to have to learn to work more creatively with each other across schools,” he added.

DeVoll echoed this message of flexibility and creativity.

“The job market today has become so flexible and dynamic that many jobs that [students] will compete for in the near future do not even exist today,” he said. “If you don’t move forward—if you try to stand still and rest on what you’ve learned—you’ll quickly find yourself falling behind. It can be overwhelming or exciting.”