Chair's Welcome

Greetings, we encourage you to consider majoring in one of the three majors offered by our department: Business Administration, Economics, or Finance. Business Administration is our most popular major; however, we encourage prospective students to also consider majoring in Economics or Finance. These two majors, offer unexpectedly high returns for your time and money investment in college. However, remember, making money is not the purpose of an education.

What is the purpose of a college education? An education has a two-fold function: one relates to utility and the other relates to culture. Education must enable one to think efficiently, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of ones life. An education must enable one to evaluate the legitimacy of evidence, to discern the truth, separate reality from fiction.

An education must, therefore, teach one to think intensely and critically, and it must promote character building. Thus, a well rounded education will give one not only the power of concentration, it should also help one determine what are worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.

Therefore, an education should enable us to think intensively, efficiently and critically. But, we must remember that intelligence alone is not enough, intelligence plus character—that is the goal of a true education. In general you should strive for enlightenment not vocational training (paraphrased from Martin King 1948). This department provides a vehicle for obtaining this objective.

Maury Granger, October, 2007