We live in financial times.
There is just no better way to capture the enormity of the fundamental and central role that finance — more than any other single endeavor — will play in shaping the world as we know it. This century's greatest challenges have already been — and will continue to be — mostly rooted in finance. I do not have to go much into the 2008 global recession, or the one that may be currently looming — thanks to the relentless woes in European sovereign debt markets and the sluggish recovery of the U.S. economy. Obviously, the complexity that underlies these grim macroeconomic trends worldwide is beyond just leaving responsibility on policymakers. Instead, that complexity demands no less than the rigor and innovation of strong educational systems — the melting pots of those who will be tasked to face present and future challenges.
The need for cutting-edge teaching of finance and business, in particular, has never been greater on a global scale. Business education is no longer a preparation for the future — it is the future.
It makes little sense, therefore, for any school without a strong business and finance establishment to claim world-class status in providing a complete educational experience for the next cohort of global leaders. Brown's implicit claim as a towering leader in education worldwide is really not a secret. Yet for those who care deeply about business studies and finance, we remain a disappointment in that regard.
The University firstly needs to bolster what little semblance it has for a great place for learning economics — which claims one of the highest numbers of declared concentrations each year. But more importantly, we need to do more than that.
We need a Brown School of Business.
Despite the ongoing debate on the priorities and purpose of Brown, there is still little doubt whether or not the school has enough mettle to meet its aspirations of academic enrichment. Apart from the existence of world-class facilities like the Watson Institute for International Studies and the Bio Medical Center, Brown's sleek new portfolio includes the classy Science Center, an extended Alpert Medical School, a brand new math research institute and the momentous establishment of the Brown School of Engineering.
While those growing pains of Brown's re-alignment of priorities still exist, the University needs to nail the creation of a new business school to the top of our list of needs. A business school is the only place that affords an avenue for students from every imaginable academic discipline to learn business, innovation and advanced leadership skills on a highly sophisticated level. Obviously, the benefits are greater than that. Formal business education, if also opened to undergraduates, can fill the voids that exist in Brown's otherwise strong curriculum. For instance, for students interested in studying accounting, finance, actuarial science or marketing, Brown is no home for them — the critical need for those skills in today's economy notwithstanding.
An establishment for business will also attract some of the greatest minds that exist in finance, business and fields beyond that to Brown. These additional leaders would shape the debates and public opinion in the greatest questions in the world today, further consolidating Brown's place as a hub of research, inquiry and influence. Furthermore, their presence would vastly enrich the experience of Brown students passionate about learning economics.
Most of Brown's peers — including Harvard, the University of Chicago, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — have powerful, established business schools. This easily thrusts them ahead of Brown in meeting the ever-increasing demand for advanced degrees in the world economy. Some could argue that Brown already offers business education through the commerce, organizations and entrepreneurship concentration. Furthermore, in spring 2011, the University will launch a joint executive MBA program with the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. However, these two great initiatives are easily dwarfed by the need for an establishment for business education. They cannot in themselves bring all the huge benefits of a business school mentioned above. The Brown-IE partnership is very small and meant only for senior managers with experience. At best, it only remains what it is: an idea.
COE, a single and holistic undergraduate concentration, can only be a microcosm of what would comprise the education in a formal business school. For Brown to be content in meeting the increasing global need for advanced business education with a single undergraduate concentration would be equivalent to the proverbial hiding oneself from harm behind a finger.
Brown cannot and should not continue to claim or seek leadership in the world without being prepared to arm itself with the tools that suit it for such a huge role. The tone of general campus conversations this semester has proven that we are increasingly conscious of our needs as a community. For anyone who cares to see Brown's influence and importance to the world, none of those needs exceeds that of a new school of business at Brown.
Dominic Mhiripiri '12 would be otherwise left with the prospect of, perhaps, Harvard.
