Lake Forest College News
College adds programs in neuroscience, finance, and social justice
“These are exciting and unusual offerings, usually only available at larger institutions,” said Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty Janet McCracken.
All of the programs will be available for the fall 2010 semester, and new course offerings will become available in the near future. As the College looks to expand its enrollment, adding new programs became more feasible and could also help attract more students, McCracken said.
Finance major
The finance major will utilize currently existing courses, though there are plans to add courses in the next few years to “give finance majors even more opportunities for specialized learning,” says the new program’s chair James S. Kemper Foundation Professor of Liberal Arts and Business Jeffrey Sundberg. Currently, no other ACM college offers a finance major.
“Students will benefit by having a course of study that combines the strengths of the economics and business majors into something that is an intersection between them,” Sundberg adds. “A finance major is a better description of the area of study that some of our majors have pursued, and should give employers a more accurate sense of their coursework.”
Neuroscience major
Neuroscience, led by Associate Professor of Biology Shubhik DebBurman, will largely take advantage of current course offerings, but will do so across five departments – biology, chemistry, computer science, philosophy, and psychology.
“By creating the major and minor,” says DebBurman, “we acknowledged a pre-existing interest among our students and added market value to their education. We hope prospective students will more easily recognize our faculty teaching and research depth in this discipline and learn the terrific outcomes of our graduates the past few years.”
DebBurman also added that more than 12 students are already actively engaged in planning to study in the program, and that they’ve created a new student organization called SYNAPSE that will promote neuroscience awareness, education, and outreach for the community.
Social Justice minor
The minor in social justice will be administered through the Ethics Center and will be led by Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Ethics Center Louis Lombardi. The minor will strongly recommend that students perform an internship or off-campus study program. Students will also be expected to participate in debates and lectures relating to social justice.
“Many students are already involved in social justice efforts,” Lombardi says. “The program will afford the opportunity to study, in classes as well as in internships and off-campus programs, the underlying issues and debates associated with social justice. The minor will provide new core courses to help synthesize these discussions.”
