According to the UW-Madison's mission statement, this school's goal is to create an environment where students can ""realize their highest potential of intellectual, physical and human development.""
Yet lately, the dean of the College of Letters and Science has suggested the only reason students attend this university is to help their attractiveness in the job market and any learning that goes beyond this purpose should be limited by placing a cap on the number of majors students can have.
The respectable logic behind this suggestion is that students with three or four majors hog resources from those who have only one and therefore rely on getting seats in the same classes to graduate. Although it is obviously beneficial for the university to make it as easy as possible for pupils to get the requirements they need to graduate, the idea of limiting majors undermines the purpose of education. This encompasses general enrichment of knowledge as well as graduating and job searches.
Furthermore, to limit the amount of classes a student wishes to take (and is willing to pay for) on the behalf of other students raises questions of entitlement and bureaucratic meddling. Administrators should not have the authority to pass judgment on which students deserve certain classes and which do not.
Instead of focusing on imposing a major cap, the university should provide a comprehensive minor program for students with diverse interests. Such a program would allow students to focus on more than one subject while taking up less university resources. Implementing this program would also dissuade students who would otherwise double or triple major from doing so.
Although it seems logical to discourage superfluous use of university resources when it is only for the purpose of an unproven advantage in the job market, it is absurd for the university to act in a way that places limits on students' academic and intellectual aspirations. Offering minors is a way to expand options for students while possibly reducing the strain on classes--capping majors only restricts options.
