I was disturbed to read that Notre Dame is considering limiting the number of students who can enroll in the undergraduate business school because the proportion of business majors at Notre Dame is "extremely high relative to the average percentage of undergraduate business majors at Notre Dame's top 20 peer institutions," according to a Nov. 6 article.
We have an outstanding business program. It's very popular among students, and it's producing successful people. How is this a problem beyond assuring that there's enough classroom space and professors?
Well, it's a problem at Notre Dame because the universities we want to emulate, our "aspirational peers," don't have the same enrollment mix. We don't have the pride and self-respect to acknowledge that we have something great, a business program that our very own students are telling us is better than other schools' programs by choosing the major in record numbers.
Are we so self-conscious about acceptance among the alleged best universities that we assume it's a problem to be different from them?
When will we stop trying to emulate the Ivy League schools, Stanford and Duke and appreciate that we already have a great university on its own merits?
Kevin O'Neillclass of '76Nov. 6
