Blending two colleges makes new major popular

The 4-year-old biology major, which blends the liberal arts with professional training, has become one of the most popular programs at UW–Madison.

More than 700 students have enrolled. The biology major is shared between the College of Letters and Science, and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

“The colleges have different cultures,” explains Tom Sharkey, one of the new major’s co-chairs and a botanist in L&S. “The biology major has a flavor of both.”

And rather than forcing students to pick a specialty from the start — all CALS freshmen must declare majors before their first semester — students can major in the broad field of biology, where the focus is on understanding the principles pertaining to all biological sciences. “Compared to many majors in CALS that have their eyes set on meeting professional criteria,” says co-chair Steve Ingham, a food scientist in CALS, “the biology major is more flexible.”

The major is broad, but, as Sharkey explains, that’s the point: “The purpose of the biology major is specifically not to have a focus.” In fact, the only track offered within the major is in neurobiology, which currently does not exist as a major.

“Students who declare biology have interests in the fundamentals of biology,” Sharkey says. “They recognize that biological principles, such as those governing ecosystems, connect all of the biology disciplines.”

In essence, says senior biology major Kevin Engholdt, “the biology major incorporates all the biological sciences — evolution, ecology, limnology — into one.”

By being exposed to more than 30 biological sciences on campus, students become biologists first, explains Sharkey, and then may choose to specialize in plants or bacteria, for example, in graduate school.

But students may also specialize while still undergraduates. “We set requirements so that students can switch to another major in the biological sciences and not be behind,” says Sharkey. Unlike all L&S majors, which require students to take fewer than 60 credits in their declared field, the biology major requires 61 credits. These credits come from courses in biological sciences, physics, and general and organic chemistry. This breadth, which Sharkey calls the “hallmark” of the major, enables students to specialize at any time.

To help students navigate such breadth, the biology-major student services coordinator, Madhu Verma, assigns students to faculty advisers who can help students identify long-term goals, narrow their biological interests and connect with professors.

“Students are strongly encouraged to contact faculty to arrange independent studies and senior theses,” says Sharkey. While those with specific interests are matched accordingly, others can be assigned to a professor in any biological science. “I advise students who are interested in everything from ecology to molecular biology,” Sharkey says. Students also have access to peer advisers.

These options, admits Ingham, “give the major a little more of a liberal arts character.”

Yet many biology majors are professionally oriented. Surveys of 2001 biology major graduates show that about half of the respondents planned on attending a professional school (e.g., medical, optometry, chiropractic), and that about 20 percent would go on to graduate studies in fields as diverse as animal behavior, secondary science education and finance.

Blending the philosophies of L&S and CALS into the biology major, Sharkey says, “has been a positive but bumpy road.” But, he adds, “by having chairs come from the two colleges, we recognize the benefits of both and can make it work.”