(-- The Beacon)
By Bruce Garling-house, Staff Commentary
George Mathew knew he wanted to study business management when he came to school in America from Singapore, he just didn't know what school he would attend.
He had it narrowed down to three schools - University of San Francisco, University of California-San Francisco and The University of Portland, eventually deciding on UP, enticed by its marketing and management major.
Now a junior, he is rethinking that decision.
With finals week looming, Mathew posted himself in a cubby at the back of the Library. Taking a break from the books, he checked his email and saw he had an email from Robin Anderson, Dean of the Pamplin School of Business.
Click.
"We have discontinued the marketing and sustainability major and will be offering a marketing major," the last line of the email read.
Not again he thought, as he sat in a Library that won't exist next year, reading about a major that won't either.
This is was second time the business school has changed the direction of its marketing major in the last two years.
Last year, the business school changed the marketing and management major to marketing and sustainability.
The decision made sense.
Sustainability is all the rage in the world of business.
With companies realizing that consumers want to receive a product without the guilt that it might cost the life of a cute, cuddly polar bear, many have created marketing platforms based on environmental consciousness, including University Portland, Inc.
Situated in the Pacific Northwest, it would have no problem attracting bright young students eager to tap into that new and exciting side of business, which I'm sure they did.
John Schouten and Diane Martin, business professors and married duo, would spearhead it and even wrote the book that was to be used.
Mathew thought all the same things.
"I was fine settling with the major because I've been here two years and I agreed sustainability would be beneficial to study," he said.
It seemed to be the start of a one-of-a-kind major aiming to highlight the importance of sustainability in the business world.
But then something happened that nobody, not even seasoned veterans from the world of business, could have predicted.
Schouten and Martin took better jobs somewhere else. Finland, to be exact. And so went the marketing and sustainability major and another job overseas, but that's for another time.
Anderson told The Beacon that without Martin and Schouten, they don't have the capacity to continue the program. So why was the change made when its existence hinged upon only two professors, let alone professors who were married to each other?
Even if only one had decided to leave, the school runs the risk that the other would join, leaving them in the same situation.
That doesn't seem like good business.
Schouten described the decision to discontinue the major as a step backward, which is funny because it was made in light of his decision to step away.
But I can't hate. Business is business right?
Perhaps the better move was to not change the major in the first place. Not because the ability to understand sustainability's role in marketing isn't a growing necessity, but because the business school was clearly unequipped to provide a sustainable major. Oh, the irony.
Regardless of who is to blame, it highlights the continued hypocrisy that has become all too prevalent among the administration.
Many chose this school because its small size was supposed to translate to an environment in which every student matters.
However, now there are many students who have forcefully had their major changed twice, adding more worry to already worried minds as they begin to enter a tumultuous job market.
"When you go into a job interview, you can say whatever you want, work experience, etc., but when they look at your resume and see marketing, marketing and management and marketing and sustainability, what is going to hold more weight?" Mathew said.
The business school isn't doing themselves any favors either, pissing off alumni and future successful business men and women who are primed to donate to the prestigious Pamplin School of Business whom they owe for their lucrative jobs and six figure salaries.
Well, that's just not good business.
