By Hannah Haney | Echo
Taylor recently announced the upcoming arrival of a new major on campus: Politics, Philosophy and Economics, or PPE.
The new major is constructed of three core courses (nine hours) from each discipline, a practicum, senior paper and 12 credit hours of electives from any of the three departments.
"You can choose to specialize," said Nicholas Kerton-Johnson, associate professor of political science and international relations and one of the founders of the PPE major. "You can do a PPE, but you could weigh your electives in economics or politics or philosophy, depending which of those you would like to build towards grad school."
Kerton-Johnson realized the need for a PPE major after talking to some recent political science graduates who asked why the major didn't exist at Taylor. Because the major doesn't require any new courses, the department was able to speed it through the administrative process.
While the major has been approved by the university, it is unavailable for official enrollment until fall 2014. According to Kerton-Johnson, students are unable to officially declare the major until then, due to administrative requirements pertaining to the course catalog.
Overall, the student reaction has been positive.
"I was really excited (about the PPE major), because at the beginning of this year, I had wanted to add an economics minor, but I couldn't fit it in," said junior Tori Calderhead. "So then the PPE major came out and it was perfect, because I'm already a philosophy minor and I'm a political science major, and so economics fit perfectly in with that."
Calderhead is planning on focusing her PPE major in political science, with the hope of going to law school once she graduates.
Since the major won't be offered until next school year, the political science professors are helping students who want to switch their majors to meet the requirements and still graduate on time.
"One of the requirements for the major is a practicum. So we're really talking to students who are juniors about January and the summer," Kerton-Johnson said. "I'm . . . working with one student for a January practicum and talking to a few others about summer as well. We're trying to work where we can."Professors within the other PPE disciplines have been doing the same. Calderhead mentioned that economics professor Hadley Mitchell helped her get an internship for the upcoming summer.
Stephen King, political science professor and chair of the department, feels the PPE major fits well with Taylor as a liberal arts college.
"(The PPE major) is probably a pure liberal arts approach to studying philosophy, politics and economics," King stated. "And by that I mean, it's truly interdisciplinary, has a true, strong Christian worldview basis and you are interacting with a number of students around a solid core of courses and thinking."
