Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

Anthony Cali finally threw in the towel. After more than a year as a pre-business major, Cali, a senior majoring in economics and Spanish, left the Eller College of Management for good.

A heavily recruited honors student with multiple scholarships, Cali started his freshman year far ahead of typical freshmen.

He knew of the Eller College's strengths, and he wanted to take upper division business classes from day one. Good classes like Corporate Finance and Principles of International Business.

Ryan Johnson Columnist

But Eller has the cohort system, a system mandates that students take two years of prerequisites before they can take a single upper division class. A system that somehow makes a colloquium on career options a prerequisite for accounting and statistics a prerequisite for marketing.

So Cali had to take such wonders as introduction to computing and rudimentary business math.

"Some of those classes were painful," he said.

But he was willing to take them to get to the good ones. However, there were bigger problems. Cali didn't want to just follow the typical pattern of Eller majors. He wanted to double major, and to go abroad, both of which the Eller College makes difficult.

Sure, you can go abroad, the college says. But if it's not during the sixth semester and not through one of Eller's own programs, it's going to be difficult to get credit.

So sophomore year when Cali wanted to study abroad in Argentina, he had to let it go. Now he's one amongst a surprisingly large number of talented economics majors that choose the social and behavioral sciences degree, not the Eller business economics degree.

Despite Eller's No. 20 ranking amongst all business schools, the economics department estimates that up to three-quarters of its honors students choose Social and Behavioral Science, not Eller.

Sort of a telling statistic, isn't it?

You see, the only way students can get good classes without hitting the barriers is to take Eller economics classes through the SBS major.

But Finance? MIS? If you take it in the summer, the walls are down. But any other time, not a chance.

And it's not the kind of stated policy where professors can make exceptions. The Eller College not only tells professors that they can't make a single exception, they actually go through class lists and drop anyone who tries to sneak in.

Ask any international studies major about the Eller College. These are some of the most talented students at the university, frequently winning top scholarships. Multi-talented enough to combine aspects of several majors, they count on departments to let them into the classes they need.

But they get no love from Eller. The international studies major has listed under its recommended/required courses several upper division Eller classes. But the only way students can take them is to also major in business.

These students shouldn't be forced to major in business to take one or two interesting business classes.

Eller does offer a small number of classes as part of its minor in business program, but they are watered down versions, not the real deal.

The real deal is great classes like Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations that would add depth to the education of talented students.

Can't Eller let professors decide if there's space for one or two extra students in a class? If there's no space, fine, but why set a blanket policy that these

students can never take these classes?

Most of the classes for the IS major are upper division classes in different departments. If all majors had restrictions like Eller's, what would become of the program?

Political science now prevents non-political science majors from registering online for upper division classes. But professors can sign students in if they feel the student is qualified. Will political science become more like Eller? Will more departments follow? We must keep our fingers crossed that they don't.

The policy of exclusion begins to even look hypocritical in light of the college's professed emphasis on interdisciplinary programs and collaborations with other departments.

Eller asks its students to take classes in other departments. What if agricultural and resource economics decided that AREC350, a class that fulfills Eller's ethics requirement, was only for agricultural economics majors?

To be fair, the business college is in a unique situation. With 5,000 students and only enough funds for 100 faculty members, the Eller College has a great deal of strain on its resources. And there is an insatiable demand for its classes.

Cali understands the policy for having the professional admissions program. It's a reflection of a state institution strapped for funds. For that, he's not bitter.

However, Eller's policy of never making a single exception doesn't make sense. Aren't professors better judges of their own class than administrators?

As it stands now, top students are unnecessarily held back by this policy.

The Eller College is one of the biggest strengths of the UA in terms of rankings, but this policy of exclusion holds it back from truly being a draw for top students.

The Eller College has no plans to open up a loophole. Let's hope that someday they reconsider.

Ryan Johnson is an international studies and economics junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.