September 22, 1999

Latest Hit on Campus: Crescendo in E-Major

By MARY B.W. TABOR

hen it comes to offering degrees, the halls of academia are not immune to fashion. Colleges and universities bank on blue-blazer classics like history and philosophy. But they also like to try what's hot every now and then.

What's sizzling right now, given the successes of the dot-com crowd, is the E-commerce credential. In what many professors and administrators say is the fastest trend to take hold in the slow-changing world of higher education, colleges and universities nationwide are rushing to turn the study of business on the Internet into degrees, majors, minors, concentrations, specialties, certificates, fellowships and research centers.

	Michael Branscom for The New York Times
	Beth Staples, left, a senior majoring in English, and Bonnie Sanville, a sophomore in nursing, are have enrolled in the fellowship program at the new Electronic Commerce Institute at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. The institute's executive director is Paul R. Brazina.

"While the University of Alabama does not have an E-commerce program yet, we are working full speed to set one up," wrote Bill Gerdes, a university spokesman, in an E-mail response to a query about E-commerce degrees on the Tuscaloosa campus.

There are as many variations on E-commerce instruction as there are institutions offering it. Of the dozen or so programs now available, some focus on Internet technology, with training in Web-site design, electronic data interchange and authentication technology along with marketing and consumer services. Others concentrate on entrepreneurship and the basics of running a business on the Web, including keeping tabs on finances and inventory.

Some involve intensive curriculums and undergraduate degrees in subjects like computer science or finance. Others make fewer course requirements and would appeal to students who are not necessarily facile with computers.

Carnegie Mellon University's graduate business school in Pittsburgh just introduced a master's of science program in electronic commerce that combines instruction in business and in computer science. The yearlong program, which began last May, costs $38,000 and, the university said, should enable graduates to build and run a company's on-line system from the floor up.

The master's of science program at Marlboro College in Marlboro, Vt., which began in 1997, offers on-line instruction in basic Web design, marketing and strategic planning for Web businesses. The 11-month program requires students to be on campus every other weekend and costs $15,000. "We focus less on deep, technical infrastructure and more on teaching students to orchestrate Internet strategies," said Paul J. LeBlanc, the college's president.

At the University of Florida in Gainesville, a certificate in E-commerce as part of a two-year M.B.A. program is awarded after completion of seven E-commerce courses that cover subjects like pricing of information services and products and one-to-one marketing over the Internet.

Any student at LaSalle University in Philadelphia may qualify as an E-commerce "fellow" by attending two E-commerce courses; courses in other disciplines with an E-commerce component, or a seven-part lecture series. All fellows must write a 2,500-word research paper and work in the field -- for a company or a community service organization, for example -- for 40 hours. The fellowship designation appears on graduates' transcripts, and fellows walk away with portfolios of E-commerce work.

Introduction • A Feeding Frenzy for Consumers Forum • Join a Discussion on E-Commerce Marketing Strategies • Digital Dressing Rooms • Converting E-Mail Spam • Direct Marketers Find Their Ground • To Sell Globally or Sell Haughtily? • Straining to Build Customer Service • What Sex Sites Teach Home Shopping • Present at the Creation • Quick Purchase. Slow Delivery. • Living for a Week Online Time Is Money • Fast and Faster Connections • Speed It Up, Webmaster! • Drugstores in Digital Scramble Entrepreneurship • Goliath.com Still Winning • An Early Success in Germany • A Perky Do-It-Yourself Site • A Beginner Learns • On Campus: Crescendo in E-Major Auctions • Four Tales From an Hour of Ebay • There Are 30 Seconds Left... • A World of Auction Choices Leisure • A Food Site for Every Appetite • Blackjack Is a Click Away • Many Limited Travel Sites Caveat Emptor • Take My Name Please! • An Online Credit Check • Auction Scams and Identity Thefts Business to Business • Web Retailers Need Shelf Space • A Supplier Goes Digital • IBM Moves to Web Business The Law • Can Defendants Cry 'E-Sanctuary' • Blackjack in a Legal Gray Area • A Simpler Web Sales Tax Algorithms • Just What Does Doubleclick Do? • Telling You What You Like • Shuffling Data Cards Who's Buying • Target for Retailers: Teen-Agers •  Tough and Impatient Consumers • The Price of Being Off-Line Personal Favorites • Adam Clayton Powell 3d • Diane Von Furstenberg • Carter Brey • Amar Goel • Glenn Lowry • Jim McDermott • Judy McGrath • Naomi Nari Nam • Steven Pinker

Student interest in new E-commerce degrees and programs has been strong, university administrators say. Carnegie Mellon said it had received 180 applications, from which it chose its initial 37 candidates. Paul R. Brazina, the executive director of LaSalle's new Electronic Commerce Institute, said that 470 students had shown interest in applying to the institute's fellowship program, which is beginning this month.

At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, 110 students, or a quarter of the M.B.A. candidates, have chosen E-commerce as either a concentration or specialty.

Corporations are even more enthusiastic about E-commerce training than college and university administrators. Many companies think that employees with an intimate knowledge of modern computer technologies and E-commerce strategies might give them a competitive edge. Some companies are helping to sponsor E-commerce research centers, sometimes as a means for converting their business problems into case studies that students can try to solve.

"The breadth of companies asking for E-commerce experience, from CS First Boston to General Electric, to start-ups, like Priceline.com, is amazing," said Robert F. Bonner, the director of the career management office at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "A few years ago, companies would say E-commerce experience on a student's résumé was 'nice to have.' Now they are saying, 'must have.' "

Wharton, which started its Electronic Commerce Forum three years ago as a research center for corporations, students and faculty members, has stepped up plans to introduce an E-commerce major for graduate students this fall. School officials said they were also considering offering a master's degree in electronic business.

Changes in salaries reflect the growing demand. Five years ago, a new Wharton graduate with experience in E-commerce could expect a starting salary of $62,000, not including a bonus or stock options, Mr. Bonner said. Today, those offers start at $80,000, about $10,000 more than other business fields.

It is not just the computer literate who are making money. The academic foray into E-commerce has been profitable intellectually and financially. In most cases, the new programs have been a financial boon, bringing in tuition dollars and millions in grants to set up E-commerce research centers and faculty chairs.

At Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., a new M.B.A. concentration, known as E-business, and a graduate-level certificate in electronic business have become part of a shift to technology in the entire business curriculum. School administrators said the change in focus had brought in $500,000 in additional tuition this fall along with at least $7 million in related grants and contributions for program support and development.

Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and Drexel University in Philadelphia have received $1 million each from corporations to establish E-commerce research centers. Both plan to offer E-commerce certificates or concentrations next year.

The new programs also give colleges, universities and graduate schools a drawing card to attract accomplished students who help to improve the overall quality of their applicant pools.

"E-commerce is moving so quickly that people don't have time to wait for experience to teach them," said R. M. Erik Gordon, the director of the Center for Retailing Education and Research at the University of Florida's business school. "The E-commerce credential sends the signal that someone knows something about E-commerce and that they've learned it in a focused and strategic way."

But many professors and business executives dismiss E-commerce degrees and programs as more marketing ploy than academically sound initiative.

"I object to the E-commerce degrees profusely," said Amit Pazgal, a marketing professor who teaches E-commerce at Washington University's John M. Olin School of Business in St. Louis.

"I think it's a fad and that universities are just jumping on the bandwagon."

At the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Ryan Nelson, the director of the McIntire School of Commerce, said he turned down a professor's request to start an E-commerce program, arguing that the subject should be an integral part of the business curriculum. Edward A. Snyder, the dean of the university's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, agreed. "E-commerce degrees are silly in the same way that teaching international business in a global economy is silly," he said.

Harvard and Stanford have one or more courses devoted to E-commerce, but Harvard, at least, says it has no plans for a separate concentration or E-commerce degree.

"We have a good number of cases that focus on E-commerce throughout the curriculum," said Maura A. Byrne, a Harvard Business School spokeswoman. "But we are a school of general management. That's what it comes down to. Obviously, E-commerce is a hot and important industry to look at. But H.B.S. is about educating leaders and the best managers."

Other objections to starting more E-commerce programs include a shortage of qualified professors and of comprehensive, up-to-date textbooks. Because technology is advancing so quickly, the few E-commerce textbooks, articles and case studies available quickly become obsolete.

There is no shortage of faculty members willing to teach E-commerce courses, administrators say. They generally come from closely allied fields, like computer science or information technology; recent Ph.D.'s whose dissertations were in E-commerce; faculty "gear heads," who have pursued consulting or research on behalf of Web-based businesses, and "disciplinary migrants" -- young and midcareer faculty members looking for fields in which they can become pioneers and make their reputations. The challenge, administrators say, is finding faculty members who are more expert on computers than the students they will be teaching.

With the E-commerce programs still in their infancy, it is unclear what real value they will have, many professors and corporate recruiters say.

"Someone who has been exposed to a lot of dot-com successes and failures, even in an academic setting, would be viewed as more attractive, all things being equal," said Randall Kelley, a managing director with the executive search firm of Spencer Stuart in San Francisco and the head of its technology services practice.

Michael P. Sherman, the executive vice president of the Fingerhut Companies, said, "I don't know exactly what an E-commerce degree is, but if it means more skills in the E-commerce area, we are interested."

But Richard Alexander, who runs his own executive recruiting firm in Lawrenceville, N.J., said that until the E-commerce degree and its recipients established some kind of track record, "it has little credibility."

"It's ludicrous right now," he said. "It's not the Web-site person that companies are looking for. It's the person who has strategic experience and can apply it."

Still, students like James W. Walker see no downside to earning an E-commerce degree. Last May, Mr. Walker, a principal at American Management Systems, an information technology consulting firm in Denver, became one of five students from his company to join Carnegie Mellon's inaugural E-commerce class.

"I looked at the program and was amazed at what they were doing," he said. "I saw that I could further my knowledge of the Internet and acquire the soft skills that many engineers lack. Those are skills I need to move up in management."