The University Honors Program’s student-led committees held the “Butts in Seats Bake Sale” from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, April 15, in the Brickyard.
The organizers of the bake sale provoked conversation about recent political statements made within North Carolina and across the U.S. that have increased attention to the financial value of college majors and academic disciplines.
For key instance, on Jan. 29, Governor Pat McCrory said he had instructed his staff to draft legislation that would change how much state money universities and community colleges receive “not based on how many butts in seats, but how many of those butts can get jobs.”
Jacquelin Morgan, a junior in business administration and one of the students in charge of the event, saw the bake sale not only as a way to address political statements, but also as a way to get students involved in the conversation.
“As college students, it’s our duty to speak up for ourselves,” Morgan said. “We really wanted to make students aware of the fact that our futures are being talked about. It seems as though there are only a few students who truly pay attention to what’s being said about us.”
Morgan and two other organizers, Neel Mandavilli, a sophomore in political science, and Joseph Moo-Young, a senior in textile engineering, came up with the idea for the bake sale after they noticed extensive conversations about McCrory’s comments between honors students in the Quad.
“Ever since McCrory’s comments were published, there’s been a lot of talk about the value of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) versus non-STEM majors,” Morgan said. “We wanted to extend the conversation to the rest of the student body.”
Mandavilli said he was motivated to organize the event because of his recognition of the potential effects the topic had on education in general.
“I genuinely believe dialogue sparks critical thought and reflection,” Mandavilli said. “The Bake Sale did not seek to take a political position so much as to promote conversation on topics that strongly affect our education.”
Volunteers from the University Honors Program baked various types of cupcakes and cookies and attended the table in the Brickyard.
Prices for the goods were determined in relation to the predicted starting salaries of each college major based on a chart compiled by the Wall Street Journal.
If a student was pursuing a major with a projected starting salary of more than $50,000, the price of each baked good was $1.50. If the student was pursuing a major with a projected starting salary between $40,000 and $50,000, the price dropped to $1, and if a student was pursuing a major with a projected starting salary that was less than $40,000, the price of each good was 50 cents.
According to the abstract on the event’s Facebook page, “this difference in price is intended to provoke a conversation supplemented by arguments and statistics relevant to the worth of academic disciplines.”
“We really wanted students to start asking questions,” Morgan said. “Questions like, ‘Why do we think about other majors the way we do?’ Just because someone gets a STEM degree doesn’t mean they’re better than someone in business or the humanities. It’s not about getting a job, really. College and the educational experience [are] about learning how to think critically and how to apply the knowledge you gain through the various courses you take.”
The total amount of money raised reached a little more than $60, and all proceeds were donated directly to the Daniel Center, an afterschool program that seeks to narrow the education gap for at risk, and economically disadvantaged kids in the Raleigh area.
