I attend Baruch College of the City University of New York. Most outside of New York City have never heard of it, though both Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Lauren attended and subsequently dropped out. That’s OK, I suppose. After all, we’re pretty well known within the city and respected for our business programs. Of particular pride for the school is that its [Graduate] Entrepreneurship program ranked 25th in the nation this year.

Hooray.

Let me clear one thing up. I believe strongly in entrepreneurship. I believe it’s part of what makes this country so great and I believe it’s all part of that great American Dream. And, I also happen to believe that the college environment lends itself to fostering entrepreneurship. We go to college for many reasons. Principally I’m told we go to learn how to learn, if that makes any sense to you. What better way to learn, than by actually going out and trying to do something. When you’re in college you don’t have the same liabilities as you do in ‘the real world’. You have loads of free time (even after studying and assignments). You have no house, no spouse, no kids, not much of anything really. You have nothing to lose. And you have everything to gain. That’s some pretty sweet upside.

One would think, then, that a school with a top ranked entrepreneurship program AND an entrepreneurship competition would encourage its students, regardless of age (or class), to take a stab at this creating businesses thing.

In our case, one would be wrong.

You see, I found out about the Baruch-Merrill Lynch Entrepreneurship Competition over the summer while I was interning at Merrill Lynch (great place to work despite all the headlines lately, btw). I thought, hey, this could be fun. So one of the first things I did when the school year started was to find out how I could join the competition. And then it went sour. I quickly found the rules page and saw that only juniors and up were eligible to apply. Thinking this was a bit strange, I contacted one Barry Dumas, who heads the program to see what was up.

What I got back was disheartening, to say the least.

You can be in the competition as a member of a qualifying team but you would not be a qualifying member.

Strange…I can be a part of another endeavor but I can’t have my own. I asked him why. The response back was chilling.

Freshman should concentrate on their education, not launching businesses

Yes, he spelled freshmen wrong. But besides that, his basic premise is simply outrageous. I was basically told that I could work my butt off for another person but I can’t do it for myself. I suppose it’s par for the course for a school that pumps out more middle management than any other school in the country, but that does not make it right. Should freshmen (look I can spell!) be worried about their grades? Sure. Should upperclassmen worry any less about their grades? I certainly hope not.

So why then should we exclude a certain group from an otherwise university-wide competition? There is no rational justification. After all, Baruch being a commuter school with NO student housing (implying most of the student population does not have to adjust to some new dorm life far away from home) does not exactly have the same college-y atmosphere as many other schools do. In fact, it’s only 2 more stops on the subway than my old high school commute.

This sends a horrible message. It says that, while the school may give lip service to a variety of student activities it offers its commuter students, it’s all a load of crap. It says the school does not really encourage entrepreneurship or other creative pursuits. And, worst of all, it says the school just does not get how it has students who are willing to spend time and effort outside of the classroom to learn and are being turned down.

That’s a freaking shame.

-Awad