Stanford, there is a way to show you’re truly committed to the arts, and you’re not doing it yet. We have scores of musical students, some cutting edge computer-music research, and we’re on our way to having a world-class concert hall. But for undergraduates, the best we have academically is a B.A. with a major in music. I say it’s time to step up to the next level and offer an undergraduate performance degree.

Think about it. We could create a bigger core community of students playing music full-time. Rather than having just a handful of majors alongside a lot of recreational players, we would add in some kids looking to go pro. They would populate music groups with some stellar musicianship. At performances, their skill would raise the level of everyone else and encourage higher-quality music in general. Not to mention, fully implementing a performance degree would probably require a serious expansion of the music department. Because at this point, the more resources and opportunities we have for musicians on campus, the better.

Aside from the obvious improvements to our music scene, there’s a compelling argument in terms of diversity. Stanford admits all kinds of whiz kids, but doesn’t offer degrees equally across interests. Yes, we have some serious musicians. You’ve seen the ones with intensive piano training who practice in the lounges, or the people who played in intense youth orchestras and high school marching bands. But if we had a mini Stanford conservatory, it would add a new kind of full-time specialist student to the mix. We’ve got the facilities to further train and develop world-class students in endeavors from athletics to computer science. If we can pursue the pinnacle of performance in sports, business and public service, why not in music? There is no rule saying that universities like ours have to relegate the arts to a token status.

Yet that is precisely what they do. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley (to take a brief survey) offer no bachelor performance degrees for music. They all admit talented students and have plenty of music options on campus. But none of us elevate our undergraduate music offerings to a professional level.

This issue gets into the role of an undergraduate education. Is it just to memorize information and gain some analytical abilities, or is it to learn technical skills for specific professions? I’ve heard people say your particular undergrad degree doesn’t matter as much as the specialization you get from grad school. Stanford encourages a broad approach, with a number of general education requirements that everyone, no matter their specialty, must take. But we can clearly obtain all kinds of technical training too, as evidenced by the seniors I know accepting jobs at place like Google, or Toby Gerhart going to the NFL.

Is money the reason? It’s not a mystery how the GSB was able to fund an entirely new campus for itself. If Stanford were to pump out music degrees, those graduates would never make the same kind of money as an Arrillaga or a Hewlett on a musician’s salary. Stanford just can’t expect the same kind of return on its investment from its musician alumni.

But imagine also if society’s musicians weren’t exclusively trained at cloistered music academies. How about rooming a future Wynton Marsalis with the next William Rehnquist? Admissions departments shape the networks of the future—there might be unrealized societal benefits from adding more musicians into the Stanford family.

I’m not suggesting that it would be simple or cheap to implement a performance degree. It would require more music faculty, more classrooms and more practice areas, which would mean some significant fundraising. Then there are admissions complications. Usually an audition is the central component of an application to a conservatory—someone would have to decide how to factor that in. And does Stanford then accept more musicians at the expense of the others it would normally admit? Or do we grow the class? For regular music majors, would the music department then relegate them to a second-tier status, giving them less attention? The politics, logistics and fairness of the situation are not straightforward.

Nonetheless, an undergraduate performance degree, I think, would clearly benefit music at Stanford and beyond. We would have performers in greater quantity and quality, giving the arts and humanities more voice, not only at this powerhouse of technology and athletics, but among the academy and in society.

Lucas would still major in public policy anyways, but he’s open to comments at [email protected].