Didn’t we always have a “Managerial Economics” major which is in essence is a business degree program run out of the Ag Econ program. I also recall that in the sixties or thereabouts after longstanding complaints from the State University system UC ceded all lower division business administration majors to the CSUS as well as undergraduate nursing and a few others I don’t recall. The UCD a program was an end around that prohibition and was not appreciated by the CSU people at all (read sac state). So I would think a revision of this decision would be somewhat newsworthy and I haven’t seen anything about it in the news. But if true I support it 100%. It’s a very popular major as I recall.

Yes, ag econ is big. I was told we didn't have a business major bc the UC was for teaching how to do research.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/undergrad-business-major-approved-uc-davis-curriculum-fall-2025

We needed this, but the Managerial Econ major was and is super super good.

I knew a Man Econ major in my club and he was/is quite smart. UCD students basically viewed ManEcon as basically business by another name. In reality is there a huge difference between ManEcon, Biz, and Accounting? Although Accounting seems like a CSU course (but I feel like my brother did whatever UCSB has of the three).

Met a friend of an in -law in a group including wife’s siblings in New Orleans recently who said he was a “business” major out of the Ag Econ department back in the day. He had worked part of his career in a federal position auditing banks. I took an Ag Econ class back in the late 70s at UCD. Ironically the text we used was authored by J. Price Gittinger, not to be confused with the man of the same name who led the Aggie band for a while (I had confused the two). From my perspective Econ is pretty much Econ at a basic level and can be applied to various sectors including, of course, Agriculture. NC State has had a bunch of Davis grads as faulty in their Ag and Resource Econ Dept. in the college of Ag and life sciences and has an economics degree program in the college of management that also has other business-related majors like accounting.

I think adding a business major is a good move and I don’t think it will “hurt” any other business programs at the CSU schools, My wife was a business major at (the school formerly known as) Hayward State - she had a good experience there.

One argument against it in the past was that UCs taught research, Cal States were practical job skills.

Movielover is right about what was the old thought process of research versus practical job skills..

I think as higher ed problems compound and enrollment declines schools are going to fight to maintain high enrollment or high rejection rates. The move to have UCD sponsor a business major is designed to have a higher rejection rate.

I don’t know if the new program is exclusively undergraduate, but there are research opportunities in areas such as econometric modeling - although the utility of that is limited compared to undergraduate programs/degrees.

Plough mentioned this on a football alumni zoom the other night as a BIG DEAL for transfers. Helped them land a couple FBS guys for the fall. Not sure how much influence athletes and transfer portal had on Mrak, but it’s a welcome addition in the new recruiting landscape

It's also bit funny because the University Farm in Davis was formed due to a backlash against UC Berkeley's classical education of agriculture. Farmers wanted practical education and in better soils so we got our future school in Yolo County.