As a student in the College of Natural Science, I read on Monday the Dean’s Student Advisory Committee’s letter on the forthcoming entrepreneurship minor. The committee promotes the new minor in entrepreneurship as a way to bring students’ research to society in a “beneficial and profitable” manner. This sounds great for students, as the minor would be “catered to their own interests.” The letter seeks feedback from each student in the college, but you must act fast because they stop taking responses after today. The letter closes with two shimmering endorsements, one by the former executive vice president of Dow Corning. The only caveat is the cost of hiring new faculty.

But science isn’t about making a profit; at least, profit ought not to be the reason for engaging in science. Science is about enriching our understanding of the world and the people in it. Science is a body of knowledge that can be built upon by any ingenious thinker in order to improve the well-being of all people within our society. My idealist appeals find support from the CNS Web site, which states its mission clearly: To develop, apply, and share knowledge to serve the public good. We should strive for these ideals by limiting the influence of business, as the prospects of monetary gain have a distorting effect on scientific inquiry.