3 colleges to offer combined curricula

At a time when many colleges have been forced to cut back and reevaluate what they offer, the elite liberal arts school for women has found common ground with Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, a tiny school just 7 years old, and Babson College, a business school with an entrepreneurial bent.

Under the new partnership, faculty will jointly develop programs designed to equip students to tackle major world problems, such as energy supply and national security, from different academic perspectives, said Wellesley’s president, Kim Bottomly. The triumvirate will give undergraduates expanded educational opportunities through new academic programs that none of the schools could afford on its own.

“No institution alone can effectively aspire to a general level of excellence in today’s world,’’ said Leonard Schlesinger, president of Babson. “I don’t care if you’re Harvard. There just aren’t the resources with which to do it.’’

Amid bleak economic times, the new model is drawing the attention of higher education officials and policy makers concerned about rising tuition costs, said Richard Doherty, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts.

By working closely together, the very different schools also hope to make themselves more appealing to a wider range of applicants - students who may have written off an all-women’s college or schools solely specializing in engineering or business.

“There are more and more students these days coming in with broader interests,’’ said Bottomly. “Being able to attract such students to Wellesley is important to us.’’

The collaboration, to be announced next month, could result in joint faculty appointments, with the expense shared by the colleges, and new courses taught jointly by professors from all three schools.

An environmental sustainability program, to begin in the fall of 2010, will integrate Olin’s engineering expertise, Babson’s business background, and Wellesley’s liberal arts philosophy to train students to address environmental problems in a new way. Alongside science, students will learn how business decisions and engineering advances change the environment.

Other joint programs focusing on emerging infectious diseases and affordable health care could spring up in future years.

“Some of the classes that are needed aren’t on the shelf,’’ said Richard Miller, president of Olin College, in Needham. “We will champion faculty who develop their time and energy to make programs like these work because it’s in the best interest of our students.’’

The three colleges have begun to venture outside their own academic bubbles in recent years, allowing students to take courses at neighboring schools and chipping in for a shuttle bus to help cross-pollinate the campuses. But only 125 students take advantage of the opportunity, with the majority coming from Olin, where just three of its 35 professors are dedicated to the humanities and social sciences.

Babson’s business and entrepreneurship courses have helped Olin students gain an understanding of patent law and how to make money from their technological ideas.

“We have very few faculty appointments that are duplicative,’’ Miller said. “That’s cost avoidance.’’

Miller also wants his engineering students to understand technology’s effect on human behavior, as well as the ethical dimensions of what engineers do. So he and the presidents of Wellesley and Babson created and team-teach a senior-level course on the issues of leadership and ethics.

Other, more established consortiums have also begun to delve into innovative ways of maximizing their academic reach.

The Colleges of Worcester, a 12-school cooperative including Holy Cross, Clark University, and Worcester State College, is considering the creation of interdisciplinary programs within the next couple of years involving the study of Chinese and Arabic.

“During recessionary times, people are more willing to discuss how their goals could be met by sharing reduced resources,’’ said Mark Bilotta, chief executive of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium.

Student leaders at Wellesley, Olin, and Babson, who have been alerted to the plans, say they would like the collaboration to extend beyond academics to student organizations and clubs.

“In college, you’re supposed to expand your boundaries, but at Olin, we’re all engineers with similar interests and similar goals,’’ said Jeffrey Moore, a senior who served as Olin’s student ambassador to Wellesley and has taken several philosophy and political science courses there. “With just 300 students, we’re going to close in onto ourselves. A formalized partnership would prevent us from staying in our bubble.’’

Student leaders from the three schools will meet in the fall to discuss how to develop closer relationships, said Dennis Hanno, dean of Babson’s undergraduate school. Students could leverage their expanded social networks to put on more ambitious theater productions, he said.

The schools also hope to sponsor a national competition someday on how to make health care affordable and accessible. As an alternative to a senior thesis, groups of students would spend a year working on a policy paper to be presented to a panel of federal officials.

“This will benefit students in the future,’’ Bottomly said, “an education that involves distinct and diverse viewpoints weighing in on important issues.’’