I was talking to some friends at Berkeley and apparently they're learning Scheme. My first reaction was "meh, that's not very practical". However, I can guess as to why they chose it:

a) It levels the playing field for people who have and haven't programmed before (a much smaller percentage of new students have probably had previous experience with Scheme)

b) It forces students to take on a new way of thinking.

As some other people have said, it doesn't really matter what language you learn. It's important that you learn to think and solve problems.