When I was in undergrad I was part of program that was heavily programming focused, but was actually part of the business school. Several of the classes I took were heavily SQL focused, with at least one class that had every single assignment requiring extensive designing database schemas and writing SQL. Now, years later, I still think that those classes were some of the most valuable to my career as a programmer.

What's interesting to me is that apparently the CS program at my university hardly did anything with SQL, and I notice too that most programmers I meet "in the wild" are lacking in SQL skills, as you mentioned. It's led to some interesting interview situations where I really struggle with any questions about algorithms (my college courses didn't cover algorithms at all) while the interviewer will tell me that I have the best SQL skills of anyone they interviewed.

Speaking with others that went to other universities, I've heard that it's similar elsewhere for the "business/programming" to include SQL classes but eschew algorithms, while CS programs will ignore SQL but focus heavily on algorithms. It seems to me like both programs could benefit from meeting in the middle a bit.