Death of Liberal Arts? Newsweek Article

[arcadia]

<p>[Jobs:</a> The Economy, Killing Liberal Arts Education? - Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/235894]Jobs:”>Jobs: The Economy, Killing Liberal Arts Education?)</p>

<p>Some interesting points about challenges faced by liberal arts schools further down the food chain. The last paragraph seems to imply that elites are somewhat immune from this trend, at least for now…</p>

<p>

While the tradition of the liberal-arts education may be on the wane nationwide, the most elite schools, such as Harvard, Swarthmore, Middlebury, and Williams, remain committed to its ideal. These top schools are not tweaking their curriculums to add any pre-professional undergraduate programs. Thanks to their hefty endowments, they don’t have to. As the economy rebounds, their students, ironically, may be in the best spot. While studying the humanities has become unfashionable and seemingly impractical, the liberal arts also teaches students to think big thoughts—big enough to see beyond specific college majors and adapt to the broader job market.

</p>

[interesteddad]

<p>Newsweek should probably be more concerned about the death of Newsweek.</p>

[scualum]

<p>I bet Newsweek folds before any of these colleges … how that magazine has changed (for the worse) over the last few years… :(</p>

[goaliedad]

<p>Let’s see, no liberal arts gradutates because of no ad-agency job, because of no ad budget to spend on Newsweek that is in a failing business. </p>

<p>Seems like it all fits together…</p>

[BobbyCT]

<p>After the endowment of Centenary College in Shreveport, La., fell by 20 percent from 2007 to 2009, the private school decided to eliminate half of its 44 majors. Over the next three to four years, classic humanities specialities like Latin, German studies, and performing arts will be phased out. It’s quite a change from 2007, when NEWSWEEK labeled Centenary the “hottest liberal-arts school you never heard of,” extolling its wide range of academics.</p>

<p>I thought the above quote from the article was interesting. Newsweek calls a college the “hottest liberal arts college you never heard of” and 3 years later the school eliminates half its majors? Usually you get a bump from that kind of press.</p>

[LQTM]

<p>bump</p>

<p>This is an important issue, seriously.</p>

[bovertine]

<p>^^^
An important issue with multiple threads and thousands of responses dedicated to it already. I’d say it shows up at least once every other week in one form or another.</p>

[loveday2]

<p>And then there’s this …

“While the tradition of the liberal-arts education may be on the wane nationwide, the most elite schools, such as Harvard, Swarthmore, Middlebury, and Williams, remain committed to its ideal. These top schools are not tweaking their curriculums to add any pre-professional undergraduate programs. Thanks to their hefty endowments, they don’t have to. As the economy rebounds, their students, ironically, may be in the best spot.”

The more things change, the more they don’t. The value of the liberal arts education hasn’t changed, merely who can afford it. History repeats itself.</p>

[glido]

<p>The Washington Post recently put Newsweek up for sale for $1. It cost more than that to chop town a single tree!</p>

[tsdad]

<p>It will probably soon join US News and World Report (or US News and World Distort as JFK used to refer to it) as digital only.</p>

<p>Let me add that some smaller programs in the humanities will probably loose their departmental status and graduate programs. The courses offered will be for undergrads only. Things change though and what was once in the dustbin of history (to quote someone whose philosophy is now gathering dust) academically speaking could be the next hot thing 20 years from now.</p>

[loveday2]

<p>Well, I wouldn’t read too much into it. As a general rule, reserves determine ability to weather market changes, be it an individual or an institution. In most any arena, the best prepared are those who prepared for the unexpected - be it the liberal arts, engineering, business… you name it. “Flexibility,” as always, is key.

[Bloomberg</a> Business Week, May 19 2010:](<a href=“Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Businessweek - Bloomberg)</p>

<p>May 19 (Bloomberg) – Ten months after graduating from Ohio State University with a civil-engineering degree and three internships, Matt Grant finally has a job – as a banquet waiter at a Clarion Inn near Akron, Ohio…
(skip)
Thirty-three percent of Harvard’s graduating seniors had accepted a job as of commencement last year, down from 51 percent the year before. The survey results for this year’s class haven’t been released…
(skip)
On-campus recruiting at schools of business declined 65 percent during the fall job-interview season, according to the MBA Career Services Council in Tampa, Florida. Peter Giulioni, assistant dean and executive director of MBA Career Services at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, said he is encouraging this year’s graduates to be more flexible in the jobs they seek…

</p>

[overseas]

<p>Read Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind.” MBA’s can be outsourced. At least for now.</p>

[gadad]

<p>As a college administrator, I am constantly concerned about many parents’ short-sightedness regarding pre-professional majors. Pre-professional majors are about getting prepared for entry-level jobs in specific professional fields, but what happens to a graduate’s career after that point largely depends upon the scope of their understandings and skills. A liberal arts degree is about building and expanding the scope of one’s understandings and skills.</p>

<p>It seems to me that an undergraduate degree that is purely preprofessional is like getting a limo ride to a seaport from which certain fortunate people get to leave on round-the-world cruises. A broad-based liberal arts education is like getting a passport and ticket for one of those cruises. You may however, have to find your own way to the seaport.</p>

[momofthreeboys]

<p>Nice analogy gadad.</p>

[Erin_s_Dad]

<p>There are ways to develop critical thinking skills and still major in pre-professional areas. It’s incumbent on the students and parents (and GCs at the college) to discuss that.</p>

[mythmom]

<p>So much has to do with the temperament of the student. I couldn’t force my LA kids into a preprofessional mold if I had tried. Their dad, OTOH, thought LA poison and took a preprofessional degree.</p>

<p>For the LA were preprofessional. I am fitted only to academia.</p>

[noimagination]

<p>I don’t like these discussions; they always leave me with a negative impression of both sides of the issue.</p>

<p>A professional degree is simply a degree that prepares the student adequately for employment in a particular profession, which must require certain educational attainment. That distinction doesn’t - or, at least, shouldn’t - convey any information about the content of the material conveyed. The emergence of professional demand for certain education does not change the critical or intellectual value of that education. In other words, the understanding available from a course of study does not have a causative relationship with employability - or vice versa.</p>

<p>For this reason, I wholly reject gadad’s argument that

It seems to me that an undergraduate degree that is purely preprofessional is like getting a limo ride to a seaport from which certain fortunate people get to leave on round-the-world cruises. A broad-based liberal arts education is like getting a passport and ticket for one of those cruises. You may however, have to find your own way to the seaport.

Just as it is wrong to assert that majors with relatively little direct demand from employers teach no useful skills, it is equally wrong to argue that professional degrees fail to provide useful skills based solely on their status as preparatory curricula for certain areas of employment. Both of these incorrect ideas are based on the false premise that the availability of directly-related employment should have a causative relationship upon the value of an education.</p>

<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>