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Liberal Arts/Humanities

Public Higher Education Is 'Eroding From All Sides,' Warn Political Scientists Chronicle of Higher Education September 2, 2010 The ideal of American public higher education may have entered a death spiral, several scholars said here Thursday during a panel discussion at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. That crisis might ultimately harm not only universities, but also democracy itself, they warned.  The danger, one speaker said, is that the public will give up on the idea of educating people for democratic citizenship. Instead, all of public higher education will be essentially vocational in nature, oriented entirely around the market logic of job preparation.

Poor education, poor democracy Washington Post Political Bookworm Blog - Book Review August 13, 2010 As Socrates knew long ago, any democracy is a "noble but sluggish horse." It needs lively watchful thought to keep it awake. This means that citizens need to cultivate the skill for which Socrates lost his life: the ability to criticize tradition and authority, to keep examining self and other, to accept no speech or proposal until one has tested it with one's very own reasoning.  And yet, all over the world, the humanities, the arts, and even history are being cut away to make room for profit-making skills.

A Career-Oriented Liberal Arts Education Forbes Magazine - Opinion Piece August 11, 2010 Truth is, liberal arts colleges can - and already do - blend career preparedness with their core mission to provide a well-rounded education. We haven't trumpeted these efforts for fear of image. But one upside of an unsettled economy may be that career services no longer has to hide at liberal arts institutions; more of us are celebrating the pre-professional programs we've long had in place that will help students prepare for a career throughout their pursuit of a four-year degree. Indeed many of our graduates who have gone on to successful careers have participated in these programs and frequently reflect on their value.

Not a bad thing at all: liberal education The Record, Bergen County, N.J. - Opinion Piece August 8, 2010 Education geared to a specific career is important, but in this day and age, career opportunities and sometimes entire fields of knowledge advance or lose importance. On the other hand, it has been known since the founding of this republic that a well-rounded education, which includes the ability to think both creatively and analytically and understand others' points of view, has enduring value for the individual, the community, and the nation.

Liberal Arts Colleges Worth Your Money Huffington Post July 28, 2010 Getting a top liberal arts education will cost you a pretty penny, but doling out money for four years at a top school can pay off career-wise. In a recent report, salary data site PayScale revealed this year's top liberal arts colleges by salary potential, showing which schools produced graduates with the largest starting salaries.  Click through our slideshow to see the average starting salary for graduates from each school compared with its annual tuition.

10 Reasons to Go to a Small College U.S. News & World Report - Blog July 28, 2010 One of the critical decisions to make in choosing a college is between the research university and the small college. In the spring, we looked at the case for the research university. This week, we consider what advantages a small (or liberal arts) college has to offer. The typical small college has an enrollment of less than 5,000 students, doesn't have a graduate school, and has a student-to-faculty ratio of under 10:1 - some are even as low as 5:1.  Here are some of the pluses of choosing a small college.

Tightknit Juniata Community Lives and Teaches Its Liberal-Arts Ethic Chronicle of Higher Education July 25, 2010 Juniata College's facilities drew praise from employees who responded to The Chronicle's third annual Great Colleges to Work For survey. They also praised the college for, among other things, its teaching environment, its senior leadership, and its collaborative governance model, as well as its efforts to help employees balance work with family life and its culture of respect and appreciation.

Higher-Education Misperceptions, Myths, and the Media Chronicle of Higher Education - Analysis July 15, 2010 Last week, the New York Times told the story of Scott Nicholson, a 2008 graduate of Colgate University and stand-in for all those millennials who forked over big money for a college education and still find themselves unemployed.  That story topped the Times's most-e-mailed list for a while and garnered over 1,400 comments - a good number railing against the pointlessness of a liberal-arts education.  Such stories don't necessarily affect a particular college, but can make a lasting impression about college in general. They feed into a popular meme that colleges are either pointless, bloated, filled with entitled brats, or all of the above.

Pricey colleges are good values Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa. July 15, 2010 When it comes to college tuition, it seems like you get what you pay for.  Tuition last year at Bucknell University was $40,594. Sixty-two percent of students received some financial aid, with the average award of $25,000, while the average graduate's loan debt was $18,800.  The university may have one of the highest tuition rates in the Valley, but it also ranked No. 2 recently among all liberal arts institutions with its graduates obtaining the highest mid-career salaries - an average of $115,000 a year. Over time, a person with a liberal arts degree can catch up to those earning the bigger salaries right at the start, studies show.

Liberal Arts and the Bottom Line Atlantic Monthly Blog July 14, 2010 The dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto has said openly that he's trying to create the first "liberal arts MBA."   On one level, these changes are an effort to assuage society's concerns about bloodthirsty and uncaring business executives. But on another level, they reflect a growing belief that the kind of complex, critical thinking and ability to look at problems in larger contexts and from multiple points of view that a liberal arts education instills (at least in theory) actually leads to better decision-making skills in business executives.

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