Is a Liberal Arts Education Best for the 21st Century?

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Charlie Reetz

Many of us at St. Lawrence love the fact that on the same campus we have sports, environmental clubs, community service groups, ethnic dancers, a black student union, religious organizations, arts ensembles, peer educators on issues of sexual violence, foreign language and culture clubs, and many more extra-curricular activities. We buy into the idea that studying in multiple areas outside our majors help makes us better critical thinkers and communicators. We feel it gives us an advantage, makes us better “global citizens” and an asset in the workplace. 

Yet, in recent years, especially in the midst of the current economic crisis, there are those who argue against a liberal arts education and say that employers are looking for workers with more specialized training.

In a February New York Times article titled In Rough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth, Patricia Cohen reported that demand for workers in the humanities is on the decline. The story said two dozen colleges recently canceled or postponed faculty searches in religion and philosophy. It also said, “Technology executives, researchers and business leaders argue that producing enough trained engineers and scientists is essential to America’s economic vitality, national defense, and health care.”

Both President Dan Sullivan and his successor, Bill Fox, believe to their core in the value of a liberal arts education. Are they right?

The debate on the effectiveness of a liberal arts education is not something to take lightly. Other liberal arts colleges around the country have been re-examining their general education requirements (distributions at SLU), and wondering if there is a more efficient and effective way of assigning these credits.  Chanmi Kim, of Emory College, wrote an article in 2006 titled Battle of the GERs: How Should Emory Pursue Liberal Arts? In the article, one student suggested that distribution requirements be tailored for each specific major. “Writing 25 pages in a grant writing or technical writing class designed for science majors will be much more useful than 25 pages of Oscar Wilde,” he said.

In the same article, Emory professor and the director of the school’s Center for Teaching and Curriculum, Patrick Allitt, who was educated in England, argued that the British form of education in which students specialize in their fields from the beginning of their college careers is much more successful. “If a student hates math and has been forced to study it for 12 years, is there any gain for him or her to study it for a 13th year?” he asked.  He proposed that undergraduates be allowed to decide for themselves the degree of specificity they desire in their curriculums.

In another article, called The Future of Liberal Arts Education, Allitt argued that students grow bored in classes they are required to take outside of their focus areas. Often, staff members become frustrated because they know their students are only in the class to fulfill graduation requirements. This can be rather disheartening. Referring to his personal college experience, Allit said that he did not have a great deal of “irksome” requirements. He only studied within his chosen field and was therefore able to do so with a greater intensity. He admitted that some of his fellow classmates were forced to choose career paths too early, but that his “generation loved their work and learned their one subject in far greater depth than is possible under the current American system.” He said that if students were allowed to study only subjects in which they were interested, they would do so much more enthusiastically.

At nearby Clarkson University, much of the focus is on specific subjects that are tied to careers. Jason Flint ’10 is a mechanical engineering student, and he said the majority of his classes are tied to his major. “It has to be that way,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff engineers need to know. It takes us right up until we graduate to learn everything we need and there’s still more to know. I wouldn’t have time to take other classes.” He added that he sometimes thinks it would be nice to be able to take classes outside his major.

 Flint’s extracurricular activities are also geared toward helping him gain practical experience for his expected career path. He is currently enjoying his second year on the Clarkson Mini-Baja team, a group of students who design, build, and race go-cart style cars in competitions. “I’ve gained invaluable professional experience,” he said. “As part of working on the Baja team I have developed skills in design, analysis, and computer modeling, all things that will help me become a better engineer.” Flint is also about to start his third summer as an intern at the New York State Power Authority in Massena and he will apply skills he learned at Clarkson. 

But contrary to what many people may think, selective liberal arts schools like St. Lawrence regularly send students out of the classroom to learn in the “real world.” These students work in internships, conduct independent research, study abroad, and volunteer for public service projects. SLU, for example, has a strong Community Based Learning Program as well as a solid alumni network through which many students find internships. “This is where students have the opportunity to gain a little work experience and experiment in different areas. It’s helpful to see what’s out there and it’s easy to try lots of things when you have knowledge in a wide range of topics,” said one SLU student of her Community Based Learning experience.

There may be advantages to specialized training, but a certain amount of versatility can be highly beneficial, according to SLU President Dan Sullivan. “The average person changes careers 5-6 times before they retire,” he said. “If you could pick ten CEOs and top executives right now, they would tell you that they look for employees who can problem solve and communicate well. With the economy the way it is right now, we need more and more liberal arts students in the workforce solving problems.”

SLU students found this to be true just a few weeks ago when they packed into the Student Center to hear from a panel of alums who have careers in humanities. 

Matt Hoidal ’94 majored in Spanish when he was at St. Lawrence and then went on to Vermont Law School, where he passed the bar in 2000. After that, he changed his career path yet again when he decided to join Casco Maine, a non-profit organization. He is currently the director of Camp Sunshine, a national retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses. “Really, my Spanish major had nothing to do with my career,” he said, adding that the skills that he learned through his liberal arts education gave him the necessary tools to pursue and succeed in multiple career fields.

Lynne Robideau ’71 is now the executive director of the American Red Cross in the Finger Lakes Region in Central New York. When hiring, she said, she looks specifically for people who have liberal arts educations. “We need people who can write well,” she said, “and people who know how to do research and crank out those five- to ten-page papers, quickly and accurately.” 

“We want to hire you,” said Nancy White McCabe ’75 to a room full of current Laurentians. McCabe, executive director and CEO of the Kohlberg Foundation, a family foundation with programs in intergenerational philanthropy, reiterated Robideau’s point that she needs people who can do research and communicate well. “We also need young people who know how to use computers and some of the newer technology,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to talk yourselves up. You have a wide range of skills. Never assume that anything is irrelevant.”

 In How the Liberal Arts College Affects Students, Alexander W. Astin presents evidence that positive outcomes are associated with liberal arts education. Residential liberal arts colleges make it easier for students to become immersed in life on campus. When students become more involved, they are generally happier and more excited to learn. Small class sizes and proximity to professors outside of the classroom also improves student-faculty relations, which means students become more engaged in subject matter and are more likely to pursue learning in their subject after receiving an undergraduate degree.

One of the studies cited by Astin involves a comprehensive survey of faculty at 221 colleges and universities in the US. They were asked to rate the “student orientation” as measured by the quality of faculty interest in student problems (both personal and academic); faculty commitment to welfare of the institution; faculty sensitivity to issues of minorities; faculty available outside of office hours; opportunities for student-faculty interaction, and whether or not students are treated like numbers in a book. Small liberal arts colleges overwhelmingly had more positive ratings from their students than larger public schools. This, Astin said, is attributable to the following: small size, residential program, strong faculty commitment to student development, trust between students and administrators, and generous expenditures on student services.

Findings in one of Astin’s later studies also concluded that institutions that are strongly research-oriented have weaker student orientations. Astin studied 212 colleges and universities and out of these, he examined schools that scored high in regards to research orientation. Out of the schools that had the highest research orientations, only a small number had “strong” student orientations. He also found that all of the schools that had high scores in both research and student orientations are residential liberal arts colleges.

Many of our country’s most effective leaders throughout history have been liberally educated. Some professors at Columbia University, where Barack Obama received his undergraduate degree, recently noted that our new president is a prime example of how an individual can use his or her expanse of knowledge in a practical sense. Obama’s eloquent speeches, which invoke elements of classic literature, succeed in uniting the country under a sense of commonality and unity in a way many of his recent predecessors have been unable to master.