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Colleges Increasingly Shun Liberal Arts
By Rob Rossmeissl, in the Badger Herald (March 22, 2006)
In an editorial published this spring in the Badger Herald, Rob Rossmeissl discusses the increasing presence of schools of trade at liberal arts institutions. A student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Rossmeissl laments how easy it can be to attend a liberal arts institution without receiving a true liberal education. Despite course requirements designed to ensure that even students in trade schools have a well-rounded education, he says, “the ease with which said requirements can be shirked almost negates their existence.”
Although he believes that students should ideally attend college “out of a desire to enrich themselves,” Rossmeissl recognizes that students pursue higher education for many different reasons. But he argues that colleges and universities can still greatly improve the educational experience they offer to all students “by better promoting the liberal arts, offering superior counseling and more effectively teaching students via smaller lectures and engaging discussion sections.”
Rob Rossmeissl’s editorial is available on the Badger Herald’s Web site.
A response to Rossmeissl’s piece, written by Rebecca Karoff on behalf of the UW System Advisory Group on the Liberal Arts, outlines the work that is now underway to promote the liberal arts across the UW system. Today’s students, Karoff notes, “need not choose between a ‘practical’ and a liberal education. The knowledge, habits of mind and intellectual skills growing out of a liberal education are immensely practical in the modern world.”
The UW system is a partner in AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) campaign. Visit LEAP online to learn more about AAC&U’s liberal education advocacy efforts and get involved.
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