In the past couple articles, Chris Dobbs and I explored
the place of the liberal arts at Xavier University
and the obstacles Xavier will have to confront in a
business-oriented society. Currently, the core is under
a reassessment to determine its effectiveness
and it may be slashed — once again. Why would
it be slashed? Because American colleges and universities have fallen victim to external forces,
and those forces hold much
sway in the University’s decisionmaking.
However, one strong
contender in this decision, one
of the forces that holds sway, is
the voice of the students.
The keyword is ‘students;’ if
the students (i.e., the consumers)
are pleased or displeased
with the core curriculum then
the product
must conform
to their
demands.
Liberal arts
colleges, like
Xavier, usually
have small
endowments
making it
difficult to be
flexible with
decisions. For
example, if
a university
is dependent
upon students’
tuition
fees as the
main source
of income,
the university
is swayed by those commercial
and political forces in order to basketstay
afloat. Taking desperate measures,
the university
may raise tuition
costs, force expanded
occupancy or cut
the core classes to
appease students’
complaints and
make the university
more appealing for
potential students.
Furthermore, the
increasing commercialization
of
universities created
a dilemma: there is
a decline in interest
in the liberal arts
from students, and a
corresponding interest
in technical and
commercial studies.
With the rise
of specialized majors, the liberal
arts curriculum has struggled to
provide a reason why it should
be preserved. Specialized majors
are training degrees for a professional
world. They offer a sense
of security for students and parents
because
that major
is directly
correlated
to the “real
world.”
However,
when studying
the
humanities,
the first
question that
arises is the
all-too-familiar, “Well, what are
you going to do with that?” The
liberal arts struggles to find a
way to measure its utility. If the
liberal arts should not be viewed
as a form of job training, then
how should the liberal arts be observed?
Furthermore, the professionalization
of the university
creates an environment focused
on training students rather than
educating them. The
professionalization of education
will continue to confine students
to swim in a shallow pool of general
ideas. The idea that the liberal
arts is only valued as a service for
students reduces the liberal arts
to a collection of valuable skills for future employment.
Therefore, students’
value of the liberal arts is
measured by its usefulness.
However, this
definition of the liberal
arts is severely lacking.
The liberal arts educate
the entire soul. One objection
to this definition
is that it is too idealistic;
how do you earn money
or find a job? Recently,
the liberal arts’ objective
has become a service to help
students find jobs or become
a specialist in a particular field.
The objective of the liberal arts
is now valued as a service to
help students get a job and prepare
for life after college. The
problem may not be the goals
of the university, but there is
a problem that lies in how the
university prepares students.
Maintaining a broad and
rigorous core curriculum
fosters an education that goes
beyond a cursory introduction
to a subject. The preservation
of a liberal arts curriculum is
necessary: it provides a ground
for a fertile
learning
environment,
one
that is dedicated
to
educating
the student.
Xavier
needs a
large core and should preserve
its core. Cutting the core will
only perpetuate the consumerdriven
system of professional
training, which may be suitable
for larger institutions but harms
liberal arts themselves.