As a veteran university president of fifteen years, MaryAnn Baenninger has welcomed thousands of prospective students and parents to Saturday recruitment days, however recently she has begun to wonder about the adequacy of recent descriptions of "liberal arts" as an ideal education. National conversations about higher education have…

An interdisciplinary liberal arts program can prompt innovative ideas and self-discovery when fired in a kiln of social and economic justice fueled by high-impact practices. Developing learning communities, internships, group projects, local-to-global learning, community-based service learning, and capstone projects can enhance education and…

The death of the "liberal arts," however defined, is a motif of lament in American higher education. It became a popular leitmotif in the late nineteenth century. Over the past century, there have been heated debates about the future of the liberal arts curriculum, mostly based in a narrative of decline from a golden age just beyond the…

What are the enduring, value-added features of small, private liberal arts colleges? Certain distinctions come to mind: broad exposure to the disciplines, focused study in the majors, and close campus interactions--all enhanced by the residential experience. However, what is (and has historically been) the value of small, private residential…

The author believes there are three conceptual and somatic (from the Greek, meaning "of the body") changes that could be made in order to better educate the student body and, thereby, help sustain the intellectual and social relevance of the liberal arts as a program of study. First, the commitment to what Sir Ken Robinson has called "the…

Ten years ago, AAC&U (then AAC) issued a landmark report, "Integrity in the College Curriculum: A Report to the Academic Community". Anticipating the academy's sternest external critics by nearly a decade, "Integrity" offered a sweeping and incisive critique of curricular practice throughout higher education. "As for…

Community colleges comprise the largest single sector of the US higher education network. Forty percent of undergraduates attend one of our two-year schools. Some estimates suggest that, since the turnover is quicker than on four-year campuses, two-thirds of the students who attend a college at all attend a community college. For many of those…

Think of the United States Military Academy and the typical images are of duty, character, leadership, and possibly even regimented conformity. Intellectual liberation, integrative innovation, and holistic development--hallmarks of a liberal education--are not always associated with the public's perception of the West Point experience. Yet,…

Different approaches to the study of leadership are discussed, and related liberal arts programs in six colleges are described. (MSE)

The study of leadership must be multidisciplinary, and the examination of the link between family and leadership should be a primary concern. (MSE)

The historical and potential modern role of rhetoric in a liberal arts education is examined, and it is concluded that the cultivation of the liberal arts is crucial to the courage to be and to become. (MSE)

Describes strategic changes at Richland College including the consolidation and expansion of special programs through the Office of Academic Enrichment, and institutional improvements involving student learning undertaken during the process of re-accreditation. (EV)

Describes the process undertaken at King's College to create an invigorated teaching and learning environment, including a new Core Curriculum designed to ensure that students engage in cumulative and transferable learning in three general areas. (EV)

Becoming an anthropologist illustrates on a large scale how valuable examining other cultures is. Anthropology should be incorporated into the college liberal arts curriculum to help eliminate the ethnocentrism of educated people in our own society but should focus on great civilizations nearly matching ours in complexity, historical depth, and…

College education is essentially concerned with argumentation about interpretations. It depends on and trains for the capacity to assume different points of view simultaneously in order to interpret and predict, and it should celebrate playful acts of imagination. (MSE)