Campus communities continue to become increasingly diverse as the U.S. grows more sensitized to, yet polarized over, issues of social justice. In response, many institutions of higher learning are placing greater emphasis on students' experiential learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in co-curricular experiences such as new…

Many U.S. colleges and universities have established student learning outcomes for diversity education in their general education programs. These education goals, frequently developed for assessment or other policy purposes, convey a range of possible purposes for diversity and multicultural learning. The manner in which these purposes are…

With the support of a grant from the Sloan Foundation, nine computer scientists from liberal arts colleges came together in October, 1984 to form the Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium (LACS) and to create a model curriculum appropriate for liberal arts colleges. Over the years the membership has grown and changed, but the focus has remained…

Many undergraduate liberal arts institutions offer computer science majors. This article illustrates how quality computer science programs can be realized in a wide variety of liberal arts settings by describing and contrasting the actual programs at five liberal arts colleges: Williams College, Kalamazoo College, the State University of New York…

For perspective on the interdisciplinary challenge in higher education, it is important to understand the concept and origins of the "discipline." Disciplines are convenient but artificial constructs, and while academia may be divided into them, the world is not. A sense of the balance and connection between them is vital. (MSE)

A curriculum design that focuses on the human sciences, the disciplines that concern themselves with the social and individual activities that are distinctively human, would be a better approach than the current separation of the humanities and social sciences. (MSE)

The author presents a two-fold design for liberal learning. Of foremost importance is the ethical quality of deliberate design. Secondly, the design of liberal learning should give students strength, finesse, and imaginative courage in purpose. (Author/AF)

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) convened the "Symposium on Business and the Liberal Arts: Integrating Professional and Liberal Education" in Chicago in May 2007 out of concern that the proportion of students graduating with degrees in the liberal arts has been declining as preprofessional and technical programs have expanded and the…

Small programs can make a big difference on college campuses. At Duke University, a few dedicated people, with the support of college administrators, exploited the all-too-evident liabilities of curriculum fragmentation, political correctness, and the lack of direction felt by undergraduate students to create intellectually valuable and…

In this article, the author describes a key challenge facing liberal arts presidents: to accommodate a reciprocal relationship between thinking and doing. Achieving a continuum between thought and action has never been easy--on the academic side is the fear of diluting intellectual rigor matched on the practical side by the fear of paralysis.…

Four ways in which legal studies can enhance the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum are discussed: the interdisciplinary legal studies course, radical revisions of the liberal arts curriculum, supplementary courses with a practical emphasis, and the legal studies program or department. (MSE)

Educators must reinforce the distinction between the first 2 years of college education, to be reserved for general education, and the second two, in which specialization is appropriate. This might mean only loosening some requirements. In addition, more broad-based introductory courses should be provided for students to choose from. (MSE)

Religion and science have become polarized in modern society, a conflict characteristic of the humanities generally. Comparative religion has a place among the other humanities disciplines, since religion and science have a relationship whose roots go to the basis of our cultural tradition. (MSE)

What is perceived as poor fit between liberal arts and the individual disciplines results not from narrow subject matter or analytical focus but from the disciplines keeping too many of the interesting questions to themselves. College students are not exposed enough to the reasons their teachers find their fields compelling. (MSE)

The past is the substance from which the present is formed, but college curricula based on this cultural heritage need not exclude the present. Major classical writers and social thinkers must be central to it but should be accompanied by critical engagement with living texts from powerful and active minds. (MSE)