A good liberal arts education is not a dress rehearsal for anything, but a real experience in maturing--intellectually and personally--and in developing the crucial skills of creativity, confidence, and curiosity. These skills are at least as important as the knowledge accumulated in class. (MSE)

Two decades of undergraduate curricular crisis have reduced the traditional academic authority of the humanities. One response is to provide a course in cultural criticism, demystifying the Western tradition and teaching students to engage in an ongoing dialogue about its meaning and purpose. (MSE)

Recent criticism of the college curriculum stops short of recommending one thing that should be central: a core curriculum that speaks to the forces of culture and tradition, providing an intellectual context for all other studies. (MSE)

Despite perceived threats to the humanities, the academic profession can reassert its integrity and shape the futures of institutions by using existing networks and organizations to change the formal structure of education to improve its product. (MSE)

The curriculum development process leading to Bradford College's new Practical Liberal Arts Education plan, an interdisciplinary core curriculum focusing on the theme of the common bonds of human beings, is discussed. (MSE)

The traditional undergraduate separation of general education, the major, and the electives does not reflect what happens in the student's learning, and lacks direction and clarity of purpose. Collaboration among generalists and specialists within and between the departments is needed to prepare students better.

The importance of technological literacy in liberal arts education, and approaches to teaching the concepts behind systems analysis and artifacts in engineering, are outlined and discussed. (MSE)

Steps to improving introductory courses to keep the appropriate liberal education emphasis include: teach less, restructure testing, relate course content to problems in the outside world, pursue ethical issues, balance facts with other forms of knowledge, teach the arts of discussion and critical thinking, and help students develop wisdom. (MSE)

Examined employability of liberal arts students with business minors, using students' (N=22) job interview request logs. Recruiters completed questionnaires that measured their perceptions of the role of the business minor in that student's candidacy. Results showed that business minors can make liberal arts grads more competitive. (BH)

The NIE Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in Higher Education calls on colleges and universities to revitalize liberal education and set higher standards for graduation. This news report notes the realities of student learning, curricular coherence, the quality of facilities, faculty morale, and academic standards that no longer measure…

A response to Theodore Hipple's The English Teacher Should Major in Education" ( English Education," vol. 2, no. 1 (Fall 1970), pp. 35-9). (RD)

The experience of Iona College in implementing a curriculum integrating technology with science in a liberal arts curriculum is outlined. Development of a curriculum development plan including computer, energy, environmental, and health sequences, problems of integrating the curriculum, and faculty involvement are discussed. (MSE)

The art of retrenchment is in selecting among the available budgeting options that fit a given institution at a given time. One option that deserves increasing consideration is across-the-board cuts. In coping with student demands, institutions should also be concerned for curricular integrity and liberal learning. (MSE)

Concern is expressed about the measures that enrollment-driven colleges are taking to survive: destructive competitive practices may result in scrambled curricula and scrambled college identities. State control is an increasingly real possibility if such developments get out of hand. (MSE)

The history of undergraduate teaching in the United States is discussed in an attempt to determine whether the curriculum is now in a period of crisis. The most crucial ingredient in the excellence of higher education may be the admissions policies and the quality of the faculty teaching available courses. (MLW)