Latest news with #liberalarts
Bloomberg
15 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Shuttered NY College Campus Sale to Give Bondholders 50% Recovery Rate
A group of local residents in upstate New York is planning to buy the shuttered Cazenovia College campus for $9.5 million — a sum that, when combined with other funds, is estimated to give bondholders a recovery rate of just over 50%. Cazenovia College, a liberal arts institution, closed in the summer of 2023, amid enrollment pressures facing small schools across the US. It had sold about $25 million of municipal bonds in 2019 secured by school revenues and a mortgage on the campus, which was appraised at $24 million at the time, according to bond documents.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Students Want the Liberal Arts. Administrators, Not So Much.
University students, we're told, are in crisis. Even at our most elite institutions, they have emaciated attention spans. They can't — or just won't — read books. They use artificial intelligence to write their essays. They lack resilience and are beset by multiple mental health crises. They complain that they can't speak their minds, hobbled by an oppressive ideological monoculture and censorship regimes. As a philosopher, I am most distressed by reports that students have no appetite to study the traditional liberal arts; they only understand their coursework as a step toward specific careers. Over the past two years as the inaugural dean of the University of Tulsa's Honors College, focused on studying the classic texts of the Western tradition, I've seen little evidence of these trends. The curriculum I helped build and teach required students to read thousands of pages of difficult material every semester, decipher historical texts across disciplines and genres and debate ideas vigorously and civilly in small, Socratic seminars. It was tremendously popular among students, who not only do the reading but also engage in rigorous and lively conversations across deep differences in seminars, hallways and dorms. For the past two years, we attracted over a quarter of each freshman class to this reading-heavy, humanities-focused curriculum. Our success in Tulsa derives from our old-fashioned approach to liberal learning, which does not attempt to prepare students for any career but equips them to fashion meaningful and deeply fulfilling lives. This classical model of education, found in the work of both Plato and Aristotle, asks students to seek to discover what is true, good and beautiful, and to understand why. It is a truly liberating education because it requires deep and sustained reflection about the ultimate questions of human life. The goal is to achieve a modicum of self-knowledge and wisdom about our own humanity. It certainly captured the hearts and minds of our students. Sadly, this education has fared less well with my university's new administration. After the former president and provost departed this year, the newly installed provost informed me that the Honors College must 'go in a different direction.' That meant eliminating the entire dean's office and associated staff positions as well as many of our distinctive programs and — through increased class sizes — effectively ending our small seminars. (A spokesperson for the university told The Times that while it had 'restructured' the Honors College, the university believes that academics and student experiences will 'remain the same.') The stated reason for these cuts was to save money — the same reason the University of Tulsa gave in 2019 when it targeted many of the same traditional forms of liberal learning for elimination. Back then, the administration attempted to turn the university into a vocational school. Those efforts largely failed, in part because of lack of student support for the new model. An unpleasant truth has emerged in Tulsa over the years. It's not that traditional liberal learning is out of step with student demand. Instead, it's out of step with the priorities, values and desires of a powerful board of trustees with no apparent commitment to liberal education, and an administrative class that won't fight for the liberal arts even when it attracts both students and major financial gifts. The tragedy of the contemporary academy is that even when traditional liberal learning clearly wins with students and donors, it loses with those in power. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why the traditional college major may be holding students back in a rapidly changing job market
Colleges and universities are struggling to stay afloat. The reasons are numerous: declining numbers of college-age students in much of the country, rising tuition at public institutions as state funding shrinks, and a growing skepticism about the value of a college degree. Pressure is mounting to cut costs by reducing the time it takes to earn a degree from four years to three. Students, parents and legislators increasingly prioritize return on investment and degrees that are more likely to lead to gainful employment. This has boosted enrollment in professional programs while reducing interest in traditional liberal arts and humanities majors, creating a supply-demand imbalance. The result has been increasing financial pressure and an unprecedented number of closures and mergers, to date mostly among smaller liberal arts colleges. To survive, institutions are scrambling to align curriculum with market demand. And they're defaulting to the traditional college major to do so. The college major, developed and delivered by disciplinary experts within siloed departments, continues to be the primary benchmark for academic quality and institutional performance. This structure likely works well for professional majors governed by accreditation or licensure, or more tightly aligned with employment. But in today's evolving landscape, reliance on the discipline-specific major may not always serve students or institutions well. As a professor emeritus and former college administrator and dean, I argue that the college major may no longer be able to keep up with the combinations of skills that cross multiple academic disciplines and career readiness skills demanded by employers, or the flexibility students need to best position themselves for the workplace. I see students arrive on campus each year with different interests, passions and talents – eager to stitch them into meaningful lives and careers. A more flexible curriculum is linked to student success, and students now consult AI tools such as ChatGPT to figure out course combinations that best position them for their future. They want flexibility, choice and time to redirect their studies if needed. And yet, the moment students arrive on campus – even before they apply – they're asked to declare a major from a list of predetermined and prescribed choices. The major, coupled with general education and other college requirements, creates an academic track that is anything but flexible. Not surprisingly, around 80% of college students switch their majors at least once, suggesting that more flexible degree requirements would allow students to explore and combine diverse areas of interest. And the number of careers, let alone jobs, that college graduates are expected to have will only increase as technological change becomes more disruptive. As institutions face mounting pressures to attract students and balance budgets, and the college major remains the principal metric for doing so, the curriculum may be less flexible now than ever. In response to market pressures, colleges are adding new high-demand majors at a record pace. Between 2002 and 2022, the number of degree programs nationwide increased by nearly 23,000, or 40%, while enrollment grew only 8%. Some of these majors, such as cybersecurity, fashion business or entertainment design, arguably connect disciplines rather than stand out as distinct. Thus, these new majors siphon enrollment from lower-demand programs within the institution and compete with similar new majors at competitor schools. At the same time, traditional arts and humanities majors are adding professional courses to attract students and improve employability. Yet, this adds credit hours to the degree while often duplicating content already available in other departments. Importantly, while new programs are added, few are removed. The challenge lies in faculty tenure and governance, along with a traditional understanding that faculty set the curriculum as disciplinary experts. This makes it difficult to close or revise low-demand majors and shift resources to growth areas. The result is a proliferation of under-enrolled programs, canceled courses and stretched resources – leading to reduced program quality and declining faculty morale. Ironically, under the pressure of declining demand, there can be perverse incentives to grow credit hours required in a major or in general education requirements as a way of garnering more resources or adding courses aligned with faculty interests. All of which continues to expand the curriculum and stress available resources. Universities are also wrestling with the idea of liberal education and how to package the general education requirement. Although liberal education is increasingly under fire, employers and students still value it. Students' career readiness skills – their ability to think critically and creatively, to collaborate effectively and to communicate well – remain strong predictors of future success in the workplace and in life. Assuming the requirement for students to complete a major in order to earn a degree, colleges can also allow students to bundle smaller modules – such as variable-credit minors, certificates or course sequences – into a customizable, modular major. This lets students, guided by advisers, assemble a degree that fits their interests and goals while drawing from multiple disciplines. A few project-based courses can tie everything together and provide context. Such a model wouldn't undermine existing majors where demand is strong. For others, where demand for the major is declining, a flexible structure would strengthen enrollment, preserve faculty expertise rather than eliminate it, attract a growing number of nontraditional students who bring to campus previously earned credentials, and address the financial bottom line by rightsizing curriculum in alignment with student demand. One critique of such a flexible major is that it lacks depth of study, but it is precisely the combination of curricular content that gives it depth. Another criticism is that it can't be effectively marketed to an employer. But a customized major can be clearly named and explained to employers to highlight students' unique skill sets. Further, as students increasingly try to fit cocurricular experiences – such as study abroad, internships, undergraduate research or organizational leadership – into their course of study, these can also be approved as modules in a flexible curriculum. It's worth noting that while several schools offer interdisciplinary studies majors, these are often overprescribed or don't grant students access to in-demand courses. For a flexible-degree model to succeed, course sections would need to be available and added or deleted in response to student demand. Several schools also now offer microcredentials– skill-based courses or course modules that increasingly include courses in the liberal arts. But these typically need to be completed in addition to requirements of the major. We take the college major for granted. Yet it's worth noting that the major is a relatively recent invention. Before the 20th century, students followed a broad liberal arts curriculum designed to create well-rounded, globally minded citizens. The major emerged as a response to an evolving workforce that prioritized specialized knowledge. But times change – and so can the model. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: John Weigand, Miami University Read more: Will the 'right' college major get you a job? Why do we need the humanities? Some want to get rid of college majors – here's how that could go wrong John Weigand does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
