By Megan Finlan ’21, staff writer
A liberal arts education is considered to be the most desirable type of education for prospective employers in America. This type of education is said to create well rounded employees. If this is the case, why are colleges and universities like LVC slowing verging from the liberal arts path?
Universities and colleges across the nation, including LVC, use their liberal arts education as a selling point to prospective students. However, due to financial reasons, LVC has made decisions that have negatively impacted its liberal arts education
After putting into action the construction of a new building specifically tailored to the institution’s physical therapy, athletic training and exercise science programs, the College was forced to make financial cuts that directly impacted departments in the humanities. These budget cuts have forced the removal of majors in the humanities and the relocation of faculty. While it may be beneficial to the school itself to make the changes necessary to remain financially secure, its important to also consider the impacts that these changes make on the students and their education within the liberal arts.
It has been argued that liberal arts educations aren’t worth the money and these students end up in major debt, living with their parents because they can’t find a job after graduation. However, students with liberal arts educations actually have more economic mobility than students without a liberal arts education.
Liberal arts educations prove to be more desirable to employers because of the wide variety of information and skills that students encounter. This type of education allows students to adapt and evolve with companies as their skills are transferable. The skills needed for the adaptation that is often necessary in the professional world are not provided in forms of education that focus on specific jobs or vocations.
Even apart from jobs themselves, a liberal arts education creates better human beings overall. A liberal arts education provides the skills needed to be productive members of society as they gain the ability to create solutions to complex problems and build relationships with good communication. The benefits of a liberal arts education go far beyond economics.
As LVC begins to verge from the liberal arts education path and provide more support to STEM majors, the College is neglecting to provide the rounded education that it promises prospective students. It’s not fair to students who enroll with the expectation that their courses will have equal focus on STEM and the humanities only to have the humanities treated as second class and not given the same support as subjects in the sciences.
Colleges and universities like LVC need to start asking themselves the question of why they need to take away from the education of their students to make up for their poor financial decisions.