Panel advocates importance of liberal arts
33-member group said students should receive well-round education
By Kim Chi Ha, staff writer
Posted on January 22, 2007

A 33-member panel recently stressed the importance of a liberal-arts background in students at colleges and universities in a study released by the non-profit Association of American Colleges and Universities.

“Being a philosophy and religion major, I have enough freedom to take electives that focus on ethics and culture,” senior Sarah Williams said. “I come into contact with a lot of different people with diverse viewpoints, which I think has helped me to understand people better.”

The panel, comprised of business, labor, philanthropy, education and policy leaders, said students should not merely get an education for a professional field, but rather attain a diverse range of knowledge across disciplines in order to be active contributors to society.

“[It is vital to gain] knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world through study in the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, history and the arts,” the panel said in a report released earlier this month.

“This university has a longtime history of supporting the liberal arts,” said David Jeffrey, dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “The general education program is essentially a liberal-arts program based on our sense as a university that students need acquaintance with diverse concepts, awareness of civilization, history, writing, science and math.”

Williams was able to find her real interest through the general education program. 

“I was originally a Spanish major, but I was unhappy so I was taking a bunch of general education courses to figure out what I wanted to do,” Williams said.  “I took religion 101 and realized I really liked it.”

Elizabeth Arnold, a math department professor agreed, citing the importance of a liberal arts education.

“All students at JMU get a liberal-arts education with approximately 40 to 45 hours of general education requirements,” Arnold said.

The panel’s study is part of a 10-year initiative to reform higher education and to turn students into learners. It cited four “essential learning outcomes” of a college education, which are intellectual and practical skills, ethical reasoning, a sense of personal and social responsibility, and the ability to apply these skills in the “real world.”

David Carothers, a professor in the math department agreed: “The report cites the need for both a broad education and study in-depth in a particular discipline, and the emphasis in this institution over the past several years have demonstrated a commitment to both of these.”

Jeffrey said people change their real jobs about three times in their life and that “those with a liberal arts background, who have research and critical-thinking skills, are better able to change than those who only do one task.”

Said Williams about life after graduation: “I would like to do victims’ advocacy or work with victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.”