To the Editor:

Jobs & Liberal Arts Majors

As many readers know, UWSP is considering dumping 13 majors in L&S  and Fine Arts and replacing them with majors more directly connected to jobs.  Our campus is not alone.  State colleges in several states are considering doing something  similar—in the name of “workforce readiness.”  However, a columnist  in the Wall St. Journal recently observed that the colleges who do this may have a hard sell as they approach students from well-educated families.

These families often realize that a college major in the liberal arts may lead to more advancement later on in their offspring’s career, which is more important than their first job out of college.  This is in part because most of the liberal arts teach analysis and critical thinking, transferable skills used in higher-level jobs.   That is probably why even now the “Top 500 Colleges” (from a field of over 4,000) in the WSJ/Times list are mostly liberal arts colleges.  It is also why “The Wisconsin Idea” was intended to bring this degree content to all parts of the state.

UWSP served this function here for the last 50 years, and I think it should continue to do so.  But  a real liberal arts education must be more than  a  small side-dish of introductory  liberal arts courses attached to a job-training program.

Liberal arts colleges expect their students to have good jobs.  Some even offer internships as part of the college experience.   However,  top colleges point out that current students will change careers and jobs 4 or 5 times;  that they will need to be prepared to be Lifelong Learners; that they will earn certificates for specific jobs, serially, AFTER college, or advanced degrees.  The placement and career records of these liberal arts college grads continue to be excellent.   Of course many factors besides schooling determine “success.”

Some job-oriented majors have at least three downsides.  Going to college to prepare too specifically for a job may not be wise because Artificial Intelligence  may eliminate the job trained for.   Better: a more general, but in-depth, broad education on which to build.

Second,  some of the proposed  job-prep majors  seem to depend largely on government employment at a time when Medicaid and infrastructure building take a larger and larger portion of state & local budgets.   Will there be funding for these new workers?  Third, many students end up not liking the work they prepared for.  Changing fields is easier with a broader preparation.

But beyond jobs, remember that work is 40-50 hours a week, maybe for 35 years of an 80-year or more life span   My friends and relatives who are  engineers, scientists,  business owners/division heads, and doctors spend their leisure hours in company of the humanities, social sciences, and arts—because they took  and enjoyed them as undergrads.  It’s helpful to gain a broad background, while young, for a lifetime of learning—not just for “work,”  but because it potentially enhances life.

Nancy N. Moore,
Retired Professor of English at UWSP