When did we forget the idea that college is intended to help students prepare for both meaningful work and a meaningful life, and, for the most attentive, a chance to integrate the two? Especially in the last few years, I have watched colleges and universities make deep cuts in the arts and humanities (English, philosophy, history, languages), precisely those areas of study where students confront the mysteries of the human condition, definitions of good and evil, the responsibility of citizenship, and the various meanings of love. I’m not suggesting that students must major in the humanities to find guidance in these life-changing explorations. Most college degrees, including engineering, business, and other professional programs — require what are variously called general education courses, sometimes a core curriculum, available to all.

And yet to confront severe budget challenges, many institutional leaders cut the humanities and severely economize on general education. On the national level lately we see many counterproductive proposals and actions. Brown University was compelled to pledge $50 million over 10 years to Rhode Island workforce development organizations. Putting aside the threat this fine makes to Brown’s institutional autonomy, I would have felt better if the $50 million had been directed to Rhode Island community colleges, where students could learn vocations while also having opportunities to take humanities courses.

We now see a Trump Education Department directive to respond to students’ financial aid applications with a warning about “lower earnings” for colleges where graduates earn less than high school graduates four years after completion. I’m not against holding for-profit, career colleges responsible in this way — and, in fact, for-profit colleges make up the vast majority of the warned-against institutions — but some community colleges and public university campuses might be swept in.

This whole approach sends the wrong message. While post-secondary education should prepare students to enter the workforce, that’s not all a college education does.

The near-hysterical bias toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) courses) is also misguided. It’s great to give early opportunities to K-12 students to understand science and to have hands-on experience in its practicality and beauty and then to provide opportunities for all interested students regardless of gender, race, or zip code to become scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.

But it makes no sense to provide privileged funding to those university areas to the detriment of the humanities and general education. That also goes for special budgetary advantages to professional areas like computer science that seemed to be trending positively and is now graduating students who can’t get jobs in the AI world.

What do students need in the AI world?

They need education in the arts and humanities. Literature, for example, projects the reader into different realities — a place to test new ideas. Fiction creates empathy with people from dramatically different cultures, encouraging a better understanding of our own humanity. Studying art stimulates creative thinking. Learning a new language testifies to the ability to learn new things. Humanities courses require using flexible modes of analysis. Writing courses that require drafting and peer review offer experience in engaging meaningfully with colleagues in problem-solving activities. Courses in civics help students to understand how governments function and what it means to be a citizen. Studying ethics could lead to establishing appropriate guardrails in an AI world.

Whatever you think of AI, it’s here to stay — and colleges have a primary responsibility to prepare graduates for the present and future. That preparation requires a humanities education. A humanities education offers potential explanations — accept, reject, or modify them — for the full range of human and AI activity.

At liberal arts colleges, students learn about community by being community members. In class and in the dorm, students are immersed in varying points of view and receive strategic guidance on how to listen, learn, and express ideas. Liberal arts colleges are places of genuine inquiry.

The Lumina Foundation, an independent, private philanthropic foundation, in its Goal 2040: A Stronger Nation and a Brighter Future initiative, leads with the idea that “People pursue education to find good jobs, support their families, and build meaningful lives.” Lumina Vice President Debra Humphreys describes the Foundation’s value-centered goals, focusing on economic mobility, civic engagement, workforce relevance, and lifelong opportunities.” Yes, the arts and humanities are essential to Goal 2040 and beyond.

The special role of liberal arts colleges in education for a full life

I’m pleased to report that metro Philadelphia colleges and universities have, to their credit, resisted the diminishment of arts and humanities education. I’d like to give particular kudos to our private residential liberal arts colleges including Arcadia, Bryn Mawr, Chestnut Hill, Haverford, Holy Family, Swarthmore, Ursinus, and Widener. These institutions, to one extent or another, offer a strong humanities education, emphasize research-based teaching, and integrate residential life with classroom learning.

I started my academic career at liberal arts colleges: Haverford, Arcadia, and Brown (a university reflecting the culture of smaller places). After moving to state universities (Queens College, Arizona State University West, University of Alaska Anchorage, Governors State University), I then spent the rest of my career trying to bring the special benefits of private liberal arts colleges into the public sector. It wasn’t easy, but I was determined to do what I could to make education for a full life available to low-income, first-generation students. I have long believed that the liberal arts college offers the ideal higher education experience not only for students’ personal development but for our society, democracy, and humanity.

At liberal arts colleges, students learn about community by being community members. In class and in the dorm, students are immersed in varying points of view and receive strategic guidance on how to listen, learn, and express ideas. Liberal arts colleges are places of genuine inquiry. That is not to say that political orthodoxy disappears, but intellectual rigidity is challenged. In short, citizens of liberal arts colleges are more likely to become confident, contributing citizens of the wider community.

Of course, many large universities, public and private, provide beneficial experiences in the arts and humanities for majors and for the larger student population. Some private residential liberal arts colleges do not live up to their hype.

Here is the Maimon checklist to determine whether a private liberal arts college is fulfilling its potential:

• Does the college specify a freshman year experience, variously named, but always offering small seminars and course integration (learning communities), with cohorts of students taking more than one course together and with the instructors of the various linked courses cooperating with each other?
• Do full-time faculty teach first-year students? If a small liberal arts college depends on part-timers to teach the courses most significant to a student’s transition to higher education, then that college may be confused about purpose.
• Are most classes conducted as structured conversations, rather than lectures? In this age of technology, lectures can be listened to online. Flipping the classroom with lectures for homework, face-to-face discussion in class is the way to go.
• Is intellectual life embedded in the residence halls? Some colleges have theme-oriented college houses. Many bring guest experts directly into the dorms for informal interactions with students.
• Is the college a writing-across-the-curriculum campus? It’s essential that the college commit to writing as a way of learning, not just testing. Do professors involve the classroom community in stages of development in the writing process, including peer review and emphasis on revision?
• Does the college offer faculty/student research opportunities for undergraduates, in the humanities, as well as in the sciences?
• Does the college sponsor frequent field trips for students to appreciate art, theater, dance, symphony, opera, and other live experiences?
• Does the college offer study-abroad and other international activities?
• Does the college offer paid internships for all majors, including those in the humanities, preparing students for fulfilling careers and lives?

The checklist could actually be applied to any college or university. Those institutions that score high on these criteria are committed to helping students to engage with other human beings and with the world, in other words, to become citizens.

Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at public universities as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing in the Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.

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