While a liberal arts designation for SUU is now deep into the formulation stages, the campus hosted guest speakers Dec. 10 and 11 in an effort to open discussions and educate the public about liberal arts education.
Jack Newell, former dean of the Liberal Education Program at the University of Utah and current president of Deep Springs College, a small private liberal arts college in California, and James Faulconer, professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University, spoke about the benefits of a liberal education at the open forums.
A liberal education is concerned with helping individuals to know how to think for themselves and to be conscientious citizens; undergraduate education has been referred to as liberal, meaning liberating, since the 14th century, Faulconer said.
“This type of education helps an individual to become a great person,” Faulconer said. “It is a freeing education … that helps us to recognize the issues and formulate answers.”
Students who graduate with a liberal arts degree have broad, general skills that will help with the ability to think and the flexibility to adapt with vocations in our changing global economy, Newell said.
SUUSA Sen. Nate Anderson, College of Science, who is a substance abuse counselor at Southwest Behavioral Health Center’s Horizon House, said he thinks this is a positive direction for the university that will help prepare students for the changing job market.
“Employers these days want employees that are good citizens and who are involved in service work,” Anderson said.
Anderson, who also teaches career development courses at Horizon House, said that he has moved away from asking the question “do you have the skills needed to get the job?”, to “do you work well with others?”
Provost Brad Cook said employers are seeking employees with broad skills that are developed through a liberal education and experience applying those skills in real-world settings.
Cook said a challenge with the term, “liberal education” is that people commonly confuse liberal with a political point of view or with a politically correct education.
SUU already meets all criteria of a liberal arts institution, Cook said.
Changing SUU’s designation to a liberal arts university would preserve the school’s core strengths, while differentiating the school from other Southern Utah higher education institutions, Cook said.
SUU’s top strengths, found through a recent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis led by Cook, include small class size and individual attention, both defining elements of a liberal education as noted by Newell.
An Academic Road Map for 2010-2013 is being prepared by the Academic Planning Steering Committee, represented by a combination of faculty, staff and a student, and has a deadline of Jan. 25. It will be available for public review and use at legislative hearings in an effort to make the university more competitive for state funding, Cook said.
A 17-percent base cut to higher education was enacted by legislature and will be in full effect by July.
The Academic Planning Steering Committee members are currently working in focus groups to help the possible transition to a liberal arts designation a smooth one. Topics of the focus groups include faculty workload, interdisciplinary and experiential learning requirements.
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