In an effort to manage change at Bennington College (Vermont) in the face of financial problems, its trustees engaged in an institutional symposium for a year and a half and issued a report addressing some significant questions in liberal education, including pressures for political correctness, the relativity of truth, individual responsibility,…

Issues to consider in introductory college-level courses include: considering general education's purpose in the context of specific disciplines; avoiding the assumption that freshman-level courses must be broad-based; thinking of the disciplinary as leading to the interdisciplinary; and using the first year to engage issues significant in the…

Undergraduate education is illiberal because the progression from general to specialized learning does not support students in learning how to make choices or explore their consequences. Courses late in the student's program, rather than at the outset, that explore disciplinary boundaries and interconnections could be useful. (MSE)