With the US unemployment rate at 9 percent, it's rational for college students to lose confidence in the liberal arts and to opt for a vocational major. Or is it? There is a compelling economic case for the liberal arts. Against those who call for more professional training, liberal educators should concede nothing. However, they do have a…

In 1990, David Breneman asked the provocative question, are we losing our liberal arts colleges? More than twenty years later, it is time to ask Breneman's question again: in 2012, what is the position of liberal arts colleges in the landscape of American higher education? The liberal arts college, a distinctively American institution, has been a…

Despite research showing the broad impact that the study of foreign languages has on the cognitive development of young people, and despite the importance of language expertise for America's economic and geopolitical interests in the twenty-first century, the teaching of world languages has been marginalized within the American educational system…

Sustainability powerfully validates the liberal arts. In response to contemporary accusations of economic impracticality, defenders of liberal education have emphasized how such skills as critical thinking and "learning to learn" are vital to success in careers. This approach readily extends to sustainability, which has become a growing source of…

Curricular innovation is at the center of the challenges many colleges and universities face as they seek to help students address more successfully than previous generations the complex, multi-faceted, systemic challenges of global climate change, population growth, loss of biodiversity, environmental justice, toxic wastes, and food insecurity.…

Colleges across the country are hosting on-campus renewable energy projects. The general assumption is that trade schools, community colleges, or technology-oriented universities with large engineering departments make the most appropriate sites for training future leaders in renewable energy innovation. While it makes sense to take advantage of…

There are several fundamental requirements for democratic government. First, there must be free and fair elections to elect leaders. Second, there must be freedom to express a wide range of views and positions, including criticisms of incumbent leaders. And third, the public discourse about elections and public policy issues must be conducted in a…

Recognizing that the term "global education" has become commonplace but, too often, is put forward without adequate substance, this proposal seeks to envision a foundational higher education for the twenty-first century. The authors believe it is important to imagine an education fit for global possibilities because theirs has become a world in…

The old expression about the carrot and the stick, which refers to the application of reward and punishment to induce action, dates back to the days when pack mules were used for transportation. The mules would move toward carrots that dangled just ahead of them--and move all the faster because they feared drivers with sticks behind them. In 2012,…

Changing a curriculum is already stressful enough without finding new ways to create anxiety, discontent, and rancor. To provide a truly integrated liberal education, the author contends that educators must not only change their curricula--the courses they offer--but they must change what they do in the classroom, the kinds of papers and…

Since March of 2009, the Utah System of Higher Education has been a partner with the Lumina Foundation for Education in the Tuning USA project, Lumina's first experiment in introducing the European concept of degree "tuning" to American academia. Developed in the European Union as a way to create common degree standards across multiple nations,…

For years, American higher education institutions have been working hard to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of campuses. This work is driven in part by arguments for social justice and the felt need for equal and expanded access to higher education. Since the society is diverse, the author argues that campuses should also reflect that.…

The conversation in higher education has shifted, moving from a focus on what students know to a focus on whether they know how to think and, more importantly, toward the goal of providing skills needed for living and working in the twenty-first century. In this article, the authors present national evidence regarding the impact of intentional…

There exists a plethora of writings about citizenship, or "civic virtue," in a democracy. Articles, books, reports, and commentaries proliferate, and the theme is continually stressed in the multiple activities of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). In this article, the author believes that a summary of the leading…

In the National Council on Education and the Disciplines' (NCED) 2001 Mathematics and Democracy, Lynn Steen vividly declares, "The world of the twenty-first century is a world awash in numbers". In that volume, Steen and his collaborators articulate a clear call for broad reforms to prepare students for the ubiquitous need for quantitative…