Keene State College has long been billed as a public liberal arts college. Instead of having students specialize in one particular area, through their ITW and ISP requirements, students of all majors are required to receive some form of a liberal arts education. The school believes that through a more well-rounded education, students will be better prepared for their eventual careers.
The recent release of the Keene State College Profile’s Academic Year 2011 has some interesting statistics in it. Aside from the breakdown of the student body in terms of ages, academic year and gender, it also broke the student body down into the respective majors.
The most popular majors here at Keene State College held some interesting surprises. Of the five most declared majors here, education, health sciences, safety studies, psychology, and management, only psychology is considered to be a liberal arts major. The rest of the majors are specialized and applied majors, where students are specifically learning skills that will be applicable to their future careers.
These four majors end up making a total of 34% of all declared majors. While these majors are not the majority, they still make up a very large portion of all the majors here at Keene State.
With the addition of the nursing major at Keene State College, a specialized major, perhaps it’s time for Keene State to re-examine the belief that it is truly a liberal arts college. While the reasoning behind KSC wanting even specialized majors to have a strong liberal arts background is a positive thing, it may not be the best thing.
If KSC’s most popular majors are continually specialized majors, perhaps those in specialized programs should be given alternative liberal arts classes. The notion of certain skills being found only within certain liberal arts classes is archaic. Critical thinking skills can be learned in many situations, not just in classrooms where you are learning material that is not remotely related to your chosen career path.
Let students who are anticipating a career where a vast wealth of knowledge will be beneficial spend time working towards a liberal arts education. Consequently, let those students who are specializing and focusing on one particular career path do just that and move past the liberal arts requirements.
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