In November 2011, the author--Ivan Fuller, a professor of theatre and associate dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Rider University--attended a joint symposium of the American Conference of Academic Deans and Phi Beta Kappa that was designed to wrestle with the question of why the humanities matter. At one session, participants…

The development of a universitywide general education requirement for undergraduates at the University of California at Davis is outlined, and the lessons learned in the process are discussed. (MSE)

Even during the reconstruction of general education in the college curriculum there remains great confusion about what general education should be, made worse by a preoccupation with educational process rather than outcomes. Serious attention to institutional, mission, philosophy, goals, and structures is necessary, and will enhance the faculty's…

The curriculum development process leading to Bradford College's new Practical Liberal Arts Education plan, an interdisciplinary core curriculum focusing on the theme of the common bonds of human beings, is discussed. (MSE)

Both general education and the structure and process of specialization on the undergraduate level must be reformed in relation to each other to strengthen curriculum and practice of liberal learning. Reform could mean either redistributing the time allotted in the undergraduate curriculum or tying general education to specific student interests.…

The impact of technology on higher education from increasingly complex computers and technological systems will cause higher education to include technological courses in the liberal arts curriculum, prepare liberal arts students for careers in nontraditional areas in which technology is an important component, and broaden the base of engineering…

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)

Though student-designed programs have been justified by references to humanism, systems theory, and romantic idealism, a more secure foundation lies in developmental theory. When properly advised, it is suggested, student-designed programs resemble the most desirable processes of liberal education. (Author/MLW)

Fairleigh Dickinson University (New Jersey) students take four core general education courses from the second half of the freshman year through the first half of the junior year. All sections have the same syllabus, and faculty teaching them on separate campuses review and refine the courses together. Core course faculty participated actively in a…

A new program at Madonna University (Michigan) builds on the institution's existing emphasis on the humanities in teacher education by creating faculty development activities that promote an interdisciplinary learning community and developing courses to forge formal curricular links between key humanities general education courses and required…