Education Policy, Business and Technology

Liberal Arts Minus Liberal Arts Professors

Inside Higher Ed: Many liberal arts institutions across the U.S. are feeling the squeeze of declining enrollments, interest in career-related education and other factors affecting their bottom lines. So some colleges are taking drastic measures in programs cuts. But how much change is too much? Put another way, after program cut upon program cut, at what point does a liberal arts institution cease to be one?

Wartburg College, currently in tumult over a recent proposal to lay off well-respected members of the faculty -- leaving vacant key areas of the curriculum -- is hardly the only institution to be facing such questions. But what’s happened at the central Iowa college in recent weeks provides an interesting angle on the future viability of liberal arts institutions without substantial endowments.

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