All college students should be exposed to art, literature, theater and history — even if they are majoring in engineering or finance.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Students walk on campus at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024.
Members of the Utah Legislature were pleased recently when the presidents of the eight state institutions of higher learning paraded before them with long lists of dropped classes, eliminated programs and staffing cuts.
What wasn’t clear was whether any of the changes will really help students enroll in our colleges and universities, and stay there long enough to graduate. There’s no indication that the $60.5 million trimmed from the schools’ budgets will reduce tuition and fee costs for students, now or in the future.
One plan that might actually make a difference in the lives of some Utah college students was the plan rolled out recently by Weber State University. That’s a program that would allow some students to earn a bachelor’s degree in certain fields in just three years — earning just 90 credits — instead of the traditional four-year/120-credit course.
(Southern Utah University has long had what it calls a three-year degree program. But it jams the full 120-credit requirement into a shorter span by giving students a heavier course load and stressing summer classes.)
Those of us who remember our college years fondly may not see the attraction of missing a quarter of that life experience. But, as an option for students who might not otherwise see the point in beginning college, and might find it a struggle to finish a traditional degree, it’s an idea worth exploring.
The first WSU three-year program is what will be called a bachelor’s of applied politics, philosophy and economics. It seems designed for students who really know what they want to do after college, getting into politics, government or law, particularly at the state and local level, or working with nonprofit organizations.
At least by the sound of it, the WSU program is not one of those designed to short-shrift the humanities in search of some high-tech, high-pay corporate career. Careers that, come to think of it, might not be so plentiful as artificial intelligence eliminates so many job opportunities.
Searching for better ways to do things is generally a good idea in any large institution, where but-that’s-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it thinking can capture the best-run organizations. The Utah universities that looked back through their catalogs and course lists to find majors with few students and classes that actually hadn’t been taught for years weren’t wasting their time.
There remains a concern that too many of the cuts came in the humanities — art, literature, theater, history — subjects that all college students should be exposed to even if they are majoring in engineering or finance.
Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez explained to lawmakers that her school plans to sharpen its focus on the general education curriculum that all students take as part of building the brain power to take on any specific course of study.
The literature, philosophy, history and just plain thinking included in those classes, Tuminez rightly said, does more than turn out corporate cannon-fodder.
“They’re better engineers. They’re better scientists,” she said. “They’re better mothers. They’re better fathers.”
That is exactly what Utah’s universities should be giving us for the money taxpayers, and students, spend.
Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.