A Liberal Arts and Sciences Education for a Reason
I recently had someone challenge me concerning whether Christopher Newport was serving the Commonwealth well by focusing on the liberal arts. This person contrasted a liberal arts education with an education that was more 'practical' and provided 'job skills', arguing the latter was more preferable than the former. I responded by explaining how a liberal arts and sciences education provides students with something even better than job skills: it gives students an education that will help them flourish across a very broad spectrum of areas for the rest of their lives. I don't know that I convinced them, and quite frankly I don't know that they were even open to being convinced. But that brief encounter reaffirmed my commitment to our liberal arts and sciences focus. Nothing I am writing here is new, but I find it important to restate. A liberal arts and science education is important because it encourages and helps one nurture the abilities needed to navigate the...