Samantha Malmfelt

3/29/17

Changes in Liberal Arts Education

(http://web.a.ebscohost.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=619a74bc-4e7c-4037-8cdb-
cf41c143472f
%40sessionmgr4007&vid=0&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=EJ1
095200&db=eric)

Summary:
This article says that from 1990 to 2012, there was a thirty-eight percent decline of schools who
labeled themselves as true liberal arts colleges. Many factors have been found as reasons for this
change from liberal arts colleges, to a focus on more professionally based programs. Liberal Arts
programs like to come from a position where they believe that their way of study provides the
personal, residential nature of the experience it provides. People who are trying to preserve liberal
arts education are trying to take a botiquification approach to save their universities and studies,
but the author thinks this is a silly approach, and could be detrimental. Higher education planning
has been using the term niche to discuss liberal arts and changes being made from a university
standpoint, so that they can be appealing to a greater audience. This creates a shift in expectations
from students and other individuals involved. They want to be more and more apart of a specific
group of people, and to be treated a certain way. When liberal arts is presented as a boutique
product, it becomes much narrower. Branding liberal arts education this way may cause people to
view it as more of a luxury thing, that isnt really attainable for the average person. Some school
systems, like those in NC and FL, have suggested people should only pay a lot of money and attend
private schools if theyd like to study liberal arts, this turns people away from the good that can
come for seeking out this kind of education.

Rhetorical Analysis:
An article from the Liberal Education source titled The Boutique Liberal Arts? written by Scott
Cohen begins with a rational statement that Liberal Arts are in terrible danger. His purpose seems
to be to inform the public about this seemingly wrongful approach, and how important it is to save
the arts in the right way. The genre is non-fiction, with a focus on topics of liberal arts, higher
education, changes being made and how branding and marketing are playing a role in this whole
situation. The article goes into a whole section that discusses the design and popularity of boutique
hotels and how their change to more personalization and connection with customers has been so
successful. This whole thing is about how schools brand themselves and how marketing and
advertising are so important in the educational world today. The author is concerned about the way
liberal arts education is being branded to the population. He believes that this will cause students to
look more inward only within their specific groups, rather than also looking outward -- which has
always been a huge part of the arts. The conclusion of this article is full of a hopeful attitude where
the author would love to see liberal arts continue to thrive in our society and not feel so exclusive
and limited. You can tell the author is passionate about what he is writing about. He believes our
world would be a sad one, if we completely lost hold of the liberal arts.
Samantha Malmfelt
3/29/17

Cohen, Scott. 2014. "The Boutique Liberal Arts?." Liberal Education 100, no. 4: ERIC, EBSCOhost
(accessed March 29, 2017).

In class Summary:

The article begins by stating a fact about how 38% of colleges moved from labeling themselves as
true liberal arts colleges to a greater focus on professional based programs. People who are
trying to preserve liberal arts education are trying to take a branding approach to save their
universities and studies, but the author thinks this is a silly approach, and could be detrimental.
There are various factors that contribute to this change. Programs who focus on Liberal Arts studies
want to be known as a group that offer personal experiences. The individuals who are working to
preserve this type of education are taking an approach that brands liberal arts universities and
studies. The author disagrees with this approach, and thinks that it can actually work against what
these individuals want to have happen. They have tried to be more appealing to a larger audience
by creating a liberal arts niche, which creates a shift in expectations of people looking to go to a
specific college, or join a program. By doing all of this, liberal arts education of becoming more
exclusive and luxurious from an outsider's perspective, which is not helping the hopes of holding on
to this kind of education.