Being Yourself: The Challenge of the Small Liberal Arts College
By Aaron Basko, Vice President for Enrollment Management, University of Lynchburg
I am a big fan of small arts colleges. I attended one and I have worked at three.
In many ways, small liberal art colleges are the embodiment of what higher education was supposed to be, as they expose young minds to great thoughts and pass down the legacy of mentoring and questioning that goes back to the Middle Ages and beyond. At this moment in history, liberal arts colleges are facing real challenges, but they can survive and thrive by understanding their unique role in the marketplace and going back to embrace their roots.
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
From a societal perspective, the last 75 years could be seen as the story of the democratization of higher education in the United States, as increasing sectors of the country gained access to the benefits of a degree. If we focus on the story of institutions, however, one could just as easily make the case that the story of higher education in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is a story about institutions wanting to be what they are not —and liberal arts colleges have sometimes fallen into this trap.
American liberal arts colleges were founded to train leaders, first for the colonies and then for the new nation. Wealthy families sent their sons to the first liberal arts colleges to become lawyers, doctors, church ministers, and scholars. They needed to be taught history, reasoning, rhetoric, and the qualities that allow one to lead people and govern a society.
This model started with the Ivies, concentrated in the cities of the East Coast, then pushed inland to form what we now think of as the “national” liberal arts colleges, and eventually the “regional” liberal arts colleges that served primarily students from their areas. A regional liberal arts college might not be sending politicians to Washington, but they still focused on producing leaders. The local banker, accountant, doctor, minister, and lawyer were likely to have attended a nearby liberal arts college.
Meanwhile, a parallel structure was growing for public institutions. Large land grant universities joined the state flagship institutions of the East Coast with the Morrill Act in 1862. At first, public universities did not pose much competition for private colleges because their missions were different. Public universities were born out of a recognition that the country needed a skilled workforce. They began to train middle class students in more practical fields like engineering, agriculture, and areas of the sciences, without the leadership emphasis.
Flagships were later followed by regional public institutions, many of which started as normal schools to train teachers, then added training for other practical fields, like nursing. Public colleges and universities served the citizens of their states and provided easier access for students of lesser means. For a time, the system worked, and students knew where to go to get what they needed, but it didn’t last.
THE CHANGING ROLES OF INSTITUTIONS
In higher education, there is a strong undertow that pulls toward prestige and the money that accompanies it. Many of the most competitive universities in the country started as liberal arts colleges, but their age and access to the most elite circles of influence allowed them to transform themselves into something else. They now command billion-dollar endowments, medical research complexes, think tanks, and small cities built around them.
It is easy to understand why national liberal arts colleges would want to be like these elite private institutions. They started with similar DNA, they fight for the same students, and their missions overlap. If their geography had been different, or if they had been founded 40 years earlier, many of the national liberal arts colleges would be in the elite group.
This same dynamic exists between the national liberal arts colleges and the regional liberal art colleges. Regional colleges think, “We are the same type of institution, and they just have bigger endowments and attract students from further distance. Maybe if we emulate them, we could do that too.”
Where it starts to get confusing is in the changing role of public institutions. Somewhere along the way, public flagships decided they were not satisfied with confining themselves to the practical education of the students of their states. They looked at the elite privates and decided that they could offer an alternative. They began leveraging federal and state grants to build up their research complexes and medical systems. They began recruiting heavily out of state to pump up their tuition dollars, and they invested in huge sports programs as the ultimate equalizer between themselves and the elite privates. It worked amazingly well.
Flagship universities have not dethroned elite public institutions, but they have put themselves in a strong second place in the pecking order. In past decades, students that could not get into elite private universities attended national or regional liberal arts colleges. Now they are increasingly choosing large public universities.
Regional publics have witnessed this strategy for success and have emulated it, partly to defend themselves from the voracious growth of their own flagships. The regional institutions have invested heavily in the sciences and in STEM programs that lead to high-paying first jobs. They have adopted the advantages of private colleges by building versions of the liberal arts into their core curricula and creating honors programs to attract strong students. They have used state dollars to build magnificent facilities.
THREE KEY MESSAGES FOR LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES TO SEND
For regional liberal arts colleges, it is critical to rediscover your distinctive voice within the marketplace. Look back to your historical strengths and leverage them!
First, this means fully embracing the idea of training leaders. This is a clear message that will resonate with the students you want, and it is true to your history.
Small liberal arts colleges should be the very best at helping students get the inside track on medicine, law, and other professional programs at the undergraduate level. You have the opportunity for personal advising— sharing expertise and cultivating the relationships that will bring your graduates success in the professions they pursue. This includes business leadership, especially certain niche areas where they can shine. A disproportionately large percentage of CEOs of the past have been liberal arts graduates. Reinvest in that trend and actively cultivate that brand.
Second, rediscover the position of liberal arts colleges as the bastion of education in ethics, civics, and moral philosophy. Historically, we knew how to help our students become great thinkers by exposing them to the best minds and the best ideas from history.
When I look at our culture today, questions of philosophy, ethics, and meaning are more desperately needed than ever. This is the kind of training that leaders need to inspire people and make difficult decisions. That valuable training is the birthright of the small liberal arts college, and you can differentiate your school by embracing this idea of preparing students for the great decisions in life.
Third, liberal arts colleges can present to a crowded marketplace a form of “integrated learning.” We integrate the various pieces of the student into a comprehensive and coherent whole. While other institutions keep their disciplines separate and competitive, we encourage students to cross boundaries and build their own experience.
Our career preparation should be the best in the business and integrated within the academic experience, rather than relegated to one (typically underfunded) administrative unit. Philosophy, ethics, and practical application should be woven together to help our students create an integrated worldview that will make them self-governing citizens who can then lead others.
This is a moment when liberal arts colleges can shine. As students face miniscule admit rates at the most selective universities, they will be looking for other options. That gives your liberal arts college the opportunity to make your case. By embracing your roots and demonstrating how you can produce a different kind of graduate that our society needs, you can be part of liberal arts colleges reclaiming their critical role in higher education.
