When people who are not from around here ask where I go to school, I answer with “Northwestern College”. This answer is usually met with some sort of look that indicates that I need to further explain my answer, and I usually say something like “not that Northwestern. It’s a small Christian liberal arts college in Northwest Iowa.” I am a senior now, and the phrase “Christian liberal arts college” rolls off the tongue out of habit. It was commonly mentioned when I took First Year Seminar, and it is talked about in other classes as well.
Yet, when I go to the homepage on NW’s website, I do not see the phrase “liberal arts” anywhere. Instead, the slogan “stand out” appears at least seven times in various places, and prospective students are told they will lead lives of significance, have a sense of belonging and “experience standout academics.”
What does this missing phrase indicate? A liberal arts education is meant to be a comprehensive, interdisciplinary education that includes the social and natural sciences, mathematics, arts and humanities. This usually means a robust core curriculum, an emphasis on the value of the humanities and arts and strength within those programs. However, humanities programs continue to be cut, liberal arts colleges close their doors and core curriculums become smaller at universities and colleges across the country. This last point is true at NW, with one of the most recent changes to the curriculum being a minimization of our language requirement. Over the last 20 years, the core curriculum at NW has been minimized.
On the one hand, the job market and general economy over the past few decades means this trend makes sense. Bachelor’s degrees have become much more common, and companies have become highly selective with who they hire, meaning your major and extracurriculars in college matter. People going into and coming out of college are understandably concerned about their ability to earn a living wage, and so they have moved towards programs like business, computer science and finance, and away from arts and humanities programs. The value of a college degree is placed increasingly on its potential earnings and a good return on investment.
Yet to reduce education to its economic return, is to misunderstand what education should be for, as well as what we lose when we push a liberal arts education to the side. A comprehensive liberal arts education teaches us to analyze the information we read and see around us. It gives us the tools to communicate well with a diverse range of people in a variety of ways. We learn about moral complexity and reason and become historically aware. In a time where information seems more available than ever before, the importance of a liberal arts college education is becoming increasingly clear.
Even from a practical and economic standpoint, a liberal arts education may be what employers look for as AI takes over more jobs. Some experts have predicted this shift, and cuts to the liberal arts may begin to backfire, if they have not already. Some hiring managers have shifted to hiring college graduates who majored or minored in a liberal arts degree, as it shows adaptability and skills that work across a variety of platforms, which is important as rapid technological growth means that industries are also changing quickly, according to Fortune.com.
Northwestern College has phased out the use of the liberal arts in its branding. It now has a clear message on its website: Raiders Stand Out. But if NW stops naming and investing in the liberal arts, it risks becoming indistinguishable from the institutions it competes with.
I believe NW has an opportunity to set itself apart, and part of this means reemphasizing and naming the education that students will receive as a Christian liberal arts college. It means showing the value of the arts and humanities for students’ faith and future, and it means maintaining a comprehensive core education program.
Institutional change also starts at an individual level. Students should not wait for NW to reaffirm the value of a liberal arts education before taking advantage of what the faculty here have to offer. We can choose to invest in it ourselves. So, take the philosophy or history class you have been eyeing, learn a new language or maybe even consider adding a minor (or major) in a discipline you are interested in. It could end up being what causes you to stand out at a job interview one day, but even beyond that, it gives a deeper and broader understanding of our world and our place within it.
