Distinctively American : The Liberal Arts College 133

PATENTS ON THE TRADITIONAL MISSION of liberal arts education have expired. Generic versions of that mission are now regularly included in even the most specialized undergraduate curricula. In the marketplace, meanwhile, the undiluted liberal arts experience is battling the pressures of escalating costs, rising tuitions, and increasing demands for career training as a primary component of undergraduate study. These pressures alone weigh heavily on the future of independent residential liberal arts colleges. However, their impact is compounded by the contemporary environment of social change and societal demands. As a result, the educational estate of these colleges is being fundamentally challenged and their continuing viability seriously threatened. This essay will address the following questions: In view of their acknowledged problems, have liberal arts colleges lost their relevance and do they, in terms of their traditional mission as liberal arts colleges, face extinction? If so, and the “natural selection” process is allowed to proceed, does it matter? If it matters, why? What are the options for survival? And would “responsible citizenship,” as an active ingredient, contribute significantly as a force for breathing new life and viability into the liberal arts mission? There are some thirty-five hundred colleges and universities in the United States. Under sufficiently elastic criteria, about