From the N&O’s article on Gov. McCrory’s speech to UNC:
McCrory’s views on higher education have prompted criticism from UNC professors, dozens of whom sat in front rows Sunday. Some say his position undervalues the traditional liberal arts education …
I almost expected that sentence to end with “and that’s our job.” The story of academe in general over the past few decades, which UNC has eagerly followed, has been one of systematically destroying the traditional (their word) liberal arts education. There is now no set body of knowledge or array of thinking skills that employers can expect a newly minted UNC graduate to have.
Understand that a student can still pursue a traditional liberal arts education at UNC, but he must do so deliberately, choosing elective courses carefully. In other words, a student must arrive on campus already valuing the idea of a traditional liberal arts education, because that value is not going to be impressed upon him from the inside.
