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Elm Tree Lawn

By Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies Westenley Alcenat and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Professor Mary Hatcher-Skeers

• Two ÎåÔÂÌìÊÓƵfaculty members write about how an education in the liberal arts prepares thinkers for an ever-changing world.

A troubling narrative is haunting American higher education—the specter of irrelevance. Traditional liberal arts colleges are increasingly portrayed as quaint relics unable to justify their existence, yet beneath this utilitarian reckoning lies a profound misunderstanding: The liberal arts were never solely about vocational training. Their true mission has always been to nurture human capacities essential for democratic life, critical thought, and enduring innovation. In a world reshaped by algorithms and polarization, the liberal arts are not antiquated luxuries—they are necessities.

Central to the skepticism directed at liberal arts education is the persistent economic anxiety stemming from the aftermath of the 2008 recession. Data from the Federal Reserve underscores a stark reality: since 1989, wealth among college graduates has surged by 83 percent, while non-graduates have remained economically stagnant. This division may foster the perception that only specialized technical degrees offer financial security. Yet, longitudinal studies challenge this view, revealing that liberal arts graduates often surpass their pre-professional peers in long-term career success. Research has found that about 30 percent of S&P 500 CEOs possess liberal arts backgrounds, defying assumptions about the supposed economic impracticality of humanities and social science degrees.

Why this paradoxical advantage? It arises precisely because the liberal arts cultivate resilience, adaptability, critical thinking, and ethical discernment— attributes which appreciate over a lifetime and automation cannot replicate.

The democratic foundations of American society were explicitly built upon liberal education. From its earliest days, American higher education emphasized the trivium— grammar, logic, rhetoric—and the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy—to prepare individuals not merely for employment, but for self-governance.

As Saint Augustine and Renaissance humanists argued, education equips citizens for civic engagement and moral discernment—essential attributes for sustaining a democratic polity. Shakespeare’s Henry VI dramatically illustrates this, demonstrating authoritarian regimes’ fear of educated citizens capable of questioning power. Today, similar anxieties underlie political efforts to interfere with college humanities programs and to cut funding to the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities—revealing a deeper unease about intellectual independence and critical inquiry.

This fear of liberal education coincides with our current technological age.

Artificial intelligence, epitomized by platforms like ChatGPT and Midjourney, seemingly threatens to automate creativity itself. Paradoxically, this technological revolution amplifies rather than diminishes the value of the liberal arts. AI excels at processing data but fails to grasp ambiguity, ethical complexity, and human emotion. It can analyze ethical frameworks but cannot feel moral responsibility; it can replicate poetic structures but not the heartbreak behind them. In an era dominated by algorithms, the uniquely human abilities cultivated by liberal education—empathy, moral judgment, creative thinking—become indispensable. Indeed, our future demands not fewer philosophers and historians, but more citizens adept at interpreting meaning, confronting ethical dilemmas, and creatively synthesizing diverse perspectives.

Consider American leaders across a range of fields who emerged predominantly from liberal arts backgrounds, like Anthony Fauci, a classics major who led us through the COVID-19 crisis; or Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a government major; or Scripps’ own Gabby Giffords ’93, a former congresswoman and current gun violence prevention activist who majored in Latin American history and sociology. These examples illustrate a broader truth underscored by José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson in Teaching with AI: liberal education fosters adaptability and intellectual agility essential during times of unpredictable change. Rather than becoming obsolete, liberal arts graduates have consistently demonstrated their resilience, thriving precisely because their education emphasized critical thinking, communication, and ethical reasoning.

Finally, we must confront the erosion of liberal education. Today’s resurgence of authoritarian populism—marked by book bans, misinformation, and cultural polarization— thrives in environments lacking critical inquiry and ethical discernment. Without robust liberal arts curricula, societies risk intellectual stagnation and susceptibility to manipulation. The liberal arts stand not merely as academic disciplines, but also as bulwarks against illiberalism, essential for creating informed citizens who engage meaningfully in democratic life.

Abandoning the liberal arts does not secure economic dominance; rather, it imperils our collective capacity for innovation, adaptability, and critical thought. Conversely, embracing and revitalizing liberal education positions society not merely to navigate technological upheavals but to flourish through them. By preserving the liberal arts tradition, we affirm the enduring power of human ingenuity, integrity, and democratic citizenship—the very foundations necessary for a vibrant, thoughtful, and resilient society.

The liberal arts are not remnants of a bygone era. Simply put, we need the liberal arts—now more than ever.