The liberal arts have a long history in education, but currently many Americans think of the liberal arts as a hindrance and want them removed from education altogether. As the job demand in STEM fields increases, more people are reluctant to pursue a liberal arts degree because of the assumption that STEM dsisciplines are wholly excluded. Liberal arts “embraces the ideal of the integrated curriculum, encompassing virtually all nonprofessional higher learning, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities and the performing arts,” (Scheuer 2). While liberal arts aren’t primarily focused in STEM, the interdisciplinary learning done within the liberal arts is beneficial. The liberal arts are more focused on training the mind than specific subjects, which Scheuer claims to be more beneficial. Moreover, Ungar claims that having no liberal arts background won’t even necessarily increase success levels in students. “No evidence suggests, however, that success in scientific and technical fields will be greater if it comes at the expense of a broad background in other areas of the liberal arts.” Liberal arts supports critical thinking, citizenship development, and problem solving. Not having a liberal arts education would rob you of these beneficial skills that are valuable in nearly any job market.

---

Liberal arts at UNE is most closely related to Scheuer’s first generalized American conception of liberal arts. The first conception Scheuer gives states the idea that liberal arts “embraces the ideal of the integrated curriculum . . . from the natural and social sciences to the humanities and performing arts . . . this comprehensive vision recognizes . . . the consequent need for interdisciplinary learning,” (Scheuer 2). This conception of the liberal arts proposes that all academic disciplines have their own individual values and focuses, but are all connected through universal approaches, investigation, and especially critical thinking. This first conception of the liberal arts predominantly showcases that there are no rigidly defined boundaries, rather all liberal arts possess similar origins, and all disciplines are connected and interdisciplinary collaboration can be seen. This model of liberal arts is aligned with UNE’s model of the liberal arts. Some of UNE’s basic core themes are to provide a strong basis in liberal arts and to prepare its students to become proficient intellectual thinkers and problem solvers. In order to produce these adaptive and successful students the university utilizes interdisciplinary studies that are similar to the idea presented by Scheuer.“The Core Curriculum is designed to incorporate many teaching strategies to facilitate student-centered, integrative (such as interdisciplinary) learning experiences that utilize the skills of our faculty. Core requirements introduce students to disciplines as ways of knowing, provide interdisciplinary and multi- disciplinary perspectives, and instill advanced understanding of disciplines outside a student’s major,” (UNE Handbook 4). A link between UNE’s core curriculum and Scheuer’s conception of liberal arts can be made because they both stress promoting integrative study in the liberal arts.

---

UNE’s core values are rooted in providing a full liberal arts education and values to each student. The handbook is full of great examples of the civic dimension, including citizenship and civic engagement as one of its core themes. This theme teaches student’s “to become more civically engaged in their community,”. UNE also focuses largely on Scheuer’s second idea of citizenship he calls economic citizenship described as “which means being a productive member of a community: doing something useful for oneself and for others,” (Scheuer 4). Becoming a contributing member of the community is frequently mentioned in the UNE handbook. It is well established within the beliefs and values of the university. As part of the citizenship and civic engagement seminar a main objective is to “integrate [environmental awareness, social and global awareness, critical thinking] to generate ideas and actions that benefit society as well as themselves,” (22). Although if asking Scheuer what he thought about UNE’s core values he’d probably say it was lacking a well rounded idea of citizenship. Even though there are well developed implementations of the civic and economic citizenship dimension, there is a lack of cultural citizenship, which is “through participation in the various conversations that constitute a culture . . . The arts, religion, and sports are all potential venues for cultural conversations,” (Scheuer 4). This type of citizenships not stressed within the core values and themes of the handbook, and if it were it would ensure the school provides a more well rounded, true liberal arts education.