The move away from liberal arts at FPU

by Tyler Comeau

(Photo: oglethorpe.edu)

From losing the Fine Arts major to losing the bottom floor of Monadnock to now having painting classes held in dorm buildings, it seems that the art department at Franklin Pierce University is on its last legs. The art department is just one of the many departments suffering from FPU’s shift away from liberal arts.

Fine arts is not the first liberal arts department to have faced issues like these in recent years. In 2014, the American Studies, Theater and Dance, Graphic Communications, Fine Arts, Math and Arts Management majors were all cut. According an article from Sentinel Source, this was the result of a revenue loss from 2008 to 2012 and the school also momentarily suspended contributions to health care benefits as well as their retirement program. Students at the time lamented not only the future of liberal arts at Franklin Pierce, but also the fact that the campus community had only been notified after the decision had already been made.

At a meet and greet with the Student Government Association, President Kim Mooney expressed that the school is currently in good financial standing. She also stated that for the past couple years, FPU has been receiving surplus of funds. Mooney said that the retention rate at Franklin Pierce has also been slated at 68 percent, up from the reported rate from 2008 to 2012. When asked about the promised renovations to the theater basement, Mooney responded that it was a capital improvements request that was shelved due to budgetary concerns.

Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post claims that a lot of schools’ abandonment of liberal arts is due to criticism of it from conservatives. “I see several sources for the national abandonment of liberal education. First, many conservatives, especially among orthodox religious believers and those who have not attended college, resist any notion of education “deferring to neither tradition nor authority” — the traditional authority of the family, church and nationalism.” Despite this, Strauss argues for the importance of liberal education. Liberal arts offers a variety of different areas of study and introduces students to a wide array of different perspectives and schools of thought. This encourages students to think more critically about politics, world issues, and history, enabling rationality and more perspective within public discourse.

Franklin Pierce University needs to reestablish itself as a liberal arts college and invest more into art and humanities. Liberal arts is an important part of this school’s history, identity, and is a struggling area of academia that needs more support. Liberal arts provides a variety of opportunities for students to explore new ideas and understand more about the world. This helps enrich students and provides people a more well versed understanding of world and nationwide issues, allowing for better public discourse and critical thinking. Our University is doing very well and is growing at a time when other colleges are struggling. It is important that we invest in liberal arts and work to enrich civil, public discourse.