B.S. Changes Proposed at Lander University

The liberal arts category of study and of majors has been the focus of Lander University from its very beginnings. However, slowly, unfortunately that is changing due to new administrative decisions on the part of University President Dr. Daniel Ball and others of the university board of administrators. Rumors of the administration trying to diminish the liberal arts majors and put much more emphasis on the sciences and maths are flying from ear to ear all across campus. Putting emphasis on those areas is fine and could be quite beneficial to the university, but they cannot, in the process, partially discard the very areas of study for which the school has been known for from the beginning. Furthermore, the administration simply deciding to give more funding to or promote the science and math departments is not a bad thing, for those areas are still relatively new to the school and could use some further development, and perhaps this is partly what the administration is doing or planning to do, but that is not what has students concerned.

It is the next step that the administration has taken that worries and upsets students there at Lander; knowledge of Lander's so called plan to take away the Bachelors of Arts degree and have all majors, excepting Fine Arts, graduate with a Bachelors of Science is what is upsetting. This does not make since in the smallest degree, for who would take a graduate seriously if they said they had a Bachelors of Science in Music or in English or in Spanish for goodness sake. And if all the degrees are turned into BS degrees, then does that make the BA degree many upperclassmen these next two years will graduate under outdated, or does it simply mean that the Bachelors of Arts will become more rare. This uncertainty of what is will mean for graduates of Lander University under the Bachelors of Arts degree is part of the major concern. The administration has yet to answer these questions for us.

Also, with this new catalog that would put this change into effect, because these new students will graduate under a BS degree instead of a BA degree, they will have to take more maths and more sciences to achieve their degree though their major may not have any need for so many of those kinds of classes, which is true of any study on any of the many liberal arts categories. So what is the university's reasoning for changing this long-established degree to one that seems almost irrelevant to most of the areas of study offered by the university? What could the benefits be for an English major or a music major or many others to graduate under a BS degree instead of a BA, or to have to take those extra sciences and maths that are required of a BS degree? The only consolation I have heard of has been the fact that the Bachelors of Arts degree will still be available to students, but only if they want to take more foreign language courses than have ever been required for obtaining that degree. And is this truly fair? Most majors, other than English, in the liberal arts category have very little need to deal overmuch with a foreign language. And while the study of other cultures and foreign languages is important and good for a student in the area of becoming culturally aware of the world around him or her, there are other general education classes offered that serve this purpose such as Wester Civilization 101 and 102, the first prescribed foreign language courses either in Spanish or French for these are the only languages offered, Global Studies courses or Non-Western Studies courses, and several of the literature, history, and music courses that deal with areas other than that of America or Western Europe even. Do these classes not serve that purpose? Should it not be an option as to whether or not a student wants to focus on a foreign language to serve that requirement or choose one of the other courses offered that fulfills this? The administration has yet to explain their reasoning behind these changes and give students and parents of students alike the answers to these concerned questions.

But one could ask, what would an upperclassman care about changes that are going to be implemented in years to come, at least a year after the seniors graduate and leave and the juniors will have just left as well? Well, what do you think would happen if the administration of the university an upperclassman receives his or her degree from makes a bad decision that affects the prestige or reputation of that university? Do you suppose that might effect how a future employer might view that degree? Not to mention the fact that, if any student plans on going on to graduate school to become a member of a college or university faculty, they had better recognize these things now and take a stand on them, or else what good will it do to wait until they are established in their employer school to see that their voice needs to be heard and that they need to speak out against a bad decision. Every student and alumnus needs to be concerned, very concerned with major changes made to their alma mater university for it effects the ways in which their degree is viewed in relation so other degrees from other secondary education schools, and because, having gone through the process of obtaining that degree, they should be just as concerned and sympathetic for those beginning students of every new generation that are struggling through as they did.

It is with concern and sympathy for future students as well as a need to have my and other's voices and opinions heard that I write, knowing that this is only one of several proposed changes to the curriculum and academic life on campus that is upsetting the student body. But what can we students do about it. Just about the only thing there is to do is to start a petition, write letters of protest, or letters of dissent, disagreement, etc. and hope that our feelings get through to those removed from everyday campus life that have so diligently proposed to turn our academic lives upside down.

A. K. Andrews