Downsizing the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota

[marmar]

from the Star-Trib:




The biggest college of the University of Minnesota would shrink -- and hopefully shine -- in a revamping sketched out in a report released Monday on the future of the College of Liberal Arts.

The college should cut tiny majors, meld departments and cap administrative costs to prepare for an era of limited budgets, the CLA 2015 report says. At the same time, the college must fortify unique programs and retain the research that distinguishes it.

The goal is a smaller CLA, the report says, with "fewer but better programs."

The report is peppered with out-of-the-box ideas -- including changing the college's name and switching to a year-round schedule. "What if," it ponders, "graduate students gave the lectures and faculty met in small groups with the students?"

It also provides a dramatic picture of cuts that have already occurred and argues that the college that educates half the U's undergraduates has unfairly sacrificed. Budgets and bar graphs show "we have suffered the most," said Steven Ostrow, chair of the Department of Art History and a member of the committee. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.startribune.com/local/106934848.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUvckD8EQDUs

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. All vocational, all the time.

Under different labels. No education, just training.

Already happening in the high schools -- if it's not STEM, it goes.