Many small colleges with liberal-arts underpinnings face enrollment and financial pressures. Determined to attract students, they are rolling out trendy job-specific majors at a furious clip. Even elite schools that stress the pure liberal arts feel pressure to change. There's a misapplied sense of which skills will count. The liberal arts is the best training, because it develops skills that are transferable to any job or career.
National statistics bear out the changing campus climate.
After rising through the 1980s, the number of students obtaining English degrees dropped 12 percent from 1993 to 1997, and the number getting undergraduate history degrees declined by 9 percent. In contrast, degrees in the health professions grew 28 percent over the same period. The shift is driving up the salaries of professors who teach hot vocational majors. So those programs that are associated with visible careers draw more students initially - and more funding and publicity from the college. Other educators argue that colleges have no choice but to accommodate changing student preferences.