Proposed BA Degree
Manifest to curricular reform is the goal of providing our students with an outstanding and challenging liberal education. Inherent to this goal is the elimination of the BS degree and the establishment of a more demanding BA degree. (The Bachelor of Music degree remains in place.) The rationale for this reform, which strengthens the degree by requiring both quantitative reasoning and language of every student and by standardizing the degree requirements across disciplines, is varied and multifaceted, but includes the following:
Strengthen the degree
- Requires both quantitative reasoning and language of every student.
- Standardizes the degree requirements across disciplines.
- There is no universal meaning to the BS degree, especially in Liberal Arts Universities where, unlike research institutions, there is not a narrow and highly focused science degree conferred.
- Of the top forty liberal arts colleges only 8 offer the BS degree, and two do so only in specialized science or engineering programs.
- A stronger degree will help to attract students of the caliber who attend the best Liberal Arts Colleges.
- A single degree with combined requirements in language and quantitative abilities is more consistent with the liberal arts heritage of rigorous and comprehensive education and with the demands on today's citizens.
- There is no empirical evidence that there is an advantage in a BS degree for acceptance at graduate and professional schools.
In summary, shifting to a unified BA degree will signal our institutional commitment to our Liberal Arts heritage, attract better prepared students, and result in more accomplished graduates.