(11-22-2016 01:59 PM)bearcat72 Wrote: Let's face it, the liberal arts aren't exactly where UC is its strongest, and I'm sure they want to grow the research enterprise.
Guess you've never heard of CCM or DAA!!!!!
I would argue that even in DAAP and CCM, the strongest programs are pre-professional - they are geared towards gaining a specific job, a specialized field, like architecture, interior design, musical theater, or conducting. While the College of Arts and Sciences has some ranked programs, they do not carry the prestige of UC's other colleges.
"Liberal Arts" tends to be geared towards a general broad based knowledge that is intended enable critical thinking:
"What is a Liberal Arts Education?
Working towards a baccalaureate degree in the Arts or Sciences involves taking courses in what are traditionally referred to as the "liberal" arts. This means that your courses will be in general areas of study--philosophy, mathematics, literature, art history, economics, languages, and so on--rather than in applied or specialized fields. A liberal arts education is not intended to train you for a specific job, though it does prepare you for the world of work by providing you with an invaluable set of employability skills, including the ability to think for yourself, the skills to communicate effectively, and the capacity for lifelong learning.
What Will I Study as Part of an Arts Education?
You will study a variety of subjects, looking at the world and its people from various points of view. You will learn about ideas and beliefs that have guided human beings and shaped civilizations for thousands of years. What does it mean to be human? What have humans done, thought about, and felt? What is truth and beauty, and what are their value to life? How have we been shaped by, and how have we shaped, our physical and natural environment? What skills, methods or techniques can be used to examine the world and its people? These are some of the key questions examined by the Arts disciplines.
A liberal arts education is by nature broad and diverse, rather than narrow and specialized. Choosing courses from many disciplines gives you a wide and useful education. In the first year, an Arts student normally takes a variety of introductory courses. This not only gives you a wide knowledge of subjects but helps you to choose certain areas for further study. In most cases, you will be encouraged to take courses in at least some of the major categories within the liberal arts: Humanities (English Literature, Modern Languages, History, Philosophy), Social Sciences (Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Sociology), Creative Arts (Fine Art, Theatre, Speech, Creative Writing), and the Sciences. At the same time, Arts programs usually allow for some degree of specialization in a Major discipline or in a group of thematically-linked courses. By concentrating on a given subject, whatever it may be, you will go beyond the mere surface of things and gain a solid grasp of the core material in a given area."
http://www.uni.edu/reineke/whystudyla.htm