(01-13-2022 05:58 PM)Bronco14 Wrote: Colleges cut programs budgets. Instead of giving everyone less, how about cutting out the fat completely. Gut a lot of the useless programs. Not only do those students struggle w/ getting a return on their investment, it gives the school itself bad word of mouth.
That's a surprising recommendation to read, considering that most or all of the people who post on these message boards follow college sports because they have attended a college or university and/or value a well-rounded college education.
The way you've described it, a college program (department) is "useless" if many or most students who take classes in or major in the department find it challenging to "get a return on their investment."
According to that definition, it seems that your recommendation would be to "gut" all of the Schools and Departments in the United States, including:
History Departments (Majors/concentrations including):
History of China, Japan, & Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, United States, Africa, Middle East, & the World; of Business, Finance, & Economics, Culture, Literature, & Art, Empires, Imperialism, & Colonialism, International Relations and Global Affairs, Law, Politics, & Government, Public & Professional History, Race, Ethnicity, & Immigration, Religion, Philosophy, & Ideas, Science, Technology, & Medicine, War, Peace, & Diplomacy, World Cultures & Civilizations.
Department of English (Majors/concentrations including): American Literature
Composition and Rhetoric, Creative Writing, Digital Humanities, Ethnic Studies
Film Studies, Literary and Critical Theory, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, & British Literature.
Schools and Departments of Art (Majors/concentrations including): Ceramics, Fibre, Glass, Jewellery and Metals, Media Arts, Painting, Photography,
Print Media, Sculpture, Visual Communications Design, & Art History.
Schools and Departments of Music (Majors/concentrations including): Arts Management, Popular Music, Jazz Studies, Musical Theater, Music Education, Music History, Music Industry, Music Technology, & Performance (piano, etc.).
Departments of Languages and Literatures (Majors/concentrations including): French, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc.
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These is just a small sample of the majors and concentrations that would be "gutted."
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The problem with your recommendation is that much of what makes a college education valuable is the fact that it's possible to study such a wide range of topics.
Adopting the recommendation would eliminate most or all of "The Arts" from an American college education, and would turn the institutions into training or technical schools, not meant to educate the whole person, but rather to teach him/her a trade; nothing more.
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It would also make American college graduates a lot less competitive with graduates from the many other nations that would continue to provide a well-rounded college or university education.
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