The rationale behind discrediting Liberal Arts

[Asher]

Common sense -- do you have otherwise?

[Kuciwalker]

Even if they do that just means there are enough government-subsidized liberal arts students to pay the liberal arts faculty.

[General Ludd]

In all the places that I volunteer the ratio of the majors of student volunteers is something like 7 Liberal/Fine Arts : 2 science/engineer : 1 Buisness

Liberal and fine arts majors contribute more to society.

[Kuciwalker]

The scientists and businessmen and engineers can do more for society by working or studying useful skills. The liberal arts students aren't really worth more than unskilled labor.

[Verto]

God knows none of the science majors here are doing anything to contribute to society - unless one counts polytrolling

[Asher]

Originally posted by Verto
God knows none of the science majors here are doing anything to contribute to society - unless one counts polytrolling

Certainly more useful to society than General Ludd's rants on environmentalism.

[Verto]

No arguing that.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Verto
God knows none of the science majors here are doing anything to contribute to society - unless one counts polytrolling

I did - but the pay was lousy

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Asher
Common sense -- do you have otherwise?

Yes, actually.

UofA 2005 revenue
474,400,000 Provincial gov
113,183,000 Federal and other level of gov
163,423,000 Tuition and fees
160,493,000 Sale of goods and services
41,550,000 Investment income
38,012,000 Grants and Donations

Grant income is a drop in the bucket.

Maybe American unis are different, but Krazy's complaints don't seem to apply across the board.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Music, motion pictures literature and art are produced by liberal arts departments?

Indirectly. Liberal arts departments produce the people who produce the music, motion pictures, literature and art.

The same way the physics department produces physicists and the engineering department produces engineers.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
The scientists and businessmen and engineers can do more for society by working or studying useful skills. The liberal arts students aren't really worth more than unskilled labor.

Mssrs Spielberg and Lucas will be surprised to hear that.

[RGBVideo]

Thought this was obvious, but it hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet:

You can get away with BS'ing your way through a liberal arts degree (though most aren't skilled enough at this to complete their graduation and only waste their money for a few years before dropping out) without actually knowing or learning anything having to do with your degree, since the amount of knowledge and skills are harder to measure. Think the start of your high school, MRT: you could always try to BS your way in history tests by writing in generalities, but trying to pass math exam without learning anything about the subject was impossible. The better the teacher, the harder (s)he is to BS. But why would teachers (insert professor if you wish) or school (insert university) admins kick out lousy students? The amount of funding is based on how many kids the school (university) has.

[notyoueither]

That is true. You could skate through most departments with a barely adequate GPA if you wish.

I think you can do that in business, education, and many of the less demanding sciences as well. A 5 or 6 (0-9 scale at my uni) is not too hard to get if you pick your courses for it.

[Asher]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Yes, actually.

UofA 2005 revenue
474,400,000 Provincial gov
113,183,000 Federal and other level of gov
163,423,000 Tuition and fees
160,493,000 Sale of goods and services
41,550,000 Investment income
38,012,000 Grants and Donations

Grant income is a drop in the bucket.

Maybe American unis are different, but Krazy's complaints don't seem to apply across the board.

What does this have to do with...

Do you have numbers on any campuses that show that tuition paid by arts and humanities students (on top of government grants per student) do not more than cover their own depatments?

Thanks...

[notyoueither]

75% of the operating costs of the UofA are covered by government and tuition. Most of the rest is covered by the university's own resources.

Grant income is less than 4%.