As higher education is adapting to new technologies and realities, the liberal arts at Calvin is part of a shifting landscape. University President Greg Elzinga feels that Calvin “has always been known for having liberal arts education … That will remain the same. … What I’m encouraging our community, all of us, to think about is what does a comprehensive liberal arts education look like in the 21st century? And I think it’s going to look different than maybe it did 40 or 50 years ago, but I still think it will remain strong and it will remain relevant to the needs of the workforce in the world as well.”
Will Calvin’s liberal arts commitment stand the test of time? Chimes sat down with professors from multiple disciplines to share what “liberal arts” has meant to Calvin.
History of the core curriculum
Early on in Calvin’s history, when it was primarily a theological school, its academic requirements were more focused on the humanities. By the 1890s, requirements for the “Preparatory Department” included Latin, Dutch, German, English, reading, spelling, history, Greek, Hebrew, logic, psychology, geography, mythology, antiquities and philosophy, according to the 1895-96 course catalog. Over the decades, Calvin began to add more science and math requirements, including physiography, algebra, physics, solid geometry, botany, arithmetic, orthography, trigonometry and biology (required for various tracts in the 1905-06 academic year, according to the course catalog).
In 1965, the Calvin College Curriculum Study Committee released a report titled “Christian Liberal Arts Education,” outlining the college’s beliefs about the liberal arts and revisions to the core curriculum. This report defined Christian liberal arts education as “a Christian higher education which is non-professional and non-vocational in its orientation.” The report notes on page 42 that these liberal arts “[are] the only solid basis on which technical understanding can be built.” While the report embraces non-professional disciplines, it also rejects the view that a liberal arts education should only be about passive learning of broad topics, noting on page 44 that in such a view “the emphasis is all on understanding and judging culture, not on contributing to it.” It continues on page 44 that part of a liberal arts approach must involve “train[ing] new generations for productive and creative work in the various disciplines.” It also emphasizes the importance of the sciences as a part of the liberal arts, noting on page 45, “in nature, too, God is revealed.”
The report’s revisions to the core added requirements in studies of persons and society (psychology and sociology), studies of social institutions (economics and political science), studies of fine arts (literature, music, visual art and drama), demonstrated competency in spoken rhetoric, and a course in Christian perspective on learning, in addition to the already required courses in mathematics, physical science, biological science, history, philosophy, religion and theology, written rhetoric and foreign languages.
By the 1990s, Calvin’s core curriculum remained vastly unchanged from its 1965 revisions, with minor changes in specific classes, the addition of a physical education requirement, and the removal of the Christian Perspective on Learning requirement, according to the 1994-95 course catalog.
In the 2001-02 academic year, the core curriculum underwent an expansion, adding more requirements in physical education, two “Gateway and Prelude” courses (similar to Core 100), a research and information technology course, a rhetoric in culture course, a global and historical studies course, a cross-cultural engagement requirement, and an integrative studies requirement, according to the course catalog.
The most recent restructuring to the core curriculum was implemented in the 2021-22 academic year and featured a large reduction in the core curriculum, from 75-91 credits needed to only 40-50 credits needed, according to previous Chimes reporting.
Reacting to the core curriculum
Craig Hanson, professor of art history and associate director of the honors program, pointed to this most recent change in the core curriculum as one factor that has de-emphasized the liberal arts. “Regularly, we hear at Calvin that large programs just don’t have room for a larger core, for instance. So, [in] the last core revision certainly there was pressure to have a smaller core, and that meant that students had less of a liberal arts education,” he said.
Frans van Liere, professor of history and director of the classical and medieval studies program, echoed this statement, saying that the smaller core “seriously compromised the grounding in the liberal arts, especially in the humanities. And that led to smaller courses in the liberal arts courses and in the liberal arts disciplines that traditionally got a lot of its students from students who were doing it because of core.”
Commenting on the change in the core, Kate van Liere, professor of history and chair of the historical studies department, said, “There was this hope at the time that we could actually devise a common core that was still relatively rigorous that would be doable for students in all programs, and that was the idea: one core for all.” However, she noted that it didn’t go as planned. “Very soon after we created that new core, which was smaller, some professional programs then came back to the core committee and said ‘the core is still too big for us, we need it to be made even smaller for our students,’ and so we were very soon back to different cores for different programs.”
The balance of the liberal arts
Frans van Liere noted the balance at Calvin between liberal arts and professional programs. “I think there always has been a discussion about Calvin, whether it was primarily a liberal arts college or whether it was more of a trade school with applied schools and disciplines,” he said. “I think traditionally, Calvin has always been both, but I’ve seen the emphasis on the liberal arts shift.” Frans van Liere also noted a lack of rhetorical change on the part of the university over the years. “People always say that they value the liberal arts,” he said. “I don’t think that the rhetoric has changed very much, but I wish that Calvin would put its emphasis where the rhetoric is.”
Dave Warners, a professor in the biology department, noted that he feels that the liberal arts have “eroded,” saying, “I think we’ve been chasing after enrollment more than the quality of education that students get when they come here.” Warners expressed sympathies for the administration, saying, “when there’s budget cuts that need to be made … I’m not the one who has to make them.” However, he also stressed that he feels as though “there’s been way more emphasis on the sciences and on business than there has been on the humanities,” and noted that this has caused a decline in the quality of the “educational experience for students.”
The foundations of liberal arts
When asked what aspects are necessary for a robust liberal arts education, Hanson said, “Somehow, a liberal arts education has to be driven by curiosity, and the ability to ask questions, and the ability to understand the stakes of asking questions.” Hanson also noted that the liberal arts are not simply the humanities, but rather something that includes the “arts and humanities, social sciences and natural sciences” as vital pieces of the liberal arts.
Frans van Liere also emphasized the balance of the arts and humanities with a focus on “disciplines that promote learning for its own sake and not so much applied learning; they’re the disciplines that don’t necessarily have a useful application but that are useful in sharpening the mind and sharpening thinking … reasoning, philosophy, logic, but also reading, languages, history, and traditionally rhetoric and presentation has also been part of those liberal arts as well.”
Warners emphasized the need for cross-disciplinary learning. “The world out there isn’t partitioned up into disciplines. … The world is so integrated with so many different types of people, types of ideas,” he said. “We want students to leave this place well-equipped to enter that kind of world.”
Kate van Liere emphasized that the liberal arts should entail “reading substantial texts and engaging in thinking about big questions. … Then discussing those things, learning how to debate respectfully [with] people who see the world differently, learning how to argue and defend a position using evidence, [and] learning how to do that both in speech and in writing.” She noted that the liberal arts should include “history, philosophy, and languages and some amount of content in math and sciences,” noting that “being able to speak and read real text in another language … broadens your mind in a way that even reading difficult text in English doesn’t do.”
The value of liberal arts today
Hanson stressed the importance of the liberal arts in education today, in that he believes institutions that are mission-minded, deeply rooted in the liberal arts and have the capacity to explain their vision will thrive. He also feels “there’s something incumbent upon every generation to claim its version of the liberal arts in appropriate ways,” explaining that the liberal arts may change over time depending on the educational climate.
Hanson noted that the university could improve its marketing of the liberal arts to potential students. “Part of this becomes what kind of students we’re recruiting,” he said. “If we aren’t able to explain that on the front end, not surprisingly, then students who are interested in that sort of education aren’t going to be attracted to Calvin. So there is a way in which things become self-fulfilling prophecies. We need to know who we are, and we need to be able to communicate that well to students who would love a Calvin education.”
Frans van Liere emphasized the value of engaging the liberal arts as its own discipline, noting that “liberal arts is not a flavor that you add to something else. The liberal arts is a discipline … that is language-based, text-based or theoretical knowledge.” He noted that “a broad knowledge of culture and a broad understanding of the world around you, that is very often lost when you just skimp on liberal arts.”
Warners, commenting on more straightforward paths to professional degrees instead of the liberal arts, said, “Maybe they have an easier time getting a job and earning a paycheck, but I don’t think that’s what we’re about here, … simply getting students a paycheck when they leave this place. We want them to engage the world.” Warners mentioned some of his own experiences of the liberal arts in teaching biology, saying “we teach our students how to make graphs, how to do statistics, … how to write scientific papers, how to do research, collect data, process data. I mean, a really good, well put together, truthful graph rarely pulls at people’s heart[s]. But a really good piece of art can pull at people’s heart the way that graphs and statistics can’t do. … If they really want to reach people, they need way more than just their scientific background.”
Kate van Liere noted that the new core curriculum’s smaller emphasis on the liberal arts reduces the number of “opportunity majors” for students who decide to switch to a new major after taking a core class outside their discipline. “If students don’t even have to take any of those courses anymore for core, they’re less likely to discover these disciplines,” she said.
A changing academic landscape
Hanson noted that, from post-World War II forward, “liberal arts was just taken for granted as what it meant to be educated.” However, Hanson noted that in the past few decades, the academic landscape has faced “a growing anti-intellectualism,” noting that “institutions that are deeply committed to the liberal arts have then had to rethink, reconsider their own relationship to the liberal arts.”
Kate van Liere noted that “the content of liberal arts inevitably and rightly changes over the generations. But the ability to think, … that’s under assault, not just by the shrinkage of liberal arts courses in the curriculum, but by the advent of AI. And those two things happening together are really posing a threat to education worldwide, not just at Calvin. … The changes that you see happening at Calvin, they’re not just a Calvin story.” However, she also stressed that she feels that “Calvin should be a place where we can lead the way in showing that even though students want to major more and more in professional programs, the liberal arts are essential.” She emphasized that there’s still hope: “I want to hope that we can keep the flame alive.”
