For a student enrolled in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, including the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and those who are dually enrolled in Arts and Sciences and the Newhouse School of Public Communications or the School of Education, a staple of their college education is the Liberal Arts Core. The Liberal Arts Core seeks to introduce students to a variety of topics and perspectives and to create well-rounded students with baseline knowledge in an array of disciplines. In my own SU experience, I have found that parts of the curriculum are not beneficial to my growth as a student.

The Liberal Arts Core Curriculum is broken up into four sections, each dedicated to broadening students’ education and intellectual skills. The Liberal Skills Requirement consists of WRT 105 and 205, a writing intensive class and a language or quantitative skills class. The Divisional Perspectives Requirement is the largest section, with four courses in each of the three curricular Arts and Sciences divisions, as well as a required sequence (two classes within the same field of study).

The Critical Reflections on Ethical and Social Issues Requirement contains three courses to encourage students to think critically about social and ethical issues. Lastly, the IDEA Requirement is two courses that promote the concepts of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility.

When I decided to come to SU, I was thrilled to go to a school where I thought I would be able to focus solely on my major and topics that I was interested in. I had purposely avoided small liberal arts colleges, dreading the idea that I would be forced to take classes about things I didn’t care for. Perhaps this was due to my lack of research, but I was greatly disappointed when I arrived at SU and learned about the Liberal Arts Core.

As a political science major, I dreaded the idea of taking natural science courses, a subject area I had stopped taking my senior year of high school and assumed that I would never have to take again. I have found myself the most unhappy at SU when I am taking natural science classes, as I am this semester. I hate going to class, I leave homework until the last minute, and I feel unmotivated to study for tests and exams.

This is by no fault of the people teaching me, but rather my complete disregard for what I am learning. I feel that these courses have no real value to my life and career outside of SU.

Similarly, I have been extremely dissatisfied with the writing classes I have taken at SU. Again, I find that these classes don’t offer unique or exciting knowledge about how to improve, but rather tedious projects and research that make me less inclined to look forward to writing. I have found more joy from writing papers in law and political science classes than in the required writing courses.

Of course, there are aspects of the Liberal Arts Core that are essential. It is obviously important that students take classes for their major and their degree. It’s vital that students learn about social and ethical issues, as well as inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. These are concepts and skills that will serve students throughout their entire lives and career, regardless of the field that they enter. But forcing students to take classes that won’t serve them, will never be used in their career and only make them miserable, is not beneficial to the students nor the professors that teach them.

By requiring students to take classes they do not want to take, SU wastes not only the students’ time but also the professors’. Professors who are experts in their field and passionate about their work and area want to teach students who share such passion. Instead, professors and teaching assistants may end up teaching students who are bored, unmotivated and uninterested in the subject matter.

Subsequently, students will not put effort into a class they don’t want to take. In our first lab of the semester, my natural science TA told us he didn’t want to ask us why we were taking the class, because he knew our answers would all be the same: it’s a requirement. I can’t imagine it’s enlightening or enriching for professors and TAs to teach students who would rather be anywhere else. If anything, it might be as hard for them as it is for the students.

For many students, the opportunity for a well-rounded education was in high school. Taking classes in multiple different subjects for four years is supposed to help narrow down one’s interest, allowing them to focus on that in college. When they’re required to continue this type of curriculum into college, many SU students aren’t taking classes they enjoy until their junior year, previously being too busy finishing their Liberal Arts Core.

This method of education is unfair to students who are eager and prepared to start learning about their broad subject or niche interests early in their college education. While an interdisciplinary education is important, SU should be conducting it in a way that allows students the freedom to explore subject areas that they want to study, rather than those that they feel forced to.

Hannah Starorypinski is a sophomore political science major with a minor in public communication. Her column appears bi-weekly, and she can be reached at [email protected].

Published on March 23, 2022 at 8:43 pm