Getting a Second Major in the Liberal Arts College Uf

For University of Florida senior Olivia Allen, the decision to pursue her first liberal arts major was a personal selection.

From a young age, Allen was curious about understanding the motivations of people, and so she chose psychology.

"I always knew that I wanted to do some sort of counseling," Allen said.

Every bit a sophomore, an introductory UF forensic anthropology grade called "Skeleton Keys" sparked a 2nd involvement. Allen spent the leap semester in Federal democratic republic of ethiopia, doing field piece of work, which led her to cull anthropology every bit a second major.

As liberal arts colleges throughout the state are struggling to sustain enrollment, the UF Higher of Liberal Arts and Sciences has found ways to accommodate through study abroad and undergraduate research programs. From 2006 to 2014, enrollment at UF CLAS declined by more than ii,000 students, from 14,432 to 12,177. Since 2014, nonetheless, enrollment has steadily increased, with 13,690 students at present pursuing 38 majors.

"We practise about 35 percent of the undergraduate degrees of the academy," UF CLAS Dean David Richardson said. "We like to recall of ourselves as a microcosm, in a style, of the entire undergraduate population."

Richardson said that while the school has had minimal change in calculation and eliminating majors this decade, there have been shifts in report interest, from the humanities to the sciences. Co-ordinate to 2018 pupil enrollment figures, biology has the highest liberal arts enrollment with ane,701 students, followed by psychology (1,686) and chemistry (1,042).

In contrast, 566 students in the fall 2018 semester were majoring in English language, while 381 majored in history.

The shift from humanities to sciences interest follows a national trend. The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Bespeak eliminated a number of longstanding humanities liberal arts degrees this term — including history, French and German — in the face of failing enrollment and investing more in career-focused programs.

The perception that liberal arts majors do not offer the same career readiness as more than specialized colleges such as applied science and business organisation is something that all colleges fight.

"There'due south a lot of mythology in that," Richardson said.

According to national studies, hiring managers at Fortune 500 companies said they are looking for candidates with more broad-based, disquisitional thinking skills that liberal arts majors provide.

UF CLAS Associate Dean Joe Spillane said role of the challenge is driving home the bulletin to students and parents that pursuing a liberal arts degree leads to career readiness.

"In that location is a sense that sometimes our students are atoning nigh choosing one of our majors," Spillane said. "They want to do it considering it means a lot to them, they are very passionate about it, merely they said, 'well, you know, I'm doing it, fifty-fifty though' …

"What we are trying to do is break downwardly that dichotomy, which I think is actually artificial."

Richardson said he takes the approach of the individual student as the edifice cake.

"Nosotros think about how we talk to that student and advise that student and avoid generalizations, that nigh invariably do not apply to that private," Richardson said. "When you look at that individual pupil, you ask what does that student need to be successful."

As a result, UF's CLAS has launched its Across 120 plan, which focuses on enhancing the educatee educational feel beyond 120 credits through report abroad programs and undergraduate research.

"That'southward the adjacent horizon for us, boosting programs and building students' expectations in getting undergraduate research," Richardson said.

Allen said she considered her trip to Ethiopia equally both a character-building and resume-building experience.

"Information technology'southward something I can utilize for the rest of my life," Allen said.

Richardson said CLAS has been boosted by UF'southward Kinesthesia 500 initiative to add together 500 new faculty university-wide within the adjacent 2 years to reduce its student-to-faculty ratio from 19-to-one to 16-to-1. CLAS has already added 66 new kinesthesia members.

"Subsequently a couple of years of hiring 150 additional faculty, nosotros volition go from about 670 to 820," Richardson said.

Richardson said the other goal is to maintain loftier educational standards while connecting students with employers throughout the country and country.

"By almost measures, at that place is not a greater concentration of 18- to-22-twelvemonth-former talent than there is in Gainesville, in the residual of this state, in one place, in one small footprint," Richardson said. "The issue that we take in any college like ours, that has any academy that is sitting in a not-urban area, is connecting those students dorsum into the dynamic part of the economy.

"Connecting our students to the adjacent footstep in their lives is something that nosotros cannot overlook."

mcreynoldsbrich1991.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190115/uf-liberal-arts-interest-on-rise

Share this post