In a recent article for the New York Times, Dr Jennifer Frey (University of Tulsa) pushes back against the argument that students are not interested in the liberal arts and the work that the field of study entails. Drawing on her recent experience as the dean of her university’s honors college, Frey asserts that she found little evidence that today’s students engage in censorship, refuse to read, or lack resilience. Instead, Frey argues that the university’s liberal arts programming—which requires students to engage in vigorous debates and parse through thousands of pages of difficult material—has been immensely popular with students. She concludes that the main challenges for the program are not student or donor interest, but the different priorities of the University of Tulsa’s board of trustees and administration.
