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This workshop explores the level of integration of professional disciplines into the overall academic community at Liberal Arts Colleges and includes a paper on the subject using Geneva College as an example of the level of collaboration with the liberal arts disciplines, as well as the perception of the professional disciplines relative to the core mission of the college.  The exploration of this topic, the specific findings at Geneva College, and the proposed recommendations for further collaboration and integration will be of interest to most liberal arts colleges with majors in the professional disciplines (e.g., business, accounting, engineering, education, counseling, etc.).

The professional disciplines at Geneva College include Business & Accounting, Engineering, Education, and Counseling.  The liberal arts “core†courses are considered to be social sciences, “biblical studies, liberal arts, and the humanities.â€Â  There are a number of other majors at Geneva College that straddle the fence between the Core courses and the professional disciplines.  These include, Psychology (pre-professional to Counseling), Communications (an art and a profession), Education (primarily reading, and literature), and the math and sciences. Geneva College was founded in 1848.  It has been located in the general facility of where it is today for the past 12 years.  Geneva College was founded on the idea that, at least in part, that teaching these subjects provided a well-rounded education for individuals and helped them to fulfill their callings as children of God, helping them to also achieve their full potential as human beings.  So for Geneva, the concern for integration would center around the professional disciplines listed above being well-integrated into the “core†curriculum.  Therefore, for the sake of this paper, “Liberal Arts†and “Core†will be used synonymously.

Based on my personal experience at Geneva College, as well as discussions I have witnessed, my initial hypothesis is that “Geneva College does not integrate these two areas together very well.  There is ongoing animosity between the two groups and much of this animosity seems to stem from:

1. The belief that the professional disciplines are not central to the mission of Geneva College, as was stated in a faculty meeting approximately two years ago by the former President of the College.
   
   
2. The belief that professional disciplines train students to obtain a job and that true education of the individual (as focused on in the Core) is not the primary objective of the professional disciplines.
   
   
3. The recognition that, during this difficult financial season, the size and popularity of the professional disciplines help to fund the rest of the programs at Geneva College.â€

 

integration, collaboration, marketing, operations, communications, business, accounting, economics, entrepreneur, information systems, engineering, counseling, education, social sciences, humanities, liberal arts