Maine weighs elimination of university liberal arts: are the cuts justified? From the article:

Students face a … dilemma, between vocational majors (engineering, journalism, education) and liberal-arts majors (history, philosophy, English). Do they major in a program promising a high starting salary or in an area in which the student is interested?

This dilemma was on the agenda of the trustees of the University of Maine System last week when they examined programs recommended for elimination or review due to the low number of majors who graduate. They are looking at 34 such programs.

Among the 34 were 16 liberal arts (French, Spanish, English/creative writing) and eight vocational (education programs, etc.) that are “on report” and will have to justify their continuation in the face of low enrollment. The other 10 were sent for review mostly because while popular (computer science, etc.) they may need streamlining.

The trustees and the system are considering trashing twice more liberal arts programs than vocational. If they were to trash the 24 programs “on report,” they would have responded to these materialistic times. The vocational majors would be winning out.

But hold on a minute. Maybe it isn’t that the vocational grads rake in the bucks while the liberal arts grads flip burgers. According to a study by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, liberal arts majors by their mid-50s are making more money than those in professional fields. And they have comparable rates of employment, both groups in the high 90s.

h/t Rob Townsend @rbthisted