I suppose I was put off my first day of college and never quite recovered from first impressions. It was the spring of 2023, and I had transferred from online classes at Blue Ridge Community College to in-person classes at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU). I loved my previous online learning experience, but I expected that in-person classes at a university would generate a more rigorous learning environment, with provocative lectures, lively class discussions, and challenging assignments.
But I was disappointed by my first class on the first day of that first semester. The professor spent a disproportionate part of the class period asking us what we wished professors did more of and less of. He scored high on attentiveness to student needs or desires, but I left class feeling a little stunned. I had come to learn from the professor’s expertise; I had not come to be catered to.
As a small liberal arts university, EMU aims for students to “graduate with a broad base of knowledge and professional skills augmented by their deeper exploration of a particular discipline,” according to the 2023–-2024 undergraduate catalog. To reach that goal, EMU requires students to complete a core curriculum that includes a range of subjects.
But how well is EMU doing with instilling this “broad base of knowledge and professional skills” in their students? According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), not very well.
ACTA, an independent, nonprofit organization, ranks liberal arts colleges according to seven core subject areas they see as essential to an excellent liberal arts education: composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and natural science. They base their ranking on the courses that institutions require of all their students, not on their available or suggested courses. They also examine the content of required courses. In literature and history, for example, ACTA expects comprehensive surveys rather than niche courses.
EMU scores low in their ranking system, receiving a D in the What Will They Learn? 2021–-2022 report. While EMU’s core curriculum includes many of the seven subjects ACTA looks for, some of EMU’s requirements for these subjects are not rigorous or focused enough to satisfy their criteria.
For example, students at EMU can satisfy the foreign language requirement with elementary-level study, so ACTA gives EMU no credit for that subject. Even literature receives no credit because, according to ACTA, the courses EMU students can take to satisfy the literature requirement have “limited literary content.”
Of course, the usefulness of ACTA’s criteria can be debated, and as an English major, I might dispute the claim about “limited literary content” in the literature courses. However, I have enrolled in several literature classes that drew students who needed to meet core literature requirements. These classes tend to be geared toward helping entry-level learners and nonmajors succeed. I admire professors who can break down skills and processes for students who are less interested in a subject or perhaps inadequately prepared. But sometimes the expectations in these classes are not challenging enough to keep more advanced students stimulated and producing work that stretches and deepens their understanding.
What would happen instead if expectations remained high for all students, with support offered to students who need help filling in their knowledge gaps? Wouldn’t this better meet EMU’s stated liberal arts goal for all graduates? Perhaps even students who are disinterested in a core class would rise to the occasion if more were expected of them, rather than less.
I once took a required online class that I didn’t expect to enjoy. Worse yet, my huge knowledge gaps on the subject made it hard for me to complete the creative assignments my enthusiastic professor prepared. But he didn’t lower his expectations because I was unexcited and unprepared. Rather, his high expectations motivated me to succeed in his class, and I delved into extra study, determined that I would master the material. By the end of the semester, that class was my favorite.
Many students do like a challenge, after all.