What is a liberal education? The Association of American Colleges & Universities defines “liberal education” as: “An approach to college learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. This approach emphasizes broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g., science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth achievement in a specific field of interest. It helps students develop a sense of social responsibility; strong intellectual and practical skills that span all major fields of study, such as communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills; and the demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings.”

The University of Colorado’s Board of Regents will consider a proposal to remove the word “liberal” from a description of the university’s academic freedom principles.

As it’s currently written, a section of the regent laws reads: “The University of Colorado was created and is maintained to afford men and women a liberal education in the several branches of literature, arts, sciences and the professions.”

The proposal to remove the word “liberal” is among a slate of changes, additions and deletions to regent laws that the board will consider in the coming months. The proposed changes will be introduced as a “notice of motion” at the full board meeting on the Boulder campus this week, and the regents’ governance committee will discuss them between then and the next full board meeting in September.

All of the proposed changes came from a CU system working group and already have gone through two sets of revisions that included feedback from university community members and the public. They will be open for further feedback as the working group hands the proposals off to the regents.

The working group included three campus provosts, executive assistants, the system policy director and Michael Lightner, the CU system vice president and academic affairs officer.

“We’ve come a long way since (the university’s founding in 1876),” Lightner said. “We have a medical campus, we have professional schools on all of the campuses, and many of these are not associated with the traditional definition of a liberal education.”

Beyond that, Lightner said, people often don’t understand that the phrase “liberal education” refers to a liberal arts education, and people can also be confused about what a liberal arts education entails.

He described the proposal to remove the word as a clarification, rather than a policy change, to better encompass all university programs.

‘Very broad definition’

Regent Linda Shoemaker, a Boulder Democrat, said she was concerned.

“It has a very broad definition. It doesn’t mean liberal as in liberal-versus-conservative, certainly,” Shoemaker said. “I wouldn’t like to see it dropped because I think it does have a definition that’s broad — and that all students that come to the University of Colorado for four years should be getting some liberal education … as well as whatever it is that they are studying.”

She said she wanted to learn more about what inspired the proposed change.

The governance committee’s chair and vice chair — regents Irene Griego, a Lakewood Democrat, and Kyle Hybl, a Colorado Springs Republican — both said they were open to ongoing discussion and feedback.

Griego said she would emphasize the shared governance model in seeking feedback from faculty, staff and students, and she was aware that eight faculty members on the Colorado Springs campus had objected to the wording change.

Hybl said the university has done a good job of being transparent and thorough throughout the process.

“I think the university as an institution should be proud of the process that it’s undertaken to look at the various articles,” he said.

The proposed change comes amid a national debate about liberal arts education and its value.

‘This 21st century education’

Lynn Pasquerella is the president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, a national association of which the Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver campuses are members. The association advocates for quality liberal education. She said that often the national debate centers on a false dichotomy between liberal arts and technical or professional education.

She said that a liberal education can, for example, inform doctors in making decisions that involve medical ethics, such as a person’s right to die. She said technical medical training would not inform doctors in the way humanities would in making end-of-life decisions, and noted that both would be important in their education.

“The best education that we can offer students — this 21st century education — is one in which students are required to engage with real world problems across disciplines,” Pasquerella said, adding that a liberal education at its best is multi-disciplinary and integrates the sciences and the arts.

Lightner said the proposed wording change was relatively minor as compared to broad proposed changes that seek to better define and clarify what freedom of expression and academic freedom mean for CU faculty, staff and students. He said the university is ahead of others in seeking to outline what rights students have to express their views and differences in class.

“We wanted to make a proactive statement that this is what we are about,” he said.

Cassa Niedringhaus: 303-473-1106, cniedringhaus@dailycamera.com, twitter.com/CassaMN