Ruth Olmsted, Excelsior College
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Change initiatives, if not actual change, are ironically a constant in academe, and it is valuable periodically to examine a particular landmark change initiative against current state without dwelling on all the other initiatives that have come and gone in between. This presentation will use current programs of Excelsior College to examine how the recommendations of the Liberal Learning for the Engineer Report of the ASEE Humanistic-Social Research Project (Journal of Engineering Education, Vol 59, number 4, Dec. 1968) play out against the 21st century realities of distance education, degree completion, and competency-based education as expressed at Excelsior College. Students in Excelsior’s Engineering Technology programs who must satisfy specific arts and sciences requirements, and other students with engineering and technical aspirations, fill many slots in School of Liberal Arts courses. In keeping with the original report, the presentation will focus on the status of the humanities and social sciences, as math and science requirements are much more closely tied to the technical side of the degree. We hope to address the following queries: Is a commitment to infusing the liberal arts into the curriculum manifested in the technical component of the degree and and the graduates it produces? Is cross-disciplinary expertise considered when identifying staff for both Technology and Liberal Arts? Are we improving the level at which engineering students approach their humanities and social sciences learning? How are liberal arts course offerings perceived by engineering students and faculty? Specific points from the 1968 report will be aligned with examples of curricular and strategic initiatives from both Technology and Liberal Arts at Excelsior.