And without those programs, one Republican senator questioned: What is the point of traditional higher education?
“We need to think seriously about what’s the difference between a university and a technical college,” said Sen. John Johnson from North Ogden, who is also an emeritus professor at Utah State University.
From his perspective, Johnson said, a university degree should be about more than just job preparation. It should be about teaching students how to think critically, be flexible and become leaders, which are skills he said are taught in the humanities and social science classroom.
“We need to get back to where we understand what it takes to build a thinking individual that is going to have a lifelong impact,” Johnson added.
It was a perhaps unexpected defense from the senator and a few other members of the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee — including other Republican lawmakers — during the group’s first meeting of the legislative session last week.
It comes as Utah’s legislative leaders have pushed forward with plans to cut $60 million from the state’s eight traditional public colleges and universities. That money would then be set aside for what they are calling “strategic reinvestment.”
Read the full story at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.