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Recent economic events have forced colleges and universities to streamline their academic offerings congruent with a more pragmatic cost-benefit approach, usually at the expense of their liberal-arts programs. When a foreign-language or philosophy department graduates only a few students per year, there is no financial argument to be made for keeping the department intact. Traditional reasoning about the enrichment of the "student as future citizen" can only go so far when parents who pay the tuition or students taking the courses can't see a bottom line in the form of a lucrative job after graduation.

"The starting pay of certain liberal arts majors generally clocks in well below that of graduates in engineering fields, according to a Wall Street Journal study."

"U.S. companies largely favor graduates of big state universities over Ivy League and other elite liberal-arts schools when hiring to fill entry-level jobs, a Wall Street Journal study found."