To the editor,
Re: More courses at risk as VIU tries to balance the books, May 7.
In a time in which AI is beginning to crack away at the way education is run in most post-secondary institutions in results-based learning, VIU is removing the one thing that gives it a competitive edge over most post-secondary institutions: the liberal studies program and other disciplines in the humanities.
Of course, VIU does need to get its financial house in order. But they are cutting off the long-term hand that will feed them. When it comes to true thinking, to thinking about truth, ideas, what it means to be human, liberal studies, philosophy and the like will be much more attractive as companies shift to those who think outside the box, a discipline of thought that only the humanities and the arts can teach.
Furthermore, the liberal studies program in particular is part of the history of VIU and what makes it truly distinct. Liberal studies is part of the pre-VIU days and it begins to remove something of what is essential to VIU’s identity and history.
Liberal studies is already in the place that more forms of education are moving to: oral and in-person forms of evaluation. If VIU hopes to have a future in post-secondary education, it needs to be making decisions towards just that: its future. STEM will wane in importance as AI does the fact-based tasks we have done, but humanities and the arts will flourish. The only way to build a fortress against the tide of AI is to embrace and promote forms of education that promote what is essentially human.
Fr. Harrison Ayre, St Peter’s Catholic Church
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