For most college students, college is a time to be hyper-focused on a career goal and take only those classes that satisfy general requirements or directly contribute to the student’s major of choice. For these young adults, life quickly becomes about what is most important: choosing a lucrative profession and engaging in nothing else while attempting frantically to secure internships that are extremely practical and can help fill in the blanks on a resume. For students at Yeshiva University’s Stern College, the years they spend in school take on a different note entirely. In a school positively teeming with liberal arts majors, students have no choice but to dabble in a number of different courses that challenge them to broaden their horizons.
With 97% of the student population majoring in History or English, it’s no surprise that so many students are so open-minded about their futures and those of their peers. “When I tell fellow Stern students I’m majoring in History,” explains Shana Grauser, “no one ever asks me some ridiculous question like ‘What are you planning on doing with that?’ because they respect that I don’t know yet what I want to do with the rest of my life. In fact, no one here does!” With so many different liberal arts classes to choose from, Shana recalls how difficult it was to choose courses for the Spring semester. “I’ve always wanted to take a language in college and I knew Stern was just the place to pursue that passion. The only problem? There were too many different languages to choose from!”
Journalism major Anna Treyfus sympathizes with Shana. “When I was choosing colleges, I didn’t even look anywhere else,” she explains, adding, “I knew that I wanted to be in a place where everyone was sincerely interested in taking classes just for the sake of intellectual exploration, and I realized that when it came to a truly broad liberal arts education, there’s nowhere but here.” Delia Batnaim, an English major, had always hoped to get involved in the Observer, but hadn’t realized just how many students felt the same way: “When I first came to Stern and wanted to write for the newspaper, I thought I was going to be a big fish in a small pond, but little did I know that I was just one of hundreds of Stern students who desperately hoped to be a part of the Observer staff.” Delia remembers how she had to “fight tooth and nail” for an editorial position and notes that she still finds herself swamped by the number of students who, of their own volition, send in well-researched, investigative pieces and eloquent, exciting opinion articles. Sighing, she expresses how she wishes that “everyone would just take a step back and give the Observer some breathing space. There are so many things to get involved with on campus. Maybe everyone should just chill out and take a step back from the newspaper for a second.”
With so many liberal arts students around, Biology majors, like Bestee Dobin, sometimes find themselves wishing there were more students with similar interests. “I guess it would just be nice if, you know, the labs weren’t always empty,” Bestee remarks with a dreamy look in her eyes, adding, “It would just be great if there was, like, a bit of healthy competition. Imagine if there were some sort of scholarship for pre-med students to aim for. That could probably make our classes a bit more intense. Frankly, I’m sick of being in the minority.”
Indeed, the handful of Biology majors at Stern College are often overshadowed by their less vocationally-oriented, liberal artsy peers. Even the course catalog reflects this disparity, as each semester’s offerings invariably cater to students interested in more esoteric classes that encourage academic exploration and open-mindedness. By contrast, most colleges choose to shy away from the type of classes that might spark new interest in previously unexplored fields, choosing instead to offer those classes that will prove most necessary in fulfilling the barest minimum of major requirements.
The inordinate focus on the needs of liberal arts majors at Stern College ought to be reconsidered. More emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring that Biology majors at Stern, no matter how few and far between, receive the same impressive educational opportunities as their peers. At the same time, academic advisors might focus on helping liberal arts major navigate the maze of opportunities available at Stern so that the students do not become overwhelmed or feel that they are “just another History/English major” in a dizzying mass of fellow History/English majors just struggling to carve out a niche for themselves.