Mississippi State Auditor Shad White took to social media in September 2023 to challenge the idea of taxpayer funding for what he referred to as “useless degrees” in “garbage fields.” The degrees he was referring to consisted of liberal arts majors like anthropology, sociology, women’s studies and African American studies, to name a few.  

The irony is that White studied political science at the University of Mississippi.

The skills gained in liberal arts majors are often overlooked, but give students significant interpersonal expertise that aren’t always at the forefront of a STEM or business education.  There are inherent social values and a sense of awareness gained from a liberal arts major that are too often undervalued by the general public and academia as a whole.

These soft skills, in combination with the vast educational experience gained from the liberal arts, make these majors incredibly worthy of our time and respect.

It’s in our nature to ask for proof, and many people are skeptical about the positive outcomes of a liberal arts degree. However, if we are able to contemplate the unlimited possibilities of a liberal arts education, we can understand its many benefits.

University of Minnesota journalism and mass communication studies professor Matthew Cikovic said non-liberal arts majors are much easier to show off the results of in terms of what students produce. Liberal arts majors can be overlooked because of the difficulty of quantifying successes.   

“Judging how young learners grow and change, that’s much harder,” Cikovic said. “Trying to demonstrate how a person’s horizons have expanded, that’s so hard.” 

When you consider the tools you are given in college, the ones usually deemed most valuable are the tools that are specific and easily measurable. Majors that provide a clearer pipeline into prospective careers are often encouraged for students as a smart and economical choice.  

While I empathize with the worry around building a stable future, I think not considering the abundant possibilities given from a liberal arts degree is taking the easy way out.

Recent University computer science and political science graduate Benjamin Lindeen said he thought about how he could find his unique value within a sea of candidates and used his liberal arts experiences to help him start to build his future career.  

“Having these communication skills, being able to think outside the box, having a wide diversified portfolio of academic as well as personal experience could really give me an edge,” Lindeen said.

The knowledge accrued in liberal arts courses is incredibly diverse in its ability to help students grow in so many different aspects of their educational careers and futures.  

Empathy and effective communication are two of the many undervalued liberal arts skills that can not only be applicable to any potential career path but can also foster critical social development for students.

For myself, some of the most challenging thinking I’ve done has been prompted in liberal arts courses. Actively reading and engaging with my peers in a literary theory course last year led to some of the most significant growth I had seen for myself academically.  

Fostering environments where students are engaging in hour-long discussions on reading and theory and hearing each other’s viewpoints is not only critical to future success in jobs but also to success when it comes to being human beings.        

“I think the most important skills are the critical thinking exercises that you engage in in class,”  Cikovic said. “That you are challenged to consider other perspectives, that you are challenged to complicate what’s familiar to you.” 

At the forefront of so many English, history and communications classes are opportunities to engage with an abundance of media and culture that you might not otherwise have been exposed to. What comes of these opportunities is a better insight into the world and the communities around you.

Lindeen said his liberal arts minor also gave him valuable insight into current world affairs.

“This is such a tumultuous time, as well as just an interesting time to be involved in that stuff,” Lindeen said. “What will I want to look back on and share with friends, family, relatives, as well as my future children someday. That I was studying these things, having these discussions, being cognizant of these issues while they were taking place.”

Not only are the liberal arts important for a wide range of skills, but the broad curricula given to students in the liberal arts also give the freedom to discover where your talents lie. Although it may seem like a cliche, the possibilities of a liberal arts education can be endless.

Cikovic said gaining experience in the field of videography led him to a pivotal moment in his life that made him realize the importance of helping others learn what they were passionate about.

“I took a freelance job where I was going to help a high school class make a short film,” Cikovic said. “I was supposed to just come in for a couple weeks and teach them how to use a camera. But as I was doing it, I was like, this is the thing I’ve been missing. It’s not just doing it, but it’s also helping other people realize that they can do it, too.”

If you take away anything from my article, I hope I can give you a similar realization.  

You can pursue a degree in the liberal arts and come out the other side a successful and well-rounded student and individual.