Fort Lewis College has experienced the same decline in enrollment in the arts and humanities as the University of Colorado Boulder campus during the last five years, FLC spokesman Mitch Davis said Tuesday.
Enrollment in arts and humanities dropped 14 percent from 2009 to 2014. The social sciences, English, history and foreign languages are among the humanities.
“Our numbers are the same, and for a lot of the same reasons,” Davis said.
The trend at CU is seen nationally, a movement school officials are trying to better understand.
In fact, the Boulder faculty is concerned enough to create a committee to review trends across the campus.
“There are a lot of opinions as to reasons for the decline,” Davis said. “The reason could be a perception on the part of students that social sciences don’t lead directly to a career.
“If you study engineering, you become an engineer,” Davis said. “There is a straight line.
“But for an English major, it might not be as clear what career awaits,” Davis said. “People could ask ‘What are you going to teach?’”
Enrollment in physics and engineering has skyrocketed. The two disciplines had 93 enrolled in the four-year degrees program in 2010. In 2014, there were 228 students enrolled the two disciplines, and there was a 40-student waiting list for engineering.
Overall, enrollment at FLC dipped 6.2 percent in the fall of 2014 compared with 2013 from 4,065 to 3,814.
