February 28, 2010

A State College Begins to Transform Its Curriculum

Zach Boyden-Holmes for The Chronicle

Julia Metzker, associate professor of chemistry at Georgia College & State U., works with students to make biodiesel fuel. As part of its effort to "reimagine" the liberal arts, the college is steering promising science majors into teaching and developing a nonprofit-management certificate program for art students .

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Zach Boyden-Holmes for The Chronicle

Julia Metzker, associate professor of chemistry at Georgia College & State U., works with students to make biodiesel fuel. As part of its effort to "reimagine" the liberal arts, the college is steering promising science majors into teaching and developing a nonprofit-management certificate program for art students .

By Karin Fischer

Milledgeville, Ga.

When Stephen R. Portch became chancellor of the University System of Georgia in 1994 he traveled the state, hearing, he says, the same pitch, again and again: Georgia needed a public liberal-arts college.

Without it, supporters of the idea argued, many top students were opting for private institutions or, worse, leaving the state to earn a liberal-arts degree. And for those who could not afford a costly private or out-of-state tuition, a liberal-arts education was simply out of