February 28, 2010
Philosophy, for Profit
Karen Kasmauski for The CHronicle
Marc Sehring repairs military vehicles for museums by day and studies military history by night at American Public U. System, a for-profit online college. He is working toward a degree that might help him become a curator. "It's not an Ivy League school," he says, but "it's what I'm looking for—an education I can do in my time."
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Karen Kasmauski for The CHronicle
Marc Sehring repairs military vehicles for museums by day and studies military history by night at American Public U. System, a for-profit online college. He is working toward a degree that might help him become a curator. "It's not an Ivy League school," he says, but "it's what I'm looking for—an education I can do in my time."
Charles Town, W.Va.
Fire the tenured faculty. Abandon the campus. Lock the library.
Now look at what's left and answer this question: Who says you can't make money off the liberal arts?
For traditional colleges gasping to keep humanities programs above water, this vision is Dante's ninth circle of hell. Here in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, it's daily life at the biggest liberal-arts mecca you've never heard of.
The American Public University System is mapping a new model for
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