Towards a Council of Leaders of Liberal Arts Units at Technological Universities (CoLLT)

Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts recently hosted leaders of seven other liberal arts units at technological universities to discuss our similarities, differences, and future goals. Participants all brought with them answers to the following questions:

• What’s your basic data set: how many subunits, faculty, degree programs, undergraduate and graduate students, in relationship to your institution?

• What’s your unit’s current status within your institutional structure: Are you a college, school, etc., on equal structural footing with the tech disciplines on your campus?

• How did you come to be? Has your unit existed as long as your institution? Has it undergone transformations?

• What does “liberal arts” mean for you, your unit, and at your institution? Who belongs, and who doesn’t?

• How is your unit aligned at your institution when it comes to processes like promotion/tenure, hiring, teaching/research loads, and funding?

• What is your level of integration and collaboration (strategic planning, curricula, research/scholarship) with the tech disciplines on your campus? Are hybrid faculty profiles and interdisciplinarity valued? Does your unit (do its members) feel sufficiently recognized and included?

• How much high-volume mission-critical instruction does your unit provide in the area of general/core education to units in the tech disciplines, and how is it recognized?

While many of our answers to these questions were different, we all agreed that the close partnership of the liberal arts with engineering, computing, and the sciences yields important answers to the most pressing current questions in the academy, including the future of higher education in the age of AI.

As convener, I was happy to welcome the following leaders at the event:

• Laura Belmonte, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Missouri University of Science & Technology

• Judith Aurora Ruíz Godoy Rivera, Tecnológico de Monterrey

• Branko Pérez Restovic, Tecnológico de Monterrey

• Babak Elahi, SUNY Polytechnic Institute

• Thaddeus Guldbrandsen, Wentworth Institute of Technology

• Agustin Rayo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Ronald Tackett, Kettering University

• Amanda Murdie, Georgia Institute of Technology

Please find Michael Pearson's summary of the gathering HERE. Georgia Tech will host a larger group of CoLLT leaders in September, and Virginia Tech will host the group's spring 2027 meeting.