Wagner has developed a respect for com studies students' and their ability to communicate and deal with all walks of life. He said he especially liked the ability of the com-studies grad he hired in 1999 to argue and to speak and also to listen empathically. Reilly said no amount of training can teach those skills, but a liberal arts prepartion, like com studies, can.

What are liberal arts? These are academic programs that intend to broaden students' general knowledge and teach analytical thinking, persuasive writing and speaking and critical reading and listening. Non-liberal arts programs, like business, focus on specific skills that point stuents to a specific career.

Career-oriented programs, including business, have come to dominate higher ed over the past 25 years. But a change seems afoot.

Reilly, in the Winona State com studies program, said the value of a liberal arts education is gaining recognition. That, he said, is one reason that his communication studies department has more than doubled in declared majors in the past five years. It's one of Winona State's fastest-growing majors.

"Businesses and students are recognizing the value of a liberal arts degree," said Reilly, whose communication studies grads go into fields as diverse as sales, financial consulting, television and corporate management. "If you get a degree in technical fields and more professional fields, you come out basically trained. In the liberal arts, you come out educated."

Reilly said other reasons for the department's success include its Alumni Day. Four years ago the department invited alumni to speak, hold workshops and meet one-on-one with students to critique resumes and portfolios. The alums talk to students about what it will take for them to attain their desired career, and they talk about tailoring the broad-bassed major toward a career but not straight into a career.

In the past two years, the com studies department has hired four people with doctorates as full-time permanent faculty members, which Reilly said attracts more students. "We've always been a strong program, but now weÕre staffed at full speed," Reilly said.

The surge in liberal arts interest has prompted some departments to adjust their focus. Troy Paino, director of the career-geared paralegal program, noted that his enrollment has declined since the early 1990s. Since 1995, the department has experienced a 59 percent drop in declared majors, the largest drop at Winona State.

In response, Paino, along with John Campbell, created a law and society major two years ago because they saw a need for a law-related, interdisciplinary major, somewhat like paralegal but appealing to students who were looking for a traditional liberal arts education. The law and society program, without a narrow career thrust, now has 30 declared majors.

The paralegal and the law and studies program demonstrate the difference between liberal arts curriclums and career-oriented curriculums. The law and society program has no classes of its own. Instead it draws from the other departments to show students the relationship between law and society and enable them to decide which fields to pursue or avoid in their further studies and professional life. Law and society majors take classes from several departments, including business administration, communication studies, English, history, mass communication, philosophy, political science, psychology and sociology. The paralegal major, on the other hand, has eight courses that focus narrowly on law.

Paino doubts whether the paralegal program will ever regain its high enrollment of nearly 200 students in the late 1980s, His hope is to hold steady at about 25 grads a year.

Paino understands that while the trend is toward a traditional liberal arts education, some students are uneasy with open-ended programs. Some students take comfort in structure. The liberal arts leave it to students to decide what kind of career they want and how to make themselves attractive to managers in that market. For this reason, many people choose a major like paralegal or business that has a specific career option at the end. "I think there are both kind of students here now, and so I think itÕs great that we can offer the two choices," Paino said. "I think we should offer as many choices for undergraduates as possible."