As some of you may know, there are certain expectations or assumptions that come along with being a non-STEM major at a mostly STEM school. If you don’t know, then keep on reading.
STEM is an acronym that stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math. So a STEM school is a school that focuses the majority of its resources on promoting those fields. It can be useful for the type of society that we live in, but it can also create a hierarchical system within the university or institution.
Being at Purdue, no one can or will argue against the fact that we’re a STEM school. With engineering programs ranked top 10 nationally and top 25 globally, it’s easy to see why the resource allocation continues as it does. In fact, I think those of us in the Liberal Arts department are more aware of their successes than they are. We’re constantly reminded of the departments we aren’t a part of.
As a Political Science major at Purdue, I’ve certainly felt the pressure of not being the typical Boilermaker, and I’ve only been here for the majority of one semester. There's an "us and them" mentality when it comes to students on campus. I can’t even count the number of times a new conversation has been stopped in its tracks at the crossroads of discussing majors.
It usually follows the same blueprint.
“Hey, I’m Andrew. Nice to meet you.”
“Thanks, I’m Conner. What’s your major?
“Chemical engineering. Yours?”
“Political Science.”
“Ah.”
And from that moment on, the conversation is choppy and never gets off the ground. There are a few things at play here.
The first is that it’s entirely possible, and even likely, that the person I’m talking to has no idea what Political Science is. Which I get. I’m certainly used to people asking what it actually is that I study. And honestly, it’s pretty safe to assume that if someone tells me they study Chemical Engineering I have no idea what that is.
But I’ll take an interest and ask them questions. Rarely do I come across a person who will ask me more specific questions about what I do. And when that happens, the other person is usually a non-STEM major.
Which I think brings us to an interesting point. Maybe it’s not that someone else isn’t interested in asking me follow-up questions about my major, maybe it’s that they can’t. And this, in my opinion, tells us exactly what society values and what it does.
The reason that I (and so many other non-STEM majors) are capable of posing questions to STEM majors is that society values what they do, and so we know a little bit about it. In high school, we all had to take STEM courses, and if you weren’t successful in them, you likely had a bad time. I had to take STEM courses and wasn’t too thrilled about it because I didn’t care about the topic. But society valued it, so I had to learn about it.
Most will take some humanities courses; history, modern languages, and English lit to name a few. Most will take Economics (it’s an Indiana high school graduation requirement) and some will dabble in psychology, sociology, and the fine arts. But all of these are just sprinkles on the sundae of a basic high school education.
Our technologically driven society doesn’t value a well-rounded education. It values an education that prepares students for their careers. And that’s not what Liberal Arts does. Not by a long shot. It teaches you how to think. It teaches you how to be a citizen. It teaches you that there are a million different ways to think and that there may not be a right answer. One of my closest friends wrote an article titled “In Defense of a Liberal Arts Education.” It’s an extremely in-depth and interesting look into Liberal Arts as a necessary foundation for capitalism and democracy; a foundation that we are losing.
The expectation of graduating high school and taking a STEM path to college is certainly well travelled, but about those of us who make Robert Frost proud and take the less travelled route? We feel chastised and ashamed.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the difficulties of defining yourself concluding that you should be who you are, regardless of what anyone else says or thinks. I still stand by that, and I always will. But I can’t deny the effects of being looked down upon for what you enjoy.
In a nutshell, that’s what it’s like studying Liberal Arts at a STEM university. Everyone who studies the “important things” sees you as inferior. They see you as less capable. But most importantly, they see your passion as insignificant.
If someone is going to school for something, it’s most likely because they love it. And no one should ever be forced into thinking what they love is unimportant.
