"The purpose of a liberal-arts education, especially at Columbia, is to create well-educated individuals in all different areas," said Penny Schneider, a 21-year-old senior from Houston.

Mr. Pye stressed the importance of a strong liberal-arts education.

And when she returned to China, she was convinced that an American liberal-arts education was for her.

"Today it's difficult to get a well-rounded liberal-arts education on this campus."

When he went to Harvard, though, he decided to pursue a broad liberal-arts education, mixing his musical studies with courses in science, French literature, history and mathematics.

New Dealers believed educators should supplement their middle-class-oriented curriculum, aimed at dispensing a traditional liberal-arts education, with job-training courses.

The importance of a liberal-arts education was also reaffirmed.

I was an English literature major at the University of Wisconsin and the accidental beneficiary of a good liberal-arts education.

And he was admired for his skill with words, notably in arguing the advantages of a liberal-arts education.

"Everything I'm doing now," Yo-Yo likes to say, "is a result of my liberal-arts education."