Are you studying liberal arts at the University of Utah? If so, change majors or transfer schools immediately. If you’re a freshman or sophomore, you still have time.

Seniors are too late. Nothing can save you. Please warn others not to follow in your unfortunate footsteps. All I can do is offer company to your misery.

I made the same mistake you did. I came to the U a wet behind-the-ears freshman who could shave as seldom as once a week without growing any serious facial scruff. I was naive. I only wish someone had warned me.

History and political science were my chosen fields, the objects of my obsession. I didn’t know exactly where these subjects would lead in the long run. I only knew they fascinated me, and I wanted to absorb myself in them.

College would be everything I imagined, with discussion groups, guest lectures, professors questioning me in the Socratic method and students eager to challenge themselves and one another. A regular cerebral orgy.

Instead, I found a campus regularly deserted by early afternoon, 200 students per class, professors with only two office hours a week and long sentences of solitary confinement in those tiny cubicles buried deep in the bowels of the Marriot Library.

I wandered from this building to that, longing for emotional contact, hoping to share the provocative and sac-religious ideas teachers introduced to me in class. But my soul sat as empty as my brain did full.

I met people occasionally but made no genuine friends. And by the end, I was tired, ready and willing to simply jump through the hoops, not looking forward to the classes I wanted, but rather counting the ones I needed. So it is at a large research institution.

The U offers tremendous opportunities in the sciences. The medical school is outstanding. And fields like engineering are sure to benefit from Governor Mike Leavitt?s education-funding priorities.

But for those interested in liberal arts, this is not the place. By nature, the U does not encourage frank and open discussion of issues to promote learning.

Being a large public school, the U is seen as an economic hub by the state Legislature that funds it. Students here should earn a degree with practical value and apply it toward landing a good-paying job, hopefully in-state.

Most U students commute. School is not the center of their lives. They live in Holladay or Sandy with parents or perhaps elsewhere in the valley with a spouse and children of their own. Family and work are priorities, school is simply the means to a better paying job.

There isn?t necessarily anything wrong with this. If taking I-215 to school for three hours of morning or evening classes is most convenient, so be it.

But students looking for the aforementioned romantic college experience must understand what the U is about.

This is not going away to college. It is entering a factory where degrees are processed, and students are pumped out of the system with stamps on their foreheads reading, ?educated.?

Consider the very layout of the campus and how it discourages interaction. Many departments are completely separated from one another, meaning you have to walk half the way up the hill to get from the history department to the communication or political science buildings. This set-up segregates students with different majors, making interdisciplinary education all the more difficult.

And what about the Union building, that vital center drawing in students from all corners of campus? Notice the hills on the back lawn. These features don?t occur naturally. The administration artificially landscaped it during the Vietnam War to prevent large crowds from gathering together in protest.

Take a stroll out there after your next class and realize how landscaping discourages large groups of students from congregating behind their own Union. It?s a seemingly harmless but nonetheless clever little ploy.

The U also segregates professors from students. Next time you?re in Orson Spencer Hall, find a professor?s office. Of course, it?s a trick. You won?t find any.

You have to go all the way upstairs, where all the professors and teaching assistants work.

Though the administration never intended to intimidate students with architectural layout, that is the result. The point is to separate professors so they can work. Research, not teaching, is most important at the U.

How can professors make progress on books if students constantly drop by for discussion?

Professors didn?t create this architectural wonder, and many wouldn?t mind a change. I?ve had a number of inspiring teachers who lament the fact that students and teaching take a back seat to research and publication. The pressure of a publish-or-perish world is certainly intense.

However, I?ve also had plenty of professors who don?t teach, don?t know the name of a single student and reflect perfectly the attitude at a large research university.

Publish first, teach when you get around to it.

In the political science department, for example, the powers that be toss the kids a bone with the Student Advisory Committee, intended to review student evaluations of teachers and make recommendations on retention, promotion and tenure. Poor reviews of bad teachers are rendered meaningless if the professor publishes.

On the other hand, great teachers with lackluster publishing records are in trouble. One doesn?t need to dig for a hidden meaning in all of this. The priorities are obvious.

And what about those fabulous guest lectures I once dreamed of? There are plenty at the U, but students are not encouraged to attend. The Hinckley Institute of Politics hosts many of its panels at 10:45 a.m. or at noon, when most students have class.

Other lectures across campus take place in the evenings, but are not highly publicized. That?s because they are intended for professors? one intellectual presenting to his or her colleagues. Students need not attend.

In contrast, Seattle University, a liberal arts school in Washington, schedules no classes during the noon hour. Guest lectures and panels convene at noon, allowing students to attend. This common break also encourages students to meet with one another.

Of course, liberal arts schools intend to promote the type of atmosphere and learning the U discourages.

So if you want to study liberal arts, you can do it here and earn a shiny degree. But if you want a liberal arts education, seek another venue. At the U, you?re just a name and a number.

James welcomes feedback at: [email protected] or send letters to the editor to: [email protected].