Pairing Liberal Arts with Tech Readiness: Five Institutional Decisions from Manhattan University

At Manhattan University, the case for the liberal arts is being made with outcomes, not nostalgia. Its graduates rank in the top 2% nationally for mid-career salaries, and The Wall Street Journal ranked the university 73rd in the country for graduate salaries, social mobility, and cost-effectiveness. The more useful story for institutional leaders sits underneath those numbers: a set of deliberate decisions about program design, technology preparation, faculty adoption, hiring, and alumni engagement.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Fred Bonato, President of Manhattan University, about how the institution pairs a liberal arts core with universal technology preparation, on the premise that transferable skills hold even greater value when combined with technical fluency.

Bonato explains how Manhattan houses its interdisciplinary programs in AI, cybersecurity, and data science outside any single college under the new ARCH Innovation Exchange; requires every first-year student to earn an IBM SkillsBuild digital badge in AI; funds faculty adoption through an institutional ChatGPT license, workshops, and peer champions rather than mandates; screens faculty and staff hires for comfort with AI as a tool; and treats the university's alumni network as employment infrastructure, including the James Patterson-funded leadership development honors program.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, provosts, and board members weighing humanities cuts, planning AI integration, or looking for adoption strategies that work within shared governance rather than around it.

• Why Bonato defines the liberal arts by their transferable skills: problem-solving, creative thinking, and persuasive writing and speaking

• Housing interdisciplinary programs in AI, cybersecurity, and data science outside any single college to reduce the likelihood of ownership disputes

• The ARCH Innovation Exchange (analytics, research, creativity, humanity) and its speaker series open to the surrounding community

• The required IBM SkillsBuild AI course and digital badge for first-year students

• Driving faculty adoption through demonstrated value, resources, and peer champions instead of presidential mandates

• How hiring questions have shifted from comfort with online teaching to comfort with AI, for faculty and staff alike

• Experiential learning, intern-to-hire pipelines, and the alumni network's role in supplying opportunities

• ARCH's inaugural speaker, a cardiologist and Manhattan engineering alumnus who leads AI at his hospital, framing AI as decision support with a human in the loop

• An institutional ChatGPT license and training workshops so faculty and staff can adopt AI at no personal cost

• The James Patterson Honors Program, a leadership development program seeded by the best-selling alumnus, which launched with more than 160 students

• Board chair and American Express CEO Steve Squeri speaking directly with students about building a career

1. Keep the liberal arts in every program, including technical ones; graduates without them are less prepared and less well-rounded for the working world

2. Build the capacity to pivot; the world is changing quickly, and "this is how we've always done it" will no longer hold

3. Presidents need a deliberate way to disengage and recharge, even if only through adequate sleep; the job can consume its holder

This episode offers a practical look at how one institution operationalizes the pairing of liberal arts and workforce readiness through governance, partnerships, hiring, and culture, without waiting for the technology or the sector to stabilize.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/manhattan-university-liberal-arts-workforce-readiness/

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