attention and assistance with his/her matriculation.

Academic advising at Kentucky State University begins with New Student Orientation. Subsequently, students are assigned a general education or a major advisor according to the following criteria:

1. All new degree-seeking students (Associate or Baccalaureate) are assigned an Advisor.
2. Students may stay with their first-year advisors until they declare a major, at which time they are assigned to a Major Advisor. Students majoring in STEM fields and those students in the Honors College are assigned faculty advisors at the beginning of matriculation.
3. Non-degree-seeking students (Visiting/Transient) are advised by the personnel in the Office of Continuing and Distance Education.

Advising Council members are experienced faculty and staff who have demonstrated continuing commitment to the importance of providing students with personal attention and guidance in the planning and pursuit of their academic objectives. Major advisors, just as the general education advisors, provide academic and career advice to each student who has selected a major area of study in preparation for a career of the student's choice. The major advisor serves as a useful source of information regarding such matters as program degree requirements, research opportunities within the field, graduate study, and other career employment opportunities. Early and sustained interaction with advisors is a good beginning to a successful matriculation.

LIBERAL STUDIES AND THE UNIVERSITY Kentucky State University is the Commonwealth's unique public liberal studies institution. Liberal studies comprise the traditional subjects of the arts and sciences, such as mathematics, poetry, history, politics, literature, languages, fine arts, philosophy, psychology, chemistry, and economics.

Subject matter alone, however, exhausts neither the meaning of liberal studies nor of a liberal studies education. A liberal studies education and preparation for a career or a profession are obviously not mutually exclusive. Whether one is a pre-engineering or an English major, a pre-medical or pre-law student, a computer science student or someone interested in a career in teacher education or business management, Kentucky State University best serves those students, who, regardless of their long-range goals, seek to think for themselves. Such students are those who wish to think clearly, to argue persuasively, to write with clarity and liveliness, and to gain both a cultural and historical perspective on the human experience as well as an in-depth knowledge in at least one area of human thought. Liberal studies spark curiosity and broaden vision. Liberal studies education provides the tools by which people come to understand the world, one another, and themselves.

In short, liberal studies develop independent and critical thinking. More critical than the development of specialized skills, the development of independent thinking is the foundation for personal growth. The possession of specific skills, however important they may be, is insufficient if one is unable to confront life changes with resourcefulness and clarity of thought. Job skills change with the passing of time and the shifting demands of industry; however, the ability to think for oneself is the governing resource of truly educated individuals.

Education of this sort must be earned, because it comes with persistence and effort. Ultimately, liberal studies requires the courage to follow a question persistently and resourcefully wherever it might lead. At Kentucky State University, education is the daily pursuit of intellectual and moral maturity by students, faculty, and staff.

99