Nobody said college is easy. Anyone who attends or works in any institute of higher education can tell you that.

However, Jeffrey Wallin, president of the American Academy for Liberal Education, doesn’t think colleges are hard enough on students.

Citing some recent studies, Wallin said too many colleges are too loose on its core requirements.

He said this is a result of colleges today no longer requiring students to take as many mandatory courses, fewer colleges requiring science courses and students spending less time in classrooms.

According to a 1996 study by the National Association of Scholars, 22 percent of graduation requirements for colleges in 1964 consisted of mandatory courses. In 1993, it was 7 percent.

In 1964, 90 percent of higher education institutions had natural science requirements. In 1993, it was down to 34 percent. Students spent 191 days in school in 1964. In 1993, it was 156 days.

However startling these findings may seem, they are not the most important part of receiving a quality college education.

The issue isn’t just about the colleges shrinking its core requirements.

It isn’t about colleges lowering its standards to admit more students.

It’s about the how schools today reflect our changing society.

It’s important to take the required courses in your major, but it’s just as important to take classes that represent a diverse education.

Education today is more and more about learning about our world and interacting with people.

You can’t get that out of just going to physics lectures everyday. And you can’t get that with spending more time in a classroom.

A higher education today is about taking a variety of courses. It is about working on group projects, doing internships, and studying abroad.

In affect, it is about expanding the meaning of what a higher education is, not going back to what it was 30 years ago.

So are we spending less time learning in the classroom? Maybe so. But life isn’t spent in a classroom. Why should your educational experiences be?