Why I am here.

Since being a student at the University of Texas and of Professor Bump's UGS course. It has come to my attention the main purpose of why I am here- why I am in college.  The University of Texas prides itself with it's core purpose "To transform lives for the benefit of society." In reading "The Idea of a University, 1852" by John Newman, It has come to my attention the importance of a Liberal education and what that really is. In general according to Newman, a University education "teaches all knowledge by teaching all branches of knowledge, and in know other way"(Newman 231). Even people who study in colleges outside of the College of Liberal Arts are getting a Liberal education. Newman also suggests that "in a University he will know just where he and his science stand..he has taken a survey of all knowledge  he is kept from extravagance by the very rivalry of other studies, he has gained from them a special illumination and largeness of mind and freedom and self-possession, and he treats his own in consequence with a philosophy and a resource, which belongs not to the study itself, but to his liberal education..."(Newman 231). The quote above basically implies that even though someone may be focused in a particular area of studies, their major, they know everything they know and are more well rounded because of their liberal education. The idea of a liberal education or a liberal arts degree is also exemplified in the Wikipedia page for Liberal Arts. Wikipedia confirms that, "he liberal arts this initially represented the kinds of skills and general knowledge needed to be the elite echelon of society" (Wikipedia 237).  Newman relates the power of a liberal education to leadership when he says "[A Liberal Education] shows him how to accommodate himself to others, how to through himself into their state of mind, how to bring before them his own, how to influence them, how to come to an understanding with them, how to bear with them" (Newman 232). Newman's description of what a Liberal Education should do and the Wikipedia page on Liberal Arts also describes the qualities that a strong leader possesses and also relates to The University of Texas' core purpose.