Liberal education is not dead, according to a few local leaders.

Pitt’s Honors College… Liberal education is not dead, according to a few local leaders.

Pitt’s Honors College hosted a debate Thursday to settle the question: “Liberal Education in the 21st Century: Dead or Still Desirable?”

Among others, panelists included Georgia Berner, president and CEO of Berner International Corp.; Gregory Curtis, founder, president and CEO of Greycourt ‘ Co. Inc.; and David Shribman, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Shribman said that he told his daughter not to take classes to be trained for life after college. Liberal arts, he said, “don’t train you, they educate you.”

Berner expanded on the benefits of a liberal arts education.

“What we get from the liberal education is hope and freedom,” Berner said. “I believe that we become enslaved when we lose hope and freedom.” Artist bashes file-sharing in William Pitt Union Maria Masters, Staff Writer

Liz Berlin, of the band Rusted Root, spoke out against file-sharing at a panel discussion in the William Pitt Union Ballroom Thursday.

Berlin said that the artist only gets to keep approximately $1.72 from a $17 CD sale.

“To have [your music] downloaded illegally is like telling [the music industry] to keep the paycheck,” she said. “The best thing you can do to support an artist is buy their CD.”

A number of Pitt students gathered to hear the panel discussion, which featured Berlin, representatives from the music industry and a Pitt student who had been sued for sharing music online.

The event was hosted by Peer to Peer, a group consisting of 19 marketing students. After the panel discussion, Berlin performed.