APEX, an acronym for Applied Professional Experiential (learning), is Ursinus’ latest attempt to bridge the gap between liberal arts education and a rapidly changing job market. Is this program only being available to freshmen Ursinus students, especially given the potential benefits offered, unfair to the rest of the student body who cannot access it?
Introduced during this Fall 2025 semester, the “learning ecosystem,” as Ursinus calls it, provides incoming Ursinus freshmen with unique experiences to engage in opportunities and programs in a desired field via APEX hubs (interdisciplinary centers for students to connect with staff/mentors) with the help of a professional career coach. Through their hubs, APEX covers STEM, humanities, and art fields, as is consistent with Ursinus’ liberal arts curriculum and emphasis on cross-disciplinary learning.
As a student who is not in the new Ursinus class and thus not eligible to join any of these hubs, the actual work performed in these centers is unclear; on their website, Ursinus vaguely explains that the activities involve collaboration with professionals to “develop critical career competencies” and address Ursinus’ core questions. More imperative to upperclassmen is the disparity in the benefits that APEX can offer, including research/study abroad opportunities, and even smaller benefits like free tickets to an Ursinus play. To understand this disparity better, I reached out to students who have participated in APEX this year to get their thoughts.
When learning about APEX, information available to me as an upperclassman was extremely limited. I presumed to hide or otherwise not highlight any clear incongruencies that might frustrate other upperclassmen. However, when speaking to incoming students, a different picture was painted, as many students did not see much merit in the program. Thus far, certain hubs have hosted talks, though student satisfaction after the fact was mixed. One student who attended a talk for the Science and the Common Good hub expressed that they felt their questions were not sincerely addressed, emphasizing that when asking speakers how they themselves could get involved, “…they didn’t really help with that.”
Furthermore, based on the APEX website alone, when I was first reading about it, I assumed it was a tool that incoming students could take part in if they wanted to. I found out through speaking to freshmen who have taken part in the program that it is mandatory, leading many students to feel frustrated with it and feel it is a waste of their time. I asked a returning freshman who is not eligible for the program her thoughts on not being included, and generally she explained she felt relieved not to participate: “I’ve talked to other freshmen and they aren’t fans. I don’t feel left out whatsoever.” She told me she heard more complaints about APEX than anything, and when I pressed her more about the lack of information available to non-incoming students, she affirmed that the APEX website is unclear, “…probably because it’s new and they have little to show for it.”
Dissatisfaction with the program is not limited just to underclassmen; upperclassmen have expressed concerns as well. As previously mentioned, obtaining any information and thus showing the merits of the program was a difficult feat, and an Ursinus junior explained he felt like the school was being intentionally secretive, “even though these programs still affect us [upperclassmen].” Thus, potentially causing more frustration than just being straightforward about the advantages we are missing out on (even if underclassmen allege we are not missing out). He continued, claiming that even if not applicable to him, he would “…still like to know what’s going on at [his] school.” He explained that the little information he did acquire about the program through colleagues and work worried him, specifically that he heard the school had hired new advisors for the program for first-year students (potentially referring to the new career coaches). This troubled him because he felt hiring completely new advisors might “remove connections to the school” for incoming students, and that overall APEX could take away from Ursinus’ liberal arts curriculum rather than enhancing it. “I came here for a liberal arts education,” he finished, arguing that APEX’s emphasis aligns more with a trade school than a liberal arts college.
Overall, it appears many Ursinus students believe APEX is unfair and are overall dissatisfied with the program thus far. Initially, I expected this unfairness to stem from this idea of a small section of students getting exclusive access to benefits withheld from the rest of the student body, but even this small portion of students seems equally dissatisfied. Instead, it seems the common consensus regarding the implementation of APEX at Ursinus is that it is a suboptimal application of time and resources.