The emergence of vocational curricula each with specific proficiencies has led to a new concept of the major dominated by technical rather than liberal learning. Although this has occurred at both two- and four-year institutions, applied curricula tend to disadvantage two-year students more than than their four-year counterparts because of less attention devoted to general as compared to technical education. Open-door institutions like community colleges can rethink general education in specialized curricula in the following three ways: (1) improving distribution requirements to include more general education in career tracks while still complying with accreditation standards; (2) developing interdisciplinary courses to include communication and thinking skills in occupational-technical courses; and (3) extending general education values into applied coursework via writing-across-the-curriculum or including group work, class discussions, essay exams, out-of-classroom projects, and other active learning strategies in technical courses such as accounting or business. Community colleges can encourage a deeper engagement with the liberal arts and encourage greater attention to academic skills such as writing and problem-solving by requiring evidence of their orderly and incremental study in their career and professional programs. Contains 13 references. (BCY)