More than a thousand academics from liberal-arts colleges gathered at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here last week to worry about what everyone else thinks of them. Or, more specifically, what everyone else thinks of what they do.

The annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities drew a record crowd of 1,340 professors and administrators, all of whom seemed to be talking about why studying philosophy, or German, or the collected poems of Wallace Stevens, is important, and how to explain that to the rest of the world.

That shouldn't come as a surprise since promoting a liberal-arts education is the organization's mission. But the rhetoric felt more urgent this year, perhaps a sign that colleges are getting some tough questions from the people who pay the bills.

"Families ask frequently, 'Why do I send my kid to a residential college that costs me so much? What do you get out of that?'" said Carol S. Long, interim dean of liberal arts at Willamette University, in Oregon. "And we have to answer that. It's a fair question."

The answer is that college, and the humanities in particular, "prepare students for deeper engagement with the central issues of living and working in a complex and interdependent world," according to Pauline Yu, president of the American Council of Learned Societies.

In her session, "Revitalizing Humanities, Expanding the Vision of Liberal Education," Ms. Yu argued that disciplines like philosophy not only help students become better, more well-rounded human beings, but also prepare them for the challenges of the workplace.

However, she said, that message is lost on too many people. "I do think we need to do a better job of convincing our students, parents, and the public that the humanities -- especially the humanities in the context of the liberal arts -- are a necessary element of education for 21st-century life," Ms. Yu said.

Philip A. Glotzbach, president of Skidmore College, would agree. Mr. Glotzbach said later that an obsession with test scores and getting jobs "within six months" is drowning out more important conversations about higher education. "It is absolutely essential," he said, for academics "to articulate the values of higher education that really are connected in fundamental ways with our capacity to function as a democracy."

Among the most talked-about events at the conference was a forum with Tony Chambers, associate director of the Kellogg Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, and Stanley Fish, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The two debated whether teaching students about their moral and civic responsibilities should be part of a college education. Mr. Chambers argued that it should be; Mr. Fish said it should not.

Ms. Long, the Willamette dean, said that forum was a highlight for her. "I like Stanley Fish," she said. "He's fun to disagree with!"