LIBERAL ARTS: SHRINKING, NOT "OBSOLETE"
In the Spring, 2012 edition of Liberal Education, Pomona President David Oxtoby raises the bar on
the definition of "preaching to the choir" in his essay on the place
for arts in a liberal arts education.
His words resonated with me (at age 60) but made me pause
and wonder how much that had to do with my exposure to the arts (good, bad, or
indifferent) as an Amherst undergraduate decades ago or my experience since.
I am sure that – then as now – there are a few teenagers
with sufficient sophistication and sensitivity to recognize and appreciate what
he and others describe... and that there are others who, like me, will grow
into appreciation. Most will do neither, alas.
Higher Education is in a period – the so-called New
Normal – where the luxury of "purposeful inefficiency" [Sorum,
Winter, 1999 Daedalus] is well past
us. Pomona's Oxtoby and Princeton's President Shirley Tilghman (in commencement
remarks on June 5th) are powerful advocates for an educational experience that
many of us value but that many institutions can simply no longer afford to
retain as they could in the past.
Unlike SUNY-Albany and the University of Northern Iowa –
where huge budget gaps forced elimination of academic programs – Pomona,
Princeton, and Amherst literally have the great good fortune to be able to
afford their values: providing and very rich educational experience for their
students and a bully pulpit for their leaders.
President Tilghman is right to “reject the notion that a
liberal arts degree has suddenly become obsolete." In many ways a liberal arts education has never been more relevant and
important but sadly – realistically – demanding and depressing economic times
will simply reduce its availability.
COMMENTS:
COMMENTS:
"Thanks, Dan. And, not only will they shrink, but they will be reserved
for the elite."
-- Catharine P. Hill, president, Vassar College
