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by Gwenn Wells Teach students vocational or professional skills and they will be prepared for jobs. Teach them the liberal arts to fully develop their thinking skills and they'll be prepared for life.
Susquehanna does both. A solid Core curriculum provides a broad background of general knowledge and intellectual skills collectively known as the liberal arts. This foundation also enhances strong majors in the humanities, natural and social sciences and equally strong professional programs in areas such as business, communications and education.
Moving up to the Major League In its recent reclassification of American colleges and universities, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has now placed Susquehanna in the newly named Baccalaureate Colleges-Liberal Arts category.
One result will be that the University will no longer be at the top of the regional liberal arts colleges in the North category in the annual U.S. News ranking. But the change is cause for celebration, not worry, says University President L. Jay Lemons.
"What it really means is that we have gotten 'the call up to the major league' by moving into the national liberal arts college group," says Lemons. "This group is constituted by the 228 best institutions for undergraduate learning across the country."
Content, Methodology and Engagement Rooted in medieval university studies of grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, music and astronomy, over the centuries the liberal arts have expanded to include fields of literature, history, science, and, more recently, the social sciences. But, more broadly speaking, liberal learning is not limited to particular fields of study. What matters in liberal education, according to the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) is "substantial content, rigorous methodology and an active engagement with the societal, ethical and practical implications of our learning." It is an approach to education most often found at private residential campuses where small class size and close student/faculty interaction are paramount. Susquehanna alumni know firsthand the advantages of such a community of learners. But many prospective students and their parents tend to see liberal arts as synonymous with higher education in general. "The irony is that liberal arts institutions have not done a good job of educating the consuming public," says Dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences Terry Winegar.
Neither Liberal nor Arts "One of the things that makes it difficult is that the liberal arts are neither liberal nor arts," says Dean of Arts, Humanities and Communications Laura deAbruņa. As for the arts, she explains, while the study of art history or music literature courses are included in the theoretical, or knowledge-based realm of liberal arts, the practical, hands-on courses in creating art or music are not. And despite the title to the contrary, the "liberal" arts actually represent a "very conservative and traditional approach to what should be taught in institutions of higher education," she says. Preparing for Change "Paradoxically, the way you provide the best education for a rapidly changing world is by directing a fair amount of your education toward things that don't change," says Dean Winegar. Studying the liberal arts offers recognized advantages to do just that. "One benefit is to expand our knowledge and understanding about the world and pass it on to the next generation," says deAbruņa. "A second is to provide certain skills that are necessary to understand and interpret that knowledge base." For example, courses in mathematics and sciences foster analytical and reasoning skills. The humanities, including English, history, philosophy, and languages, promote critical thinking skills. These and a wide variety of other disciplines incorporate writing and speaking skills used to summarize and present ideas.
Making Informed Choices While modern technologies have changed many aspects of our lives, the skills and knowledge base to be an effective employee and citizen remain much the same as in the past. We still utilize the critical thinking skills fostered by a liberal education to understand and analyze information and make informed choices, even though we might be using the Internet instead of a book to gather that information. And with the U.S. Department of Labor predicting that today's college graduate may work for as many as 12 to 15 companies in as many as three different professions, the pace of change will demand flexible workers who are good at problem solving -- a prime opportunity for liberal arts institutions and their graduates. Transferable Skills "The number one skill that employers look for are interpersonal communications skills such as writing and speaking. Who is better trained in that area than the liberal arts graduate?" says John Ryder, director of career services. Because the connection between the liberal arts and specific jobs is not always as obvious as in more vocational areas such as business, the career center has special initiatives geared towards liberal arts majors. "We spend more time with them individually and make a special effort in the career planning class," says Ryder. "The opportunities are there, but liberal arts majors need to be more proactive, and highlight a little more pointedly their transferable skills on their resumes and cover letters," he adds.
Adding Value To help students take advantage of those opportunities, traditional liberal arts disciplines such as English, history, and philosophy are adding value with active components such as internships and study abroad. Susquehanna faculty are also increasingly using computer-assisted learning that helps students to develop skills in managing digital information. Another advantage is created by the integration of liberal and professional studies - the focus of the Associated New American Colleges, of which Susquehanna is a charter member. A new interdisciplinary health care minor at Susquehanna includes courses in human health and disease, medical ethics and a popular business of health care course, along with practical internship experience. And in the Sigmund Weis School of Business, Associate Professor of Accounting Rick Davis adds value to his legal environment class by taking a liberal arts approach to teaching - covering not only what the business rules and regulations are, but how they are constructed and how they change over time. Flexibility in a Global Economy Today the Sigmund Weis School requires majors to take half their credits outside the business departments. "We want students who can relate to philosophical or cultural or historical aspects of anything that we look at here," says Dean James Brock. "Businesses are looking for people who are going to be aware of what's going on in the world, who can communicate, who can think in abstractions and who are not narrowly trained with a limited range of vocational skills." "Learning about another country's culture or politics or economics is especially important in a global economy," says Doug Carlson '88, a vice president at Brown Bros. Harriman & Co. in Boston. "You can leverage that and spark conversations and connections that provide inroads to potential clients." A finance major with an information systems minor, Carlson credits the flexible, diverse background he received at Susquehanna with helping to prepare him for enormous changes in the financial service industry brought by technology and the era of consolidation. Exploring Ideas and Choices Meg Finley '85 Flournoy earned a master's degree at Lehigh in counseling and is now an independent college advisor for high school students - a far cry from her undergraduate major in political science. "I never had an interest in law school or public government work, but I loved reading about political theory and international relations," she says. "And I would still choose political science all over again. I learned so much. And there were so many transferable skills, like debating, that I use today in so many other areas of my life." The liberal arts choices in the University's Core curriculum also provide the opportunity to explore a variety of disciplines. "Maybe you think you're just a math/science sort of person and you go to an English class and you really find you get something out of it," says Kyle Wilson '01, who will graduate with a double major in English and philosophy after starting his Susquehanna career as a biology major.
Shifting Career Paths Associate Professor of Philosophy Jeff Whitman describes himself as a "living example" of the value of a liberal arts background. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Whitman drew upon required liberal arts components of his education to find a new direction after a disability cut his military career short. "Very few of us have the same career paths in our entire lives," he says. "Even if you start out in a junior management position, as you work your way up in the organization, you become less and less focused on the nuts and bolts and more and more focused with the larger issues, like utilizing the human resources to make a more efficient and better company. "And there's a lot more to the good life than making money or gaining prestige and honor," he adds. "What makes liberal arts study so valuable is that it helps us to deal with those questions about our places in the universe and our obligations as human beings. It provides students with a context for their work and for their lives." |
