Summer-Fall 2001
From the dean: Affirming core values
Photo by Tom Foley
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."--
Thank you for your outpouring of support last spring on behalf of the University's request for funding. Your letters, e-mails, and phone calls to members of the Minnesota Legislature helped make a compelling case for the University of Minnesota and its many contributions to the quality of life we value so highly.
The legislature came through with a budget that exceeded the governor's recommendation but still fell far short of what the University needs to remain one of our nation's great institutions of higher education. The budget shortfall has necessitated both a large tuition increase and substantial and strategic budget cuts to protect the high caliber of our faculty and the quality of the educational experience we provide our students.
The fever pitch of the discussions surrounding the request told us that the relationship between education and government has changed dramatically in Minnesota, a state known historically for its largesse toward higher education. And the clamor for immediate outcomes and bottom lines suggests that the general public may have lost sight of the value of universities--especially, of liberal education--in their lives.
Universities do have a responsibility, of course, to help prepare students for work in a competitive economy. And universities do have a huge economic impact on their states. But economic and workforce development are by-products of universities excelling at what they do best: basic research, liberal education, and the dissemination of knowledge.
At the core of a university education is a liberal education--an education that encourages students to think critically and creatively; that gives students an interdisciplinary understanding of the ideas that shape the physical, social, cultural, economic, and political world in which they live; that enables students to see the connections among seemingly disparate things; and that equips them to be lifelong learners.
A liberal education provides students with the intellectual base and the skills they will need to negotiate the many changes they will inevitably experience in their lifetimes, including changes that may move them into careers that don't even exist today. It prepares students to expect the unexpected, embrace change, and be comfortable with ambiguity.
It teaches them to be flexible and versatile. It provides not a toolbox of specialized skills that could be obsolete tomorrow, but rather a broad understanding of math, science, and technology, as well as of culture, history, language, economics, and philosophy. A liberal education provides the basis for achievement in every field of human endeavor, from building businesses to building communities, from making policy to making music, from managing people to managing information.
A liberal education prepares graduates to push the boundaries of knowledge, to improvise when old formulas fail, to take imaginative leaps beyond conventional wisdom and to act on fresh ideas in powerful, transformative ways.
The future belongs to people with the knowledge, imagination, dexterity, and insight to recognize and seize new opportunities. It will be shaped by people who can move with agility through a complex world of ideas, cultures, languages, and the sciences.
We have entered a century that requires more than ever the ideas and creativity, the broad knowledge and diverse skills, and the flexibility, resourcefulness, and intellectual agility provided by a liberal education. More than ever, we must provide our students with the kind of education they need to participate in a dynamic global economy and increasingly diverse world.
By investing in a liberal education, we produce graduates with the broad set of skills needed for an ever-changing workforce. By investing in liberal education, we produce graduates capable of solving the challenging social, political, and economic issues that we confront as a society. We produce citizens who can bridge the deep divides that threaten to tear our communities apart. And we produce citizens whose minds have been opened to multiple points of view and who are prepared to engage in thoughtful debate and to evaluate alternative arguments and proposals.
As you read the stories about our students, faculty, and alumni, you will see some of the ways in which the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) is providing an education that enables our graduates to make enduring contributions to our state and nation. With your continued support, CLA will continue to meet this ambitious goal.