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UAF Senate News |
| Volume 3, Number 2 |
December
5, 2003
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WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION? The Values of a Liberal Education The Effects of a Liberal Arts Education Can Only Be Measured in The Long Term Some
More Thoughts on Liberal Education CHANGES
IN UAF E-MAIL SERVICES Photo - 2003-2004 Faculty Senate members Faculty Senate Meetings, Spring 2004
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WHAT
IS THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION?
Mark Box and Eric Heyne from UAF discuss what the values of a liberal education are or ought to be, and that the effects of a liberal arts education can only be measured in the long term, respectively. Lowry Pei from Simmons College in Boston discusses in more general terms the difficulty of quantifying what it is we do as faculty members. The
Values of a Liberal Education
In the Anglo-American tradition the important writers on this topic are Matthew Arnold and John Henry Cardinal Newman. Personally, I find Arnold insubstantial in argument, so I refer anyone interested to Newman's lectures from the 1850s, published in 1873 as The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated. This book is a central document on the topic of liberal education. Its argument, which Newman does not take to be original and which is derived from Plato, is that there are goods that are (a) good inherently, (b) good for their utility, and (c) both of the above. Plato has Socrates argue that although justice belongs to category (c), the primary reason to be just is (a). Analogously Newman argues that although education is of category (c), the primary reason for education is that knowledge is a good in itself. Emphasis on knowledge as utility or power or means to some end distorts "education," which is distinct from "instruction." The distinction must be ancient, but the terminological distinction between education and instruction seems to originate in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1830 lectures, On the Constitution of Church and State. Someone might be instructed in the mysteries of a trade or profession, but successful instruction accomplishes nothing better than to produce a skilled practitioner of one specialty. Such people characteristically are narrow-minded and suffer from exaggerated notions of the priority of their specialties. (They are dangerous when given authority to make decisions affecting other fields of knowledge.) The goal of education, on the other hand, is a well-rounded intellect that puts a specialty into perspective amongst other areas of study and sees their interrelations and interdependencies. A liberally educated person "is kept from extravagance by the very rivalry of other studies" (1.7.6) because she or he knows enough about the other studies to respect them. The point is not that universities should not produce lawyers, medical doctors, business managers, and other functionaries, but that they do so secondarily by way of attending to a higher priority, that of producing intellectually healthy, sensible, open-minded, rational citizens. Hence we have degree requirements making students take courses that they might prefer to skip in their narrowness of motive and mind. Possibly because the concept of liberal education is a premise beneath the curriculum it is in perpetual danger of being forgotten or misunderstood. Otherwise no one would seriously entertain the notion that research can be assessed by the funds it brings into the university system. Likewise it would not be possible to suppose that fields of study can be assessed by the prospective incomes of the graduates in the majors. The
Effects of a Liberal Arts Education Can Only Be Measured in The Long
Term One important reason why outcomes-based budgeting is deeply flawed is that many of the most important effects of a liberal arts education can only be measured in the long term. Getting a job, writing a competent short essay, passing capstone courses, even going to graduate school--all of these might only measure short-term success at being a student. A liberal arts education teaches people to think beyond the immediate future, beyond their own individual needs, beyond simple quantifiable solutions to complex problems. A good liberal arts education might even help someone understand the mistake of confusing education with certification. The best test I can think of to measure whether one of our graduates has gotten a real education here at UAF would be to ask him or her to critique outcomes-based budgeting. Of course, we would have to ask him or her again in a few years, and again a few years after that. If we learned something new every time, we'd have done our job well. But as long as our professional reputations are only valid for one fiscal year at a time, we'll never really find out how well we're doing. To claim otherwise is to participate in an elaborate hoax. One important reason why outcomes-based budgeting is deeply flawed is that many of the most important effects of a liberal arts education can only be measured in the long term. Getting a job, writing a competent short essay, passing capstone courses, even going to graduate school--all of these might only measure short-term success at being a student. A liberal arts education teaches people to think beyond the immediate future, beyond their own individual needs, beyond simple quantifiable solutions to complex problems. A good liberal arts education might even help someone understand the mistake of confusing education with certification. The best test I can think of to measure whether one of our graduates has gotten a real education here at UAF would be to ask him or her to critique outcomes-based budgeting. Of course, we would have to ask him or her again in a few years, and again a few years after that. If we learned something new every time, we'd have done our job well. But as long as our professional reputations are only valid for one fiscal year at a time, we'll never really find out how well we're doing. To claim otherwise is to participate in an elaborate hoax.
Can We Quantify What We Do? (Roy K. Bird, UAF Professor and Chair of English, made me aware of Professor Pei's contribution to Associated Departments of English Chairs Discussion List and Professor Pei graciously gave permission to have it printed here) Subject: Benchmarking, Quantification, Merit Pay I would like to offer various observations coming from a small, private comprehensive college whose first priority is good teaching. I realize these may not apply to the big research university, especially if it is publicly funded. Last year the English department [at Simmons College] collectively developed and unanimously adopted a thorough, comprehensive statement of what we consider excellence in teaching, scholarship and service (which I would be happy to forward to anyone interested). Precious little of it is quantifiable. Not a great deal of it has reappeared in the college's merit guidelines. My conclusion is not that we should strive to cram our values into quantifiable rubrics, but that the system of corporate-style management is inevitably inadequate to the reality of our work. The insatiable need for something to measure creates an ever-increasing demand for documentation and justification of our work as professors -- work that already takes up all the available time, if done at all well. Merit pay at Simmons has proved to be both onerous (especially for chairs) and divisive. The pool of money for merit raises is small, and when professors begin comparing their percentage raises down to the tenth of a percentage point (as they do), the bald fact is that they are getting upset and their morale is being lowered by differences in pay so tiny as to be meaningless in daily life. What we actually do, well or poorly, is taking place in a world increasingly separate from the picture we are forced to paint of it for managerial purposes. I think everyone knows this but almost no one says it, because saying it seems futile. Students come to college for teaching-and-learning relationships with the faculty. It is those relationships that create alumni loyalty and justify the enormous price tag. They appear nowhere on a managerial spreadsheet. Some
More Thoughts on Liberal Education Mark, Eric, and Lowry's contributions are very important. We need to do a better job of communicating to our constituencies, e.g., students, parents, the public, legislators, that a liberal education provides a solid basis for continued learning and for careers in the corporate world, the public sector, and the academy. I agree with William G. Durden, president of Dickinson College, that "it is time for the leadership of undergraduate liberal-arts institutions to move beyond arguments for pursuing liberal arts exclusively on the basis of 'intrinsic worth' and to embrace instead an imperative derived from the historic compact among the liberal arts, business, and democracy." William Durden adds that "it is also time for education leaders to affirm publicly that a liberal-arts education is not a mere luxury without practical consequence, but rather encompasses a distinctive preparing of students for positions of corporate leadership." (7/18/2003 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education) I would like to end with a quote from James J. Duderstadt's book A University for the 21st Century, 2000, because I feel that it captures succinctly the essence of what has been discussed in this section. "As difficult as it is to define and as challenging as it is to achieve, perhaps the elusive goal of liberal learning remains the best approach to prepare students for a lifetime of learning and a world of change. After all, a college education should prepare one for life, and a career is only one of life's experiences."
WHAT
FACTORS INFLUENCE ENROLLMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA? Peter C. McRoy, UAF Faculty Senator and Professor of Marine Science
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IN UAF E-MAIL SERVICES The Rasmuson Computing & Communications Department (DC&C) is in the planning phase of replacing/upgrading Aurora (UAF's email server) and Zorba (UAF's web server). We already have the machines, which are 2 dual 3 Ghz Xeon processor HP computers. Each will be connected to UAF's Storage Area Network (SAN) and will have 200- 300 GB of storage. The new machines will have Gigabit Ethernet connections to the network. Aurora will have 4GB of memory, which is double what the current Aurora has. Zorba will have 2GB of memory, which is 3-1/2 times more than the current Zorba. We are looking at clustering the new machines, which means there will be 2 machines running at the same time ready to provide the service. If machine A goes down, machine B takes over without interruption in service to the customer. Software on Aurora: Software on Zorba: Please feel free to share this information with all students, staff, and faculty. Comments can be directed to Brenda Knavel at fxbsk@uaf.edu Photo by Todd Paris, University Relations
Motion denied by the Chancellor: Motion to approve a UAF Policy on Classified and Proprietary Research (#117). Full details can be found at http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/ faculty/fsfy04meetings/fsfy04meet.html UAF
Faculty Senate Meetings
Spring 2004 Friday, 01/23/03, 1:30-3:30 p.m., Chancellor's Conference
Room
For more information contact Sheri Layral at 474-7964 or email fysenat@uaf.edu. |
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Last modified December 5, 2003 Sheri Layral, Newsletter Coordinator |
