Creating a new model for the liberal arts college
To those of you returning, welcome back. And to those of you who are new to Union, welcome to the country's most beautiful campus. You have arrived at an exciting time. Our new Minerva Houses are unique among America's liberal arts colleges, and you and your professors have the wonderful opportunity to create a whole new living and learning environment.
The impetus for the new houses-our willingness to build innovatively on tradition-goes back to the man we are honoring tonight. Two hundred years ago, Eliphalet Nott became the fourth president of this historic college. His three predecessors served an aggregate of nine years; he was president for sixty-two. Aside from longevity, Nott, among many other things, was an inventor, the most influential college president this nation has produced, and a minister who came to national prominence when he spoke on the evils of dueling at the funeral of his parishioner, Alexander Hamilton.
To Nott, a college must “never be stationary, but always progressive.” For most of the time, since our founding in 1795, we followed his advice. Like the 16 colleges that preceded us, we believed that teaching and scholarship were fundamental. However, it was the application of knowledge-the turning of theory into practice-that distinguished (and continues to distinguish) Union. The College introduced a number of academic innovations that would eventually appear elsewhere-a planned campus, French readings for Greek, increased attention to the sciences, and, of course, engineering. To an extent unmatched by other early colleges, Union adopted a broad view of education, determined to make the curriculum relevant to the contemporary world.
Today, we continue in that tradition, finding new ways to help our students see and think beyond the perspectives of a particular discipline or specialty, for how else will they be prepared to deal creatively with the new problems and opportunities they will face throughout their lives? That spirit is the foundation for such initiatives as:
- the General Education Curriculum, which enables students to further the acquisition of the skills and knowledge that they will need;
- Writing-Across-the-Curriculum, which makes writing an integral part of every student's academic program;
- undergraduate research, including our own Steinmetz Symposium in which 300 students participate annually and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, to which we routinely send one of the largest delegations from any college or university;
- dozens of international programs;
- community service, engaged in by more than 60 percent of our students through our Kenney Community Center, which builds on Union's $26 million community investment; and
- Converging Technologies, which recognizes that knowledge increasingly occurs at the intersection of disciplines, and which encourages innovation among faculty and students to bridge those disciplines.
The Union tradition of innovation has had numerous proponents in addition to Eliphalet Nott. One was the General Electric Company's Charles Steinmetz, the father of electrical engineering and a longtime member of our faculty, who taught students that education should combine a knowledge of history, languages, literature, science, mathematics, and engineering and who believed that education should be a harmony of the classical and technical traditions. In Converging Technologies, we can attain the harmony sought by Steinmetz and every Union president beginning with Nott.
We believe that Converging Thought, specifically designed to bridge disciplines, will give students an understanding that goes beyond that provided by a traditional major. Already at Union, biologists and engineers are seeking ways to strengthen hearts. Chemists and engineers are working on stronger airplane wings. Students in political science and computer science are trying to use computers to advance the independence movement in Tibet. And philosophy students are examining technology and how it affects human values. Not a bad start. Now we have to engage further the arts, humanities, and social sciences. It is easy to foresee the day when the major as it has existed for generations will be replaced by new ways of learning, such as we are promoting through Converging Thought.
Just as we believe that technology will play an increasingly important role in coming years, so we are also fairly certain that the world's peoples will come together economically, politically, and socially. And, just as knowledge of technology will be important in tomorrow's society, so, too, will knowledge of other peoples-not just people on the other side of the world, but the people down the block or at your office who have a different background. Clearly, we must provide the kinds of facilities and environment that encourage students to continue their academic explorations outside the classroom.
A number of steps have been taken in recent years. We have expanded our international programs to more than two dozen countries, and more than half of our students study abroad at some point during their time at Union-a figure that places Union among the country's leaders in this area. We have also sought to maintain and expand our on-campus opportunities for students to live and interact, from fraternities and sororities to theme houses. However, it is the Minerva System, now underway, that will provide both additional residential and social opportunities and exciting new ways to enrich the intellectual life on campus-and that will serve as a national model. By serving as everything from a focus for social activities to a vehicle for community service to the setting for a small concert, each house gives students a new outlet.
The Minervas will go beyond being merely a social outlet, though. Since all of our faculty members have a house affiliation, and since faculty will work with house members to plan and organize educational and cultural events, the houses will become a major academic force. Study after study has shown that a student's contact with faculty outside the classroom is one of the most important aspects of a college education. The Minerva Houses build on those experiences. Through formal classes in the seminar rooms built into the houses and informal conversations, the intellectual life of the campus will be enhanced.
Many people-faculty, staff, and students-have worked very hard over several years to make the Minervas a success. To each of them, I say “thank you” for bringing this option to Union, and, ultimately, to College America.
As a society and as a college, we face change on many fronts, and change characteristically engenders both uncertainty and opportunity. Uncertainty should not limit us in our thinking about what needs to be done; opportunity should be our inspiration to take action. To achieve our goals, we must engage both our resources and imagination, and we must take chances, something we have often done during the past two centuries. It is this willingness to evolve that allows us to meet our most basic duty, which is to provide the best possible environment for learning by challenging students to think, to question ideas critically, to come to their own conclusions, and to communicate those conclusions clearly, concisely, and convincingly. And for that environment to exist, I believe, we must continually seek to make the College a community willing, in turn, to challenge the ways in which it has been operating.
Thomas Jefferson, Nott's contemporary, said he preferred the dreams of the future to the memories of the past. We all should. Both men would, however, be quick to recognize the importance of tradition, and, from what I have read about Nott, he would welcome the innovative way we are building on tradition to create our educational model for the twenty-first century.
Union has a wonderful history. Now, we also have a wonderful opportunity. And by working together, we can make our latest dream become the model and standard for others.