Union will bring together academic leaders from more than a dozen top colleges and universities for a national symposium, “Engineering and Liberal Education”, May 9-10.
The idea of integrating engineering into the liberal arts is attracting considerable buzz on college campuses. Recent developments that highlight this growing interest include a white paper issued in December by James J. Duderstadt, a president emeritus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, urging universities to better prepare all undergraduates to understand and solve technical problems. Last month, Princeton University announced a $25 million gift to help integrate the two disciplines.
In 1845, Union became the first liberal arts college to offer engineering. The symposium will explore different models for integrating engineering, technology and the traditional liberal arts.
Among the participants are Princeton, Dartmouth, Swarthmore, Lafayette, Smith, Trinity, Villanova, U.S. Military Academy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Sweet Briar College, Tufts, University of Vermont, University of Georgia and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Speakers include Union President Stephen C. Ainlay; President Carol Christ of Smith College; Lance Schachterle, associate provost of WPI and Domenico Grasso, dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematics, University of Vermont.
Most of the sessions will be held in the Nott Memorial and the F.W. Olin Center.
“There is real urgency to educate students who are great scientists and engineers and who can see the big picture,” says Cherrice A. Traver, dean of Engineering, citing concerns of the National Academies of Science and the National Academy of Engineering. “We understand that narrowly educated graduates are not prepared to address either the threats or the opportunities presented by the technological world.”
Noting Union’s pioneering status as the first liberal arts college to offer engineering, Traver noted that participants in this weekend’s conference “are in a position to help reshape higher education to produce graduates with the skills to think broadly and holistically about the challenges of our diverse, global, and technologically complex society."
The symposium is funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City.
For more information, go to http://www.union.edu/integration/.