A cultural reconciliation between the humanities and the sciences is critical if graduates are to succeed in an increasingly technological world, the president of Rollins College said Friday at a national conference on engineering and the liberal arts.
“An understanding of technology and its influence on our society and the human condition has never been a more essential element of liberal learning,” Lewis M. Duncan told more than two dozen academic leaders from some of the nation’s top schools at the conference hosted by Union.
“In this complex, modern world, a truly liberal education liberates the minds of our graduates so that they will be not merely informed spectators, but rather engaged participants in the great issues, debates and challenges that define their times," Duncan said in his talk, "The Illiberal Art of Engineering."
Duncan, the former dean and professor of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, applauded those colleges and universities who have integrated engineering, technology and the liberal arts. He urged more schools to break down traditional barriers between the disciplines to produce graduates, so that “theirs must not simply be a life of the mind, but also a life that is mindful.”
The two-day conference Friday and Saturday marks the second straight year Union has hosted a national conversation on engineering and the liberal arts. Among the participants: Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, Smith, Lafayette and the U.S. Military Academy.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Educating the Stewards of a Sustainable Future.”
In addition to Duncan, other speakers included Diane P. Michelfelder, professor of philosophy at Macalester College and president for the Society for Philosophy and Technology; and Braden R. Allenby, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and of law at Arizona State University, and president of the International Society for Industrial Ecology. Union President Stephen C. Ainlay gave opening remarks.
A series of breakout sessions and discussions will be held in the Nott Memorial and the F.W. Olin Center.
In 1845, Union became the first liberal arts college to offer engineering in response to the needs of a nation characterized by rapid industrial and urban growth.
“We have to develop the competencies in our students that are needed by the leadership teams of the future,” said Cherrice A. Traver, dean of engineering at Union. “The complex challenges facing humanity and the earth demand that the concept of a liberal education include familiarity with technology as well as the more traditional ‘liberal arts’ fields.”
The symposium is funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
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