What does it mean to be liberally educated in the 21st century?
Colleges and universities are asking that question as they are being urged by technology executives, researchers and business leaders to better prepare all undergraduates to understand and solve technical problems.
As a pioneer in the field, Union will lead a national conversation June 5 and 6 when leaders from nearly two dozen top schools will share different models for integrating engineering, technology and the traditional 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.”
Speakers include Lewis M. Duncan, president of Rollins College; 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.
Most of the sessions will be held in the Nott Memorial and the F.W. Olin Center.
This marks the second conference on engineering and the liberal arts hosted by the College. Last year’s symposium attracted national attention, including a feature in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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. The need for integrating the two disciplines is just as vital today.
“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.”
Chung Joon-yang, CEO of POSCO, one of the world’s largest steelmakers, recently told graduate students in Seoul that to become a global firm in its truest meaning, his company must seek employees with an engineer’s precision and a liberal arts student’s imagination.
“I was too poor to read extensively while in school,” he said. “While working after graduation, I regretted my narrow scope of vision and shallow pool of experience.”
The symposium is funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
For more information, including a schedule of events, click here.
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