President's Office

The Vitality of the Liberal Arts at Cornell College

"My Cornell College education prepared me well for medical school and my medical practice, but what I really appreciate is that it gave me a foundation for wisdom."

John Koch '50,
retired orthopedic surgeon, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Cornell College has a tradition of strength as a liberal arts institution. In my view, a liberal education has never been more important or valuable than it is today. Enhancement of the liberal arts at Cornell is the subject of this White Paper, the first of a series I plan to write and send to you about the college and its future.

There are those who consider the liberal arts college an endangered species. As recently as 40 years ago, liberal arts colleges like Cornell enrolled 70 percent of all college students in the United States. This year the comparable figure is 17 percent. This decline in "market share" has resulted from the dramatic and rapid growth of the public sector, the state universities, and, more recently, the community colleges. State institutions, with lower tuition than independent colleges, are understandably attractive to students and their parents. The relatively broad array of pre-professional and technical programs at large public institutions is attractive at a time when students are worried about employment after college. Indeed, much of the enrollment growth in public institutions has been in pre-professional and technical programs.

Yet there is a vitality to a liberal arts college that cannot be replicated on a large campus. There is a value to a liberal education that endures beyond the value of technical training. At Cornell, our vitality derives from a tradition of excellence. The education we offer prepares students well for the present and the future. We are determined to affirm the liberal arts at Cornell as we look to the College's 150th anniversary in 2003.

Tracing a Tradition of Excellence

The value of a Cornell education is reflected in the accomplishments of its alumni and in the national recognition that the college has received. The achievements of Cornellians for the past century and a half speak articulately to the historic strength of the liberal arts here. We are one of only 255 campuses in the country with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, and our chapter celebrated its 75th anniversary this year.

The hallmarks of a liberal education are a breadth of perspective and the capacity to think clearly and communicate articulately. At Cornell, these characteristics are reinforced in an intimate setting in which students and faculty work together closely and in which the classroom is reinforced by learning in residence halls and campus activities. Cornell faculty have a proud and long-standing commitment to excellent teaching and mentoring students.

Last spring, I had the opportunity visit Leonard Blue '27, in Medford, Ore. After Leonard completed Cornell and Harvard Law School, he began a long and successful practice in New York. One of his sons went to Yale, the other to Princeton. "But you know," he said, "I got the best education of the three." When I asked why, he responded immediately, "Judge Littell [longtime Cornell professor of history]. I was his first advisee. He changed my life."

I have heard similar stories, with the names of many different faculty members, from dozens of Cornellians. The value of the liberal arts, reinforced by faculty members who took an interest in students, has made Cornell a special place. A Cornell education has been more than a preparation for a first job or even a career. John Koch '50, who recently retired as an orthopedic surgeon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, told me that while his education had prepared him well for medical school and practice, what he really appreciated was that it had prepared him for life. He said, "It gave me a foundation for wisdom."

The Liberal Arts, Brainpower, and the Global Economy

Liberal arts education is not a museum piece. A liberal education is, I believe, the best education we can provide our students. Lester Thurow, former dean of the Sloan School of Management at MIT, writes in his book The Future of Capitalism that we are now engaged in a transition to a new economic world that will be shaped in large part by a global economy and the emergence of "brainpower" industries. In the global economy, says Thurow, anything can be made and sold anywhere. With the emergence of a science-based economy, knowledge and skills become critical assets.

Peter Drucker suggests that the work of the new century will be knowledge work, work that cannot be done without formal education and work that focuses on ideas and a rapidly developing knowledge base. A liberal education is the best preparation for knowledge work. Breadth of perspective is critical for work in a global environment and for understanding rapid and constant change. The abilities to think and communicate are critical to working with ideas. Skills in analysis and problem-solving, in writing, and clear presentation of ideas--attributes of a liberal education--are the required skills in what we now call high-performance work environments. Values and ethics are essential to decision-making in a world of diversity and change.

Like other alumni, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Aleta Grillos Trauger '68 credits Cornell with "completing the formation of my values." She says she came to Cornell as a naive 18-year-old and that her education here served as the foundation for careers as a teacher, as chief of staff for the mayor of Nashville, as an attorney, and now as a judge and member of Cornell's Board of Trustees.

John Urheim '62 is the chief executive of a technology firm in Colorado. He reports that he is often asked, "What's a liberal arts graduate doing running a high-tech company?" His response is, "Who better than a liberal arts graduate?" John says that the liberal arts prepared him to think clearly and to understand the relationships between science, market forces, and human behavior. He is prepared to learn and adjust to the unexpected. For him Cornell provided "an education for life and friends for a lifetime."

Entrepreneur Marcia Radosevich '74 is another example of what Cornell graduates can do with a liberal arts education. She earned a Ph.D. in sociology then founded a software and database company for health insurers because "I wanted to build solutions to problems, not just identify them." Her achievements have been featured in Newsweek, BusinessWeek, and the Boston Globe.

Adjusting Our Strength for the Future

As the world changes around us, we want to preserve what is best of the Cornell tradition and adjust in those ways that will continue to provide an exciting education for our students. Twenty years ago, we adopted the One-Course-At-A-Time calendar, a major innovation that, as I will write in my next White Paper, is ideally suited for the 21st century. We do not envision so radical a set of changes now, but we do see ways that we can enhance the value of a Cornell education through integrating into OCAAT more technology, internships, international study, service learning, and student research.

Exploring the Uses of Technology: By the time you receive this White Paper, we will have a campus-wide fiber-optic network in place. We think that this network, which will offer two network connections in each residence hall room as well as connections in each classroom and office, will be one of the best among liberal arts colleges in the nation. The network will enable faculty to explore how technology can be used to enhance learning in languages and the humanities, for example. Through a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, we are examining ways to use technology across the college so that our students will have expanded access to knowledge and can gain greater familiarity with the use of technology in learning and problem-solving.

Expanding Internships: Internships have been popular for some time at Cornell. Thirty-six percent of our 1998 graduates experienced at least one internship. One-Course-At-A-Time allows a student to engage full time in an internship, which we most often use to enrich study in a major. Political science students, for example, work in government agencies and economics students in banking. Such experiences bring classroom learning to life. They also offer valuable preparation for a lifetime of learning in the workplace. We aspire to expand the internship program, extending the reach of our classroom teaching outside the academy.

Opening Windows to the World: If we are to prepare our students for a global society, we must provide an open window on the world. We have traditionally offered off-campus study programs through the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and have a number of very successful programs of our own. These programs provide students the chance to study poetry in Mexico, language in Montreal, and Shakespeare in England. We have majors in international business and international relations. We need to add internships in these majors and expand the number of opportunities for off-campus study. We are exploring the addition of classes that deal with Asian culture, history, and economics, for, as recent events have shown, Asia is now a major player in American economic life.

Service Learning: Three years ago, we established an Office of Volunteer Services to coordinate and support our students' community service work. We now have more than two-thirds of our students engaged in volunteer service at various sites each year. Faculty members are exploring how service can enrich course work-sociology students working at the Metro Area Housing Program, for example. Twenty-four faculty members are now working on service learning, not just because we value service, but because we know that service learning strengthens the liberal arts and sharpens leadership instincts. A recent study at UCLA documents that engagement in community service enhances student performance in all dimensions of a liberal arts education.

Stimulating Student Research: For the past two years, Cornell has sponsored a symposium for student research. Nearly 100 students delivered papers or made poster presentations of research that included such topics as "The Search for the Plant Enzyme Catalase," "Awareness and Perception of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," and "A Population in Need: Characteristics of Homeless Children." The event is an exhilarating day and an important development for the college. Conducting research with a faculty member is one of the special opportunities offered in a small college environment. We know from national marketing studies that having such opportunities is an important attraction for students and parents. We also know that the experience of doing the research and presenting results is an excellent preparation for careers and raduate work.

In all these efforts, Cornell will be seeking to substantiate the evaluation of the 1996-97 edition of "Peterson's Competitive Colleges" that stated:

"Cornell's experience with single-course study now indicates that it can maximize the effect of a liberal arts education by allowing students and professors to focus their efforts exclusively on each course."

Which, of course, brings us back to where we began: the unyielding commitment of Cornell graduates to the liberal arts. One alumnus of the 1950s told me at a recent meeting that the real advantage she experienced at Cornell was the way it "opened her mind in ways it had never been opened before." Such evaluations reinforce Cornell's commitment to the liberal arts.

Implementing Our Plans

We will need your advice and help to develop and implement these plans. Alumni leadership and support will be critical as we seek to expand opportunities for internships, service learning, and off-campus study. We already have completed our plans to renovate Law Hall as a campus technology center, and we are currently developing plans to renovate Armstrong Hall to provide a better home for the performing and fine arts. As you consider the issues raised in this White Paper, please send me your questions and comments. I look forward to hearing from you and hope that these White Papers can lead us to a dialogue about Cornell and its future.

Leslie H. Garner Jr.
President