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The Liberal Arts and the Business Community:
Is this Marriage Worth Saving?
By G. Benjamin Oliver, President, Hiram College
Speech before the Akron, Ohio Business Roundtable, April 16, 1998
Used with permission of the college.
Hiram College has many historic ties to this city and the area. Galen
Roush, co-founder of Roadway and benefactor of the GAR Foundation, was
a Hiram alumnus, as were several of his family members. Dr. Louis Sisler,
one of the early founders of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, also
graduated from Hiram. Some 600 Hiram College alumni currently reside in
Summit County. They are contributing to this community in careers ranging
from physicians, lawyers, and scientists to teachers, ministers, and entrepreneurs.
In turn, the Akron community is very supportive of Hiram. This community
not only contributes to the College directly, but supports Hiram and other
liberal arts colleges through the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges,
known to many of you as OFIC. Some of your most active citizens also serve
as members of the Hiram board of trustees—wonderfully committed individuals
such as Ann Brennan, Barbara Hiney, Vince DiGirolamo, Rob Malone, and
Paul Martin. We couldn't ask for more energetic leaders, or more enthusiastic
cheerleaders, for Hiram and its brand of liberal arts education.
Which is my segue into today's topic "The liberal arts and the business
community: Is this marriage worth saving?" My contention is that
this is a marriage worth not simply saving, but celebrating!
Let me begin with the observation that for all the criticism that education
is receiving today—some of it fair and some not—this country
is where it is today, in large measure, because of its strong and diverse
system of some 3,600 institutions of higher education. Over the years,
American post-secondary education, which ranges from community colleges
to research universities, has served our society well, to say nothing
of what it has contributed to business and industry. A key strength of
the system is that students have a wide choice of institutions for undergraduate
education, so that they can select the academic environment best suited
to their learning styles and their needs. Another strength is that these
undergraduates can go on to pursue more specialized study at fine comprehensive
research universities such as Akron University and Kent State and Case
Western Reserve.
My focus today is on a very special brand of undergraduate education
known as the liberal arts, and especially, those institutions known as
the liberal arts colleges. Today, there are 540 colleges in the nation
that warrant classification as a private liberal arts college, a status
conferred by the prestigious Carnegie Foundation for The Advancement of
Teaching which is in essence the "Better Business Bureau" of
higher education.
According to the Carnegie Foundation, Ohio ranks third, behind Pennsylvania
and New York, in the number of liberal arts colleges . . . an asset for
the state and for its business community, although not necessarily a boon
to all of us competing for students! As Barbara mentioned in her introduction,
eight of Ohio's liberal arts colleges are ranked by the Carnegie Foundation
as national rather than regional institutions. Needless to say, those
of us associated with Hiram College are proud to be included among those
eight.
So what is a liberal arts college? Traditionally, the study of the liberal
arts exposes a student to a wide variety of subjects, approached from
multiple perspectives, in order to develop that student's knowledge base.
In the past, as well as today, these subjects have included humanities,
language, science, mathematics, and the fine arts. The fundamental objective
in liberal arts education is to refine powers of observation, to hone
skills in writing and speaking, and to discipline the mind so that problem
solving is approached analytically and critically. Skills development
and technical expertise are certainly tools students gain and use in their
quest for this broad based and integrated knowledge, but those skills
and expertise are means to this end, not ends in themselves.
The modern day liberal arts college remains committed to these objectives
. . . and more. New subjects and majors may be added, such as computer
science, management and biochemistry. But in the best of the liberal arts
colleges, and I include Hiram here, this does not mean just adding courses
and faculty. It means enriching these new fields with a liberal arts perspective—requiring
students to understand the interrelatedness of knowledge, to recognize
the need for the integration of information for the resolution of problems,
and to examine the ethical dimensions of issues and ideas.
Colleges that cherish their liberal arts character are distinguished
by their single-minded purpose to teach undergraduates to learn how to
learn. Let me repeat that this idea. . . we teach students to learn how
to learn. Education is a life-long experience, not simply a four-year
process.
This process occurs largely one-on-one in small classes via faculty teaching
and mentoring. This is not to say that students in other types of institutions
may not acquire such skills, but comprehensive universities with thousands
of students often are not able to approach the education of students in
as holistic a way. Small liberal arts colleges have always placed the
development of the whole person, through skilled teaching and devoted
faculty mentoring, at the heart of the educational journey. We have perfected
that art. It does make a difference in the educational outcome of our
graduates. In fact, 84 percent of the nation's liberal arts graduates
in a recent survey expressed a high degree of satisfaction with their
liberal arts education. Let me put that another way. Regardless of whether
they went on to graduate school or pursued careers in business and industry,
84 percent felt their liberal arts foundation successfully prepared them
for their futures.
America's liberal arts system is recognized as a powerful form of learning
beyond our own shores. A few years ago, for example, Fortune Magazine
carried an article on Japan in which it quoted Leo Esaki, one of only
five Japanese ever to win a Nobel Prize for science. Esaki began his career
as a young research scientist at Sony, but left in 1960 for a job with
IBM in New York. After more than 30 years there, he returned to Japan
(QUOTE) "on a mission to change the way Japanese society deals with
creativity and innovation." The article goes on to discuss Esaki's
efforts at educational reform. One major problem, he says, and I quote,
"is that Japanese undergraduates burrow too deeply into their specialties,
missing out on the exposure to humanities that a liberal arts education
affords elsewhere. Broad-mindedness is good for creativity," maintains
Esaki, "But the Japanese educational system is narrow and deep."
America's business leaders, by and large, have a solid appreciation for
what the liberal arts college graduate brings to the table. A May 12,
1997 issue of Fortune Magazine, reporting on a survey commissioned by
AT & T regarding attitudes toward the liberal arts, found that 63
percent of the business leaders interviewed felt the purpose of a college
degree is long-term career development. Fewer than 37 percent said the
purpose of a college degree is to acquire work skills. These statistics
clearly indicate that the liberal arts have in fact a natural ally, or
marriage partner, if you will, in the business community.
The survey I just mentioned identified three clusters of skills that
business executiveslook for in prospective employees. These skills relate
closely and directly to the experiences and learning environment provided
by the liberal arts colleges and provide a basis for a strong alliance
between these colleges and the business community.
First, corporate leaders surveyed placed a very high value on cognitive
abilities, problem solving, critical thinking, and learning to learn.
The research findings demonstrate that employers value an ability to see
issues from multiple perspectives.
The second cluster of skills valued by business leaders in the survey
centered around communication—the ability to communicate effectively,
both orally and in writing. Employees who can present ideas in a coherent,
clear, and persuasive manner were seen as extremely valuable.
The third cluster of skills, viewed as equally important by the chief
executives and human resource officers, relate to how employees work with
a diverse group of people. Intercultural understanding, international
experience, and the ability to work as part of a team were deemed necessary
traits for success in business. It is true that each year our world gets
smaller and smaller as technology and the global marketplace connect cultures
and nations. But this compacting of the world economic order is not its
Americanization: to be successful, Americans must understand the world
as others see it.
International education has long been an important component of the liberal
arts curriculum. I might add that while only 29% of bachelor's degrees
in Ohio are from small colleges, nearly 40 percent of the bachelors' degrees
in foreign languages are from those colleges. And, one of the most distinctive
aspects of Hiram College is its international program. Almost 50 percent
of Hiram's traditional students study in a foreign land during their four
years on campus, compared to the national average of about 24 percent.
We are especially proud of that number. Seven or eight Hiram programs
taught by Hiram faculty members are offered each academic year in countries
on five continents.
More than 3,000 Hiram students have studied on programs to countries
as diverse as Russia, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Trinidad, Guatemala, Suriname,
as well as most traditional European countries. By living and learning
in a culture different from their own, students undergo a transformation
and develop a new sense of self-confidence that later translates into
the ability to work with diverse people cooperatively across cultural
lines.
The evidence that I have cited thus far shows -- I believe -- that the
marriage between business and liberal arts education is worth saving.
The skills and abilities fostered in our environment serve the needs of
successful businesses. I would be remiss, however, if I did not spend
at least a few minutes on another question, namely, Can this marriage
be saved? I think that the answer is yes, but both partners are going
to have to do a better job of articulating the value of this union.
Earlier in this talk I mentioned that 70 percent of America's college
students were educated in liberal arts colleges at the turn of this century.
That figure is now less than five percent nationally—although in
Ohio we do considerably better since 29 % of Ohio's college students attend
independent colleges. But the drop in numbers nationally is cause for
serious concern, particularly when you realize that nearly 70 percent
of the CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies attended independent colleges—and
most of those colleges are liberal arts institutions.
In part, the decline is due to competition; many of the nation's large
public institutions were only in their infancy at the turn of the century,
and today they draw students away from liberal arts colleges. One reason
for this is cost. Tuition is higher at private liberal arts colleges than
at state institutions. However, 80 percent of students attending independent
colleges receive financial aid. At Hiram, that figure is more than 85
percent; 22 percent of Hiram's $25 million operating budget provides financial
assistance for students. Thus the actual cost paid for such an education
is not well understood.
Moreover, it is important to recognize that buying an education is not
like buying a car—it is not like purchasing a commodity that is used
up and then discarded. Instead, it is an investment that will later pay
large dividends in terms of both employment and quality of life.
There is, however, another—and perhaps more troubling—reason
beyond cost as to why fewer students are choosing to pursue their education
at liberal arts colleges. Also included in the survey reported by Fortune
magazine were interviews of high school students and their parents. 75%
of those parents surveyed—and 85 percent of the college-bound students
surveyed—believe that the point of college is to get a practical
education and land a decent job right out of school.
Now don't misunderstand me. I am the father of two children, and gainful
employment is high on my list! Indeed, you couldn't find a college president
anywhere who didn't wish that all graduates could start great jobs the
day after graduation.
But there is a danger inherent in a belief that the primary purpose of
education is to land a job, because that philosophy puts the emphasis
on buying short-term skills as opposed to developing long-term potential.
The purpose of education, and especially liberal arts education, is to
learn to think critically, so that in a world where many labor experts
predict that today's students are expected to change careers—not
jobs but careers—up to five times before retirement, they will be
able to function effectively and make significant contributions in all
five careers. The corporate community needs to help convince parents and
students that liberal arts education is a secure path to success.
The bottom line is that business today—and more significantly, successful
business tomorrow—demands employees who can handle and manage change;
employees who do their best work as members of teams; employees who can
solve problems and resolve critical issues; employees with enough sense
of the past to be able to see the future. We're talking about employees
who give companies a competitive edge. A liberal arts education supports
all of those attributes and gives graduates their own edge in a highly
competitive global marketplace.
And along the way, in those personal and social institutions we read
and hear about as being so threatened in modern America, the ability to
handle and manage change, work in partnership, solve problems, resolve
crises, and hold to a sense of values and a personal vision for a better
future is also useful. In this way, a liberal arts education enables graduates
to make a positive contribution to a civil society.
Three years ago the Beacon Journal carried an excerpt from a speech by
one of this area's most-respected liberal arts graduates, Stanley Gault.
As many of you know, Stan is a graduate of the College of Wooster, another
of this area's extraordinary national liberal arts colleges. It is worth
re-visiting some of his comments:
Suggesting the liberal-arts tradition is a dead end is, in my view,
especially dangerous at this juncture. This is not the time to abandon
an emphasis on traditional studies. I believe we must be certain the
liberal-arts colleges . . . continue to offer a broad-based education
that prepares its students not for one thing but for anything. Further,
I think we must encourage those programs that are more specialized—programs
in such areas as engineering, accounting, or computer science—to
adopt the liberal arts approach. Today, more than ever in our history,
we need people who are broadly educated, able to adapt to the changing
circumstances of the business environment, and willing to take risks."
Stan continues "It is my belief that the liberal arts, far from
being a dead end, offer a direct route to a successful future and are
also a model for the reform our nation's educational system so desperately
needs.
These remarks are indeed heartening because they speak not only to the
worth of the marriage between the business community and the liberal arts,
but also to the important role that corporate leaders can play in helping
to convince the public that the kind of education provided in liberal
arts institutions is more valuable today than ever before.
Is this marriage worth saving? Yes. Can it be saved? You bet. But there
is still more that needs to be done to strengthen the bond that connects
the liberal arts and the business community. If you believe, as Stan Gault
does, that liberal arts graduates are uniquely prepared for successful
careers in business, then the young people of our nation, their parents,
and your colleagues in the business community, need to hear from you.
By singing the praises of liberal arts graduates, you help to ensure that
this nation will continue to be able to rely upon a workforce that is
intellectually alive, socially responsible, and ready for leadership in
business, and in our world community.
Thank you very much.
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