Harvard dean questions future of liberal arts

Author: H. Kay Merriman

A few weeks ago, during lunch, a friend of mine performed a monologue that he had been writing and rehearsing for a class. The speech described different moments in his life in which he had been ridiculed, rejected or simply sad. His words were raw, real and deeply personal. I was near tears over my Proctor salad. I wanted to probe, to ask questions, to continue the experience - but instead, after sharing a brief but powerful moment, we scurried off to our respective schoolwork and activities. When I got back to my room, I asked my roommate how often do we experience true emotion at Middlebury? When do we take the time to reflect on past experiences and how we have dealt with them? Do Middlebury students have soul?

On Nov. 29, former Dean of Harvard College Harry Lewis spoke to an overflowing room of Middlebury students, faculty and staff about his book "Excellence Without a Soul: Does Liberal Arts Education Have a Future?" The book explores the current trend among universities of emphasizing academic achievement over personal growth. According to Lewis, universities have lost sight of "the big point of undergraduate education." Lewis compared the collegiate education system to a large shopping mall.

"You are required to buy something from every store, but that's not the way to come out well-dressed," Lewis said.

In Lewis' opinion, there are a number of factors contributing to the decline of liberal arts institutions. These problems include placing a greater value on "intelligence," as opposed to true "wisdom." At the same time, he believes that universities have a tendency to appease students, even if academic standards must be sacrificed in the process.

Lewis attributes a lot of these problems to the increase in research funding for sciences after World War II. As a result of the funding increase, universities are now judged on the quality of research they produce instead of the quality of the overall academic experience.

Although only research universities received this funding, liberal arts colleges, according to Lewis, are also altering their priorities. Lewis referred to the lack of "instructional" teaching and the propensity to focus on "educational" teaching that largely benefits only students who pursue a career in academia.

"There is little reward for thinking holistically," Lewis said.

Lewis also noted that the faculty, or the administration's choice of faculty, are largely responsible for the changing focus and environment of a college. He pointed to 1970s as an era in which women, Jews, homosexuals and African-Americans, among others, were denied jobs purely because of their sex, lifestyle or ethnicity. The effort to end discrimination by depersonalizing the criteria for judgment, in Lewis' opinion, also ended the evaluation of professors' integrity.

College Professor of Humanities John McWilliams left Lewis' lecture somewhat unsatisfied.

"It was an engaging title for a lecture that proved to be incisive in defining current problems in academia, but quite lacking, even timid, in proposing any solutions for them," McWilliams said.

Lewis did not offer any possible remedies in his lecture, but instead reiterated that the lack of "soul" at liberal arts schools is the reflection on the universities' internal structures.

"I don't hold students responsible for anything," Lewis said. "If they are not doing something right, it is because they are reacting to flaws in the system."

This comment drew criticism from many audience members.

"I was surprised and dismayed by Lewis' belief that the moral climate among adolescents was solely the product of institutional competition and bad moral exemplars among teaching staff," Lauren Vollmer '10 said. "To refuse to hold young people accountable for their moral failings is equivalent to simultaneously denying them adult status and preventing them from achieving it."

Ari Silverman '09 also thinks that students are responsible for their own "soul," or lack thereof.

"I feel like students at Midd are sometimes too turbo and don't stop to breathe and appreciate the present moment," Silverman said.

He also noted the importance of an administration that consults students before making changes that could impact students' personal lives.

"Decisions concerning student life need to be made by the College community as a whole rather than by the ruling oligarchy of the administration," Silverman said, citing the changes to the residential life staff this year as an example of this type of decision.

Has Middlebury lost its soul? If so, what can we do to ensure that it is recovered?

Visiting Assistant Professor of English and American Literatures James Berg believed that both students and faculty should actively engage in maintaining Middlebury's "soul."

"Liberal education should never be presented primarily as something to be bought and sold," said Berg. "It should be considered a duty to the larger public, a civic duty for both students and teachers."

"As for Middlebury itself," he continued, "I am hopeful. I am relatively new here, but I believe that, at my first faculty meeting a little over a year ago, I heard our administration repeatedly articulate a commitment to such principles."