THE LORAS COLLEGE MAGAZINE | VOL. 59 | NO. 1 | WINTER 2010

This May will be my eighth year of
reading approximately 300 names of
graduates as they cross the stage to
receive their diplomas and congratulations
from family, friends and the
College community. The commencement
program is fairly predictable; it
lists students’ full names, majors and
hometowns. Academic regalia for some
include honor stoles or chords.
Otherwise they all wear the same cap
and gown—carry-overs from medieval
traditions emphasizing freedom (the
cap) and equality (the gown). Loras
graduates, however, also share an
experience of learning most associated
with the long tradition of the liberal
arts—emphases on breadth of learning,
freedom of critical inquiry, the development
of communication abilities in a
small, residential college committed to
teaching practices that contribute to a
holistic education suited for both the
present and the future. Sometimes that
experience brings students to exuberant
displays of joy, thankfulness or
self-assuredness—such as what may
have prompted one student to kiss the
provost on his way across the stage. He
reconnected with me, coincidentally,
as I began to write this second article on
the liberal arts for the Loras magazine.
More of him later.
There is a growing discussion in higher
education circles recently that focuses
on the liberal arts tradition. The impetus
for the op ed pieces in the Chicago
Tribune, The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal or The Chronicle
of Higher Education, or the data from
professional organizations such as the
Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, or the
Council of Independent Colleges, reflect
the very real challenges facing higher
education. Many of the columnists,
college presidents and bloggers of
various backgrounds point to the
troubling economic factors, international
competition and a climate of distrust
and disappointment that undermine
education generally, but more
specifically liberal arts or liberal
learning approaches. The growth of
on-line, for-profit institutions further
fuels a perception that education is
certification in practical skills or geared
exclusively to professional fields. It can
also be cheap and electronically quick—
easily sandwiched into the spaces of
“life” since it can occur asynchronously
at any time the student is awake. Here is
no “frills” pragmatism unaware of real
costs now and for the future of this
narrow understanding of education.
In spite of the “perfect storm” facing the
liberal arts—as one commentator
described it, the liberal arts or liberal
learning tradition may be precisely what
is needed to confront and resolve the
complex problems of our times. It is
within this tradition that students
develop the intellectual skills and the
dispositions that will enable them to
adapt as the world changes—including
the more than 10 job and career changes
they will experience during their
working lives. The liberal arts curricula
encourage critical and imaginative
thinking, foster communication in
multiple forms and develop not only
tolerance but appreciation for the
diversity of human perspectives. It is
also from this tradition that students
identify and strengthen the values that
will ground them when faced with the
ambiguities of a complex world.
The number of “true liberal arts”
institutions has been in decline for
decades, many evolving into institutions
similar to Loras with significant liberal
learning emphases that stress breadth of
learning—the liberal arts foundation—
while also providing professionallyoriented
programs and experiences.
On The Cover | Spring 2011
The liberal arts tradition thrives at Loras
College in approximately 20 majors. It
is also central to the general education
curriculum which is part of every
student’s studies at the College, and is
present in a variety of ways in the
approximately 20 pre-professional
majors. In Why Choose the Liberal
Arts? Mark William Roche, former dean
of the University of Notre Dame’s
College of Arts and Letters, answers
the question from three perspectives:
intrinsic value of the life of the mind
and exploring the “great questions,”
character formation and development of
a sense of vocation and cultivation of
skills and attributes for a successful
career. One need only make explicit the
anticipated outcome of an informed
citizenry to have a full-picture of the
liberal arts from their origins to our
contemporary context.
The dialogue around the relative merits
of liberal learning, however, has added a
new element. As Roche elegantly notes,
“It is…not only ironic but also appealing
that the very education we elevate
for its intrinsic value cultivates virtues
that serve meaningful external ends and
prepares students for the needs and
challenges of practical life, even if that
is not its primary purpose” (51). As
some critics and advocates for liberal
learning have observed, institutions need
to better articulate and justify the value
of a liberal arts education since those
assumptions are not widely known or
held presently.
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