educated liberal arts graduates with their creative, analytical and critical-thinking skills. As you know, some books are critical of a broad liberal arts education. We’re exploring the question in another way too: Is liberal learning dead? I’d appreciate your comments. —Bill Noblitt, Editor, stetson magazine Here’s some background info: chronicle.com/article/GivingEmployers-What-They/13987 and www.aacu.org/leap/documents/ GlobalCentury_final.pdf In the Chronicle of Higher Education article titled “Giving Employers What They Don’t Really Want,” it says, “Why is there such a discrepancy between what employers want in a college graduate, and what we as educators think they want?” The LEAP report was the foundation for the A&S curriculum change a few years back, and the move to the course unit system at Stetson. — Michael Branton, Ph.D. Now retired after a successful career using my science doctorate to do neat electronics products. Regrets? Yes, I should have taken more liberal arts and learned to appreciate more than the electron. —Ken Wone, Ph.D. Certainly relevant. However, it’s more important that students come away with a sense of professionalism and, of course, competence in at least one marketable discipline. — Hari Pulapaka, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Math Stetson University Absolutely — I’m a marketing manager for a national event technology company and regularly draw on theory from my communication studies major. As long as you’re willing to teach yourself the technical and business skills necessary for whatever career you want to pursue, the foundations of a liberal arts
curriculum are not only suitable but even beneficial for “real world” application. As a liberal arts major, you’re taught to be a thinker — you problem solve based on your research — and that is tremendously useful when coupled with the professionalism and marketable competencies Hari mentioned. — Kathleen Smith, ’10 Unfortunately, in these changing times, education has too often been judged by what job it will get a student. I think it’s essential to keep this a priority but not to “fill the cup” with that goal. Education, overall, is here to bring us a better appreciation of the world, to teach us how to think and appreciate, to make us citizens of a greater world of ideas. Liberal arts offers this opportunity. If we eliminate that, why not just have trade schools and create a world filled with technicians ... brilliant technicians in many cases, but people who haven’t been taught to appreciate a poem, a Gothic cathedral, the nuances of a Bach Concerto, unless they learned it elsewhere. I graduated from Stetson in 1963 and went on to get my Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Now I write and publish poetry. I’m still grateful to Stetson for the education it gave me in the liberal arts. I still remember Miss Kathleen Johnson taking us into the music room, describing the components of a symphony, then setting us the task of writing the start of one. She was amazing. — Pris Campbell, ’63 stetson magazine welcomes letters to the editor. However, we ask that you focus your letter on a topic or article in the magazine. Send letters by email to wnoblitt@stetson.edu, by fax at 386-822-8925, or snail mail to Bill Noblitt, Office of University Marketing, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., 8319, DeLand, FL 32723. Because of space limitations, we may edit some letters.
Your Response to the stetson magazine Email Readership Survey
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e made some big changes to stetson magazine, including focusing on the theme of university teaching. You gave the magazine high marks for those changes. First of all, the methodology. We sent a link to the survey to more than 2,900 alumni, friends, parents, faculty and staff. The response rate was about 6 percent. More than 170 of you responded. Here’s what you told us: • 87 percent of you agree to strongly agree that “SU Magazine strengthens your personal commitment to Stetson.” • 95 percent of you rated the quality of the magazine good to excellent. • 65 percent of you rated the article titled “My Favorite Professor” the highest. “Why I Teach” came in a close second with 58 percent. “The Future of Teaching” was the third most read article at 45 percent. • Class Notes continues to be your highest-rated department in the magazine at 68 percent. Next highest was news (Beginnings) with 58 percent. • Only 25 percent of you say you would view additional content online if it was available. • 55 percent of the survey respondents were men, and more than 40 percent of you who responded were over 65. —Bill Noblitt Editor, stetson magazine STETSON
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