liberal arts

A wide-ranging education still opens doors

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 17:35:49 +0000

A wide-ranging education still opens doors Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/29/2021 - 11:35

James W.C. White

As one expert observes, 'Rapid technological change makes the case for (academic) breadth even stronger. A four-year college degree should prepare students for the next 40 years of working life, and for a future that none of us can imagine.'

You’d expect Forbes, the iconic business magazine, to herald careers in finance. You might not expect Forbes to argue that a liberal-arts education is not only a good way, but, in fact, the best way to launch a career in finance. Yet it did just that.

I write to share this and other things should be unsurprising. A sizeable body of research shows the enduring value of a liberal-arts education.

Writing in Forbes in August 2021, George Malkin, quantitative finance program director at the Stevens Institute of Technology, noted that college graduates who earn degrees in engineering, science and technology tend to earn higher starting salaries than those who study, say, English, history or sociology.

But in the field of finance, he contends, success depends on “the ability to cast a broad net and to understand and stay open to events and developments in all areas of the economy. And to see and understand the interconnections.”

A knowledge of history is a permanent asset. Skill in a language is a permanent asset. The liberal arts are the edge that students are looking for, the best foundation for a successful career in the finance industry.”

He gives an example: You’re working in the financial sector and want to understand the financial prospects of the Ford Motor Company. Ford’s future is affected, in part, by the European Union, Italian banks, Italian politics, German history, Brexit, the Treaty of Rome, World War II, Bismarck, Italian and German unifications in 1871, Gibbons’ Decline and Fall, the Medici, opera and Dante.

Malkin then poses a rhetorical question: “What sort of education does this call for?”

Hint: It’s not an education that focuses only (or largely) on technical skills. The marketability of specific technical skills, he notes, wanes with time, as new tech skills—and younger workers—gain favor.

“Critical thinking, on the other hand, is a permanent asset,” Malkin writes. “A knowledge of history is a permanent asset. Skill in a language is a permanent asset. The liberal arts are the edge that students are looking for, the best foundation for a successful career in the finance industry.”

I outline his reasoning here because it contradicts what counts as conventional wisdom, that a liberal-arts education might not be a gateway to a successful career. Particularly now, old myths about the liberal arts are destructive.

During the pandemic, some prospective students who wanted to go to college were forced by the tough economic reality to take jobs instead. Many of those would-be students come from underrepresented populations, such as those who would be the first in their families to go to college.

They might embrace the conventional wisdom about the “return on investment”—or ROI—of college degrees, and they might choose not to study a discipline that ignites their intellectual passion. That would be not only their loss, but also ours.

I have made this point before, but it bears repeating: People with college degrees—regardless of whether those degrees were in the arts and humanities, social sciences or natural sciences—enjoy consistently lower rates of unemployment than the rest of the workforce.

Additionally, getting a college degree has a good ROI: On average, college graduates earn $1.28 million more over the course of their careers than those who have only a high-school diploma, the Brookings Institution figures.

A 2021 survey of employers from a range of backgrounds and industries found that employers want to hire people whose college education engaged students in “forms of inquiry that train the intellect through a focus on real-world problems that draw the learner into relationship with others.”

Yes, students who major in scientific, technological, engineering or mathematical (STEM) fields tend to earn higher salaries than those in the arts and humanities. It’s also true that starting salaries of students who majored in the arts and humanities tend to be lower than starting salaries in the natural sciences.

But as multiple studies of graduates show, those gaps tend to narrow and even reverse over time. By the time they are in their 50s and 60s, people with liberal-arts degrees out-earned those who held degrees in professional or pre-professional fields such as nursing, business or education, according to a 2014 study from the Association of American College and Universities (AACU).

More recent research reinforces these findings.

A 2021 AACU survey of employers from a range of backgrounds and industries found that employers want to hire people whose college education engaged students in “forms of inquiry that train the intellect through a focus on real-world problems that draw the learner into relationship with others.”

In short, employers want employees with a liberal-arts background.

“We know—and can demonstrate—that a liberal education prepares students for success throughout their working lives, in addition to fulfilling the broader democratic mission of American higher education,” the AACU stated.

Similarly, a 2018 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, found that the three attributes of college graduates that employers considered most important were written communication, problem-solving and the ability to work in a team, skills inculcated in the liberal arts.

The “Project Oxygen” studies by Google, which identified the best attributes of its managers, echoed those results.

David Demig, director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, has done extensive research on the earnings and employment of students with STEM backgrounds vs. those with liberal-arts backgrounds.

Even on narrow vocational grounds, a liberal-arts education has enormous value because it builds a set of foundational capacities that will serve students well in a rapidly changing job market,” Demig wrote, adding that he does not mean to discourage students from pursuing STEM degrees if they choose.

Writing in The New York Times in 2019, Demig argued that higher education should emphasize the development of the whole person, that it should not be viewed as mere job training.

“But even on narrow vocational grounds, a liberal-arts education has enormous value because it builds a set of foundational capacities that will serve students well in a rapidly changing job market,” Demig wrote, adding that he does not mean to discourage students from pursuing STEM degrees if they choose.

Rather, he argues for a view toward the future. “Rapid technological change makes the case for breadth even stronger. A four-year college degree should prepare students for the next 40 years of working life, and for a future that none of us can imagine.”

This is a critical point: A liberal arts education helps humanity by cultivating compassionate thinkers who open doors to better careers and a brighter future for themselves, but who also improve access generally—to research, education or fundamental resources. In this edition, we meet some of those people who have both benefited from access and are increasing access for future students.

Rapidly, fundamentally and, it seems, ever more unpredictably, our world is changing. To adapt to the challenges ahead, we will need the full range of well-educated citizens—scientists, engineers, economists, sociologists, political scientists, businesspeople, historians and poets—from all backgrounds and walks of life.

The job market (and the world) needs all of them, working together, in collaboration. As the data show, no surprise, today’s liberal-arts education opens doors to a brighter and better tomorrow. You might believe otherwise. My advice is simple: Think again.

James W.C. White is acting dean of the CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences.

Don’t think so? Think again.

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‘Uninhibited, robust and wide-open debate’ helps you and us

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 21:00:56 +0000

‘Uninhibited, robust and wide-open debate’ helps you and us Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/17/2019 - 14:00

James W.C. White

Next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen; take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills

The two newspapers on my desk—The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times—have won more than 150 Pulitzer prizes in total, and their journalistic bona fides are beyond dispute.

James W.C. White

In some respects, the comparison ends there. If you follow current events or political controversies—and there are certainly many of both—you’ll find diametrically opposed views of those issues on the newspapers’ editorial pages.

Such diversity of opinion can strengthen you and also democracy.

But if you’re like most people, you gravitate toward one view or the other, seeking the editorial opinion of the Times or the Journal, but not both. That is a missed opportunity to learn and think critically, and understanding why is relevant to our mission at the university.

The Laws of the Regents, which govern the University of Colorado system, clearly articulate this mission. Specifically, the laws state that every member of the university community, regents, administrators, faculty, staff and students have a duty to “protect the university as a forum for the free expression of ideas.”

The regent laws continue:

The University of Colorado is an institution of higher education, and its campuses are devoted to the pursuit of learning and the advancement of knowledge through the free exchange of ideas. The free exchange of ideas includes not only the right to speak, but the right to listen.

Citizens have a right to listen. We also a responsibility to listen, particularly to those with whom we disagree. Universities are where we learn how to listen most effectively—with discernment and reason.

A liberal-arts education conveys skills in critical thinking. Like any physical ability, critical-thinking skills must be used. When used, they strengthen. When neglected, they atrophy.

A liberal-arts education conveys skills in critical thinking. Like any physical ability, critical-thinking skills must be used. When used, they strengthen. When neglected, they atrophy."

Honing one’s critical thinking is like training one’s muscles. If you challenge them with heavier weights, you get strong. If you consistently pick up only the lightest weights, you stay weak.

This brings us back to the editorial pages. If you listen only to those opinions that confirm your own, you become the cognitive equivalent of a couch potato. Sure, the easy route is comfortable. But absorbing only those views that buttress yours perpetrates “confirmation bias,” which is the tendency to seek information or opinions that reinforce those you already hold. This yields feeble civic discourse, and flabby thinking.

People who live in echo chambers don’t discuss issues; they hurl prefabricated talking points at each other. They do not engage in the reasonable but “uninhibited, robust and wide-open debate” that, the U.S. Supreme Court famously said, fortifies our society. In thus shirking their civic duty, they weaken our democracy.

Being a responsible citizen is hard. The world is complex. Evidence can point in multiple directions. Logic that might seem sound can be faulty when examined more critically. Reasonable people of good faith disagree.

If you feel the warm glow of concurrence with Times editorials and read only them, you fail to challenge yourself the way you should, as a scholar and a citizen entrusted with the health of our democracy. Pick up The Wall Street Journal, read it, and challenge yourself to think critically about why you disagree, or agree, with their opinions.

Some will demur, arguing that some speech should not be heard because some arguments are based on falsehoods. There has always been deficient and misleading speech, but the answer to bad speech is not suppression. The answer—as the Supreme Court also said—should be “more speech,” better speech, enlightened speech, which depends on critical thought.

These points reflect the First Amendment and our first principles. So next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen. Take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills. You might emerge with your view unchanged. But you will be stronger, your thoughts clearer, and we’ll have a more perfect union.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen; take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills

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From ‘major identity crisis’ to career fulfillment

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 21:06:22 +0000

From ‘major identity crisis’ to career fulfillment Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 08/17/2019 - 15:06

Doug McPherson

'I realized it’s important to follow what you love … and it’s OK to try something else, pivot and take risks and even pivot back'

The first three semesters as a psychology major at the University of Colorado Boulder couldn’t have been better for Caroline Lynch (Psych’07). The classes were stimulating and gratifying—even fun. And her grades were high.

Caroline Lynch

“I’ve always had a passion for psychology and so I applied to CU as a psych major,” Lynch says. “What drew me in was the diversity … I was studying everything from organizational development to learning processes, and I really found all of it applicable to everyday life.”

But then, in the middle of her sophomore year, she had what she called her “major identity crisis,” not a crisis of identity, but a crisis of major, as in which one to choose for a career.

“I began feeling pressure about what I wanted to do when I graduated, and I started to question if my psych degree would get me there,” she says.

She wasn’t even sure what “there” was. She did know she didn’t want to be a psychologist, so she considered switching majors or at least adding a minor in marketing or communications.

Psychology helped build a foundation to evaluate raw data, organize it in clear, concise ways and make reasoned, rational decisions. It taught me to think critically, manage complexity, communicate clearly and solve complex problems."

She had a marketing internship lined up for the coming summer with a Boulder startup, so she decided to take some communications courses in her second sophomore semester. A few weeks in, she was miserable. “The content wasn’t as interesting or fulfilling as psych classes,” Lynch says.

After more soul searching she returned to psychology. The experience—as prickly as it was—has become a valuable life lesson. “I realized it’s important to follow what you love … and it’s OK to try something else, pivot and take risks and even pivot back. Curiosity, exposure to many diverse experiences, and being open all serve me well.”

Today, Lynch will tell you she has zero regrets sticking with liberal arts.

Right out of Boulder, Lynch landed a job with the top beauty company in the world, L’Oreal.And over the next 10 years, she rose through the ranks from entry management to an assistant vice president’s post. Last fall she left L’Oreal, where she was managing a team to being the team—of one—as director of sales planning in personal care at Method Products, PBC, a pioneer in green consumables.

She says both companies have helped her build her career and skills—skills she first discovered at CU Boulder, and skills that have proved essential every step along her path.

“Psychology helped build a foundation to evaluate raw data, organize it in clear, concise ways and make reasoned, rational decisions. It taught me to think critically, manage complexity, communicate clearly and solve complex problems."

Like many in the working world, Lynch says change is the constant in her life, and her time at CU Boulder taught her to make change work for her. “The mental muscle I developed studying psychology let me adapt, pivot, manage and excel amid all the change. Going from a statistics class, to organizational psych course, to a philosophy course all in one day helped me approach situations, challenges and experiences from different frameworks.”

Her career advice to newly employed CU Boulder alumni: Say yes. Get involved. Try new things. Get diverse experience—all of which she says helped her discover careers she didn’t even know existed but that now she enjoys.

“And finally, challenge yourself. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Always stretch yourself, and don’t be afraid to apply for positions that sound like they’re a stretch for you.”

As for skills employers want, Lynch says creativity along with entrepreneurial and innovative thinking top the list.

She adds: “A liberal arts degree sets a strong foundation for all of these skills.”

“I began feeling pressure about what I wanted to do when I graduated, and I started to question if my psych degree would get me there,” says alum who stayed the course and succeeded.

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Rejecting the stereotypical false choice in college

Anonymous — Wed, 08 May 2019 17:17:31 +0000

Rejecting the stereotypical false choice in college Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/08/2019 - 11:17

James W.C. White

Growing numbers of students are combining theory and practice, education and vocation in a systematic way

Either/or choices are simple—too simple: Bach or rock? Beaches or mountains? Art or science? In higher education, the purported choice is this: job training or broad education?

James W.C. White

These are false choices.

Life is not confined to binary options. Humans have nuance and breadth. Those who feel their spirits soar when listening to a Beethoven symphony can also sing along shamelessly in the car to Hey Jude. And students who quote Shakespeare can also crush their computer code.

Both intellectual breadth and practical applicability are built into the liberal-arts education our students enjoy at the College of Arts and Sciences. A liberal-arts education is both practical and broad—an avenue to satisfying incomes and fuller lives.

Growing numbers of students are combining theory and practice, education and vocation in a systematic way. These students major in two or more fields, earn degrees in two fields, or pursue a degree and minor—or earn a degree, minor and certificate. (See the differences explained at this link.)

Daria Nicke is one of those students. She is about to graduate from CU Boulder with a triple major in neuroscience, international affairs and economics, with minors in political science and Spanish. Nicke is on a pre-med pathway and plans to enroll in paramedic school next year, later going to medical school to become a physician.

Nicke and other students have discussed their academic choices with us recently, and you can read their stories at this link.

Of course, Nicke could go to medical school studying only neuroscience, without intensively studying international affairs, economics, political science and Spanish. She explains what each extra major and minor gives her:

International affairs help her relate to a broad range of people, which will improve her “bedside manner.”
Political science helps to hone her critical-thinking skills.
Economics helps her understand the complexities of the health-care system.
Spanish will be useful when she practices medicine in foreign lands.

Most students don’t have such a smorgasbord of majors and minors. But many employ similar strategic planning for a broad education that fuses passion and practicality. Examples: English major and business minor. History and computer science. Geography and dance.

In increasing numbers in the College of Arts and Sciences, students have been customizing their courses of study.

Since 1989, the percentage of students earning second bachelor’s degrees has stayed roughly constant at around 2%. But during that time, the portion of students pursuing two majors doubled, from 6% to 12%. The number of students pursuing minors soared from zero in 1989 to 34% last year.

Why I dwell on the liberal arts

1. To correct the record: The liberal arts have gotten a bad rap over the past decade, with demonstrably false statements that a college education, particularly one in the liberal arts, is not a wise investment, being repeated frequently. The result is that U.S. enrollment in liberal-arts disciplines has plummeted since the Great Recession, despite employers’ pleas for more liberal-arts grads.
2. To advance the university’s strategic priorities: CU Boulder’s Academic Futures Committee has emphasized the importance of the liberal arts to our students’ career success and to the health of our democracy.
3. To support our core mission: The liberal arts are at the heart of a comprehensive research university.

—James W.C. White

Similarly, the number of career-relevant certificates has soared along with the number of students earning those certificates. In 2008, the college offered 12 certificates; this year, there are 24 in a wide range that include actuarial studies, public health and the foundations of Western civilization.

As I’ve said previously, a liberal-arts education fosters critical-thinking and writing skills, as well as perseverance and self-discipline, talents and traits that employers seek and are willing to pay for. And now, more than ever, students are able to craft the depth and breadth of their liberal-arts education to reflect their passions and goals. This makes them even more marketable and adaptable.

Dinesh Paliwal, CEO of Harman International Industries, framed that flexibility this way:

“A degree in liberal arts has long been considered the most adaptable, with humanitarian and societal studies that prepare graduates to enter a wide variety of careers.”

Those careers include those that already exist and those not even yet conceived. Liberal-arts students, perhaps especially those who have further broadened and deepened their studies, will be ready for all challenges, known and unknown, that lie ahead. By avoiding a false choice, they choose to succeed.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

From the dean: Either/or choices are simple—too simple: Bach or rock? Beaches or mountains? Art or science? Job training or broad education? These are false choices.

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The case for carpe diem

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 00:06:42 +0000

The case for carpe diem Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/16/2019 - 18:06

James W.C. White

When choosing a course of study or changing a career, these are good reasons to be intrepid

Brock Leach and Mike Sandrock have charted vastly different careers, but they made similarly bold choices at key points in life.

As graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences, they were trained and empowered to deal with complexity, diversity and change. Both initially studied disciplines with a presumptively high market value. And when the time came, both answered their callings by following their hearts and seizing the day.

James W.C. White

Leach earned a BA in economics magna cum laude in 1980 from the University of Colorado Boulder. Fellow CU Boulder alumnus Sandrock earned a BA in molecular biology and in humanities cum laude in 1986. Both later earned MBAs.

Leach then built an impressive career that included stints as CEO of Frito-Lay and Tropicana and as Chief Innovation Officer at PepsiCo. Then, he left the corporate world and enrolled in seminary, ultimately becoming a minister and leader in the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Sandrock worked in biotech, then in business, but left both career paths to follow his real passions: writing and traveling. He is a successful journalist, book author, philanthropist and member of the Colorado Running Hall of Fame.

Doing what they loved wasn’t an obvious or easy choice. But it was a terrific choice. Their stories underscore another reason to celebrate the liberal arts: They open doors to new worlds of opportunity.

Whether the graduates studied education, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences or humanities, nearly half said they had enough money 'to do everything I want to do'...(and) 90 percent of respondents said they were within five years of living 'my best possible life.'”

In recent months, I’ve highlighted ample evidence that people who earn liberal-arts degrees—or choose careers that employ a liberal-arts education—earn satisfying incomes, particularly as they reach their peak-earning years. I’ve also noted that a liberal-arts education fosters critical-thinking and writing skills, as well as perseverance and self-discipline, skills and traits that employers want and will pay for.

The choice is not between a meaningful but impecunious career or a dreary but lucrative one.

Also, stories of people like Leach and Sandrock add another factor to the equation: Compared to those who choose a career that does not reflect their passions and values, people who do what they love enjoy higher levels of productivity and happiness.

For instance, a 2018 report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences found that graduates’ feelings about their financial situation were substantially similar, regardless of major. Whether the graduates studied education, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences or humanities, nearly half said they had enough money “to do everything I want to do.”

They also reported other benefits. By mid-life between 70 percent and 80 percent of them agreed with these statements:

I am deeply interested in the work I do.
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

And regardless of discipline, 90 percent of respondents said they were within five years of living “my best possible life.”

When choosing a course of study or changing a career, these are good reasons to be intrepid. This is a lesson from Leach and Sandrock: They followed hope. They showed audacity. They seized the day.

So can you.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

When choosing a course of study or changing a career, these are good reasons to be intrepid.

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Alumni panelists to answer 'What can I do with this degree?'

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 23:01:11 +0000

Alumni panelists to answer 'What can I do with this degree?' Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/07/2019 - 16:01

Your career options might surprise you

On Wednesday, Feb. 13, University of Colorado Boulder alumni of philosophy, history, English, German studies and film will answer questions about how their careers unfolded after they earned their bachelor’s degrees.

The panel discussion is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in University Memorial Center Room 247.

Panelists will discuss the skills and tools they gained in their majors that continue to support their roles in business, nonprofit management, public health and government. Academic advisors within the College of Arts and Sciences will moderate the panel and ask questions about how job seekers can market themselves and their, how they continue use their degrees in their careers, and what benefits students of the arts and humanities bring to the workplace.

Speakers include:

Kathy King, PhD, an associate principal at Redstone Strategy Group, a social-sector consulting firm based in Boulder, Colorado. She graduated with a BA in philosophy from CU Boulder and went on to earn a master’s in neuroscience from Oxford University and a PhD in philosophy, logic and the scientific method from the London School of Economics.
Lena Heilmann, PhD, M.N.M., works as the youth suicide prevention coordinator with the Office of Suicide Prevention with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. At CU Boulder, she double-majored in English literature and Global literature. She also completed her MA in German with a graduate certificate in women and gender studies. She went on to complete a PhD in Germanics from the University of Washington.
Susie Martinez is a victim witness specialist at the Jefferson County district attorney’s office. She has been a professional victim’s advocate for eight years, and had been volunteering as a victims’ advocate since she graduated from CU Boulder in 2006 with degrees in philosophy and anthropology.
Emily Scraggs is an account-based marketing specialist for enterprise software at Broadcom (previously CA Technologies). She holds a BFA degree in film studies (production) and a minor in technology, arts and media from CU Boulder.
Nancy A. Smith, JD, MBA is director of the Sustainable Food and Water Program for The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado Program, an organization for which she has worked 20 years. She holds a law degree and an MBA from CU Boulder, where she also earned her bachelor’s in English.
Melissa Wiley manages Denver Peak Academy, the City and County of Denver’s process improvement and analytics team. She holds a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government, and earned bachelors’ degrees of history and sociology at CU Boulder.

The panel discussion is free and open to students and the public. Refreshments will be served beginning at 3:15 p.m. Opportunities for networking will follow.

For those who can’t make the event, CU Boulder’s Career Services has resources on its website to help you launch your career.

This event is sponsored by the Departments of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts, Theatre and Dance, Philosophy, and Asian Languages and Civilizations.

On Wednesday, Feb. 13, University of Colorado Boulder alumni of philosophy, history, English, German studies and film will answer questions about their careers after earning their bachelor’s degrees.

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There is a bright future for history majors (and other liberal-arts alums)

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 23:05:51 +0000

There is a bright future for history majors (and other liberal-arts alums) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/31/2019 - 16:05

James W.C. White

In the realm of career earnings, the liberal arts get a bad rap. They don't deserve it.

Last month, thousands of high-school students got the happy news that they’ve been admitted to the University of Colorado Boulder. Many will major in the sciences or engineering, even if their passions lie in, say, history or philosophy. They must do this for the sake of their careers, conventional wisdom says.

Conventional wisdom is wrong, but it has changed the face of higher education and will change the complexion of the workforce.

James W.C. White

Since the great recession, the number of college students nationwide majoring in history and English, two staples of the humanities, has plunged nearly by half. The number of students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math—or STEM—has soared.

Public opinion drives this trend, but the data do not.

Nationwide, people with college degrees—regardless of whether those degrees were in the arts and humanities, social sciences or natural sciences—enjoy consistently lower rates of unemployment than the rest of the workforce.

True, students who major in scientific, technological or engineering fields tend to earn higher salaries. But it's a different story to compare those who major in professional or pre-professional degrees with those with liberal arts degrees. When they reach their 50s and 60s, former students who majored in the social sciences or arts and humanities earned more, on average, than their peers who majored in professional or pre-professional fields, research from the Association of American Colleges and Universities concluded in 2014.

Those results mirror an exhaustive study of alumni who graduated from the CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences in the last three decades. The research, conducted by Emsi Alumni Insight, surveyed more than 25,000 alumni who graduated with bachelor’s degrees between 1989 and 2018 and calculated their average salary in 2018 as follows:

$79,626: arts and humanities alumni
$78,065: social sciences alumni
$80,796: natural sciences alumni

By comparison, median household income in Colorado was $62,520 in 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.

These results, which mirror those from U.S. Census Bureau surveys, all add up. Employers pay for skills they value, and employees who do what they truly love (not just what they thought was most lucrative) are especially valuable.

A liberal arts education—one that exposes students to the breadth of human knowledge—conveys skills in critical thinking, communication and adaptability. As the pace of social and technological change quickens, these skills are in high demand."

Indeed, if I could pass along one piece of advice to prospective students it is this: Follow your heart. People who love their jobs are happier, more productive and, yes, make more.

A liberal arts education—one that exposes students to the breadth of human knowledge—conveys skills in critical thinking, communication and adaptability. As the pace of social and technological change quickens, these skills are in high demand.

The late Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple, once summarized the importance of the liberal arts this way: “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”

America desperately needs scientists, engineers and mathematicians. But we also need historians, political scientists and Chinese majors—liberal arts graduates who are writers, critical thinkers and highly adaptable leaders.

America is a land of diverse temperaments and talents, and we need them all to meet the challenges of a world changing at a blistering pace. In the workplace and in life, liberal-arts majors can do well—and do good.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at CU Boulder, professor of geological sciences and former director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

From the dean: Conventional wisdom about the liberal arts is wrong, but it has changed the face of higher education and will change the complexion of the workforce.

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Don’t let a myth steer your college career

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 23:03:07 +0000

Don’t let a myth steer your college career Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/30/2019 - 16:03

James W.C. White

Note: This is an excerpt from an op-ed piece published in the Boulder Daily Camera on Jan. 27.

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point plans to cut some of its core programs in the liberal arts, including French, German and history,The New York Times reported this week.

This is news because it reflects a common view—among students, parents and many pundits—that liberal-arts majors face diminished lifelong-earning potential and career success. That view is a myth—a myth with significant consequences extending far beyond UW-Stevens Point.

Since the great recession, the number of college students nationwide majoring in history and English, two staples of the humanities, has been cut nearly in half. At the same time, students majoring in science, technology, engineering and math—or STEM—have risen sharply.

But actual data refute the myth that drives the trend.

See the full op-ed here

The dean's Daily Camera op-ed cites these numbers, which reflect the results of an exhaustive study of alumni who graduated from the CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences in the last three decades. The research, conducted by Emsi Alumni Insight, surveyed more than 25,000 alumni who graduated with bachelor’s degrees between 1989 and 2018 and calculated their average salary in 2018 as shown above.

Conventional "wisdom" aside, there is a future for those who major in history, writes Interim Dean James W.C. White.

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As she blazes trails, Rhodes Scholar leads and inspires

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 16:33:16 +0000

As she blazes trails, Rhodes Scholar leads and inspires Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/04/2018 - 09:33

James W.C. White

Serene Singh aspires to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has a resume, mind and heart that could drive her there

Follow your heart.

That’s the advice I give the many students who ask me how to choose from the diverse array of degree possibilities at the University of Colorado Boulder. When you follow your personal passion, you wake up in the morning excited to get after every day. That’s when you do your best. Do what you are passionate about doing and life seems more like a daily gift and less like a daily grind.

James W.C. White

Serene Singh is a classic example. Serene aspires to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has a resume, mind and heart that could drive her there.

She is the first woman from CU Boulder to be named a Rhodes Scholar, and she’s in good company. Former Supreme Court Justices David Souter and John Marshall Harlan II were also Rhodes Scholars. So was CU Boulder student (and football star) Byron White, who was named a Rhodes Scholar 80 years ago and was later the first Coloradan to serve on the high court.

Where is my sweet spot, and am I really being true to who I am? If I didn’t have that conversation with myself, I might be in a very different major and a very different part of my life right now.”
—Serene Singh

Following their path, she will study at Oxford University, where she will pursue graduate degrees in criminology and criminal justice. Singh, who is from Colorado Springs and is majoring in political science and journalism, has previously been named a Truman Scholar and Dalai Lama Scholar. She is president of her political science honors fraternity, chief justice of the CU Student Government’s judicial branch, and president and founder of the Sikh Student Association.

She is also president and founder of The Serenity Project, a nonprofit aimed at empowering women in at-risk communities. It aims to boost women’s self-esteem by imparting skills such as public speaking and interviewing.

These are talents Singh honed through pageantry. She was Miss Colorado Teen 2016 and America’s Junior Miss in 2017. “I joined pageantry because I had a bias against it,” she told Voice of America. Doing things she thinks she will hate, she said, is one way to challenge herself.

It’s also one way to expand one’s horizons, a principle at the core of a liberal arts education. Open inquiry is a critical value the university strives to impart, as is independent thought. Both permeate her philanthropic work and disciplinary focus.

“Going into college, there was a lot of pressure from my community and from the world around me to be either in engineering or in pre-med,” she said. “Even in high school, I really felt like in order to be successful, I needed to be in the hard sciences.”

But science was not where her passions lay: “It was in government. It was in communications like journalism, and it was in understanding our Constitution, democracy, freedom studies and learning how to reduce violence through a political lens in the United States.”

Each student choosing whether to study the humanities, STEM or anything in between, Singh said, should ask themselves this question: “Where is my sweet spot, and am I really being true to who I am?” Singh added: “If I didn’t have that conversation with myself, I might be in a very different major and a very different part of my life right now.”

Serene Singh personifies hard work, intellectual curiosity and compassion. And she embodies the wisdom of some old but good advice: Follow your heart.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Serene Singh aspires to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has a resume, mind and heart that could drive her there.

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The 'liberal arts': what that really means

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 19:15:04 +0000

The 'liberal arts': what that really means Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/01/2018 - 13:15

James W.C. White

The ancient Greeks had many good ideas. One of them was democracy, the foundation of our government. Another was that education—one that prepared citizens to steer the ship of state—was a foundation of democracy.

James W.C. White

The Romans formalized this notion into the artes liberales (“liberal arts”), a set of skills and practices in which all citizens should be educated. Cicero lists these as geometry, music, literature, natural science, ethics, politics, and, above all, the rhetorical skills required to communicate effectively and persuasively.

The fields we number among the liberal arts have grown in the 2,000 years since Cicero defined the notion, but the basic conception—the idea that the full range of these skills are needed to equip the citizens of free societies for full participation in democracy and in a life fulfilled on individual terms—remains the same.

Today in the College of Arts and Sciences, the liberal arts—updated to include a broader range of subjects—remain central to the education of all students.

You see our commitment to the liberal arts in our newly revised general-education curriculum, which became effective this fall. The gen-ed curriculum, a requirement for every student in the college, obliges students to take and pass courses in a broad and diverse range of disciplines.

Under the curriculum, students must pass a minimum of 12 credits in each of the three divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences: the arts and humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences. They must also pass 3 credits of classes in quantitative reasoning and math plus 6 credits of writing. Finally, they take 6 credits to meet the diversity requirement, which exists to prepare students to function and lead in our multicultural, multiethnic, transnational and global society.

Our gen-ed curriculum reflects the old idea of artes liberales as applied to the challenges of the future. College graduates today are expected to change jobs more frequently than in the past and adapt to a rapidly changing employment landscape. The liberal arts are designed to train students to adapt, think critically, step out of their comfort zone and work well in trans-disciplinary teams. But perhaps most importantly, artes liberales ignite an enduring passion to learn.

George Norlin, the “kindly professor of Greek” who was among CU’s most influential presidents, publicly fretted that universities in the 1920s were emphasizing professional study at the expense of the liberal arts. He said such training might yield many tightly focused specialists, “mere bolts and rivets in a vastly complicated machine.”

He heralded “a curriculum of training in the fundamentals of a common, cultivated life.” Such an education helps people think critically, write well and adapt comfortably in swiftly changing times. This kind of education, Norlin said, helps “keep civilization alive.”

Today, we echo great thinkers of yesterday as we champion a superior education for tomorrow.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.

From the interim dean: Cicero called these disciplines artes liberales, the liberal arts. The term is widely wielded and occasionally misunderstood.

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