June 22, 2004
Toward a Life of the Mind (or Just Work) (3 Letters)




To the Editor:

In "New in Liberal Arts: Intro to Job Market" (news article, June 19), David Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, says that students in the 1960's "were going to college for idealistic reasons," adding, "Then making money just shot to the front."

In the 60's, the proportion of all students going to college was smaller, so post-college competition was less grueling, especially in the hire-hire-hire job market of the period. And that is not to mention that tuition was affordable then with just summer or part-time work. In short, we had it good in those days.

In contrast, today's students (our children) pile up huge debt in order to go to college and then come out finding that nearly everyone else has a degree, too, and they are all competing for fewer and fewer jobs.

It is a miracle that the liberal arts curriculum continues to exist at all.

KATHLEEN SLOCUM
Hope, N.J., June 19, 2004

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To the Editor:

"New in Liberal Arts: Intro to Job Market" (news article, June 19) treats the intersection of business and the liberal arts as a matter of "concessions" and "add-ons." But you give no attention to the role of interdisciplinary study in creating a culture of entrepreneurship for the liberal arts.

An art graduate who can create a business plan for a gallery, a historian who can write a grant application, or a musician with a sense of intellectual property laws has a better chance to sustain his or her passion for the liberal arts than one who cannot.

The connections between the liberal arts and business and public policy that students can be empowered to make shouldn't be viewed as dilutions. They are necessary connections that allow graduates of liberal arts programs and professional schools to understand one another.

EDWIN BATTISTELLA
Ashland, Ore., June 19, 2004
The writer is dean of arts and letters, Southern Oregon University.

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To the Editor:

It's nothing new that vocational training is encroaching upon liberal arts studies. Most students whom I have taught in elite liberal arts colleges and universities are pre-med, pre-law or pre-business. They are not enrolled in liberal arts classes by choice but merely to satisfy prerequisites en route to a vocational graduate school. The "life of the mind" has become another catch phrase that is mentioned only nominally at convocations and graduations.

DEEPAK SARMA
Cleveland, June 19, 2004
The writer is an assistant professor of religion, Case Western Reserve University.