The Liberal Arts and 21st Century Careers

A View from Liberal Arts Colleges

Stanton GreenDean

McMurray School of Humanities and Social SciencesMonmouth UniversityRethinking Success

Wake Forest UniversityApril 2012

MY CASE:THE LIBERAL ARTS ARE ALL ABOUT PREPARING STUDENTS FOR CAREERS.

THE ISSUE IS MAKING THIS CLEAR TO OUR STUDENTS, AND THE PUBLIC – THE CORPORATE WORLD ALREADY KNOWS THIS.

TO DO THIS WE NEED TO MOVE FROM:Typical Perceived Career Path

of a Liberal Arts Major

Why the Recommended Career Path??

Because that is where many if not most of the Jobs and Careers are --

Where Do Liberal Arts Majors Find Jobs?

Well – It really depends on where they look for them -

Case Example:Anthropology Masters Graduates

How do we convince faculty to advise students toward the the opportunistic path?

Have the Faculty readFrank Donoghue’s The Last

Professors

Fear Tactic

Writing in 1842, Francis Wayland, president of Brown University, offered an astonishingly prescient speculation about the future of American higher education.

If the colleges did not provide the training desired by the mercantile and industrial interests, he argued, businesses would set up their own competing schools.

Prediction of McDonalds University

… the university does operate like a business, but more radically, it serves as a comprehensive and uniform credentialing service for all business interests.

Thorstein Veblen 1912

The doorway to a well education

person&

A well prepared career path.

OR

Convince the Academy and the Professoriate that the Liberal arts

can be both

It seems impossible for students not to think of jobs and careers as the price of a college education escalates and they plan for a life of work after graduation.

Faculty in the humanities cannot help

resenting a corporate culture that has permeated universities, often marginalizing their disciplines and managing their work lives

Student vs. Faculty Views

From the late 1980s through the mid–1990s, “when three-fifths of undergraduate degrees…were awarded in professional programs, almost half of new hires continued to be in the arts and sciences fields.

The corporate world seems to understand that the liberal arts are doing the job – it is ironically the academy that seems not to….

Perceptions Aside - Who actually is Being Hired?

ExamplesPNC Bank

Wall Street Journal Article (April 5 2012)Companies say they need flexible thinkers with

innovative ideas and a broad knowledge base derived from exposure to multiple disciplines.

While most recruiters don’t outright avoid business majors, companies in consulting, technology and even finance say they are looking for candidates with a broader academic background

Which Company has been consistently

the largest Employers of College Graduates?

From their Web Page:Regardless of university major or professional

experience, nearly 100% of our employees start out as Management Trainees allowing everyone to learn the business from the ground up. As you progress, you can continue along that managerial track or you can explore other exciting opportunities outside of rental.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car

What Do We need to Do in the ClassroomMove from Content to Context driven learning

(Colleges that Change Lives)

With a focus on explicating the

Skills and Competencies

that students learn in liberal arts classes

Recruiters want graduates who have the requisite skills to be able to perform and to

learn on the job

and therefore have excellent career potential

Employers are not usually interested in what students

majored in –

They want to know What students can do and

&What they have done

That are related to the job for which they are applying

Do Liberal Arts Students Have the Necessary

Skills?

It depends on who you ask.

Faculty Assessment of Student Skills

Faculty and Student Perceptions of Student Skills

Rated as good to extremely good

Reality may Lie Somewhere Between these

Perceptions

Consider the kinds of questions asked by HR offices when screening

candidates for entry level position

And think about these in terms of the kinds of learning objectives we have

for liberal arts curricula

Taken Directly from HR interview screening sheets

When Reading, can youIdentify the main facts and ideas?Identify cause and effect relations?

When Writing, can you Demonstrate concepts in a variety of

settings?When Listening, can you

Distinguish fact from opinion?

Skills Questions

When Speaking, can youConcisely report factual information accuratelyEffectively express your opinion

When working with data, can youConstruct graphs?Interpret graphs?

Can you work effectively as a team member?

Can you work effectively as a team leader?

A few more skills

So How Do We Bring the Liberal Arts and 21st Century Career Preparation Together?

1. Chair: Develop Career Advisement Modules2. Dean: Integrate Career Advisement within curricular

advisement structure3. Dean: Coordinate Academic and Career Services Offices4. Chair: Coordinate Skills, Syllabi and curricula

The School of Humanities and Social

SciencesCareer Advisement Initiative

The Departmental Level:Career Advisement Modules

Examples

Career courses

FAQ’s on careers for all advisors

Department career fairs and networking events

Merge Department Advisement Coordinators

&Career Advisement Coordinators

Restructuring of Advisement

One example: Convince career services that: Liberal Arts Job Fairs should grow to include corporations

Networking events such as those used for Business majors work as well for liberal arts students.

Coordinate Academics with Career Services

At the Course Level

Explicating Skills in Course Syllabi

Assignment Skilla. Short response paper When writing:

demonstrate concepts in a variety of settings

b. Research Paper When Reading: analyze information from

documents/ draw conclusions

Example 1: English Capstone Course

Assignment Skill

– Construct Poster for Symposium Interpret and Communicate data and results

– Conduct survey and analyze data Construct and Interpret charts and Statistics

Example 2: Psychology Thesis Course

Objectives Skills Become familiar with an Work within an

organization: Employment setting understand structure

Example 3: Psychology Field Course

Assignment SkillKeep detailed journal Demonstrate writing in a variety

of settingsExcavate a pit; survey aField Team membership/leadership

Map square or field Construct chart

Maintain inventory of Understand budgeting concepts Equipment and supplies

Identify and analyze artifacts Data analysis and Interpretation

Archaeology Field School

Some tangible outcomes

Good:Chairs started to think about the Career Advisement as part of what

they normally think about as AdvisementSlow:Some Chairs hesitant/resistant to being involved in “job preparation.”

Good:Student Services and Academic Affairs starting to speak the same

language– i.e. translating job search talk into career preparation and how this ties into academic programming

Slow: Recent career fair included no corporations, rather the Marines, the NJ Cops, the Secret Service and a Mental Health Services Agency

Some good, some slow

The provost reassigned the networking/career consultant from the Business school the the School of Humanities and Social Sciences

The Trustees have begun to realize the utility of the liberal arts in terms of their corporate mindset (vast majority from corporate world, a few from medical, legal and other professions).

Culture Change at the University Level

Thank you very much for your attention

Skills Correspond To What the Positions

RequireHow many Dicken’s Novels Do You Have to Read

to Demonstrate that You Can:1. Read Critically2. Effectively Present Your Argument Verbally3. Provide an Effective Written Presentation of

Your Position4. Accurately Depict a Story’s Time Line

What Expectations Are You Expected to Meet?

Liberal Arts in the News

A mother speaks her mind and no one responds!!!

What Governor Scott Believes!!!

Do You Believe Philosophy Majors Can Find Jobs???

A Rhetorical Question

MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH BA, BS WITH DEFINITIVE PLANS FOR

EMPLOYMENT OR POST GRADUATE SCHOOL AT COMMENCEMENT 2011

Monmouth University Masters students reporting full time employment at

Commencement 2011

Masters Degrees in Anthropology

Why Not GPA?

GPA is Important But Most Often as a Threshold Requirement

Do you have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA?

1. Chairs Retreat (the preceding slides)2. Faculty and Student Surveys

What we did to move this agenda

Culture Change: Up and Down

Issues We Have Encountered as We Proceed with the Program

List issues here Amplify on some on following slides

“I’d say Microsoft and Google have a lot in common.

Microsoft never had the Humanities and the Arts in the DNA.

It’s pure technology company. And they just didn’t get it. Even when they saw the Mac they couldn’t even copy it well. How dumb do you have to be to not see it, once you see it? You know? But Google’s the same way. They just don’t get it.”  - Steve Jobs

What Steve Jobs had to say -

Thank you very much for your attention