A decade ago, we were visiting colleges with our son searching for what he felt would be the perfect “fit.” Our visits took us on the tour of the New England liberal arts colleges. It began at Wesleyan and ended at Williams. One college caught the attention of each of us—Bates College. It was neither too big nor too small for our son’s preferences. It was in a reasonable sized town and not too far civilization as defined by a family that had spent the last 20 years in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. The campus was beautiful and the tour guide made a perfect presentation. It was scratched from the list, however, for one shortcoming–there was not a computer science major and that is what our son wanted to study.
This winter, Bates announced that it was rectifying this shortcoming. Bates is hiring six computer science faculty members to create a unique program in digital and computational studies. Their intent is not to mimic typical computer science majors but rather to infuse computer science thinking into the breadth of Bates’ liberal arts offerings. This will not be easy, but it is commendable. While the demands of the workplace are well aligned with the communication and critical thinking skills promoted in a liberal arts curriculum, skill development and alignment are often dismissed on college campuses as pedestrian and more appropriate to a “trade school.” While I strongly disagree with his claim that mathematics is irrelevant to the jobs of the 21st Century, Andrew Hacker is spot on in his observation that teaching mathematics in a theoretical as opposed to an applied setting is a significant impediment to both learning and application of mathematical concepts. If we are going to be successful in preparing students to be productive citizens, we must provide as much emphasis on the application of thinking to real world issues as we do to the development of skills in the first place.
The Bates approach needs to become more of a standard in higher education. Far too often, the general education program is separate and represents the only contact that business and engineering students have with the liberal arts. Similarly, the failure to connect the communication skills developed by the English major into both analysis and presentation in the business world does a great disservice to the potential that these students have for career success. You only have to look at one of the technical manuals associated with the technology around your house or office to know that we are in desperate need of the skills of well-trained English major.
Cross-disciplinary integration has been a regular part of academic conversations for decades. What has been lacking is implementation of such integration in a way that changes the experience of our students. Currently, my university is looking at two strategies to bring such integration into practice. The first is an “integrated marketing communication” program that joins the marketing faculty from business with the communications faculty from humanities/social sciences. The second is a fifth-year MBA for English majors which will both change the undergraduate preparation of English majors as well as launch them to a career with great opportunities.
These are just small examples of the kind of thinking that is needed. At the most complex level, the design programs at MIT and Carnegie Mellon are transforming how those universities think about integrative and application-oriented education. If we want our students to be successful citizens, we need to follow suit. The particular strategy needs to fit the particular institution; but, just as Bates has found a strategy to introduce computer science into a traditional liberal arts institution, the academy in general needs to find ways to integrate theory and application.