Why the College of Arts and Letters
Discover the Possibilities
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Narrator:
We live in a world of stunning complexity... and yet a world increasingly obsessed with specialization and practicality.
It’s a world in which we often view higher education merely as an investment…an instrument calculated to pay a handsome dividend when a student reaches maturity.
But what practical benefit derives from a painting, a poem, a sculpture, or a classic piece of literature?
How does an understanding of philosophy, theology, or history translate into something of value?
Students, and especially parents often worry about majoring in liberal arts, and the chief concern is usually that a student will be unemployed after college, or unfit for the business world. In fact, the opposite is true.
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“Increasingly, graduates discover that the ones who have a broad education, are most likely to flourish, so there is a very strong practical value to a Liberal Arts education.”
John McGreevy, Chairperson, Department of History:
“The Liberal Arts are actually quite practical. Even though parents naturally will often say, a history major? What’s my kid going to do? Are they going to starve to death?”…and you know, Notre Dame graduates aren’t starving to death on the streets.”
Joe Loughrey ’71 Economics President, Engine Business, Cummins, Inc.:
“When I left Notre Dame I wasn’t entirely sure how what I had to offer would be valued. But fairly quickly, I began to understand the importance of the perspectives I brought, the analytical and communication skills I developed, to the work that I had in front of me. And in so doing, developed a greater appreciation for what Liberal Arts graduates bring to the workplace.”
John McGreevy, Chairperson, Department of History:
“They are going to go to companies and to organizations that are going to train them in the technical skills, but this is really their one chance; I really do believe this, to develop the writing and thinking skills that will sustain them throughout a professional career.”
Julie M. Braungart-Rieker, Associate Dean for Research Graduate Studies and Centers:
“Liberal Arts, just the term in and of itself, really describes the experience that the students have because they are exposed to so many different ideas and topics.”
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“Students learn how to think outside the box and how to think on their feet. These skills are important whatever a graduate might want.”
Doug Regan ’85 English, Chairman and CEO, Northern Trust Bank Florida:
“We want people who have an openness of mind…people who are open to experiences and people who recognize that the world is a big place.”
(Professor speaking in Italian)
“A College of Arts & Letters background provides that opportunity for us and we actively seek those kinds of graduates.”
Julie M. Braungart-Rieker, Associate Dean for Research Graduate Studies and Centers:
“A Liberal Arts education really provides students with the opportunity to do almost anything they want to do.”
Samuel August ’05 Political Science:
“(Speaks Chinese)… “I’m an American. I study at Notre Dame.”
“I studied abroad in Shanghai, China. I really think that a broad education isn’t necessarily a supplement to your education, but it’s an actual – it is your education. It is a necessary part of your education.”
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“Notre Dame is every year a leader among research universities in terms of the percentage of students who study abroad.”
(Students speaking in French)
Julia Douthwaite, Assistant Provost for International Studies:
“Our campus is in South Bend, but our classroom is the world.”
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“That derives in part from the internationalism of Notre Dame and from the desire of students to experience a classroom that has no limits.”
Julia Douthwaite, Assistant Provost for International Studies:
“A former study-abroad participant would be more independent, more autonomous, probably more articulate. In most cultures, there are a lot of oral examinations that take place, and the students have to kind of learn, in the fire, right there, how to respond on the spot to interrogation. They’re not used to that in our culture. This is something very valuable.”
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“The sky is the limit for a graduate of the College of Arts & Letters at Notre Dame.”
(News Station Report)
Kelly Tuthill ’92 American Studies, WCVB-TV, Boston:
“I work as a general assignment reporter here, which means everyday I go out; I have no idea what they’re going to ask me to cover. So having a broad liberal arts background with politics, with history, literature, government experience, that all comes into play in my job every single day.”
(Kelly at work)
“So if I didn’t have a broad education, how would I be able to do my job?”
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“There are some aspects of knowledge that are valuable for what they are and not what they do and students in the College of Arts and Letters are able to play, in a certain sense, to ask interesting questions that are simply fun and that’s the highest value of a Liberal Arts education.”
(Kelly in News Room)
John McGreevy, Chairperson, Department of History:
“Arts and Letters education and Liberal Arts education generally enables you to think about big moral issues.”
(Professor speaking in class)
“How do you reduce inequality? How should we think about poverty? How should the government be organized? What makes for a great drama? How do we think about beauty? Those are the kinds of questions you can only get in the Arts and Letters majors.”
Kelly Tuthill ’92 American Studies, WCVB-TV, Boston:
“We’re not a technical school. We’re not a trade school. We’re there to make sure that you understand the role journalism plays in democracy as a whole. “
John McGreevy, Chairperson, Department of History:
The great thing about Arts and Letters is that you learn to write and you learn to think. You’re going to do that in whatever major you choose within Arts and Letters, be that theatre or philosophy or history or political science.”
Kelly Tuthill ’92 American Studies, WCVB-TV, Boston:
“I think what really distinguishes a Notre Dame education is the quality of the professors.”
(Professor speaking in class)
“They want you to succeed. They want you to be excellent and they want you to be a good person and they will take the time to make sure that happens.”
Doug Regan ’85 English, Chairman and CEO, Northern Trust Bank Florida:
“If you are deciding on a major to get a job… don’t.”
“Decide your major because it fires your passion, because it creates in you a sense of curiosity, because it fosters in you a willingness to go anywhere to find answers to questions. That’s why you should decide on your major. The College of Arts and Letters gave that to me and has made me a better business person because of it.”
John McGreevy, Chairperson, Department of History:
“For the Liberal Arts major, school isn’t a job; it’s really a way of thinking about yourself, thinking about serious things that you’re very interested in. That doesn’t come around again. That’s not going to happen in Law School. It’s not going to happen in professional school all of which Liberal Arts majors prepare you for. “
Hugh R. Page, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies:
“There’s something special that happens in a classroom. There’s something special that happens in the engagement between a faculty member and a student.
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“Students learn not only critical thinking skills but they learn to discover themselves, to develop a philosophy of life, to ask what their calling in life is.”
Hugh R. Page, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies:
“There is an ethos within the College of Arts & Letters that can’t be replicated elsewhere.”
Mark W. Roche, I. A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of Arts and Letters:
“We encourage students to ask how their life will relate to larger questions of transcendent purpose of the dignity of the individual…and they learn to discover what are the needs of the world today so they can relate their capacities to challenges in the world in order to find a vocation that will serve a higher purpose.”
Kelly Tuthill ’92 American Studies, WCVB-TV, Boston:
“A Liberal Arts education is the foundation for the rest of your life.”
