liberal arts

Like Colorado ‘resisters,’ �鶹��Ѱ��casts a wary eye at AI

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:17:20 +0000

Like Colorado ‘resisters,’ �鶹��Ѱ��casts a wary eye at AI Rachel Sauer Mon, 09/28/2026 - 14:17

Katherine Eggert

But a liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms

With artificial intelligence, resistance is not futile. It is critical.

But as AI reshapes the world and even threatens to kill us all, it is not enough to resist. We must also understand and adapt. Emerging leaders of society need knowledge and wisdom, which higher education is uniquely poised to gather and share.

AI-resistance has sprung up in Colorado and beyond. There’s an AI Resist List, and even tech titans like Bill Gates are warning about the “most dangerous tool ever invented.” Additionally, AI “conscientious objectors” at the �鶹��Ѱ�� raise critically important concerns about AI.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder information science graduate student Mirakle Wright is studying the resistance. She observed a disconnect between common reports (that most people are eager to adopt AI) and the real world (fellow �鶹��Ѱ��students often shun AI).

When she strove to understand why, she found that most of her research subjects objected to AI’s environmental harm and its data-privacy breaches, along with its contribution to cognitive decline and its role as a “giant plagiarism machine.”

"Humans need new, careful thinking, and this is what we foster. A liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms."

Most students Wright studied “said something like the university is supposed to foster intellectualism and debate and analysis, and that AI is the complete opposite to that,” the Denver Post reported.

All these concerns, which are expressed on campuses nationwide, are valid, as are fears about AI’s looming effect on the workplace. AI could affect 300 million jobs worldwide, Goldman Sachs has reported. It could obliterate 9.6 million jobs in the next two to five years, the American AI Job Risk Index predicts.

This is distressing, but it does not mean the university should isolate itself from AI. We are obliged to focus on the future, which, like it or not, will include AI. That’s why �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder scholars, scientists and artists are teaching students how to manage AI ethically, strengthening our grasp of how humans can best manage AI, and exploring new frontiers in artistic expression.

And that’s why, when the �鶹��Ѱ��system’s initial contract with OpenAI for a CU-specific ChatGPT prompted well-founded critiques of the agreement’s shortcomings, the university drew upon the expertise of our own faculty to create new AI-literacy training material for �鶹��Ѱ��students and employees.

Peer-reviewed studies have shown that AI “without guardrails” harms learning. But �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder faculty are reinforcing the guardrails to ensure that the tool augments but does not supplant learning.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Philosophy Professor Robert Pasnau ponders ways in which AI can responsibly augment scholarship. Writing in The Wall Street Journal recently, he argued that AI can help scholars understand the humanities in ways never before possible, as long as humans decide what questions are most important:

“Rather than see AI as an excuse to think less, I see it as an opportunity to think harder and to broaden and deepen our understanding.”

And Teresa Nugent, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder associate teaching professor of English, exemplifies efforts to ensure AI literacy. She teaches a course about writing in the age of AI and urges students to test the accuracy of AI’s textual analysis and to probe how (or whether) AI should be incorporated into their field of study.

When a college or university is committed to a broad liberal arts education —as the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder College of Arts and Sciences is—students are exposed to a broad array of disciplines, giving them academic breadth and depth, the ability to think critically, and the capacity to make powerful new intellectual and creative leaps that could never be anticipated by predictive analytics.

Humans need new, careful thinking, and this is what we foster. A liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms.

Like the AI critics, I worry that humans are losing cognitive muscle, reading capacity and analytical prowess. But I am heartened by our faculty’s work to weave AI into their teaching, research and creative work, and by their efforts to do so judiciously, ethically and wisely.

Together, we can ensure that our future is shaped by careful human reason and creative human invention, not by algorithms that have done the thinking for us.

Katherine Eggert is interim dean of the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of English. She has also served as vice chancellor and senior vice provost for academic planning and assessment.

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But a liberal-arts education in the classical sense is the best guarantor of AI’s potential benefits and our best defense against its likely harms.

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A century later, a liberating education is still our mission

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:59:36 +0000

A century later, a liberating education is still our mission Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/20/2026 - 14:59

Daryl Maeda

A century ago, we needed informed citizens and clear thinkers; today, as the pace of change grows exponentially, we need them even more

Picture the scene when the Hellems Arts and Sciences building first opened as the hub of the humanities at the University of Colorado:

It was 1921, and the world was recovering from a deadly pandemic, Americans were isolationist, suspicious of immigration and deeply divided on issues of race. Also, economic uncertainty fueled doubts about the value of a traditional, liberal-arts education.

History might not repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes.

This month, 105 years after Hellems opened, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder officials celebrated its recently completed renovation, heralding the place as a nucleus of campus life, a common bond among most students and, still, the home to key disciplines in the humanities.

Today, we’re in the wake of a pandemic, with rising isolationism and contentious debates on immigration, race and a liberal-arts education.

Let’s discuss, starting with a definition of the “liberal arts,” which is important, given modern connotations of the term “liberal.” The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that a good education—one that prepared citizens to steer the ship of state—was the foundation of democracy.

Cicero argued that autonomous individuals who earn the respect of others must learn skills or practices to be effective citizens and stewards of democracy. He called these skills the artes liberales, which translates to the “arts of free people,” those with liberty—hence “liberal arts.” Cicero focused on rhetoric, literature, poetry, ethics, civics, logic, geometry, music, astronomy and natural science.

History has a home in Hellems Arts and Sciences, as does philosophy, English, linguistics, the Anderson Language and Technology Center and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

He described arts and sciences, essentially.

The fields we count as liberal arts have grown in the 2,000 years since then, but the gist—the idea citizens need all these skills to better participate in democracy and in life—is unchanged.

Today in the College of Arts and Sciences, the liberal arts—now with more subjects!—remain central to the education of all students. Across the nation, however, students and their families sometimes question the return on investment in a liberal-arts education.

As I’ve noted previously, it is true that those who earn degrees in engineering and business tend to command higher starting salaries than those who hold degrees in English or sociology. However, those with a liberal-arts degrees often enjoy mid-career earnings growth that can rival that of their friends in technical disciplines.

The monetary “return on investment” is compelling. But that’s not the only benefit, and this is not the first time we’ve had this debate.

George Norlin was president of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder in 1921, when Hellems opened. He, too, responded to critics of a liberal-arts education, including Henry Ford, who famously said, “History is more or less bunk.”

Norlin penned an essay in which he argued that knowing only the present day was a kind of “prison” that kept a person from fully participating in civic and personal life. At the time, a liberal-arts education was called a “liberal education,” and he said this:

“A liberal education, or what we might better call a liberating education, has for its purpose … ‘a breaking of prison walls which leaves us standing, of course, in the present but in a present so enlarged and enfranchised that it is become, not a prison, but a free world.’”

Norlin rejected the “war-cry of charlatans” who demand that universities neglect liberal education and “become places of apprenticeship for jobs.”

He added: “Let there be more schools for the training of artisans—the more the better—but let the colleges and universities remember that, whatever else they may be called upon to do, their first business is to keep civilization alive and moving from vitality to vitality in each generation.”

Norlin, after whom the university’s libraries are named, paraphrased Cicero in the inscription above the main library’s entrance: ‘Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.’”

Were we to update that statement today, we’d use gender-neutral language. But I hope, as Norlin did, that it will reflect the university’s core purpose as long as they remain etched in stone.

History has a home in Hellems Arts and Sciences, as does philosophy, English, linguistics, the Anderson Language and Technology Center and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

As he celebrated Hellems’ reopening this month, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz hailed the place as “where the ideas of the university take root, where perspectives are challenged and where intellectual confidence begins to take shape.”

The scholars in Hellems grapple with profound questions and promote critical thinking. The questions explored there have never been more important:

How do we apply the lessons of yesterday as we stride toward tomorrow? How do we find common cause across cultures and languages? How do we reason thoughtfully about what is right, true and ethical?

These are the questions the world must address, and our investment in Hellems demonstrates that the university honors this prime imperative.

A century ago, we needed informed citizens and clear thinkers. Today, as the pace of change grows exponentially, we need them even more. Embracing the wisdom of the past can drive us toward a better future.

Daryl Maeda is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the �鶹��Ѱ��.

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The case for the liberal arts is still compelling

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:16:33 +0000

The case for the liberal arts is still compelling Rachel Sauer Thu, 03/26/2026 - 13:16

Daryl Maeda

A broad education still opens the door to greater freedom—of career opportunities, life satisfaction and civic engagement

“Education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom,” said George Washington Carver. He knew whereof he spoke.

Born into slavery, Carver overcame multiple obstacles to attend college, then became a scientist. He framed the link between education and freedom literally, because, for him, it was.

In a broader sense and in contemporary life, a broad education still opens the door to greater freedom—of career opportunities, life satisfaction and civic engagement. It is unsurprising that a person in my position would say this. But the importance of the liberal arts remains compelling, and it’s important to explain why, particularly in the context of the College of Arts and Sciences.

In January, Provost Ann Stevens announced that the college would continue to be a unified entity, rather than split into three units: “To underscore that the arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences play a central and vital role in �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s mission as a comprehensive university that educates the next generation of informed citizens and leaders, we need a structure that brings our strengths together with purpose.”

The implication of the provost’s decision is clear: the liberal arts matter.

One could certainly be excused for having doubts. On several issues related to higher education, public support has wavered.

A liberal-arts education has been associated with high levels of civic engagement and psychological well-being. (Illustration: iStock)

In 2015, for instance, a Gallup survey found that 57% of Americans expressed confidence in higher education. By 2024, that number dropped to 36%, but by last July, the confidence measure had risen to 42%.

That modest recovery is good news even though it’s praise by faint damnation. There’s more to the story.

Research released in February from Lumina Foundation and Gallup found that, in disciplines ranging from healthcare, engineering to social sciences, natural sciences and arts and humanities, at least 90 percent of current students said they believe the degrees they’re seeking are conveying the skills they need to get a job they want.

As Gallup noted, there’s a dichotomy between the view of average Americans and that of college students. The students are much more optimistic. With good reason.

It is true that those who earn degrees in engineering and business tend to command higher starting salaries than those who hold degrees in English or sociology. However, those with a liberal-arts degrees often enjoy mid-career earnings growth that can rival that of their friends in technical disciplines.

It is also important to recall that while engineering, business and technical degrees do yield higher salaries initially, those with a liberal-arts degree out-earn those with two-year degrees or high school diplomas.

Remember, though, that all disciplines aren’t right for all people. Some students absolutely love engineering, business or technical fields. Others don’t and won’t, regardless of pay.

Money, beyond a living wage, isn’t everything. Studies show that the “return on investment” (or ROI) for liberal-arts majors is a key consideration but is not the only one that students should weigh.

For instance, a liberal-arts education has been associated with high levels of civic engagement and psychological well-being, and it’s hard to put a price on that.

Additionally, as experts at Harvard and elsewhere have noted, a broadly focused education helps prepare students for a future that is maddingly hard to predict. A liberal-arts education “is teaching you not a set of specific competencies in some specific thing, but rather giving you a set of tools to teach you how to think about the next problem over the horizon,” says David Deming, the Scott Black Professor of political economy who co-leads the College-to-Jobs Initiative at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

Similarly, in a recent essay published in The Boston Globe, a Harvard student who studies applied math and film and visual studies declared that he was skipping a course on artificial intelligence—whose career impacts are undeniable—to take courses on math, economics, film and the science of sleep.

The student, Gabriel Wu, noted one study suggesting that exposure to AI training doesn’t mean succeeding in an AI economy. What shields some workers from automation is the one thing AI cannot replicate: their unique life experiences “and their ability to interpret problems through cultural, ethical, and social contexts accumulated over time,” Wu wrote, explaining why he’s committed to a liberal-arts education.

“Its interdisciplinary rigor pushes students to think critically across a vast spectrum of human knowledge, synthesizing perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to approach problems that no single discipline can fully grasp.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself. But in a series of essays in the coming months, I intend to try. Contrary to much public opinion, the liberal arts are neither irrelevant nor dead. At least as much as ever, they matter. I am obliged to say so.

Daryl Maeda is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the �鶹��Ѱ��.

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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 AA�鶹��Ѱ��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 AA�鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ�� 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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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: �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��. Fellow �鶹��Ѱ��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, �鶹��Ѱ�� 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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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, �鶹��Ѱ��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, �鶹��Ѱ�� 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 �鶹��Ѱ��. 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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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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Alumni panelists to answer 'What can I do with this degree?'

Your career options might surprise you

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

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

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Like Colorado ‘resisters,’ �鶹��Ѱ��casts a wary eye at AI