Hampshire College President Chrisler Speaks to Boston Globe About Why Liberal Arts Education Remains Essential

Hampshire College President Jennifer Chrisler participated in a conversation about New England's history of small liberal arts college education and what the current challenges to the model could mean for the future. The piece included comments from three other presidents from the Five College Consortium, as well as other college leaders in Massachusetts. Each addressed the ways their schools offer degrees that are “not just about getting a job after graduation, but about learning how to think. . .and that may be more important now than ever.”

“Here, you’re self-directed,” President Chrisler is quoted as saying. “You define the scope of your work. You negotiate with faculty to make a contract. You’re obligated to meet deadlines. When you find yourself off-course, you have to go ask for support [and] if something didn’t work out the way that you wanted it to, you have to problem solve. Then at the end, you’re held accountable for producing something. If that isn’t job readiness training, I don’t know what is."

“This attack on the value of higher education is one that repeats over time. Is it vocationally driven? Is it giving a return on investment? But if we turn back to the core concept of what education has been in this country, it’s not just to prepare somebody for a job. It is to prepare them to be engaged, mindful citizens who think about the public good and about how information elevates the whole of us.”