Education with an expiration date

[http://www.goglobalatsnu.blogspot.com/]

This morning I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that takes on college rankings (Those Little Lists: What College Rankings Tell Us,). The impetus for the article was U.S. News & World Report's newest rankings of universities and liberal arts colleges. Not surprisingly, Harvard is ranked #1. What I particularly liked about the article is the basic question it asked. What is most important to consider when thinking about the real value of a college or university: social status, starting salary or the content of an education? Of course, the article came down on the side of content. It also came down on the side of a more traditional liberal arts content. The article ended with this: "The irony of modern education is that the faster the world moves the more value there is in the dusty old undergraduate curriculum. Train for a specific technology and chances are it will be obsolete before the ink is dry on the diploma. Indulge in the academic fad of the moment and you may find it hard to change your bell-bottomed intellectual wardrobe when styles shift. Who wants an education with an expiration date?"

I think Southern Nazarene University holds up well to an analysis like this. It does a good job of combining a strong emphasis on a liberal arts core curriculum and innovation and responsiveness to changing educational insights and career opportunities. Thinking specifically about our GoGlobal majors at SNU, the International Studies Program provides a strong grounding in three areas that are vital to any student interested in pursuing an international oriented career: business fundamentals, global historical, political and geographical understanding, and language and cultural competency. That is not an education with an expiration date. Our new Spanish-English Translation major is a direct response to globalization and the accompanying demand for global communication. It is an innovative major that up to now is available in only a few schools at the undergraduate level. However, it is also built on a foundation of excellence in the core competencies of developing high-level reading, writing and research skills in both English and Spanish. That is not the kind of intellectual wardrobe that will need changing with shifting styles.