Making College Relevant

[Blog post/Facebook note from http://www.goglobalatsnu.blogspot.com]

Here's another shameless plug for Southern Nazarene University's globally-oriented programs. A recent (12/29/09) New York Times article, Making College ‘Relevant’, commented on the accelerating trend of undergraduate students and their parents focusing their attention on the economic benefits of a college degree. "Consider the change captured in the annual survey by the University of California, Los Angeles, of more than 400,000 incoming freshmen. In 1971, 37 percent responded that it was essential or very important to be 'very well-off financially,' while 73 percent said the same about 'developing a meaningful philosophy of life.' In 2009, the values were nearly reversed: 78 percent identified wealth as a goal, while 48 percent were after a meaningful philosophy." Naturally, this change in focus has resulted in some undergraduate majors, such as business, increasing in popularity while others, such as classics or philosophy, have lost popularity. As the article observes, some majors long considered as foundational for a liberal arts education are being threatened: "The University of Louisiana, Lafayette, is eliminating its philosophy major, while Michigan State University is doing away with American studies and classics, after years of declining enrollments in those majors."

SNU is certainly not immune to such developments. In fact, in my role as an academic advisor I encourage my advisees from the very beginning to think about what they are going to do once they finish their undergraduate degree. SNU is an expensive school. There is no way of getting around that fact. I know what it's like to have a child in an expensive university because my two oldest children graduated from expensive private universities. As a parent footing much of the bill, I was concerned that they come out with an education that would help them earn a living. I did not necessarily want them to become wealthy (although, as a retirement plan, having wealthy children is not such a bad idea). However, I did want them to be employable in a field that would provide a good living and provide them satisfaction. I believe the parents of most SNU students want the same for their children.

On the other hand, many university professors and administrators advocate forcefully for the value of a traditional liberal arts education. "'We believe that we do our best for students when we give them tools to be analytical, to be able to gather information and to determine the validity of that information themselves, particularly in this world where people don’t filter for you anymore,' Dr. Coleman [University of Michigan President] says. 'We want to teach them how to make an argument, how to defend an argument, to make a choice.' These are the skills that liberal arts colleges in particular have prided themselves on teaching. But these colleges also say they have the hardest time explaining the link between what they teach and the kind of job and salary a student can expect on the other end."

SNU's International Studies Program (ISP) is an excellent approach to the issue of preparing students who can think and act in a global environment, who are well-prepared to enter the job market or to pursue graduate study after graduation, who develop skills that can be put to use immediately and who have a foundation that will continue to develop for years after they leave campus. The ISP is a multi-disciplinary major that emphasizes developing practical business-oriented skills that are useful across a wide spectrum of organizations, from large, international businesses, to governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, to large and small non-governmental organizations (NGO's) to mission agencies. At the same time, the ISP emphasizes developing linguistic and cross-cultural skills and understanding along with a good foundation in history and political science. ISP graduates are prepared to go in many different directions, and they are doing just that, going on to graduate school, entering the business world or working in the U.S. or overseas with non-profits and NGO's.

Given the global environment into which our graduates go, I do not believe there is a more "relevant" major than SNU's International Studies Program major.