My former adviser at Butler sent me an opinion piece by Ryan Lovelace in The College Fix in which he expresses some troubling opinions on the nature of Butler’s liberal arts curriculum and the liberal arts in general.

As a former photography editor of The Collegian, my first reaction was disappointment that a journalist from this publication would express such stubborn and defeatist perspectives.

Upon further consideration I have come to the conclusion that I should be unsurprised by such a commentary, but nevertheless that I should attempt to counter Lovelace’s unfortunate opinion.

I am unsurprised for two reasons. The first is that an embodied and well-instructed liberal arts education should be, by definition, challenging.

History and politics are inherently uncomfortable things.

We see humanity’s worst potential as well as the pinnacles that we could never live up to.

But they also require an inclusive perspective, a threatening concept which requires thinking beyond ourselves.

Much like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, liberal artists learn, act and communicate with an unpredictable and fluid world.

Unfortunately, Lovelace—having been asked to “Eat me—” has shrunk and is floundering in a sea of his own tears.

This is unsurprising because, as much as many may think that the liberal arts are blow-off disciplines full of easily dismissible post-modern hokum, they are actually complex venues of knowledge-making and un-making which are not for those who would have the white rabbit handed to them for a price.

I am unsurprised by Lovelace’s mention of Butler’s pricey tuition.

Teacher’s strikes, discussions of student debt and a terrible job market increasingly put talk of money and education in the same sentence.

University students are right to be frustrated at the price of college education.

However, this frustration has resulted in the mistaken idea that an education should somehow pay off.

That is, that college should train us for careers and salaries.

The liberal arts seem to confound this at every turn, instead affording us vague skills like critical thought, expression and multivocality.

However, Jay Howard points out that the value of an education should instead be measured in its productiveness.

And productiveness is, perhaps, best measured in conflict and change.

I would point out that it is precisely this discomfort and conflict that has so upset Lovelace.

The real danger in Lovelace’s commentary is that he has neglected to think beyond his own egoistic bubble.

In publicly deciding to drop a class because he was afraid of how it would make him think, his words have been taken up by racist and misogynist commentators on the Internet.

I do not hold Mr. Lovelace responsible for anonymous comments on the internet.

I only suggest that an inclusive perspective might, without devaluing its own point, retreat from establishing polarized boundaries of black and white, homo and heterosexual.

Instead, Lovelace has put up impenetrable walls of impossible inclusivity, effectively silencing conversation.

I now teach in an alternative high school serving primarily white, high-income students.

I work with students one-on-one teaching history, English, civics and writing.

My greatest challenge is to address occasional racist, uninformed, indoctrinated or aped prejudices of students.

Without suggesting the students should think as I do (which Lovelace should appreciate) and thereby shutting down participation, I must communicate with my students, to focus on the subject matter and to open up new and safe avenues of thought.

To do this I must be patient, thoughtful and inclusive.

It is precisely the liberal arts education which Lovelace has proudly discarded that allows me to listen, reflect and connect with my students without threat.

More than correcting their opinions or expressing mine, inclusiveness allows me to use these moments to contribute to quality education for students who have found failure or boredom in classrooms.

Thinking and writing in a way which prioritizes experiences of others is critical to achieving a productive classroom.

What Mr. Lovelace has overlooked are the important tools his education might be giving him to make a difference in a contrary world.

I am thankful to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler for offering me development and tools for making a difference in my own students’ education.

I should like Lovelace to reconsider his decisions and challenge himself in order to achieve the same as a journalist.

Jon Irons
Class of 2009 alumnus

University President Jim Danko wrote the following message to the entire campus December 1.

Dear Butler University Students, Faculty and Staff:

According to our Statement of Guiding Principles, at Butler University we work toward respect and dignity for all individuals in our community and aim to promote an open and tolerant environment for voicing opinions.

As such, we honor our professors’ desires to promote inclusive and positive classrooms.

We also honor our students’ rights to express concerns about their educational experiences at Butler.

This past week, we were challenged to live up to these ideals after the publication of an article on the website The College Fix, in which one of our students described concerns about a professor’s preference for inclusive language within the course.

While I respect the student’s right to take issue with the use of inclusive language within the course, we should recognize that inclusive language is encouraged and supported at Butler University, at many other institutions of higher education and in many disciplines.

Inclusive dialogue helps prepare our students to interact with others professionally and fairly in an increasingly diverse America.

And importantly, it creates a respectful environment for all people.

As many students, faculty and staff have engaged in discussions about the article in the past week, I am proud of the fact that in keeping with our guiding principles, many of our community members have remembered that there are always at least two sides to every story.

Unfortunately, some responses we have received from individuals not associated with Butler University who read the article online have targeted various individuals at Butler in ways that have involved personal verbal attacks and hateful language.

We have taken care to ensure the safety and well-being of those on our campus who have been the recipients of these responses.

I know that several groups on campus are planning events that will allow further discussion of the article and responses to it, and I encourage you to attend such events if you are interested.

As this issue is further debated on our campus, I strongly encourage each of you to remember the humanity and feelings of those with whom you disagree.

Furthermore, I know I can expect the highest level of civility and respect from each of us in accordance with our university’s values.

James Danko
President

The liberal arts focus at Butler University is an integral part of students’ educational experience.

This becomes especially important during scheduling, when it is much easier to notice and disparage the problems with the core curriculum.

Although the core curriculum needs some improvements, students must not forget the importance of a liberal arts education.

The process of scheduling can be frustrating, but it can still bear worthwhile results if approached with an open mind.

The main point of education is to enrich one’s mind, explore multiple fields of thought and grapple with one’s own worldview.

Unfortunately, many students tend to believe the purpose of education is to prepare for future jobs.

In fact, 85 percent of high school students and 59 percent of college graduates list “qualifying for a better job/preparing for a career” as a primary reason to attend college, according to a study by Richard Hersh.

Training and preparation for future professions should not be condemned.

But focusing solely on upcoming careers misses liberal arts educaton’s bigger picture and purpose.

Students often disapprove of Butler’s core curriculum, especially when it involves courses that fall outside their majors or—put more directly—courses that won’t tie directly into their career paths.

Instead of embracing opportunities to expand their minds, students write off these interdisciplinary courses.

This is incredibly problematic and telling.

Students receive this opportunity that a number of other people are shut out from, and they scoff at it.

The core curriculum is well-publicized before a student enrolls at Butler.

In this sense, people should know what they are getting into when they enroll at Butler and have no reason to complain because they chose to attend a liberal arts university.

Students who have general knowledge about subjects outside their specialization will likely have a wider array of employment opportunities.

That said, the core curriculum does have a few kinks that need to be worked out, such as limitations it puts on students’ schedules.

But instead of decrying the liberal arts education or demanding the core be reworked for each major, students should think of ways to improve its current state.

Otherwise, Butler students will miss out on one of the most enriching, positive experiences they could have: an eye-opening education.

Butler University’s Board of Trustees has decided to table  the topic of equity raises once again.

The Trustees decided to withhold equity raises until a later date due to other concerns.

President Jim Danko recommended as much last fall.

While business concerns play a vital and practical role in the university, Butler must prioritize moral concerns first.

Equity raises are short-hand for a broad number of pay adjustments to eliminate discrimination.

These raises sometimes refer to gender equality.

If a male professor has a higher salary than a female of the same degree and experience level, the raises attempt to remove that difference.

At Butler, most tenured faculty members are men.

That gap has shrunk with the most recent announcement from the Board of Trustees.

Hopefully progress will continue, but the university needs to take more direct action.

The university maintains that equality is important but that other concerns demand immediate fixes.

In today’s world, even academic institutions cannot ignore the costs and concerns of business.

Carefully planned projects could solve the equity problem with future profits.

The university faces a number of different concerns at this point, all of which carry price tags.

Butler continues to grow and must continually adjust its focus between professional and academic focuses.

One only needs to glance at the rest of this paper to see a variety of ways to spend the university’s money.

Yet this issue stands out as one defined not by practicality but principle.

I’m certain that gender and other forms of equality are important to the administration.

However, this issue cannot be postponed indefinitely.

And to treat Butler purely as a business will not reward the university monetarily or otherwise.

The market demands constant expansion, and potential success or failure colors every investment or project. No matter how careful.

This uncertainty is the nature of the economy and perhaps explains why the endowment cannot continue to support Butler in its current expansion.

So to wait for some future situation where the university has comfortable stores of cash to spend on equity raises is to wait for a day that will never come.

Butler presents itself as a liberal arts university with strong values that help prepare students not just for the business world but for lives of purpose.

For many students, emphasizing liberal arts means taking a stand for principles beyond mere profits—enriching lives through education, understanding other cultures and making responsible and sustainable choices.

If Butler wishes to present itself as a true liberal arts institution, it should strongly consider sacrificing something other than equity raises.

In an age where every institution seems to focus on profitability, Butler can and should stand out by making the principled decision.

Photo courtesy of MCT

Unless you have been living under a rock or have been hit by an electromagnetic pulse and electronic devices are not working, surely you have heard or seen something about the bills that the government is trying to pass.

Those bills are commonly referred to as SOPA and PIPA.

SOPA stands for ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ and PIPA ‘Protect IP Act.’

While these bills seem good-natured to the core, there was an intense outburst by some websites.

It’s comparable to an epic battle between David and Goliath. The role of David carried out by Google, Wikipedia, Reddit and several smaller websites and Goliath played by the government.

Sure Google and Wikipedia are large and famous websites and companies that pose little to no threat against an entity such as the US government.

Google, known for its logo animation, put a black bar over their name brand to imitate that the bills were censoring content.

Wikipedia went a step further, and completely blacked out their website for 24 hours. Wikipedia’s call to action was for users to write to their local Congressmen to voice their opinions.

Why were such drastic measures taken for a seemingly well-intentioned bill?

The main concern was an infringement upon our rights as citizens laid out by the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment.

Critics claim the bill would essentially limit free speech and reduce innovation.

The day that Wikipedia was blacked out, a message on their site read, “Imagine a world without free knowledge.”

This comment was meant to be thought invoking, allowing for reflection on some things most of us probably take for granted in an upper echelon liberal arts university—the ease of which information is available to us, whether it be from a person, the library or the high speed internet connection offered.

These bills, though hopeful to protect copyright infringement especially from foreign countries, will drastically alter the Internet as we know it.

While that may or may not be a good occurrence, what is bad is how the world will react to such drastic changes.

Change is usually a gradual and continual process, but with the Internet being such a volatile environment, millions of dollars will be lost in translation.

If something as simple as going to every college student’s favorite websites for background information is altered to reflect content change, imagine the possibilities for other websites.

Do the right thing and educate yourself to form your own opinion of how such acts will affect not only yourself, but the rest of the world.

Along with the Visiting Writers Series and the Center for and Faith and Vocation Series, Butler brings even more diversity to the 2010- 11 lineup by including the Arts Lecture Series and the Woods Lecture Series. In this issue, we spotlight the last two of the four lecture series.

The Leadership through the Arts Lecture Series

Butler’s Leadership through the Arts series focuses on bringing in speakers from various art-related fields. The series has three speakers spaced out through the fall and spring semesters.

“We bring speakers from a variety of areas in the arts to share with us their expertise,” Jordan College of Fine Arts Interim Dean Michelle Jarvis said. Jarvis is currently program coordinator for the series.

“They can share with us the sense of the profession as it is today,” she said.

The series introduces students to various disciplines of art in an interactive way.

Jarvis said JCFA continues to train and teach students using traditional methods, but “as our community changes and our economy changes, the arts have to be on top of how all this is going to happen.

“Hopefully, through the Leadership through the Arts forum we are able to gather that kind of information,” she said.

This year’s three speakers will be Larry Todd, musicologist and professor of music at Duke University (Sep. 29); Cameo Carlson, executive vice president of Universal Motown Republic Group (Feb. 10); and Ralph Lemon, artistic director of Cross Performance (Mar. 23).

Each speaker brings his own expertise and experience to the series.

“Each one is so very different,” Jarvis said. “They will be highlighting several areas in the arts and showcasing them for the audience. “Larry Todd will lead the way into our Schumann festival, which is going on next weekend.

“Mr. Mellon is a theater person, but one who’s very involved in choreography, very involved in dance, sort of interfaces the two together.”

The process of putting together the speakers series is a collaborative effort. “We work as a college and everyone is asked who they would like to bring,” Jarvis said.

The speakers this year reflect the changing nature of the arts and bring a sense of the real world to students looking to pursue careers in the arts.

“[The arts] are going to be integrated and collaborative,”  Jarvis said. “They’re going to interface with each other. They’re going to be interactive.”

The J. James Woods Lecture Series

The Woods Lecture Series in Science and Mathematics seeks to bring together a diverse collective of speakers in both fields.

This semester’s lectures started off Monday with Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, winner of the Indianapolis Prize from the Indianapolis Zoo.

It will be followed by two more events in the fall semester and a full repertoire in the spring.

“The purpose of the Woods lecture series is to bring prominent mathematicians and scientists to campus,” Marjorie Hennessy, program coordinator for the series, said.

The next event takes place Tuesday, Oct. 21 at Clowes Memorial Hall. It will feature two speakers, Bob Berkebile
and David Orr.

“We’re doing [a lecture] with the Center for Urban Ecology,” Hennessy said. “[Berkebile] is an architect and he’s one of the founding members of the certification program for buildings and architecture in the United States Green Building Council.

“He’s coming along with [Orr], who is a professor at Oberlin College.”

Many of the speakers try to address real-life issues for which their field offers constructive solutions.

For instance, Hennessy said that Berkebile and Orr are, “going to be talking about carbon-positive initiatives and how Indianapolis could benefit from changing the way we do standard business.”

The third and final speaker this fall will be Bill Newman on Nov. 8. Newman is involved in the field of chymistry— a combination of alchemy and early chemistry.

Newman has studied the work of Isaac Newton, who performed various experiments in chymistry as well.

“He is going to recreate some of these historic experiments for the audience,” Hennessy said.

The presentations will be preceded by a networking opportunity for interested students, followed by a panel discussion on the topic presented.

The faculty who prepare the lecture series consult a variety of different sources.

“They see what’s going on and what’s current and they all bring their own ideas,” Hennessy said.

Earlier this summer, Butler finalized the process of creating its sixth college—The College of Communication—which will integrate all of the existing communications and media programs under one roof.

The decision was the result of a proposal made last year by several of Butler’s communication and media departments.

“There have been two failed attempts to try to converge these departments together in one,” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jamie Comstock said. “They failed for various reasons, primarily because of university politics and appropriate funding mechanisms and such.”

As technology has advanced, the connection between all the communication disciplines become even closer.

“One of the things that I noticed was this oddity the communication studies department and the School of Journalism were in one college and the media arts department was in another college,” Comstock said. “A person who is interested in journalism needs to understand electronic journalism, print journalism and web journalism.”

The reasoning for the integration stems from the increasingly blurred lines between different types of communication and media as well as the difficulty of managing such a broad program through different departments in different colleges.

Some programs were split up in such a way that prevented them from operating to their full potential.

“A significant need was in journalism,” Nancy Whitmore, journalism department program director said. “Our program had the print side in the School of Journalism in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the electronic side was in the Media Arts Department, and today journalists have to do both,” she said.

The College of Communication will merge all these programs.

“With us at two different colleges, it just wasn’t possible to converge those two programs,” Whitmore said.

Currently, the College of Communication is divided into six different departments: strategic communication, creative media and entertainment, critical media and rhetorical studies, communication sciences and disorders, organizational communication and leadership and journalism.

Students entering this fall into the College of Communication have more changes coming their way.

“We’re going to work on creating a new major this year,” Whitmore said. “It will most likely be a multimedia journalism major that will encompass the entire discipline.”

Instead of having to choose, journalism students will be able to take part in a more integrated program.

Students in communication fields other than journalism will also have the benefit of a more inclusive communications program, as well as more resources.

“The university already had everything,” Bill Neher, interim dean of the college of communication, said. “We have a very large budget, certainly more than adequate for up-to-date equipment.”

Comstock added, the allocated resources came not from new revenue dollars, but from existing budgets that were moved into the new college.

“We’ve had increased interest from alumni, from prospective students and from colleagues in the field around the country,” Neher said.

Along with increased interest from alumni and colleagues, the new college provides an opportunity for the faculty to do new and different things with the old curriculum.

“I think the college is going to be so successful because the faculty is strong and they’re all energized about it and are already starting to enhance the curriculum,” Comstock said.

The College of Communication began operating in the fall 2010 and is housed in The Fairbanks Center.