Southern Vermont College

People often ask me:  “Have you had a relaxing summer?  Things really quiet down for you at the College then, right?” To be sure, many faculty and staff take vacations (me included) at some point over the summer.  And yes, most of our students are not on campus.  But, our campus is hardly a quiet place in June and July.  There are summer school classes, admissions activities and many wonderful educational programs and meetings. There are the projects we specifically schedule for the summer — like construction and renovation.

Here is a sampling of the SVC summer happenings this year:

• Professors Scott Stein and Scott O’Callaghan ran two separate certificate classes for employees from Senior Whole Health, based in Massachusetts and with offices in Albany.  Co-teaching this course on conflict resolution in the field of healthcare, these SVC professors led these students in discussions on listening, negotiating and stress management.  Hunter Hall served as “home away from home” for these adult students – for both living and learning.  For many of the attendees, this was a chance to live on a college campus, get to know their counterparts from other offices within the company and garner knowledge that can benefit their day-to-day work. 
  

  summer conference notes

   The large post-it sheets hanging around the conference room off Greenberg Atrium were tangible evidence of remarkable hands-on learning.

• Under the leadership of Director of Counseling Mike Goodwin, we welcomed summer students in our Healthcare Academy program, run in conjunction with Wheelock College, for the second consecutive year. This program, aimed at rising high school juniors and seniors, focuses on healthcare careers and how they play out differently in urban and rural settings. These students split their time between SVC and Wheelock, visiting different healthcare providers in each locale.  Our hope is that some of these students will see themselves as college students at SVC or Wheelock, and participating SVC faculty ensured that these high schoolers had a peek preview of the wonderful educational opportunities that a college provides.
• A group of us spent time with Tom Post, the President of Sodexo, our food service provider.  Tom and his wife Gail enjoyed two delicious Sodexo prepared meals with members of the SVC community, a tour of Bennington with our provost and his wife, a meal at Mount Anthony Country Club and several meals at our home.  We had an opportunity to discuss our Campus Community Dinner Project with him, ably led by Charlotte Kelton.  This program, graciously re-funded by Sodexo, is being expanded for 2011 – 2012; fourteen SVC students will be selected to participate, along with seven local families.  This program encourages “family dinners” and connects SVC students to the local community.   
•  The SVC library in the Mansion has been renovated. While preserving its amazing beauty, the library now has glorious student space for reading and congregating (including three study rooms for group projects). The tutoring center has moved into what was the reserve room and the vast majority of books have been relocated to the former library computer lab. 
  

  transforming the library

  The computers are now being spread throughout the library.  There will be new furniture (arriving between now and the end of September). All in all, this is wonderful space where students can gather, do research and work.  

The summer is chock full of activity at SVC  — and wonderful lush green mountains, glorious flowers, fresh produce, warm (sometime hot) days and balmy nights. Howsoever lovely the summer and busy the days, we are eager to welcome our student-athletes back to campus the week of August 17, our new students (first years and transfers) on August 26 and our returning students on August 29 – with the first full day of classes on August 30.  This campus is not the same without our students!

I was worried.  The recent push for a more educated population was getting considerable pushback.  Books, articles, the popular press, and pundits were regularly suggesting that a college degree was overrated. The arguments went something like this: the debt burden for a collegiate education is so great as to be unconscionable and is most assuredly unsustainable by families and our government.  Add to that the perception that the benefits of a bachelor’s degree (economic, academic, and otherwise) are exaggerated.

As is often the case, unfortunately, rhetoric and hyperbole tend to crowd out the facts.  The piece in this week’s New York Times Sunday Review section captioned “Even for Cashiers, College Pays Off” by David Leonhardt, (June 26, 2011) provides much needed data (the commentary was inspired by this new study out of Georgetown University, on “The Undereducated American”) and compellingly explains why college matters for many of America’s youth.

On the dollar front, the student and family debt burden (thoughtfully incurred) is assuaged by the demonstrable improvement in earnings that college graduates obtain when compared to their high school educated counterparts, even in jobs that do not mandate a bachelor’s degree.  Stated in conventional business terms, the ROI on a college degree is high –- higher than for stocks and real estate, both of which have no shortage of investors despite recent appreciable market downturns.

In addition to making the case purely based on quantifiable dollar gains, Leonhardt recognizes the non-monetary but hugely important and oft-overlooked gains of higher education: a healthier, happier, more egalitarian citizenry with important skills like perseverance and discipline.  In short, our nation needs an educated populous for democracy to flourish.

At the end of the day, we keep asking whether, as a value proposition, higher education is worth the candle.  In my view, the answer can be stated quite simply.  While colleges and universities are far from perfect, those who graduate with a four-year degree from these institutions do better for themselves, their families, and our local and national communities than those who do not.

It is time to spend our time on how to improve that value proposition rather than asking whether a four-year degree even has value. Tempus fugit.

Amid the celebratory season of commencement, there is growing debate over the value of a collegiate education, and little consensus regarding what it actually means to get a college degree.  Not to shortchange these difficult topics and the issues embedded within them, I want to share what I see as one central goal of education, a goal that I regularly share with current and prospective students and their families based on a piece of artwork that hangs in my office.

Let me explain.

Over the mantle in my office hangs a work by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. When viewed from the left side, one sees brightly colored geometric shapes.  When viewed from the right side,  one sees interlinked black and white boxes, nary a color.  But, when the artwork is viewed head-on, one sees multiple shapes and multiple colors all intertwined, with so much activity that one is constantly challenged to find patterns and organizing themes.

Agam Art Left View

Agam Art Right View

This head-on view is what I think of as education’s gift – enhancing the way students of all ages experience our world.  Education is the result of our collective effort to enable students to see things from multiple perspectives and to reflect on and resolve the complexities of our world with greater insight together with respect and appreciation for the views of others. 

Agam Art Head-on View

Elizabeth Barkley, in her very recent book titled Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, suggests (adopting the framework of W.G. Perry) that what I have described is our moving our college students “beyond dualistic thinking” so they come to realize that “truth is contextual and relative” although not all answers are “equally good.”

Today’s college students, many of whom have been in large high school classes where teachers are guided by demands that they teach to the test, struggle in college when confronted with tasks for which there is no easy answer and where they are called upon to do more than regurgitate facts.  They question why some professors don’t just “dish out” the answers.

The answer to their question and the answer to why higher education matters is eloquently demonstrated through the art hanging in my office, and I regularly remind students to come in and see the Agam when they are confused or are wondering why, exactly, they should pursue a college degree.

Yet another example of the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words.