In Lumine: The President’s Blog

The following is the transcript of Dr. Carey’s speech during his installation ceremony as Transylvania University’s 26th president. I. Distinguished Guests, Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni, Delegates, Neighbors, Friends, thank you for being here today. Your presence here brings me honor, but more importantly, it honors Transylvania University and I am grateful for that. Regardless of how hard we tried to streamline this occasion, getting here today involved a lot of work by a lot of people. I want to thank the inauguration committee, led by our vice president for communications, Michele Sparks and our academic vice president, Laura Bryan. I want to thank Rachel Millard, my executive assistant, who has been essential in keeping me on track this past year, and I want to thank everyone across the campus who helped to put this all together.

The following originally appeared in The Huffington Post. Throughout America, there’s a persistent national debate about the value of a liberal arts education. A day seldom passes when a new study doesn’t appear about student debt, unemployed graduates, the need for professional training and, the perennial question, “Who needs to study Plato anyway?” What we once took for granted in higher education has been turned on its head. The scrutiny of the liberal arts comes at a time when the economic performance of the United States has been languishing for more than six years. As a result, colleges are not only being forced to control costs but also to innovate and invest more in their students to keep up with the competition. For a university to be competitive nowadays, it must offer more than a good education. At many schools, large sums of donor dollars are being funneled into infrastructure projects, such as new dormitories, dining halls, fitness centers and even state-of-the-art climbing walls, which supporters justify as necessary to attract the best students.

The following originally appeared in The Huffington Post. For anyone who has fallen out of good physical condition after having been physically fit, the thought of getting back into shape can be a constantly nagging refrain. In response, we sometimes set goals and deadlines but they rarely get us going. Looking for a spark, we might buy some new workout clothes, or sneakers, or download some new music promising ourselves that the tunes will motivate us. But something more fundamental than the external trimmings has to change to go from a sedentary life to a consistently active life. This change requires an existential shift and just what causes such a shift can be difficult to identify. At a recent faculty meeting to discuss a digital learning initiative we call SHUsquare, the conversation led me to think of digital tools and outlets for college learning as analogous to the clothes, music and goals of the person who merely thinks about getting in shape. I say that as the person who initiated SHUsquare, a virtual public square that brings together the ideals of the agora in Ancient Greece with 21st-century technology to create a platform for students to participate in their community guided by intellectual ideas and content. As a complement to our first-year writing seminars, SHUsquare extends conversations beyond classrooms so that students can interact across the campus and beyond.

The following originally appeared in The Huffington Post. Among the many conversations within and about higher education, one persistent topic is the skills or competencies with which students graduate. In most of these conversations, skills are distinguished from content in a field. This distinction is often made among defenders of the liberal arts wherein the content base of a major such as literature or philosophy may not directly line up with a specific career like accounting does, but students develop the skills of reading, thinking, and writing. These proficiencies are valuable to employers looking to hire people who can interpret texts, communicate well, and continue to learn. In these conversations, strong communication skills, especially writing skills, are given priority. One reason for the emphasis on writing skills is that they are notably deficient among vast numbers of students entering and leaving college. Many college faculty question the K-12 educational experience of these students and deem them unprepared for college work. Some resent engaging what they consider to be remedial work that should have been addressed in elementary school and high school. Nonetheless, colleges are working diligently to revise courses and curricula to address writing skills. Outside observers and critics of higher education look at college professors and question why students graduate college with poor writing skills. These critics are unsympathetic to the charge that students come unprepared and want to hold college faculty accountable for what is accomplished (or not) by

Read “Writing Ills: A Diagnosis”

The following originally appeared in The Huffington Post. In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, a heated debate has developed about gun control. The shock and suffering in the fallout from the tragedy have prompted urgent calls for a corrective to prevent such pain from rupturing another community. More restrictive gun laws are an obvious starting point. Such reform represents a tangible response to a pervasive sense of helplessness. Wayne LaPierre, president of the NRA, offered a simplistic rebuttal to the outcry for gun control laws stating that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun;” hence, his proposal to put armed guards in all schools. Others who oppose gun control even suggest arming teachers so they can, presumably, engage armed assailants and win gun battles should they break out in their schools. Of course, we all would have wanted Dawn Hochsprung, principal of Sandy Hook, to win such an imaginary battle so that victory and power would be aligned with the good, defeat and weakness with the bad. Innocence preserved, evil put in its place. In such an imaginary scene, teachers would have mastered firearms in addition to math, literature and science. They would change their roles to become like first responders, whom we have come to revere as paragons of strength and courage. In this imaginary narrative, the problem with LaPierre’s remarks is evident in the expectation that teachers

Read “Beyond Gun Control After Newtown”