ABB's Letter to President Mitchell about the Curriculum
Click here to view the letter as a PDF.
March 6, 2008
Dr. Brian C. Mitchell
President
Bucknell University
219 Marts Hall
Lewisburg, PA 17837
Dear President Mitchell:
I am writing on behalf of the Alliance for a Better Bucknell, a new group of alumni and friends of the University. The members of ABB care deeply about Bucknell and wish to see it provide its graduates with the best education possible.
Having learned that our beloved Bucknell is currently reviewing the Common Learning Agenda, searching for a new provost, and launching a fundraising campaign, we agree with your administration that this is a "watershed moment."[1] And as alumni and friends, we have more to offer at this crucial time than simply our financial support and best wishes--namely, our considered thoughts on how to make Bucknell the best it can be.
Through this letter, we would like to join the faculty, staff, and students who have already been surveyed[2] in providing input on the University's program of general education. As alumni and friends, we have practical experience and detailed knowledge of what it is like to move from Bucknell into the workforce and beyond. We have a perspective to offer that is not part of the current mix.
Because of those experiences, we agree with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences that a Bucknell education must provide "preparation for adult life" and that these days, adult life is "characterized by rapid change and complexity."[3] We also agree--emphatically--with these further statements by the dean (emphasis added):
Narrow specialization will not allow our graduates to address complex issues in their personal or work lives or to move from position to position as career development professionals predict for their work....[A] broad, liberal education is the best context for specialization and the best preparation for life in the 21st Century.[4]
Unfortunately, it is clear that the Common Learning Agenda, as presently constituted, does not serve these purposes--or others the University itself has laid out for a Bucknell education, such as "educat[ing] students for the exercise of high responsibility in all phases of society."[5] This must change.
The Bucknell students of today will be the leaders of tomorrow, and they should be educated accordingly. Just learning about their chosen majors is not enough; they need--as the Dean wrote--"a broad, liberal education." Yet the Common Learning Agenda does not ensure that Bucknell graduates will be given grounding in critical topics like literature, American history or civics, or economics. In fact, the Common Learning Agenda is not "common learning" or "general education" at all--it is a set of broad "distribution requirements" that students can meet in countless ways.
For example, under the Common Learning Agenda, Bucknell students must take four courses in the humanities. But this semester alone, well over 200 courses satisfy this requirement. Students can fulfill it without even taking an English course, a course on American history (or any history course at all), or a foreign-language course. The two-course "social science" requirement is similarly broad, and it doesn't include an economics course.
Simply put, if Bucknellians are to compete in today's unbelievably competitive global economy--let alone be the leaders of tomorrow's world--they must be well versed in these subjects. The way to do that is a curriculum that, while allowing students to choose their majors and many electives, requires broad, introductory courses in crucial areas such as American history, literature, economics, and foreign language.
We are aware--and thankful--that the Common Learning Agenda does have fairly strong requirements in mathematics, science, and writing. However, we do not believe Bucknell should be content in only making certain its graduates master half of the common-sense topics we have mentioned.[6] A university as great as the one you head should have higher aspirations than that. The Bucknell we know and love can do better, and we call upon you to make certain it does.
Bucknell can and must transform its undergraduate curriculum so that students are versed in the topics well-educated people need to understand. That will undoubtedly require some new ways of distributing resources--but what better time to do that than now, with a new fundraising campaign underway?
We are aware that a curriculum like the one we have described is not common among Bucknell's peer institutions. Some may say that it is therefore not a feasible goal for our University. We disagree: If we had wanted to attend Lehigh or Colgate, we would have gone there. We wanted better, we still do today, and we believe you do, too. We know you have played a major role in The Plan for Bucknell, and here is what it says, loud and clear:
Bucknell will offer an academic program that achieves the highest standard of quality across its liberal arts and professional programs. Bucknell supports innovation and distinctiveness in areas of current and emerging importance and relevance.[7]
This is right on target. Our Bucknell shouldn't settle for being as good as its peer schools; it should aspire to "the highest standard of quality," and it should embrace "innovation and distinctiveness" in the most important thing it does: educating undergraduates. In short, it should lead. We urge you to do just that as Bucknell reviews its curriculum, selects the next provost, and proceeds with the fundraising campaign. We are sure we are not the only alumni and friends who think this way--or who will help you if you harness this "watershed moment" to make certain Bucknell students get the education they, as the future leaders of our society, need and deserve.
We hope that you will share our input on the curriculum with the relevant parties on campus--and that you will advise us of any plans you develop relating to the concerns in this letter. We would also encourage you to seek the input of alumni and friends on issues like this. Alumni and friends are an important--and sometimes untapped, beyond financial support--resource that can be a valuable part of making Bucknell the best it can be. ABB looks forward to doing just that. We would be interested in your thoughts about the curriculum, where it's headed, and how we can work together to make it better.
With best wishes,
Richard J. Werther '79
President
1. Bucknell University, Refining a Vision for Academic Affairs at Bucknell, http://www.bucknell.edu/Documents/Provost/Draft.Academic.Vision1.pdf, page 2. Accessed January 5, 2008.
2. Refining a Vision for Academic Affairs at Bucknell, page 11.
3. Christopher J. Zappe, "Message from the Dean," http://www.bucknell.edu/x20377.xml. Accessed January 5, 2008.
4. Zappe, "Message from the Dean."
5. Bucknell University, "Mission Statement," http://www.bucknell.edu/x7058.xml. Accessed January 5, 2008.
6. This is especially true since there are surely other worthy topics. For instance, given the conflicts in today's world--which look to be a big part of tomorrow's--why not a course on comparative religions?
7. Bucknell University, "Strategy One: Strengthen the Academic Core," The Plan for Bucknell, http://www.bucknell.edu/x37876.xml. Accessed January 7, 2008.