An Open Letter to PhDs
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
An Open Letter to New Ph.D.'s
From the Academic Deans of the Commonwealth Partnership:
Allegheny College - James C. Bulman (Acting)
Bryn Mawr College - Mary Patterson McPherson
Bucknell University - William D. Adams
Carnegie Mellon University - Robert Mehrabian
Chatham College - Esther L. Barazzone
Dickinson College - A. Lee Fritschler
Franklin and Marshall College
Gettysburg College - Gordon A. Haaland
Haverford College - Tom G. Kessinger
LaFayette College - Arthur J. Rothkopf
Lehigh University - Peter Likins
Swarthmore College - Alfred H. Bloom
(5/6/1996)
Introduction to Media Representatives from the Commonwealth Partnership Presidents
Young scholars with fresh Ph.D.'s are so often discouraged by the negative press that envelops higher education today. Therefore, a group of twelve deans and provosts has signed a more positive,"Open Letter to New Ph.D.'s" that gives our views concerning the profession they may be about to enter and to explain - from the inside - the particular pressures and pleasures of teaching undergraduates at our institutions.
As the presidents of these twelve colleges and universities, we decided to make this letter available to the public press which should have the opportunity to tell you this side of the story, too. We hope that, as you read the following letter, you will think seriously about the challenges that our society faces in attracting and retaining the best possible educators at a time of tremendous social change.
What You Should Know:
An Open Letter to New Ph.D.'s
Recently there has been a great deal of discussion in the press about the state of higher education - much of it very critical. Some of the criticism is thoughtful and well-deserved, some is foolish and ill-informed. It behooves all of us who teach and work in colleges and universities to listen carefully to our critics, and those of you who are currently preparing for a career of teaching and research must be especially attentive. It is to you that this letter is addressed, because the future of the institutions within the Commonwealth Partnership in Pennsylvania, and similar ones all over the United States, depends on you.
Our institutions, while differing in important ways, share a vision of the kind of education we want our undergraduate students to have and the sort of faculty we must attract if we are to realize that vision. The purpose of this letter is to let those of you who have decided to pursue careers in higher education see that vision articulated by twelve college and university deans and provosts who hire, mentor, and assess the faculty to whom thousands of parents entrust the education of their sons and daughters each year.
The teachers we want to attract are first and foremost committed to the advancement of learning. Combining serious commitment to teaching and to research is difficult and, in our view, enabling faculty to achieve a balance in which the two activities actually complement each other is one of the most important contributions we can make. In our institutions, faculty do not devote themselves to research and creative activity that removes them from their students or detracts from their teaching. Rather, our faculty are expected to involve students in their research, sometimes as collaborators, and at other times by bringing new connections and their excitement about them into the classroom. We are looking for those among you who welcome the challenge of that combination of commitments.
To engage students, our faculty members' interests and aptitudes must extend beyond working in their disciplines to introducing undergraduates to them. Faculty need the perspective to place a discipline in a larger intellectual context and the flexibility to cross disciplinary boundaries because, often, they will be teaching students with little or no disciplinary experience who need help making connections to what they do know.
It is essential that our faculty members have strong communication skills and be willing to teach those skills along with the content of their disciplines. They must understand how students learn and be prepared to work with students who come to the classroom with a broad range of backgrounds, preparations, and aptitudes. Further, they must balance a willingness to adapt to different needs with a commitment to high standards for all students.
While academics are often portrayed as loners, the faculty members we seek should be prepared for a great deal of social involvement. As residential colleges and universities, we are engaged in an effort to give students the opportunity to experience a democratic community. While the struggle to invite the participation of all of our constituencies often makes us look inefficient, it is part of our educational mission to ask our students and faculty to help build communities in which citizenship and service are taught by example. Our colleges and universities should be models of communities in which diversity, responsibility and cooperation thrive. Our larger society needs leaders who have learned the requirements and rewards of citizenship. We have an unusual opportunity, and therefore a clear responsibility, to teach them.
Our faculty members shape students' educational experiences as much by who they are as by what they teach. They share an interest in the personal as well as intellectual development of young adults. At different times and with different students they must be nurturing and demanding, supportive and critical. The personal interaction between teachers and undergraduates is essential to the education we offer. While new and exciting uses of technology can enhance this interaction, they cannot replace it as the most effective means of helping young adults achieve a complex set of goals.
We want students who graduate from our programs to have the ability - and confidence - to think and work independently, as well as the skills needed to cooperate and collaborate. We try to inculcate in them a healthy skepticism that includes a respect for evidence and a tolerance for ambiguity. They should know how to assess the ever-increasing amount of information available to them. They should know how to express themselves clearly, forcefully, and effectively in both writing and speaking. While we cannot pretend that in four years they can begin even to sample all areas of knowledge, we can and do insist that they develop a range of competencies in different modes of inquiry, as well as a considerable depth of knowledge in at least one area. We hope to graduate individuals with integrity, a sense of social responsibility, and the ability to make ethical judgments.
Many of the attributes we seek to develop in our students are precisely those which are viewed as essential if democratic societies are to flourish in the next century. We see the impact of our institutions as far wider than the individual students we graduate. It is precisely our small size that gives us a unique opportunity to enable students and faculty to work together in ways that can have the most profound and far-reaching effects. Our students should leave our institutions with a lifelong commitment to educating themselves and others. This commitment will be modeled on what they have seen in their own teachers. We seek those of you who are willing to be such teachers. Make no mistake - our work is demanding, time-consuming, and challenging. For the right person this is a wonderful opportunity, and we invite you to consider it.