The vital importance of the humanities
This week in Cleveland, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is convening a conference of Community College-University Partnerships, of which VCU is proud to be a part. I have the pleasure of addressing colleagues from across the nation at a gathering of 2- and 4-year college leaders who understand—and commit to—the inherent value of working together to promote student success.
They will hear about how VCU ensures that our students flourish in really big ways across their educational careers, including a rich education in the humanities. This is vital to the VCU experience and central to the Mellon Foundation’s mission of “strengthening, promoting, and … defending the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies.”
At VCU, we often talk in terms of our being a nationally prominent research university, and that is an important descriptor. We are on the edge of the horizon, pushing what’s possible in the human experience. We are not merely adapting to the future, we are creating it. And we do this work in an array of academic disciplines, from hard sciences like engineering and medicine to social sciences to humanities.
At a research university like ours, the humanities are vitally important. They matter deeply as scholarship and innovation, and because they help shape the experience of our students—both during their time here and after they graduate into a world of opportunity.
Every employer values technical skills, and they are imperative in a 21st century economy. It is also imperative that we learn to think about our place in the world and how we can make it better, how we fit together and work together, and how we benefit from the life experiences of ourselves and others. The humanities show us that diverse environments are important, but thoughtful recognition about the role every person plays in the human experience is vital. The humanities are essential because they possess an inherent appreciation for inclusion and build expertise in fields that are critically important for society. There is no understanding of society without productive scholarship in the humanities.
At VCU, we commit ourselves to lead in humanities education, research, and creativity because we recognize the dynamic role they play. That’s why every student at VCU takes a required corpus of courses in the humanities. And indeed, I am proud of the many contributions we make to advance the arts and humanities everywhere.
It’s also why—supported in part by the Mellon Foundation—VCU has built clear pathways for students transferring to us from Virginia’s community colleges to pursue scholarship in the humanities, to advance human understanding, and to become a new generation of scholars and leaders.
I am proud of our nationally prominent research university’s unyielding commitment to the humanities look forward to sharing our story with my colleagues from across America this week.
Categories 21st-Century University, News, Periodic update, To VCU