"A Liberal Arts Education In a World of Specialists"

 Presentation and Discussion with Columbia College Dean Emeritus Austin E. Quigley

May 21, 2015
6:30pm to 8:30pm

Austin E. Quigley, Columbia College Dean Emeritus, recipient of the 2008 Alexander Hamilton Medal and of a forthcoming Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching, and Lucy G. Moses Professor and Brander Matthews Professor of Dramatic Literature, will speak about the importance of a liberal arts education and how Columbia is particularly well situated to provide such an education to its students.

Event details:

Date: May 21, 2015

Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Place: CASE (Council for Advancement & Support of Education), 1307 New York Avenue, NW (between 13th and 14th Streets NW)

Cost: $25 for members or a member's first guest / $35 for non-members or any further guests

Topic: The difficult economic circumstances of the last few years have renewed long standing debates over the appropriate nature of undergraduate education. The recurring demands in modern careers for specialized forms of expertise challenge the broad nature of a liberal arts education and strengthen claims that vocational training would be more useful. The ever increasing costs of residential colleges generate new questions about what might be achievable through distance learning online. And the emerging claims of globalization offer not yet clear perspectives on how we should prepare undergraduates for the future.