The Liberal Arts Life

Curating the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Experience by Associate Dean Christopher Long.

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Experience A Liberal Arts Summer (by LAUSatPennState)

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The AAC&U survey also shows employers’ support for the idea that students should be broadly educated and should apply their learning to the real world during college. More than half of employers indicated that recent college graduates should have “both field-specific knowledge and skills and a broad range of skills and knowledge.

Employers Want Broadly Educated New Hires, Survey Finds - Students - The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Lindsay Wells is the Liberal Arts Commencement Speaker

The College of the Liberal Arts does have a commencement speaker: our student marshal, Lindsay Wells. Lindsay is a triple major in Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Art History, and Medieval Studies.

What we don’t have is a second commencement speaker from inside or outside the University. Although we have traditionally had two speakers, this year colleges were given the option not to have a non-student commencement speaker. We in the College of the Liberal Arts decided to give that a try this year in order to highlight our student marshal and to try to limit the length of the ceremony.

We grant over 2000 degrees each year and call out the names of over 1500 students at the spring commencement ceremony. Calling individual names is important for the many families who have gathered to celebrate the accomplishment of a specific, unique individual.

I believe we are the only College that still has a student speaker at commencement, and we decided that was the tradition to continue as it expresses well the student-centered spirit of the ceremony and of the approach to education we take in the College of the Liberal Arts.