Oh, the Humanities!

The Humanities program, or "Humes," was one of my great academic joys at Davidson. I'm glad it's still there, and disturbed that it is less popular tin students shying away from the grand theory a liberal arts education in favor of early specialization.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a great piece: A Liberal-Arts College That Gets It Right



I also think that current President Carol Quillen is amazing and a terrific leader for the school.

In her exploration of humanism, she told me, she discovered the "experience of revelation through reading the words of people from a distant, alien age." Quillen remains devoted to the close reading of canonical texts. "Life is short," she said, "and those guys were smart." Quillen has a talent for combining academic eloquence with candor and self-doubt.

Each time I have heard her speak to alumni, it has made want to quit my job and go work for her just to be a part of fulfilling her vision.

Also from the story:

Davidson possesses a proud history, a devoted alumni base, and a sterling national reputation. It can pick and choose among applicants who receive generous financial aid and almost always graduate on time. The student-to-faculty ratio is held steady at about 10 to one, nearly all tenure-track. The college even manages to maintain a healthy Division I sports program while avoiding the kind of scandal that is presently consuming the academic reputation of the University of North Carolina, 130 miles east on I-85 in Chapel Hill.

When I visited the college recently, the tenured professors had a lot to say about their approach to teaching undergraduates, which means that they are teaching undergraduates and care enough about it to have an approach. This alone is different from what you often hear at big research universities or adjunct-dominated commuter schools. There’s also a lot of classroom collaboration among professors from different departments, to the point where it seems unremarkable. My questions about how members of the faculty support and evaluate one another’s teaching produced thoughtful answers, not puzzled stares. It was refreshing.