Feature Story

April 22, 2015 | By Cole Hatcher

Many members of the OWU community—including students Harang Jung, Jocelyne Munoz, and Jerry Lherisson—listened in the audience as President Rock Jones took part in a recent panel discussion on the liberal arts. (Photo by Rick Buchanan)

‘The Relevance of Liberal Arts in a High Tech World’

OWU President Rock Jones Participates in Higher Education Panel Discussion

Ohio Wesleyan University President Rock Jones took the stage at a recent Columbus Metropolitan Club event to discuss “The Relevance of Liberal Arts in a High Tech World.”

Joining Jones, Ph.D., were Sean Decatur, Ph.D., president of Kenyon College, and Adam Weinberg, Ph.D., president of Denison University. Their April 15 discussion was hosted by Georgia Nugent, a senior fellow at the Council of Independent Colleges in Washington, D.C., and previous Kenyon president.

During the hour-long program, Nugent asked the panelists to discuss the future of the liberal arts.

In his response, Jones noted that all three schools represented in the panel “are devoted exclusively on the education of the undergraduate.”

“Our faculty – they’re world-class scholars, they’re master teachers, they choose our institutions because they want to devote the bulk of their time to teaching and to undergraduate education. That’s our historic strength and that’s our future strength,” Jones said.

And while student-faculty interaction remains vital, he said, gone are the days of teaching consisting largely of a professor speaking from behind a lectern.

“Much more today, it’s one faculty member and one student working together to design the individual program of that student, a portion of which will take place on campus, a portion of which may take place in an internship … and a portion of which may take place – whether it’s in a volunteer experience, a cross-cultural encounter, or a semester of study abroad – somewhere far removed from our campus as we prepare these global citizens,” Jones concluded.