Princely vision: Hampshire College's Greg Prince weighs in on the hauteur of higher ed, the survival of liberal arts education, and keeping an educational experiment alive in the current economic climate - Interview

University Business, Jan, 2004 by Katherine Grayson

Is the world moving away from the liberal arts education?

The world is basically running away from the concept of liberal arts education. The number of liberal arts institutions in the U.S. has been reduced by something like 60 of 70 percent in the last 10 years. Not because the institutions disappeared, but because they changed their names, programs, and missions. Liberal arts is not cool; it's not in. It isn't profitable and won't make money. Yet my argument is that it is all of the above, and that it is the best pre-professional and professional training. It is the best education for any purpose, anywhere, under any time. The irony is that the passion and understanding of what a liberal arts education is most intense in Central Europe, and we're now working with a small group there. In reestablishing their post-authoritarian society, they do not want to create the educational system they had before that authoritarian period because they believe they, in some ways, contributed to an acceptance of authoritarian rule. They believe that what they really need is to create in their cultures the liberal arts tradition that was established in America. And so, just as Europe is discovering the genius of our system, we have a government that's talking about national tests and one-size-fits-all, and higher education itself is running away from liberal arts education and creating pre-professional this and pre-professional that. But that all goes to chasing the culture, chasing where it's at, what the economy's doing, what business is doing, instead of having the big picture.

Does the constant need for money make you see higher education as a business?

My first real job in higher education was with Dartmouth, running the summer term. I was handed Dartmouth College for three months of the year, given $250,000 of "paper money" to put in a budget. But I was supposed to bring in cash before they ever spent a dollar. I didn't realize it then, but what I was told to do is run a business. I had to market what I did and I had to run it like a business, and it changed my whole way of looking at education.

Does it amaze you that higher education would it find it so hard to use those terms--business, marketing?

The language works in both directions. When T went to Dartmouth as a graduate student, there were some big retailers and big names in business and they were making decisions about running Dartmouth that made no business sense at all. Yet, right now I'm on my way to a CEO conference in New Haven that I've been participating in for quite a few years. I remember going to it 10 years ago and there were 40 CEOs, and I was a kid in the candy store. I could hardly contain myself. I didn't know who to talk to first. It was just like heaven. But ethics is a problem on both sides. We don't teach it and they don't get it. Still, we should not be afraid to use the language of profit and the market. We should not be afraid of all of those issues.