Going to College
Additional Primary Sources, 2012-2015

Sue DeWine, "The President's View," email communication, December 2012.

Sue DeWine, then president of Hanover College, wrote this letter to donors and other friends of Hanover College at Christmas time, 2012.

Holiday greetings
{1}As the holidays approach, I am thankful for our many alumni and friends who have supported the College during this past year. That support has come in the form of speaking to classes, hiring Hanover interns, hiring Hanover grads, participating in Hanover events and, of course, providing your financial support as well. We are so fortunate to have a family of supporters like you. I hope you have many blessings in your own life to be thankful for this holiday season.

{2} We are also thankful that our beloved College is making such great progress toward increased enrollment, improved graduation rates and better financial stability, especially at a time when our country has gone through some deep financial meltdowns, and higher education costs are constantly under attack. We must be doing many things right.

A different point of view
{3}Tom Snyder, president of Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, recently wrote the following for the Huffington Post, "It is time we all accept the fact that a traditional four-year liberal arts education is a poor investment for America's middle class --  it is a luxury that few can afford." His solution? Enrollment in his institution. An op-ed piece that appeared in our local newspaper stated that his comments were "shortsighted and confused education with training."

{4} The editorial went on to say the following:

A liberal arts degree in history or even philosophy prepares students for a lifetime of learning, and any employer should be glad to land someone who can think deeply about topics and critically assess problems. There's more than one CEO who would gladly hire a liberal arts major for their all-around knowledge and ability to communicate. Taking a chance on such graduates should be something the private sector does more often. When higher education serves only as a training ground for careers, something is amiss. The historical purpose of universities was to prepare better, more knowledgeable citizens who could tackle problems and build a better society for everyone.

{5} There is a place for both technical training and the broad liberal arts curriculum. What liberal arts graduates bring to the work place is the ability to think critically about problems, provide in-depth analysis of data, use clear communication skills and apply an understanding of the ethical questions facing society today. These are skills currently lacking in many areas of our society where more liberal arts graduates are needed.

{6} Recently, I sat in a corporate board room with the 12 top leaders of a $500 million business. Of those 12 around the table, eight of them had graduated with a liberal arts degree in such areas as political science, East Asian studies, psychology, anthropology, history, philosophy, Spanish, religion and communication. When Tom Snyder says, "Today's economy cannot support more art history or philosophy majors," he hasn't met many of our corporate leaders around the country. Numerous studies have reinforced the example I cite here.

{7} Hanover's recent growth in the student body is evidence of the attractiveness of the liberal arts education. In the past five years, our first year class has increased by almost 40 percent. Our retention rate is at an all-time high of 83 percent -- compare that to community colleges that rarely get 30 percent of their in-coming class to graduate. . . .

Counting our blessings
{8} So let us count our blessings. We are preparing young people to be leaders in a society that needs thinkers and doers, not those who make assumptions without supporting evidence.

{9} I hope Hanover's blessings can be added to your own personal blessings of family, friends and peace during the holiday season. Please support your alma mater when we call on you for help.

Phillip D. Scott, "Commencement Address" May 2013 (excerpted)

{10}Just a brief word for the graduating seniors.  You have received a liberal arts education at Hanover.  You have been introduced to a wide variety of subjects.  In today's world this education will prove invaluable.  You haven't been trained solely in one field that might disappear tomorrow.  You have been taught to think.

{11}I didn't appreciate what a liberal arts education was all about until I was 39 years old and found myself in the middle of the Empty Quarter in Arabia.  It was the call to prayer and my first close contact with men of the Islamic faith.  That night we spoke about our faith, culture and family.  If I hadn't been instructed at Hanover in religion, philosophy, history and the classics, I would not have had a basis to discuss matters with the rulers of this country.  It turned out that one of my least favorite courses, religion, was one of the most valuable courses I took at Hanover.

{12}That night was when the light bulb went off for me about my education.  . . .  In order to keep the light on you must continue to study and learn.  That is what your Hanover education has started - - your life's journey.  I wish you each much success in your life and careers.

Lake Lambert, III, "Opening Convocation," September 2015 (excerpted)

{13}As I read The Circus in Winter—our August Experience book this year—I couldn’t help but think about my family’s fascination with the circus.  From a young age we took our children to the circus.  Sometimes it was Ringling Brothers in some huge convention center.  Once it was truly under the big top when a circus came to our small town in Iowa and pitched its tent in a nearby field.  . . .

{14}But this summer, reading The Circus in Winter, I thought again about the circus.  For example, it has been hard to ignore the recent calls by animal rights activists to end the exploitation and captivity of animals by circuses.  . . . I thought about the feats of human agility and athleticism that can be seen watching tumblers, trapeze artists, and even the human cannonball. I thought about the performance quality of the event, the acting, the costuming, the stage management, and the need for impeccable timing. . . .

{15}When I arrived at college 30 years ago, I had little if any idea what it meant to study the liberal arts.  To be honest, I’m still a student of liberal arts education. . . .  [and] I would like to share with you two important elements from my own experience that I hope are found in a liberal arts education here at Hanover.

{16}First, my liberal arts education ruined simplicity for me. It made it almost impossible for me to take something at face value.  It made almost everything I encounter a possible subject for further inquiry, for investigation.  As you can see from my description, the circus isn’t just a circus.  It’s a case study in ethics plus a lesson in etymology and sociolinguistics.  It’s also applied zoology, a means to explore the sociology of deviance, a case study in the psychology of deception, a different form of kinesiology, and an example of theater and the arts that is off the wooden stage and off the gallery wall.

{17}There is an important place for “classics” in liberal arts education, but by no means must liberal learning be limited to them.  Kanye and Plato; anime and daVinci; Olsteen and the Buddha; Aristotle and Einstein; Day’s The Circus in Winter and Shakespeare’s The Tempest—all of these can be subjects of our study because liberal learning is not about what is studied as much as how something is studied and why it is studied.  Here you will learn the skills of critical thinking, and you will be able to unleash those skills on almost any subject.  Here you will practice those skills on the subjects of sociology, literature, chemistry, and more, but later in life you may use these same skills in business, medicine, or law—and even at the PTA and in the voting booth when you decide between competing political candidates.

{18}The skills of a liberal arts education--and the knowledge of the world that you gain through them--fill a powerful toolkit.  It can also be downright dangerous.  Like a young superhero with newly discovered powers, you will be forced to discern whether you will use your learning for good or for evil, for the well-being of others or only for your self-interests.  By all means, you need to make a living, and it is good and honorable to want to do so.  In fact, Hanover wants that for you and will help you do it too.  But if all you do is make a living in this life, well, you have not really lived.

{19}For that reason—and as my second point--a true liberal arts education is not just the filling of a toolkit or the filling up of the head.  No, it must also be the education of the heart.  I’ll be honest, in this day and age, to talk about the education of the heart seems decidedly old fashioned and not what students and their parents want to pay tens of thousands of dollars to support.  But I say that it is essential.  You can learn chemistry to cure disease or to run the gas chamber at Auschwitz.  Should we not discuss the distinction between the two in the course of your liberal arts education?

{20}. . . The education of the heart also occurs in our relationships with one another.  Reading The Circus in Winter, it was hard for me not to think about what it means to form a community with those whom the rest of society might view as different.  Did the good people of Peru shun the circus folk and their children?  We know that students in this college can feel shunned, disrespected, or discriminated against because of their race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.  Some students can also be physically harmed.  While we must certainly be tolerant and respectful, an education of the heart requires even more.  It requires that we care.  It means that when a fellow student is vulnerable that we offer help.  It means that, when someone is different, we seek to understand and appreciate them for who they really are and not for who we think they are or want them to be. It means that in the tone of our voice and in the words of our choice that we communicate kindness rather than contempt.  Perhaps it even means that we take a personal risk to befriend or a personal risk to correct someone else when they intentionally or unintentionally harm another by word or deed.

{21}. . . No, we are not a circus—as much as it may feel like one sometimes.  But we are a collegium—a community of scholars first gathered almost two hundred years ago in this place to advance learning and the transformation of the head and the heart.  As we begin our new academic year, I pray that we will remain true to that founding vision and that we will always seek to be better in it.