opinion

Bangert: Are liberal arts 2nd class at Purdue?

The end-of-semester letter David Reingold sent to alumni, faculty and some students in May was a splash of cold water in the face of the liberal arts at a time of doubt and decline at Purdue University.

And it was supposed to be.

The new College of Liberal Arts dean said it's time to quit being defensive about who they are, what they do and why they're at Purdue. No more apologies.

"That stops now," Reingold wrote.

How big that job is, he's about to find out.

Reingold arrived from Indiana University in March understanding he was walking onto a Purdue campus known first and foremost for engineering, for pumping out astronauts and for a hard-core reputation in hard-core sciences. He also arrived at a time of crisis in the humanities nationwide, as the liberal arts deal with shrinking enrollment as students steer toward more job-ready majors to rationalize all the college debt they're about to rack up.

But just how deep the inferiority complex ran through the College of Liberal Arts, now just the fifth-largest college at Purdue and shrinking fast, caught the new dean off guard.

"It was almost like they had to justify being some sort of second string at Purdue — like they lack some sort of narrative to tell the story about why what they're doing matters," Reingold said. "It was like it was baked into the DNA somehow."

So Reingold, two months into his new job, sent parting words at the end of the school year, calling out perceptions that history and sociology, English and communications, and all the rest were "a lesser part of the institution."

He separated each of these lines in his 1,200-word, May 13 letter to punctuate the point.

"No longer will our faculty apologize for their commitment to the liberal arts.

"No longer will our faculty present themselves as second-class university citizens.

"No longer will our students have to find their own way.

"No longer will people wonder exactly what we do."

Equal parts pep talk, mission statement and a get-over-yourself kick in the pants, the letter was a bracing moment for the humanities at Purdue.

"Now, saying it is one thing," Reingold said during an interview in his Beering Hall office. "How we give people the tools to do it — we have a lot of work to do."

Reaction on campus

Does it ring true?

Adi Ben-Yehoshua is a history and political science major and a liberal arts senator with Purdue Student Government. She said the letter was a mirror of a conversation members of the college's student council had with Reingold during a roundtable session last spring.

"I find myself at times having to bring up rankings and statistics when discussing what I study or even having to deflect people who let me know what my job prospects (and) potential earnings are going to look like," Ben-Yehoshua said. "I also get to hear a lot of people tell me things such as, 'So you're going to graduate school (or) law school afterward then,' implying that I wouldn't be able to get a job otherwise."

Rusty Rueff is a member of the College of Liberal Arts Dean's Council. His name is on the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He said he didn't feel the same sort of defensive edge at Purdue when he was there doing his undergraduate and master's work in the '80s, at a time when engineering still was the university's calling card.

"But we weren't having the same national conversation about the value of education and gainful employment that has taken place over the last decade," said Rueff, whose human resources stints with PepsiCo video game maker Electronic Arts came before his work on corporate boards and investing in startups.

Rueff said that three decades ago there also wasn't the same all-out emphasis on STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"So 10 years ago, if a kid said he wanted to make video games, his mom and dad would go, 'Please, please, don't do that.' Today, a kid says he wants to make video games, they go, 'Yes, please, hurry, make a lot of money,' " Rueff said.

"Those headwinds add up (in liberal arts)," he said. "If you're hearing an external message — 'What's your value, what's your value?' — you can begin to take on a victimlike feeling. What I think David is doing, and rightfully so, is saying, 'No. It isn't that way.' "

The plan

Reingold's letter laid out a 12-point plan to rebuild and rebrand, without dumping what he considers a basic, standing thesis: "Without great humanities and liberal arts, you can't have a great university."

Among his points, he said the college will concentrate on developing classes focused on skills that will help graduates get jobs; line up more internships; recruit alumni to be student mentors; create academic tracks for students in outside majors to take more liberal arts courses; increase fundraising; and champion the accomplishments of professors, students and alumni.

Just as importantly, Reingold said, students need to be taught to tell their own stories.

"Even though I think they know why and they have good motivations and reasons," Reingold said, "I think the narrative they're presenting is one they lack confidence in, sometimes."

What does all that mean?

"We haven't mapped it all out, yet," Reingold said.

He's on the clock.

Slipping enrollment

Constituted in 1963, the School of Humanities, Social Science and Education grew so much that it contended with engineering as Purdue's largest. Through the years, Purdue stripped disciplines from a broad liberal arts umbrella. The College of Education separated off in 1989. In 2010, the College of Liberal Arts lost a third of its students when Purdue created the College of Health and Human Sciences, which includes hospitality and tourism management, consumer science and kinesiology, among others.

The conspiracy theory is that it was done so the College of Liberal Arts wouldn't compete with the College of Engineering in size.

But that doesn't tell the full story about the steady decline in enrollment in recent years.

In 2011, Liberal Arts had 4,256 undergraduates, which made it Purdue's third largest behind the College of Engineering and the new College of Health and Human Sciences, according to data kept by the Office of Enrollment Management. By 2014, Liberal Arts had 2,896 undergraduates — a 32 percent drop.

Purdue isn't alone. Here are Big Ten comparisons: Enrollment at Ohio State's College of Arts and Sciences is off 11 percent in the past five years. Applications at Indiana University's College of Arts and Sciences are down 13 percent since 2011 and the number of students admitted is down 8 percent, according to a June report in Inside Higher Ed that took stock of similar declines on campuses across the country.

"I think all of that is important for us to come at head-on," said Rusty Jones, an associate professor of stage design and a Visual and Performing Arts representative on the University Senate. "It was good to see the dean's letter. … It's good to see someone carrying that banner: Hey, we're going to be proud of who we are."

Rueff took that a step further.

"People see (Purdue President) Mitch Daniels make all these bold moves and say he isn't doing any of it with the liberal arts," Rueff said. "I say, we didn't give him a story. (Reingold's) job is to ask, 'Where does this college intersect with the rest of this university?' His job is to show the value added. And his job is to stand up and say, 'Here are the stories.' To stand at the podium and say, 'Here's what's happening on the other side of campus.' "

Not 'second class at Purdue'

Purdue Provost Deba Dutta, who has an engineering background, said he stands behind the effort.

"Reingold's letter talks about a sense among some Liberal Arts students and faculty that they are not appreciated and are second class," Dutta said. "Reingold did not say that the liberal arts are second class at Purdue. … We have excellent faculty and students, and I will help Dean Reingold in his efforts to further elevate the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue. That is an aspiration for the college that we share."

Reingold said he's spent some of this summer fielding questions about his end-of-semester letter. Some people have been miffed. Others have sheepishly agreed.

"But everyone's thinking about it, it sounds like," Reingold said. "I'm not a big doomsdayer. But I am mindful that the liberal arts, not only here but all over the country, need to find a way to be more deliberate and strategic and to take on some of the apathy or complacency. … Our first step is to get beyond this need to feel defensive about who we are and why we're here."

As Reingold wrote to his colleagues, that stops now.

Bangert is a columnist with the Journal & Courier. Contact him at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.

About the College of Liberal Arts

Purdue University's College of Liberal Arts includes the Brian Lamb School of Communication, the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, the School of Languages and Cultures, the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts, and the departments of anthropology, English, history, philosophy, political science and sociology.