When Ursinus College announced the sudden retirement of John Strassburger this year, citing "personal and health reasons," people who knew the Pennsylvania college's longtime president—and knew of his eight-year battle with prostate cancer—may have feared the worst.
I visited Mr. Strassburger, who is 68, as he was clearing out his office in June, to record his thoughts about the future of small colleges and the liberal arts. He seemed his usual self, with an easy smile and a disarming manner, but his collar was unbuttoned and loose—not adorned with his signature sharp bow tie.
Nevertheless, he looked good, if a little tired. His office was stocked with student art and books he had not yet had time to read, amid the challenges of running a small college. (Pleasure reading is one of the things he looks forward to in retirement.)
He has more than 40 years of experience in higher education, including 15 as president of Ursinus. I have seen him at conferences talking with younger presidents about the rigors of the job.
"Sometimes I try to hint that they need to remember: If they are the smartest person in the room, the institution is in trouble," he said. "We all got into administration in part because we didn't become the best scholars of our generation."
Jonathan Brand, of Doane College, in Nebraska, is one young president who has learned from him. Mr. Strassburger has advised Mr. Brand on management and on connecting with national organizations. He was also good at staying in touch, sending Mr. Brand handwritten notes now and then to check in.
"He is one of these people who relishes listening, which is not a skill that everyone has," Mr. Brand said recently.
Mr. Strassburger is leaving behind a college that he helped rebuild. When he arrived at Ursinus, it was facing multimillion-dollar deficits and had lost its spunk. He pushed to renovate buildings, to enhance programs. He wanted the college to rediscover its liberal-arts roots—and under his watch, the college started its Common Intellectual Experience program, in which all Ursinus students grapple with the same big questions.
Among small-college presidents, Mr. Strassburger has become a consistent, vocal champion for that traditional liberal-arts ideal. But he holds no illusions about it.
"The rhetoric of liberal education will not save our liberal-arts colleges," he wrote in a recent article for The Chronicle. "But students and their parents understand the idea of small, intense classes looking at big questions. They understand the value of directed independent study, of study abroad, of undergraduate research, of having students doing lots of writing. ... Thoughtful commentators agree that the nation needs the liberal arts, but that if they are to survive, colleges must make visible at all times what they are and how they contribute to the lives of students."
The life of a president at a small college is tied up with the college itself. At a handful of events at Ursinus in the past month, faculty members and trustees have praised Mr. Strassburger's service. And at Ursinus's recent commencement, even the students showed their appreciation in a sartorial dedication: They wore little red bow ties.
Comments
1. finaleyes - July 06, 2010 at 10:22 am
As a student about to start my first semester at the graduate institute of St. John's College in Santa Fe, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the value of a liberal-arts education. Having a master's in liberal arts may not qualify me for a job (although it certainly might), but it will make me a more holistic person. A liberal-arts education is less an investment in a career than in the individual, who will see the world not from his or her own slice of specialization but as a larger, more integrative whole. There will be a great need for people who are thus integrated, rather than dis-integrated, to run companies, solve problems, and envision futures.
2. jungianscholar - July 06, 2010 at 05:52 pm
John Strassburger and his protege, Jonathan Brand, are to be commended for keeping alive the torch of liberal arts education. I graduated from Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, Ohio with a B.A. in Psychology many years ago, then earned a M.Ed in Communications, a MBA in Leadership, and, at 58, graduated from Antioch University's Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program. I have many years experience as a manager and educator, and now, at sixty, am reinventing myself once again, as I seek a full-time college teaching job. My son, overseas, finishing up his Ph.D. in Ancient and Medieval History, is also a Liberal Arts person. People will ask him, "What will you do with your degree?" He answers, "Teach and write books." He worked once as a network engineer in the computer world, and while very proficient, knew for him, it was not life satisfying.
Liberal Arts schools help the students develop critical and reflective thinking skills, help the students towards possible transformative learning through providing them with opportunities of growth and inward analysis, and provide an opportunity to reframe one's belief system to possibly a much wider, world lens. These kind of reflections involve studying philosophy, ethics, history, ethnology and human behavior. What a wonderful grounding for professional studies later.
I am enthusiastic that, like the fabled Phoenix, Antioch College of Yellow Springs, Ohio, will once again come alive, with a renewed campus, renewed leadership, and new student body in the Autumn of 2011. Schools like Antioch, Reed, Swarthmore, and the Evergreen State College all serve as the avatars of liberal arts education in America.
So many other small, liberal arts colleges bravely function with financial shortfalls, variable student enrollment, almost ever changing curriculum, yet still manage to graduate hundreds, if not thousands of students per year, who often go on to serve our society well, and to carry the torch forth to the next generation.
3. marklp - July 08, 2010 at 03:22 am
I also graduated from Antioch College many years ago with a degree in education and am working on a doctorate in educational leadership with a specialization in teaching social innovation. I also will be in the job market for college teachers next year at the age of 60+. I do this because I believe in the importance of liberal arts studies. But, I also belive that liberal arts must be integrated with specialties that leave the student better prapared for careers in this society that still values specialization over general studies. Some see this as a compromise. I see this as an opportunity to prepare students more effectively for roles as innovators and social change agents, both inside and outside the large dominant institutions of our society.
4. bglower - July 08, 2010 at 08:37 am
I attended Antioch College, met a graduate engineer who was taking time out to acquire a liberal arts degree before going on to graduate school in engineering. The liberal education from Antioch made him such a delightful, wise person with whom to spend a lifetime, as well as well as making him a devoted, understanding father to our four children. Let's hear it for marrying someone with a liberal arts degree tucked in his back pocket! Maybe it would be good if all liberal arts programs included a technology requirement to broaden appreciation of technology? After all, there's an esthetic thrill in writing an elegant equation, just as there's an esthetic thrill in writing a meaningful poem. It's a waste to be limited to one or the other.
5. ajrothkopf - July 08, 2010 at 08:37 am
John was a colleague of mine during the 12 year I served as president of Lafayette College. He is one of the most admirable individuals I have known as he consistently upholds the traditions and values of the liberal arts. I wish him the very best in "retirement."
6. 22102279 - July 08, 2010 at 10:39 am
The value of a liberal arts education cannot be understated. Yet liberal arts schools face tough hurdles going forward.
Chris Nelson, president of St. John's College in Annapolis, MD has recently authroed a great piece entitled "On the Perpetuation of Liberal Arts Colleges". It is a great read. you can find it at www.presidentialperspectives.org.
7. frankgado - July 08, 2010 at 01:04 pm
There is nothing magical in the words "liberal arts," though their invocation tends to presume a wondrous alchemy. But most--in fact, virtually all --liberal arts colleges actually operate on a shrunken template for the university. Does sociology belong under the liberal arts umbrella? A lab in zoology? A course in an interdepartmental program of "peace studies"?
The great challenge lies in fending off the incursion of university notions of education and restoring undergraduate studies to their previous non-professional purposes--and that goes for faculty as well as students.