To the Editor:
According to Monday's edition of The Dartmouth ("Kim lauds College's focus on liberal arts," Oct. 11), in his speech as part of the Faculty Chalk Talk Series, College President Jim Yong Kim "encouraged alumni to continue donating to maintain the College's liberal arts tradition." This is surely at the forefront of President Kim's mind.
How would Kim promote the liberal arts? By throwing more money at them. If it were only that simple! In my lifetime, the amounts of money shoveled at the humanities has increased exponentially, and as I see it, the results have been to smother what should be at the heart of this sector of education. Indeed, nationally, the liberal arts college is in greater peril today than it was when I graduated. And in many cases, the prescriptions for its betterment are really DNR protocols.
Small classes? Sounds good, but alumni surveys show a preponderance of favor in retrospect for the great lecture courses. The size of the class should be calibrated according to its function and small is not always better. Cutting edge faculty? In the humanities at least, "cutting edge" is just a treacherous cliche.
