As a senior getting ready to face the so-called "real world," the purpose of a liberal arts education is a concept that is ever present on my mind. I have been grappling with the personally fulfilling/purely pragmatic divide in higher education this year through numerous conversations, as well as a pet academic paper.
This led me to attend a talk called "Chat with President Wagner: The Value of an Emory Education," originally meant to be a small, intimate conversation on the vision of Emory University amongst Emory's president and a few upperclassmen. The tide for the event turned last week however, when an online uproar resulted from President Wagner's insensitive reference to the 3/5 Compromise as a necessary step to our progress as a nation in his "Letter from the President" essay in Emory Magazine.
Given the sustained discontent with his comment among students and faculty, the conversation of the night's talk inevitably strayed from its intended course, but in my mind, successfully addressed its original aim to demonstrate that an Emory education is indeed valuable.
Wagner entered the Tower penthouse to 15 silent, suspicious students seemingly demanding a defense for his clear intellectual mistake. He helped break the tension by immediately addressing the clear "elephants in the room."
In order to discuss what everyone was really interested in, he flew through the original comments he had prepared, all of which were thought-provoking and commendable aims for a liberal arts institution – such as the need for a liberal arts education to instill its students with an ability to view the world through the other's eyes, rather than simply their own. He gladly provided himself as an example of someone who did not achieve this aim in his recent bad analogy.
He relatedly emphasized the importance of coherent communication, which in addition to "free speech" should focus on "freedom to be heard," suggesting those with tolerance and respect for another person's argument are the ones who actually hear other people's arguments. Those who listen to others benefit from the flow of information higher education can provide. Emory aims to instill this perspective, and in my experiences, it has been largely successful. Extending his argument, I suggest that those without proper education will not have the capacity to hear and comprehend other people's arguments – an indisputably rampant phenomenon in America.
His other points were equally valid, and although marred by a poor example, his point on the importance of being able to compromise to progress remains worthy of consideration. The American political system is based on compromise, and the rampant refusal to compromise in Washington is indeed deeply concerning. Wagner clarified that compromises on varying parties' interests, rather than on important principles, are the compromises for which his essay argues.
Because I was in search of an argument for the liberal arts being a public good, rather than simply an individual good, I found many of his points useful. In summary, compromise is necessary for the continued success of our nation, and compromise is next to impossible without coherent communication and an ability to see outside oneself. For these reasons, among others, a properly constructed liberal education is indeed valuable because it provides citizens who contribute to the strength of the whole.
Wagner's essay, which disregarded the "repugnance" of slavery, did not fulfill these aims, but his response did. He has owned up to his mistake, offered numerous public apologies and maintains that the mistake was his own and not that of the institution. This column is not however, to offer a defense for Wagner. Rather, I simply suggest that the capacity Emory faculty and students alike have to take the seemingly endless issues this yea, and openly address them in intellectual conversation is demonstrative of the inherent value of an Emory education. We are becoming critical thinkers, which this world badly needs. We are learning to think outside of ourselves, and you know it. The criticism of Wagner's comments was necessary, but addressing the ideas and issues it brought up are much more so.
Most importantly, shun overt cynicism. Shun ignorance. Education is essential, and we are getting some of the best available. Enjoy it, then use it to make a better world.
Mary Shiraef is a College senior from Chatanooga Tenn.
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