As Sam Schuman so eloquently argues in his lead article, these are challenging times for the liberal arts. A society that owes so much to graduates of liberal arts colleges has come to see them as an education for a simpler time.  Why does a liberal arts education now seem out of place? Perhaps it is that, in times of rapid change, an education that offers the certainty of “textbook solutions” is more comforting than one that promises creative, thoughtful, and flexible “improvisation” in the face of a complex world. It may be that a narrowly focused, carefully applied education seems to provide a solid anchor for our fast-paced lifestyle. Does the quick exchange of information and experiences favor an education that offers certain, immediate, and visible rewards? Certainly it takes an element of faith to pursue the counter-intuitive promises of a liberal arts education in a results-oriented society

Blaich, Charles F.

Ditzler, Mauri

English

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
Journal of the National Collegiate Honors 
Council --Online Archive National Collegiate Honors Council 
Spring 2002 
Creating a Common Voice for Liberal Arts Education 
Charles F. Blaich 
Wabash College, Blaichc@wabash.edu 
Mauri Ditzler 
Wabash College 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcjournal 
 Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons 
Blaich, Charles F. and Ditzler, Mauri, "Creating a Common Voice for Liberal Arts Education" (2002). Journal 
of the National Collegiate Honors Council --Online Archive. 85. 
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcjournal/85 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the National Collegiate Honors Council at 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the National 
Collegiate Honors Council --Online Archive by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of 
Nebraska - Lincoln. 
27
Creating a Common Voice for
Liberal Arts Education
CHARLES F. BLAICH AND MAURI A. DITZLER
CENTER OF INQUIRY IN THE LIBERAL ARTS
WABASH COLLEGE
As Sam Schuman so eloquently argues in his lead article, these are challenging timesfor the liberal arts. A society that owes so much to graduates of liberal arts colleges
has come to see them as an education for a simpler time. 
Why does a liberal arts education now seem out of place? Perhaps it is that, in times
of rapid change, an education that offers the certainty of “textbook solutions” is more
comforting than one that promises creative, thoughtful, and flexible “improvisation” in
the face of a complex world. It may be that a narrowly focused, carefully applied educa-
tion seems to provide a solid anchor for our fast-paced lifestyle. Does the quick exchange
of information and experiences favor an education that offers certain, immediate, and vis-
ible rewards? Certainly it takes an element of faith to pursue the counterintuitive promis-
es of a liberal arts education in a results-oriented society.
The irony of this situation is considerable. The character and outcomes of a liberal
arts education are more relevant now than ever before. The timeless nature of the liberal
arts is the perfect antidote for the diminishing shelf life of information. An education that
transcends specific content and culture is crucial in a time when we must find a way to
educate an increasingly diverse student body. An education that promotes understanding
of self and others is invaluable as we strive to create a global village. An education that
goes beyond disciplinary boundaries remains valuable as we tackle those problems that
have resisted the best efforts of our scientists and philosophers. 
But in the absence of widespread public support, fewer and fewer colleges are will-
ing to stake their viability on the hidden potential of liberal arts. Even longtime advocates
of the liberal arts seem to be losing faith in face of the increasing popularity of profes-
sional programs. Colleges that have traditionally focused on the liberal arts are adding
programs whose essential end is a well paying job. In too many cases these institutions
have become bipolar, holding fast to a shrinking liberal arts core that must be “gotten out
of the way” so students can move on to the valued professional courses. 
At the same time, we face uncertainty from within. Faculty members in liberal arts
colleges observe the success of their students and are tempted to attribute it to the qual-
ity of the disciplinary training being provided. This leads some to respond with an even
greater emphasis on specialization at the expense of a liberal arts focus. Even some of
those institutions that have rigorously maintained their liberal arts tradition shy away
from a discussion of this aspect of their character. It is much easier to attribute remark-
able outcomes to excellent facilities, gifted faculty, large endowments, supportive
SPRING/SUMMER 2002
28
CREATING A COMMON VOICE FOR LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION
alumni, ubiquitous technology, and inspiring architecture than to an educational phi-
losophy that defies definition. 
Nonetheless, the recognition that the liberal arts philosophy is imperiled is suffi-
ciently widespread that we must move from considering the problem, to creating solu-
tions. What can be done to reestablish the liberal arts as the centerpiece of American high-
er education? What can be done to promote the value of the liberal arts to prospective stu-
dents and rebuild the confidence of faculty and administrators in this kind of education? 
The search for solutions to these troubling questions led Wabash College, with gen-
erous support from the Lilly Endowment, to create the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal
Arts. The primary objective of the Center is to establish a strong, common voice for the
liberal arts. Except for occasional articles and symposiums, those of us who are dedicat-
ed to providing and continually improving liberal arts education are not truly accustomed
to thinking of ourselves as belonging to a unified coalition. This stems, in part, from the
diversity of institutions that are committed to the liberal arts. There are private liberal arts
colleges, public liberal arts colleges, liberal arts colleges with religious affiliations, men’s
and women’s liberal arts colleges, historically black liberal arts colleges, and liberal arts
honors programs within larger institutions. No doubt we are leaving out a few varieties.
While we are all committed to liberal arts education, for many this defining characteristic
has become so familiar that it goes unnoticed and is rarely nourished. Instead, we focus
on our unique roles within the liberal arts community. 
By focusing more strongly on an educational niche and less on our shared commit-
ment to the liberal arts, we have created an institutional mindset that makes it difficult for
our many and varied programs to work effectively together. As a result, we have neglect-
ed the rhetoric and evidence that promotes the liberal arts, and we have failed to create a
strong national voice that can promote our common enterprise. 
As we have worked to launch the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, we have vis-
ited with representatives of a wide range of liberal arts colleges. We have been struck by
the fact that faculty and administrators from one kind of liberal arts institution do not read-
ily see themselves as sharing in a common endeavor with faculty and administrators at
other kinds of liberal arts institutions. For example, faculty and administrators from small,
private liberal arts colleges are unlikely to see their colleagues who staff and direct hon-
ors programs at comprehensive state universities as sharing in the same good work and
commitment to the task of teaching the liberal arts. Faculty at independent liberal arts col-
leges don’t see themselves as sharing common concerns with faculty at faith-based liber-
al arts colleges. 
The result is that, rather than seeing ourselves as allies, faculty and administrators at
liberal arts institutions often see themselves as competing with different kinds of liberal
arts institutions. The competition is not only about different visions of the liberal arts, but
for the shrinking population of prospective students who are attracted to liberal arts edu-
cation. We, therefore, find ourselves in a precarious position. As our challenges continue
to grow, we find ourselves, more and more, pitted against one another to grab our piece
of the shrinking pie. 
Despite this state of affairs, we believe that the liberal arts are in a far better position
than we realize. While institutional diversity is a barrier to common work, it could become
our greatest strength as we work together to again make liberal arts the centerpiece of our
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL
29
CHARLES F. BLAICH AND MAURI A. DITZLER
educational system. There are associations that are bringing liberal arts colleges together
for common work. The liberal arts institutions of the Great Lakes Colleges Association,
the Annapolis Group, the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, and the Council of
Independent Colleges, to name just a few, manage to work together despite the fact that
institutions within these consortia may compete against one another for students. 
We believe that the Center of Inquiry can form an even broader coalition that cele-
brates and promotes the many ways that the liberal arts are practiced in this country. We
believe this is possible because, regardless of the particular liberal arts institution we are
devoted to, we are all committed to providing an education that transforms our students’
lives and improves the world in which we live. This shared labor of love should bind us
together.
This is not to say that we should form an unwieldy coalition that diminishes the
unique character of our institutions. Rather, we believe that liberal arts colleges should
come together to work on common problems that will enhance the success of all of our
institutions. At the Center of Inquiry we hope to catalyze the good work of many by bring-
ing together individuals from disparate institutions and consortia. We are organizing our
work, or “inquiries,” around shared problems and concerns. We are bringing admissions
staffs from different liberal arts colleges together to explore ways to expand the number
of students who are interested in pursuing a liberal arts education. We have begun to
investigate more deeply how the residential environment that is often characteristic of
small private liberal arts colleges impacts the educational success of these institutions. We
study this not only to make residential liberal arts colleges more successful, but also to
determine how we may enhance the residential experience at larger institutions, or
improve the experience of more diverse part-time students that many of us are beginning
to enroll. We will consider ways of restructuring extra- and co-curricular activities, from
athletics to theater, to maximize their positive impact on the different student populations
that we serve and wish to serve. 
These inquiries only scratch the surface, but we hope that each will help bring ele-
ments of the liberal arts community together to once again reassert leadership in higher
education. Liberal arts colleges have a tradition as laboratories and think tanks for innov-
ative practices in undergraduate education. We are uniquely qualified to assume this role.
We are often small places with a deeply embedded understanding of our students. We are
positioned to quickly and flexibly create experiments that create and test the innovative
practices that will benefit all forms of education. 
If we don’t recognize the strengths of our innovations, others do. In 1998, the Boyer
Commission issued a report, “Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for
America’s Research Universities,” which took larger research universities to task for
ignoring undergraduate education. A recent follow-up study1 found that these large insti-
tutions had made significant progress in overcoming many of the criticisms of the initial
report. How did they do so? By involving more students in undergraduate research, by
creating first-year seminars, by increasing writing requirements in courses, and by asking
faculty to place a greater emphasis on teaching undergraduates. In essence, they improved
SPRING/SUMMER 2002
1 Wilson, R. (2002). Boyer commission says colleges have been making improvements. Chronicle of
Higher Education, March 8, 2002.
30
CREATING A COMMON VOICE FOR LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION
the quality and effectiveness of their education by adopting the stock and trade of liberal
arts institutions everywhere. 
Despite the concerns that we raised in the beginning of this article, the Center of
Inquiry was built on the optimistic premise that liberal arts institutions, in all of their
diversity, remain an enormously potent positive force in higher education. In the last chap-
ter of the Origin of Species,2 Charles Darwin reflected on how his theory of evolution by
natural selection made sense of the enormous diversity of plants and animals. He wrote,
“It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many
kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with
worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed
forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner,
have all been produced by laws acting around us…” While we could never be as eloquent
as Darwin, we do believe it is interesting to contemplate the many kinds of institutions
that are deeply committed to providing a liberal arts education. Women’s colleges and
men’s colleges, small private colleges and larger public liberal arts universities, histori-
cally black liberal arts colleges and church-affiliated liberal arts colleges, honors pro-
grams and the Clemente course in the Humanities—all are so different, yet so dependent
on one another in a complex manner, and sharing in a commitment to a uniquely American
form of higher education. May we come together and regain our rightful place in the lead-
ership of higher education. 
* * * * * * *
The authors may be contacted at:
The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts
Wabash College
Crawfordsville, IN 47933
Blaichc@wabash.edu
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL
2 Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-ori-
gin-of-species/chapter-14.html
 


Creating a Common Voice for Liberal Arts Education

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council --Online Archive National Collegiate Honors Council Spring 2002 Creating a Common Voice for Liberal Arts Education Charles F. Blaich Wabash College, Blaichc@wabash.edu Mauri Ditzler Wabash College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcjournal  Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons Blaich, Charles F. and Ditzler, Mauri, "Creating a Common Voice for Liberal Arts Education" (2002). Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council --Online Archive. 85. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcjournal/85 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the National Collegiate Honors Council at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council --Online Archive by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 27Creating a Common Voice forLiberal Arts EducationCHARLES F. BLAICH AND MAURI A. DITZLERCENTER OF INQUIRY IN THE LIBERAL ARTSWABASH COLLEGEAs Sam Schuman so eloquently argues in his lead article, these are challenging timesfor the liberal arts. A society that owes so much to graduates of liberal arts collegeshas come to see them as an education for a simpler time. Why does a liberal arts education now seem out of place? Perhaps it is that, in timesof rapid change, an education that offers the certainty of “textbook solutions” is morecomforting than one that promises creative, thoughtful, and flexible “improvisation” inthe face of a complex world. It may be that a narrowly focused, carefully applied educa-tion seems to provide a solid anchor for our fast-paced lifestyle. Does the quick exchangeof information and experiences favor an education that offers certain, immediate, and vis-ible rewards? Certainly it takes an element of faith to pursue the counterintuitive promis-es of a liberal arts education in a results-oriented society.The irony of this situation is considerable. The character and outcomes of a liberalarts education are more relevant now than ever before. The timeless nature of the liberalarts is the perfect antidote for the diminishing shelf life of information. An education thattranscends specific content and culture is crucial in a time when we must find a way toeducate an increasingly diverse student body. An education that promotes understandingof self and others is invaluable as we strive to create a global village. An education thatgoes beyond disciplinary boundaries remains valuable as we tackle those problems thathave resisted the best efforts of our scientists and philosophers. But in the absence of widespread public support, fewer and fewer colleges are will-ing to stake their viability on the hidden potential of liberal arts. Even longtime advocatesof the liberal arts seem to be losing faith in face of the increasing popularity of profes-sional programs. Colleges that have traditionally focused on the liberal arts are addingprograms whose essential end is a well paying job. In too many cases these institutionshave become bipolar, holding fast to a shrinking liberal arts core that must be “gotten outof the way” so students can move on to the valued professional courses. At the same time, we face uncertainty from within. Faculty members in liberal artscolleges observe the success of their students and are tempted to attribute it to the qual-ity of the disciplinary training being provided. This leads some to respond with an evengreater emphasis on specialization at the expense of a liberal arts focus. Even some ofthose institutions that have rigorously maintained their liberal arts tradition shy awayfrom a discussion of this aspect of their character. It is much easier to attribute remark-able outcomes to excellent facilities, gifted faculty, large endowments, supportiveSPRING/SUMMER 200228CREATING A COMMON VOICE FOR LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATIONalumni, ubiquitous technology, and inspiring architecture than to an educational phi-losophy that defies definition. Nonetheless, the recognition that the liberal arts philosophy is imperiled is suffi-ciently widespread that we must move from considering the problem, to creating solu-tions. What can be done to reestablish the liberal arts as the centerpiece of American high-er education? What can be done to promote the value of the liberal arts to prospective stu-dents and rebuild the confidence of faculty and administrators in this kind of education? The search for solutions to these troubling questions led Wabash College, with gen-erous support from the Lilly Endowment, to create the Center of Inquiry in the LiberalArts. The primary objective of the Center is to establish a strong, common voice for theliberal arts. Except for occasional articles and symposiums, those of us who are dedicat-ed to providing and continually improving liberal arts education are not truly accustomedto thinking of ourselves as belonging to a unified coalition. This stems, in part, from thediversity of institutions that are committed to the liberal arts. There are private liberal artscolleges, public liberal arts colleges, liberal arts colleges with religious affiliations, men’sand women’s liberal arts colleges, historically black liberal arts colleges, and liberal artshonors programs within larger institutions. No doubt we are leaving out a few varieties.While we are all committed to liberal arts education, for many this defining characteristichas become so familiar that it goes unnoticed and is rarely nourished. Instead, we focuson our unique roles within the liberal arts community. By focusing more strongly on an educational niche and less on our shared commit-ment to the liberal arts, we have created an institutional mindset that makes it difficult forour many and varied programs to work effectively together. As a result, we have neglect-ed the rhetoric and evidence that promotes the liberal arts, and we have failed to create astrong national voice that can promote our common enterprise. As we have worked to launch the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, we have vis-ited with representatives of a wide range of liberal arts colleges. We have been struck bythe fact that faculty and administrators from one kind of liberal arts institution do not read-ily see themselves as sharing in a common endeavor with faculty and administrators atother kinds of liberal arts institutions. For example, faculty and administrators from small,private liberal arts colleges are unlikely to see their colleagues who staff and direct hon-ors programs at comprehensive state universities as sharing in the same good work andcommitment to the task of teaching the liberal arts. Faculty at independent liberal arts col-leges don’t see themselves as sharing common concerns with faculty at faith-based liber-al arts colleges. The result is that, rather than seeing ourselves as allies, faculty and administrators atliberal arts institutions often see themselves as competing with different kinds of liberalarts institutions. The competition is not only about different visions of the liberal arts, butfor the shrinking population of prospective students who are attracted to liberal arts edu-cation. We, therefore, find ourselves in a precarious position. As our challenges continueto grow, we find ourselves, more and more, pitted against one another to grab our pieceof the shrinking pie. Despite this state of affairs, we believe that the liberal arts are in a far better positionthan we realize. While institutional diversity is a barrier to common work, it could becomeour greatest strength as we work together to again make liberal arts the centerpiece of ourJOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL29CHARLES F. BLAICH AND MAURI A. DITZLEReducational system. There are associations that are bringing liberal arts colleges togetherfor common work. The liberal arts institutions of the Great Lakes Colleges Association,the Annapolis Group, the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, and the Council ofIndependent Colleges, to name just a few, manage to work together despite the fact thatinstitutions within these consortia may compete against one another for students. We believe that the Center of Inquiry can form an even broader coalition that cele-brates and promotes the many ways that the liberal arts are practiced in this country. Webelieve this is possible because, regardless of the particular liberal arts institution we aredevoted to, we are all committed to providing an education that transforms our students’lives and improves the world in which we live. This shared labor of love should bind ustogether.This is not to say that we should form an unwieldy coalition that diminishes theunique character of our institutions. Rather, we believe that liberal arts colleges shouldcome together to work on common problems that will enhance the success of all of ourinstitutions. At the Center of Inquiry we hope to catalyze the good work of many by bring-ing together individuals from disparate institutions and consortia. We are organizing ourwork, or “inquiries,” around shared problems and concerns. We are bringing admissionsstaffs from different liberal arts colleges together to explore ways to expand the numberof students who are interested in pursuing a liberal arts education. We have begun toinvestigate more deeply how the residential environment that is often characteristic ofsmall private liberal arts colleges impacts the educational success of these institutions. Westudy this not only to make residential liberal arts colleges more successful, but also todetermine how we may enhance the residential experience at larger institutions, orimprove the experience of more diverse part-time students that many of us are beginningto enroll. We will consider ways of restructuring extra- and co-curricular activities, fromathletics to theater, to maximize their positive impact on the different student populationsthat we serve and wish to serve. These inquiries only scratch the surface, but we hope that each will help bring ele-ments of the liberal arts community together to once again reassert leadership in highereducation. Liberal arts colleges have a tradition as laboratories and think tanks for innov-ative practices in undergraduate education. We are uniquely qualified to assume this role.We are often small places with a deeply embedded understanding of our students. We arepositioned to quickly and flexibly create experiments that create and test the innovativepractices that will benefit all forms of education. If we don’t recognize the strengths of our innovations, others do. In 1998, the BoyerCommission issued a report, “Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint forAmerica’s Research Universities,” which took larger research universities to task forignoring undergraduate education. A recent follow-up study1 found that these large insti-tutions had made significant progress in overcoming many of the criticisms of the initialreport. How did they do so? By involving more students in undergraduate research, bycreating first-year seminars, by increasing writing requirements in courses, and by askingfaculty to place a greater emphasis on teaching undergraduates. In essence, they improvedSPRING/SUMMER 20021 Wilson, R. (2002). Boyer commission says colleges have been making improvements. Chronicle ofHigher Education, March 8, 2002.30CREATING A COMMON VOICE FOR LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATIONthe quality and effectiveness of their education by adopting the stock and trade of liberalarts institutions everywhere. Despite the concerns that we raised in the beginning of this article, the Center ofInquiry was built on the optimistic premise that liberal arts institutions, in all of theirdiversity, remain an enormously potent positive force in higher education. In the last chap-ter of the Origin of Species,2 Charles Darwin reflected on how his theory of evolution bynatural selection made sense of the enormous diversity of plants and animals. He wrote,“It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of manykinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and withworms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructedforms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner,have all been produced by laws acting around us…” While we could never be as eloquentas Darwin, we do believe it is interesting to contemplate the many kinds of institutionsthat are deeply committed to providing a liberal arts education. Women’s colleges andmen’s colleges, small private colleges and larger public liberal arts universities, histori-cally black liberal arts colleges and church-affiliated liberal arts colleges, honors pro-grams and the Clemente course in the Humanities—all are so different, yet so dependenton one another in a complex manner, and sharing in a commitment to a uniquely Americanform of higher education. May we come together and regain our rightful place in the lead-ership of higher education. * * * * * * *The authors may be contacted at:The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal ArtsWabash CollegeCrawfordsville, IN 47933Blaichc@wabash.eduJOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL2 Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation ofFavoured Races in the Struggle for Life. http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-ori-gin-of-species/chapter-14.html 

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