Thursday, October 22, 2015

Nota Bene: Foundation Discussion of the Future of Support for the Liberal Arts

October 22, 2015

Last week I attended a conversation between Foundation Officers and College and University Presidents in the financial district of New York City. The meeting was facilitated by Washington, DC-based Council of Independent Colleges. CIC is the major national service organization for 600 independent liberal arts colleges and universities in the U.S.

Twenty foundation officers joined approximately 90 presidents and State Fund executives to discuss “The Present and Future of Foundation Support for Liberal Arts.” The Foundation Officers also provided a deeper understanding of how foundations’ priorities are chosen and how their foundations decide on strategies for fulfilling the priorities.

An impressive list of experienced foundation leaders led productive discussions to address various aspects of the theme. Mariet Westermann, Vice President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, specifically addressed the present and the future. Robert Hackett, President of the Bonner Foundation, and Jennifer Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director of the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, spoke to foundation support for student engagement and civic responsibility. Michael McPherson, a former college president and currently President of the Spencer Foundation, discussed research support for independent higher education. Robert A. Maginn, Jr., President of the Jenzabar Foundation, and Timothy J. McClimon, President of the American Express Foundation, focused on corporate foundations.


I found this to be a most encouraging discussion. Some higher education experts suggest a national trend of declining interest in expensive liberal arts education in place of more vocational degrees. As I suggested in a recent column in The Huffington Post, I believe that the traditional liberal arts genre of education should survive, that it deserves the best kind of critical and creative thinking that can save it and that having a discussion on its future possibilities should go forward. The residential, personalized, professor-intensive model has unlimited value, as well as diverse implications for our society and the demands that confront our next generation of leaders.