I am very happy to be here with you to celebrate your academic
accomplishments. I hope you are pleased with yourself; we are all very
proud of you. I would like to talk to you about the value of a liberal arts
education, a tradition which has prepared you not just for a job, but for a
lifetime of learning which can enrich you as individuals and society as
well.

The term “liberal arts” is translated from the Latin “artes
libertes” which means work befitting a free people. As the recipients of
a liberal arts education, you are the heirs to a rich intellectual tradition
which began in European universities first established at Bologna, Paris and
Oxford during the 12th and 13th centuries. These universities awarded
degrees in law, medicine, theology and the liberal arts which included
religion and philosophy, history, language and literature, and the arts.
Thus, you and Michigan State University are the descendants of a well
established intellectual tradition.

A liberal arts education differs from other important kinds of learning.
Unlike vocational or technical learning, or professional learning, a liberal
arts education is concerned about the whole person. In addition, it teaches
us how to think, how to learn and how to live meaningful lives. It does so
because it fosters critical thinking, encourages an examination of life,
values the free exchange of ideas, stimulates cross-cultural awareness, and
teaches the necessary communication skills to achieve these awesome goals.
A liberal arts education can lead to creative problem solving and the
development of new knowledge, to an understanding of the wholeness of
things, to an emphasis on the well being of the individual, and to the
enrichment of the common good.

I received a marvelous liberal arts education by teaching an
interdisciplinary course in Western European History. The course covered
the Ancient World, included the Medieval and the Renaissance up to the
Seventeenth Century and then the Modern World. “PLATO to NATO”, someone
called it. I particularly liked seeing the wholeness of things through the
integration of disciplines. By studying the artistic and cultural
achievements of a period within its historical context, I could better
understand why a particular style was appropriate for one period but not
another; why monks singing Gregorian chants in 13th century Gothic
Cathedrals could only be the product of an age of intense Christian faith
and the expression of a communal rather than an individual approach to life.

Studying the philosophy of John Locke in 17th century England and the
writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire in 18th century France helped
me to realize how great the American debt is to the European Enlightenment.
Some of Picasso’s painting were inspired by African art and are
characterized by fragmentation. I see in them, the discord and divisiveness
of life in the turbulent 20th century. This interdisciplinary liberal arts
approach is one that I continue to use in all of my courses.

A liberal arts education is not removed from the practicalities of daily
life but allows for a wide range of career possibilities. It has prepared
you for your next job because you know how to do research, to communicate,
to analyze and to solve problems. These are “marketable tools”
adaptable to a variety of occupations. Your liberal arts education has also
given you an excellent foundation for additional learning in graduate or
professional school.

You can enrich your education by living it; not just in a narrow
professional way but in a broader sense, by allowing it to provide for your
leisure. Go to art galleries, attend performances of Shakespeare’s plays
and performances of all kinds of plays. Listen to Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony and the latest jazz craze. Memorize a poem or compose one to your
beloved. Study a non-Western religious tradition, attend its service, and
thus experience other spiritual worlds. Read the latest best seller as you
wait and wait and wait for your flight; read Plato’s Republic while you
work out at the gym as I saw the new Dean of the Residential College in Arts
and Humanities doing. Thus, you too can enrich your education by living it;
by allowing it to make meaningful your leisure.

So too, can your education promote the common good. Participate in the
political process and make informed decisions about candidates. Serve on a
jury or run for office yourself. Later in life, establish an endowment in
honor of someone to whom you owe something or who inspired you. In ways
such as these, you will be living your education, enhancing your own well
being and promoting the common good.

Congratulations to you, give yourself a pat on the back and good luck.