Wednesday, January 28, 2015

CASL Student Blog

Among my greatest joys as dean are the conversations that I have with CASL students. I am constantly inspired by their intelligence, their work ethic, their thoughtfulness, and the gratitude that they exhibit for the opportunities that the college and university provide to them. It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce the launch of a new CASL student blog page:


http://caslcommunity.blogspot.com/


I invite you to subscribe to the page and to learn more about our incredible student body. Enjoy!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

New Opportunity for CASL Students

Recently, one of my fellow deans shared an article with me from the January 5, 2015 edition of Bloomberg Businessweek. The article’s opening paragraph brightened my day:

“If you're marching into the new year ready to ace job interviews by boasting about the half-dozen startups you launched in school, reconsider your game plan. For all the career advice about the importance of entrepreneurial thinking and being a global citizen, data show that recruiters don't necessarily value cosmopolitan self-starters or even people with lots of industry credentials. What they do want: employees who can write clean e-mails, work in a team, and think analytically.”

Of course, as a denizen of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters this is something that I have long held to be true. But reading this in a leading business periodical and knowing that this was what the nation’s business leaders were also thinking is refreshing. Indeed, this line of thought runs counter to much of what we are told that business leaders value. Within the last year, for instance, North Carolina Governor Patrick McCrory, proposed the elimination of state funding for university programs that do not help graduates find jobs. His targets, of course, were the humanities and liberal arts. Following his model would relegate disciplines such as history, philosophy, anthropology, art history, literature, etc. to general education. Worse yet, such a plan, if adopted, would ensure that only the nation’s privileged class would experience the rewards associated with studying the disciplines that are at the heart of what it means to be human and that only they would possess the skills (writing, critical thinking, etc.) that the nation’s business leaders believe are needed by the workforce of tomorrow.

As part of our strategic planning conversations and in response to this ongoing national debate, CASL has been busy exploring ways to position our students to step right into the world of work prepared to succeed. Beyond our ongoing emphasis on writing and critical/analytical thinking, the college is also partnering with our College of Business to provide CASL students with opportunities to build their finance, marketing, and management skills.

It is a great point of pride for me to be able to announce a new degree program open to CASL students beginning in the fall term of 2015. Starting in September, CASL students will have the opportunity to declare a second major in Business Studies. The major, which can only be taken as a second major in partnership with a CASL degree, can be completed without adding additional credit requirements and offers students a choice of four separate tracks: General Business; Economics; Communications; and Psychology. This powerful combination of liberal arts and practical business skills, I believe, will provide our students with alternate career paths and widen their employment opportunities after graduation. I look forward to the degree launch in September.