National Symposium on the Liberal Arts and Business

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2003 National Symposium on the Liberal Arts and Business

With support from the James S. Kemper Foundation, CIC held a symposium on the relationship of the liberal arts to business in November 2003 on the campus of Elmhurst College (IL). The purpose of the symposium was to address the connections between liberal arts education and professional leadership, particularly in business. The event was unusual in that it brought together equal numbers of college and university presidents and corporate leaders for an intensive, day-long meeting to explore how the leadership in both the corporate community and at independent institutions of higher education can learn from each other and benefit from a better understanding of the relevance of the liberal arts to careers in business.

More than 20 leaders of business and liberal arts institutions participated in the day-long symposium (for a list of participants, click here). During the symposium, participants spent time focusing on the barriers to appreciation of the liberal arts, and discussed specific steps that business and educational leaders could take to work together more effectively to prepare tomorrow’s leaders, especially in business, and recommended ways to advocate more effectively for the value of liberal arts education. Participants emphasized that more current data on the benefits of the liberal arts are essential, including research studies on the attributes claimed for a liberal arts education. They also identified specific initiatives that educational and business leaders could undertake both to strengthen liberal arts education and to advocate more effectively for its value.

Symposium Report: CIC published the Report of a Symposium on the Liberal Arts and Business, which includes a summary of the 2003 symposium as well as a collection of individual statements, either submitted prior to the meeting to prompt discussion or inspired by the conversation. A printed copy of the report may be ordered from CIC (free of charge) or an electronic copy (PDF format) may be viewed here. (In order to view properly, the minimum software requirement is version 4.0. Adobe Acrobat, available for free from the Adobe Web site.)

Original symposium announcement letter sent by CIC President Richard Ekman in November 2002.