Career Readiness: Professional Training and the Liberal Arts

Tuesday, September 28, 2021
2:40-4:05 p.m.
246 East Library Wing, Axinn Library

When it comes to the relationship between professional training and the liberal arts we find ourselves in a paradoxical moment. On the one hand, industry leaders speak openly and regularly about how essential it is that new hires have the core skills promoted by training in the liberal arts. On the other hand, students and their families, often spooked by recent economic disruptions, clamor for a narrower view of career readiness, one that is rooted in professional training rather than the liberal arts. This session takes the opportunity of a presidential inauguration to initiate a conversation at Hofstra about its core identity as a liberal arts institution with robust professional programs. Our aim is to find a way past the stale liberal arts vs. professional training debate and instead promote serious reflection on how institutions with these dual identities ought to be preparing students for both near and long-term success in life.

Session organizers: Warren Frisina, Dean, The Stuart and Nancy Rabinowitz Honors College; Daniel E. Seabold, Acting Dean, Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Speakers:
Colin Koproske, Managing Director, Research and Development, EAB
Lynn Pasquerella, President, The Association of American Colleges and Universities

Moderators: Warren Frisina, Dean, The Stuart and Nancy Rabinowitz Honors College and Associate Professor of Religion

Daniel E. Seabold, Acting Dean, Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Mathematics