IU lacks focus on arts, humanities

There once was a time within living memory when IU could honestly state that the arts and humanities were essential to its character. But, evidently, not so anymore.\nHence, it's big news of a sort that Myles Brand, IU's president, has had to admit that at IU-Bloomington the study of literature, languages, history, philosophy, religion and the various arts no longer holds pride of place. Moreover, the ideal of liberal education no longer shapes the ethos in which most students "live and move and have their being."\nIn effect, the nature of the University has changed markedly over the last 20 years or so, becoming more vocational and career-driven, more narrowly focused and specialized, if more democratized and inclusive. But in many ways IU, as a whole, seems much less concerned with the vitality of the life of the mind and the achievement of liberal learning in which teachers and students can mutually engage.\nThis is a state of affairs that many non-academic civilians like myself have suspected and dreaded. To those of us biased toward liberal education as the means of developing independent thinking and humane judgment, such a reordering of purposes, suggests troubling consequences.\nIs IU "educating" generations of students who lack a well-formed sense of history, knowledge of the world's complex societies or understanding of the standards by which excellence can be distinguished from mediocrity and sham?\nIU has been strongly affected by a loss of interest in the arts and humanities. For all too many students, the more pressing business of becoming economically successful, materially acquisitive and entertained seems to drive out the gradual cultivation of intellectual curiosity, aesthetic sensibility and moral imagination. Also, Brand has bravely admitted that moral disciplines in the humanities have themselves to blame by trafficking in such wayward theories and ideologies as post-structuralism, deconstruction, identity politics, neo-Marxism and other fashionable contrivances.\nNonetheless, in an era that values having a multitude of choices, the better to consume more avidly, it's strange that so many young people would deliberately choose to impose limits on the growth of their own minds and thus stunt their humanity. \nPerhaps Brand as philosopher and educator can help to change that. \nSurely, he merits praise for his honesty and determination to restore liberal education to its rightful, traditional position at IU. To that end, Brand deserves serious and sustained support from the IU trustees, faculty, and thoughtful students and alumni. After all, it's merely a matter of whether we as Hoosiers still aspire to be civilized. Or not.