In a recent speech, University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby said, “If you can’t get a job, and you majored in drama, there’s probably a reason.”
There probably is, but his statement echoes a common but questionable belief that the primary purpose of a college education is to turn out perfectly grooved cogs for economic machines, a workforce rather than a multi-talented, educated and even an artistic citizenry.
We deal with this attitude every day toward more programs than drama, but we are surprised to find it endorsed by the most prominent figure in Georgia higher education.
All professions change, so all degrees have a limited shelf life. Minds don’t.
Many arts and humanities graduates do find work in the fields for which they prepare, but even when they don’t, the best of them tend to be hard-working and versatile. There’s a reason the lights are still on in art studios at 3 a.m., and it isn’t because some thoughtless person forgot to switch them off at 5 p.m.
One of our daughters took her performing arts degree first to Chicago then to New York. In both cities, she waited tables more than she auditioned, but when she returned to Chicago and took a job in a day care center, she found she had an aptitude for working with autistic children. She has now been admitted to the prestigious graduate program in speech pathology at the University of Washington.
Life experience awakened her desire to do this work, but she traces her ability to do it back to her training in voice and theater.
Some studies suggest that up to 40 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs were liberal arts majors. Google executive Marisa Mayer was quoted saying her company expected to hire 6,000 new employees in 2012, and 4,000 to 5,000 will have liberal arts degrees.
Assuming similar backgrounds and qualifications are attractive to Georgia employers, it seems just as reasonable to ask whether they are casting their nets wide enough in their searches for employees, as to fault a student for selecting a major for which she has great passion rather than tracking herself narrowly for a first job.
Some studies suggest that even though graduates with professional degrees start at higher salaries, humanities majors tend to close the gap by mid-career. A recent study of a cohort of business majors from 24 colleges and universities found that one year after graduation, 9 percent were unemployed, 28 percent were employed only part-time, and 45 percent were living with their parents or other relatives.
There might be a reason.
Whatever the skills, knowledge and dispositions each discipline in the arts and humanities seeks to develop in its majors, a common goal is a graduate who is capable of complex reasoning, powerful communication in a variety of media, and cultural awareness — whether we’re speaking of international experience or workplace savvy, the capacity for empathy.
Good students in any discipline, as well as smart people who bypass college altogether, are likely to develop such qualities, but they are the very aim of the arts and humanities. Some employers understand this very well. Ryan Roenigk, president of Roenigk Digital Craft, regularly recruits arts graduates as full-time employees and provides internship opportunities for arts students in his technology-based information business.
Speaking to arts and humanities faculty at the University of West Georgia last year, Roenigk said, “Keep doing what you’re doing. I can teach them the technology. I can’t teach them to think like a poet.”
A dull and limited vision of arts and humanities programs as superfluous, decorative or, at best, service programs for professional education does not serve Georgia well economically or culturally. Georgia employers seeking creative folk who approach tasks with uncommon sense, rather than employees trained in technologies that might well be outdated in a few years, might well follow Mr. Roenigk’s example.
Randy Hendricks is dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, and Tommy Cox is the director of the School of the Arts, at the University of West Georgia.
