Bowling Green State University - Key Yearbook (Bowling Green, OH)

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The era of narrow specialization is waning and college students are again commencing to appreciate the value of a liberal education. Several reasons account for this change. A recent study of engineering graduates shows that sixty per cent are doing admini- strative worlc by the time they are forty, and that they complain that their technical training does not fit them to meet the larger problems of executive worlc. Leaders in other professions are also urging the necessity of a broader study of the psychological, social, scientific and economic factors underlying the technical worlc, so that the individual may be equipped to grow in his profession and to meet the changing problems which it presents. Another reason for the increasing interest in liberal education is the growing complexity of our society. For years we have been improving the physical con- ditions under which we live, and our success in this has resulted in a world with new and rapidly changing problems. Since these problems are economic, social, psychological and scientific, the wise student seelcs an understanding of the fundamental principles in each of these fields, and the ability to apply them to new and unforeseen conditions. Finally the modern student desires a liberal educa- tion because he wants a richer life. Since he will probably have considerable leisure in the world in which he will live, he is talting courses in literature, music, art, drama and other subjects which will help him to get more happiness out of living, and prevent his becoming a bore to himself and others. DR. j. R. OVERMAN Dean of the College of Liberal Arts 15 THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION

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Read not to contradict and conlute, nor believe and take for granted,-but to weigh and consider , deeply graven across the front ol our Library, expresses the fundamental meaning of the College ol Liberal Arts. Written by the Renais- sance philosopher, Francis Bacon, this quotation embodies the spirit ol the re-awaltened intellectual freedom which liberated men From the blind surrender to superstitions and destructive customs to which they had been subjected. The function ot a liberal education, as restated through the centuries has been to develop within the individual the ability to weigh and consider that which surrounds him, that he may establish a point ol view about which to correlate the many phenomena of his life. ln this sense, he acquires a measure ol personal power and mastery as he becomes oriented with respect to the forces and relationships composing his environment, and as his conduct grows more meaningful, he becomes in a truer sense an intelligently moral and social being. 14

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Qur fullest measure ol sell-control is secured only by so conditioning the forces and relationships ot our environ- ment that vve may achieve o greater and more harmonious degree ol fruit- ful living. To condition these forces and relationships, we must learn to lmovv them, vve must analyze them so that We may understand the funda- mental causes and the nature of their development. The physical sciences have, in the pursuance of this philoso- phy, developed a most efficient tech- niaue of controlled experimentation in order to determine, little by little, the vast and vveb-lilce' system of en- vironmental elements and their com- plex relationships. Moreover, the physical sciences are constructive in that they orfer to manlcind the fruits ol their control. It would not be amiss to say that the scientific method of controlled and repeated experi- mentation is the method of the true student who desires a liberal educa- tion. The physical science department, under the direction of Professors Martin and Singer, offers strong and proiitable courses to its students, helping them to develop a clear and fundamental point of view and to acquire an eifective method of attacking their problems ot analytical experimentation. FACULTY Sophomore Chemistry Loratory. W. E. Singer D. C. S. Martin L. Veler Dr. F. C. Ogg H. Mathias Dr. J. R. Ove-rman i 1 6