FALL CONVOCATION

    JISCHKE: REVITALIZE LIBERAL EDUCATION FOR UNDERGRADS


by Linda Charles

President Martin Jischke recently called upon faculty to 
revitalize the liberal education that lower division students 
receive at Iowa State.

For too many students, liberal education classes "tend to be 
just a series of largely unrelated hoops to jump through on 
their way to a degree and a job," he said. "Yet, for many, it 
is their one glimpse of the world of the arts and sciences."

Jischke's comments came during the fall convocation Aug. 29. 
In remarks to faculty and staff, the president also 
reaffirmed the university's commitment to affirmative action 
and stressed the importance of continued faculty development.


LIBERAL EDUCATION

Jischke said it is essential that the university provide 
students with a strong liberal education so that they are 
prepared to deal with issues in today's society involving 
race, gender, government effectiveness, wise and humane use 
of knowledge, and the balance between individual liberties 
and community needs. 

The work world also is becoming more complex, global and 
diverse, he noted.

A liberal education is the vehicle to change and progress, he 
said. For some, it is a chance to see the various approaches 
to understanding themselves and the world. For others, it is 
their only serious encounter with the breadth of the 
humanities and the ambiguity of language. For still others, 
it provides an insight into the precision and power of the 
scientific method. 

While lauding the curricular development that has taken place 
in Iowa State's upper division and graduate levels, Jischke 
said "relatively less effort has been devoted to the 
vitality, coherence and completeness of the lower division 
experience.

"I think that it is important, for both liberating and 
practical reasons, that this aspect of the education of all 
our students be done very well, better than we do it now," he 
said.


AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

The uncertainty over the future of affirmative actions 
programs nationally will not change Iowa State's commitment 
to inclusiveness and nondiscrimination, Jischke said.

"Affirmative action has been an important tool in making 
higher education around the world, the state of Iowa and Iowa 
State University, in particular, accessible to all members of 
our society," he said, "and while the tools we use to achieve 
our goal may change, the challenges of inclusiveness and 
nondiscrimination are still with us at Iowa State."

Jischke said the university will continue to review legal 
developments in affirmative action programs to determine how 
they affect Iowa State.

"I can tell you first that Iowa State has no race-based 
quotas or set-aside in hiring, in purchasing or in 
admissions," he said. "Some of our scholarships though do 
have race-based criteria and you know from what you've read 
and heard that this is an area of current debate."

As a public, tax-supported university, Iowa State should be 
aggressive in ensuring that all who would benefit from its 
educational programs are given the opportunity to do so. It 
also is essential to the quality of students' education that 
they be exposed to the "full richness of the world" so they 
are prepared for an increasingly diverse society, he added.

Iowa State has not achieved its goals in such areas as the 
recruitment and retention of students and staff from under-
represented groups, he said. "I believe we must continue to 
work hard to meet these challenges and fulfill our mission as 
a land-grant university."


FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

Jischke stressed the importance of continued faculty 
development, as the university enters a time of limited 
enrollment and finances and demands for greater efficiency.

He said current programs -- faculty improvement leaves, study 
in a second discipline and the Center for Teaching Excellence 
-- are not enough anymore. A number of initiatives this year 
will be aimed at sustaining faculty vitality. They include 
strengthening existing faculty development activities; 
creating a new departmental lecture fund; and recreating an 
artist/writer-in-residence position, similar to one that 
brought artist Christian Petersen to campus in the late 
1930s.

The new initiatives will be privately funded, he added.

All of these efforts -- liberal education, affirmative action 
and faculty development -- are designed to improve the 
educational quality of Iowa State and realize its aspiration 
to be the best land-grant university in the nation, he said.

"I think education is the key to changing minds," Jischke 
said, "so that old ideas can be revised, old habits can be 
broken and progress can occur."


ON THE WEB

The full text of the speech is available on the World Wide 
Web at http://www.iastate.edu/general/speeches/speeches.html.

_____
contact:  Linda Charles, Internal Communications, (515) 294-
3129
updated:  9-1-95