'Liberal arts' should not mean 'liberal-leaning'

MATT HELMUS

Sports Editor

Liberal arts are defined as studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills. An education in liberal arts is intended to provide students with information from all areas and perspectives. Your beloved Alma College strives its best to deliver this education to you. Or does it?

Looking back on speakers the college has brought to campus over the last few years one can easily see that the college does not bring in experts from all perspectives. The overwhelming majority of speakers come from a liberal (meaning politically left-leaning, not as in liberal arts) background.

Speakers that have been recently hosted by the college include Patricia Ireland, the President of the National Organization for Women, Rev. Dr. Cynthia McCall Campbell, a feminist theologian, poet and activist Sonia Sanchez and politician Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky. These people are all left-of-center to say the least. Other speakers include author Jewell Parker Rhodes, poet W.S. Merwin, environmental activist Glen “Dune” Lankard, and Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow. It is difficult to find a conservative anywhere among the list of speakers (except for the controversial Andrew Sullivan.)

Certain speakers take their point of view a little too far when bringing their message to the students. Dr. Sandra Steingraber, an expert on the environment, used her speech on health and ecology to launch a vicious attack on President Bush. Dr. Steingraber may be an expert on the environment but is not at all qualified to speak on politics. Nor was she asked to. If the college wanted a political speaker, they could have invited a much more qualified individual. Another speaker, poet Lucille Clifton, made many students uncomfortable when she implied that they should be ashamed about their heritage and the fact that they are white.

While these speakers may have a worthwhile message for campus, they only represent one side of their respective issues. The college has an obligation to present all points of view to students. The intent of a liberal arts education is not to brainwash students with one point of view, but to introduce them to all views and allow the students to decide.

The college seems to be off-based in many of their efforts in doing this. Their recent soup kitchen idea blew up in their face when many students became angry and skipped the lunch (not to mention the fact that it equated African-Americans with hunger and poverty, a very wrong and racist idea.) The administration seems to be obsessed with certain issues such as the environment and diversity. While these are very important topics there are many other areas that also need to be focused on.

The college needs to realize that a liberal arts education entails many things besides the environment and diversity. Ideas of equality, freedom and heritage need to be dealt with by students as well. Tartan Day (April 6) and Dutch-American Heritage Day (November 16) are just as important as Martin Luther King Jr. day. Each day represents unique sectors of society that have valuable contributions to humanity.

I am hoping that next year we can see speakers from the Heritage Foundation, the Republican Party and maybe even the Michigan Militia as well as speakers from the NAACP, the Democratic Party and the National Organization for Women. As students we should be bombarded with ideas from all perspectives instead of pushed into a narrow mindset. This will cause us to become truly free thinkers in the liberal arts tradition.

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