Solving the big world problems in today’s society calls for an interdisciplinary and global approach. Success at any level in the modern workplace requires a broad set of skills that go beyond the specific technical disciplines of one’s chosen fields. Sadly, our education system is trending toward increased specialization. The wisdom of Mississippi State University’s administrators, who largely value the liberal arts model of a university, is encouraging. Still, the curriculum should change to reflect higher expectations for students in technical disciplines.
Specifically, MSU’s engineering majors are required to complete a very basic core curriculum of 15 hours of humanities, social sciences and fine arts in addition to 15 hours of math and 12 hours of physical sciences. This may initially seem like plenty, but consider the fact engineers are responsible for both designing the infrastructure that allows modern society to perpetuate and for the creation of technological innovations that produce a richness of understanding and achievement.
The societal responsibility of an engineer should demand both a broader and deeper understanding of the liberal arts at the undergraduate level and a degree of technical knowledge that is only truly possible at the graduate level. In the future, professional engineer (PE) licensure will likely require a master’s degree. Perhaps we will then begin to see a pre-engineering undergraduate degree that is truly founded on the principles of liberal arts and a Master of Science degree that produces an accredited professional engineer.
The myth claims the state of technological development is so advanced that no one person can fully understand it all, nor can one produce innovation with the same scope and significance Michelangelo or Leonardo DaVinci achieved in their time. Dennis Truax, professional engineer and head of the civil and environmental engineering department of Bagley College said it is not so much the type of problems we have as much as it is the body of knowledge.
“Thirty years ago, we were limited by our science, and as such it was conceivable that one person basically came up with a solution that worked. Was it the best solution? It was at the time, but it is probably not the right solution today,” Truax said.
Truax and other administrators wisely suggest a team approach is the correct response. This is true, but such a team still requires a leader who is able to understand with technical acuity all the separate disciplines that make up such a team. In addition, he or she should lead with the knowledge of humanities and social sciences that is necessary to understand the context of the project within society and communicate the directives of the group to a diverse public. This is the place for the modern Renaissance man or woman.
According to Christopher Snyder, Dean of Shackouls Honors College and professor of history, the liberal arts grew out of a humanistic tradition in ancient Greece, but the Romans first created the term “liberal arts” denoting those arts appropriate to the liberi, or free people. Slaves were trained in a specific skill. Snyder points out, in a modern world, people are in a sense still slaves to certain things.
“One should have the freedom to have conversation about meaningful things. How do you get that? Well, you have a job, but you keep in mind that your job is there in order to provide for your family and to provide the freedoms to talk about theology, music or whatever interests you,” Snyder said.
If a free person should spend his or her time in pursuit of truth with friends, then the university, being a body of scholars pursuing knowledge in separate disciplines, allows him or her to do so. The engineering student who fits his or her technical curriculum within the broader context of the university, instead of holding engineering as something separate and perhaps superior, becomes a Renaissance man or woman — even if without the historical admiration of a Michelangelo.
