When I left Illinois State University for a post at Bentley University three years ago, it raised a few eyebrows among the liberal-arts colleagues I was leaving behind and at the business university where I would become their dean of arts and sciences.
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Bentley University’s preparedness research documents a desire by employers for millennial graduates who can make an immediate impact with their professional and technical qualifications while also demonstrating creativity, problem solving, and interpersonal skills, all of which are required in senior level leaders.
Easier said than done, some believe.
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All handwringing over the plight of the millennials notwithstanding, this is a great time to be graduating from college. The Great Recession is receding. Major stock market indices are achieving all-time highs. And the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that unemployment among college graduates is down to 4 percent, close to the level considered to be full employment, even as unemployment for those with a high school education and no college remains >8 percent.
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What’s the benefit of a specialized university?
For a young person drawn toward a particular field of study, such as engineering, or music, or business, a specialized university offers more advantages than you might think.
Once dismissed as vocational, top professional schools nowadays operate on the premise that the best career preparation includes a deep embrace of the liberal arts.
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Bentley authors share their experience developing curricula that combine the study of business, social and natural sciences, humanities and the arts. The result is part road map, part call to action.
A slender volume of collected wisdom aims to shake up business education in a big way. Edited by Dan Everett and Gordon Hardy, the new book is a primer on the business-meets-liberal-arts model of study that Bentley has pioneered.
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The prime time lineup of social and professional development programs has expanded with the fall launch of the Bentley Alumni Series in the Humanities.
The series tunes in to alumni on a new level, bringing grads together with faculty and students to discuss topics of broad humanistic interest. It’s an intellectual focus that many are looking for, says Katie (Penn) Lampley ’96.
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In May 2009, Kwadwo “Kojo” Asare made history as the first recipient of a doctoral degree from Bentley University. In addition to the PhD in Accountancy, he holds an MS in Computer Information Systems (earned in 1994, also from Bentley), an MBA from Cornell University, and a BS in Accounting from St. Francis College. The native of Ghana, West Africa, is also a CPA with years of business experience. This fall he took up duties as an assistant professor of accountancy at Bryant University.
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Talented Trifecta of Expertise
Bentley graduates have long been valued leaders in the financial sector. Their stock has hit a high in recent times, with alumni at the helm of three prominent organizations that serve finance professionals.
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A wealth of creative ideas landed in Duncan Spelman’s e-mail inbox last year when the Bentley Diversity Council launched a program of “mini-grants.” From games to tours, discussions to dance, the proposals aimed to cultivate awareness and respect among all members of the campus community.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the number and quality of applications,” says Spelman, the university’s director of diversity. The 17 proposals came from students, faculty and staff. “The response speaks to people’s readiness to address diversity issues through a wide variety of approaches.”
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Words matter to Dan Everett. The university’s new dean of arts and sciences spent years in the Amazon River jungle, studying language and its broader cultural meaning. He has been quick to master the Bentley lexicon.
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