Wednesday, April 11, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

What is the case to be made for the small college in the global environment? What does and doesn’t work educationally about the small private college in the current context? Is the residential component of a liberal arts education no longer necessary or no longer affordable? Residential liberal arts colleges have long been the “ideal” or “leadership institutions” for undergraduate education in America. Have such trends of democratization of education, technology, and trend to vocationalism weakened this role of liberal arts colleges? Are there new roles for our colleges to play in the global educational marketplace?

Ronald A. Crutcher
President, Wheaton College

Ronald A. Crutcher became the seventh president of Wheaton College on July 1, 2004. Since coming to Wheaton, he led a strategic planning process that engaged the entire college community in charting a course for continued leadership in the liberal arts. He came to Wheaton from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of music. [more]

John M. McCardell Jr.
Vice-Chancellor and President, Sewanee: The University of the South

John M. McCardell Jr. was elected to be Sewanee’s 16th vice-chancellor in January 2010. A distinguished historian and respected national leader in liberal arts education, he joined the history faculty at Middlebury College in 1976 and served as Middlebury’s president from 1992 to 2004. [more]