Message from the Dean

Want an education with enduring value? The liberal arts provide the framework for crucial skills needed to adapt to the ever-changing environment of the 21st century.

A liberal arts education at Wright State will teach you how to find, analyze, manage and evaluate pertinent data, recognize good sources, eliminate bad arguments, develop a code of ethics and understand that everyone is not like you. You will learn how to communicate well in written, oral, visual, and electronic formats, articulate and support your point of view, solve problems, learn from the past, and understand context. You will apply creativity, cultivate curiosity and exercise discipline. You will be ready for the workforce as a creative thinker. You will learn how to reinvent yourself and acquire new knowledge.

Why liberal arts?  Because these are exactly the skills employers are looking for in tomorrow’s economy.

The liberal arts at Wright State include the humanities, the social sciences, the fine and performing arts, and a group of interdisciplinary programs.

• The arts teach us about ourselves through aesthetic expression.  They demand technical proficiency and innovative thinking to achieve the most genuine articulation of human passion, experience and emotion.  An appreciation of the fine and performing arts transcends all disciplines and is fundamental to human nature.

• The humanities study culture as it is recorded by humans. They raise questions to help us understand our roots, our present situation, and our future options. The humanities encourage the development of problem solving, effective expression, and informed responses to current issues and problems.  

• Understanding our world is the first requirement for making it better.  The social sciences are concerned with societal conditions and human nature.  Data is gathered and interpreted to better understand the complex social systems we create and live within.  

• Interdisciplinary programs take advantage of rich offerings in multiple subject areas to create flexible programs that reflect our rapidly changing, multicultural world.  Practitioners draw their tools and practices from multiple disciplines and freely move among the arts, social and natural sciences and humanities.

It doesn’t matter if you major, minor, or pursue a certificate in the social sciences, humanities, arts or an interdisciplinary program; you will hone these skills that are so vital for the jobs of today—and tomorrow.

And once you own these essential skills, what will you do with them?  The sky’s the limit.  The liberal arts prepare you to do well forever.

Commit yourself to a discipline you love, do well with it, and know and market the importance of the skills you have.  If you do that, you will have the intellectual dexterity to see into problems that cannot yet be foreseen—and solve them.  Join us in Liberal Arts.

Linda Caron
Dean