Tag: education

  • Career Success Depends on Liberal Arts

    A recent survey of business and non-profit leaders conducted on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) concludes that “broad learning” and “cross-cutting skills” are the most important kinds of preparation for long-term career success. When hiring new employees, these employers “overwhelmingly” look for skills in oral and written communication, teamwork, ethical…

  • Free Community Colleges

    In 2012, in the heat of a presidential election campaign, President Obama made the apparent mistake of wishing out loud that all of our nation’s children could have the opportunity to go to college. That would seem like a fairly innocent, “American as apple pie” kind of wish, but not in this highly divided nation,…

  • FIT Goes to Washington

    “Is this not cool?” Those were among First Lady Michelle Obama’s opening words when she addressed the crowd of high school students and famous fashion designers at a luncheon as part of her recent Fashion Education Workshop. I watched Mrs. Obama’s speech on my iPad as I traveled to Washington by train for the reception…

  • College Rankings

    I am not a fan of college rankings. Their quantitative approach to educational institutions and questionable criteria invariably fail to capture the true zeitgeist–and quality–of a college. Nor can they predict if a college is the right fit for a particular student, no matter how highly it is ranked. But choosing a college can be an…

  • No Impact Week

    As a college, FIT does a good deal to promote the goals of sustainability. But in the end, those lofty goals will go nowhere if we do not make them personal and take individual responsibility for putting them into practice: recycle our trash, consume mindfully, turn out the lights and so on. This week, FIT…