91B0FBB4-04A9-D5D7-16F0F3976AA697ED
C9A22247-E776-B892-2D807E7555171534
America is in crisis. Put simply, we have lost our ability to communicate. Sure, we speak, write, and listen. But we do not communicate, we do not build consensus, and we certainly do not respect opposing points of view. I believe there is a direct correlation between communication skills and citizenship skills. In my opinion, the communication breakdown afflicting our nation has created a society that is uncivil, frustrated, and deeply cynical.

Hamilton College has a solution. In the pages that follow, I will outline an educational program that focuses on oral and written communication as the basis for effective citizenship. Hamilton's approach emphasizes the traditional liberal arts values upon which the institution was founded. I believe the College's affirmation of these principles not only makes it uniquely positioned to rebuild and successfully implement such a program, but also provides higher education with a model for learning. Our plan is ambitious, ultimately requiring the creation of a new learning paradigm for current and future faculty. We already are moving forward.

The Quality of Our Conversation

The United States possesses some of the world's most technologically sophisticated means of communication, yet Americans' thinking, writing, speaking, and listening skills are a national embarrassment. Historically, issues and ideas were read and addressed in family living rooms and at dinner tables; today, the medium eclipses the message. Sound bites punctuate the evening news, the line between news and entertainment has become hopelessly blurred, and "spin doctors" color our thinking. As a result, dissonance has replaced dialogue, and style has supplanted substance, disconnecting Americans from each other and from the issues surrounding them.

For too many Americans, communication is a contest with a winner and a loser, rather than a negotiation. Tragically, this misguided notion contributes greatly to the incivility of our public life. A democracy, after all, is built on reasoned and informed two-way communication between and among citizens and their leaders. But the communication taking place on the floor of Congress, in the editorial pages of America's daily newspapers, and at town and school board meetings across the country is too often combative and counterproductive. Negotiation pervades every aspect of our lives, but we are embarrassingly inarticulate when building relationships in our homes, at our places of work and in our civic and cultural lives. Our failures are most conspicuous when we respond intemperately, unintelligibly or silently to contemporary issues.

This social dilemma concerns us in the academy, of course, but it also perplexes us since we purport to graduate students with the skills necessary to break through the gridlock of incivility and inarticulateness. In my opinion, the problem lies in our laissez faire approach to teaching communication and citizenship. Traditionally, as the Wingspread Group on Higher Education recently observed in An American Imperative, communication skills have been considered a by-product of the educational process--not something on which colleges and universities should focus explicitly.

In contrast, I believe strongly that communication must be the centerpiece of every student's education because society needs citizens who can think, listen, write, and speak substantively, critically, creatively, and analytically. Higher education must meet this need, but as fundamental as these values should be for all liberally educated people, I fear tens of thousands of students graduating from America's colleges and universities are deficient in these basic skills. And if they are deficient in these skills upon graduation, they are deficient in their ability to function as citizens.

Traditional Values That Fulfill Society's Needs

Throughout its almost 200-year history Hamilton College has had a steadfast commitment to liberal arts' traditional values: communication and citizenship. Our mission is, was, and will continue to be simple and clear: preparing students to be effective leaders in their communities. To accomplish this mission, we must provide an unambiguous emphasis on oral and written communication, in the context of rigorous disciplinary and interdisciplinary concentrations. We must teach our students that citizenship involves a commitment to participate in the intellectual, political and cultural life of their communities.

Hamilton, unlike most undergraduate colleges, can claim a tradition of excellence not only in written communication, but in oral communication as well. In 1841 we established the nation's first Department of Rhetoric and Oratory, quickly identifying the College as a leader in teaching that discipline. For many years, until 1968, our commitment to oral communication was evidenced by the unique requirement that our students take a mandatory four-year course in public speaking. Alumni still comment favorably on that training and the preparation it has provided them in their personal and professional lives.

For many of the same years that Hamilton maintained its oral communication requirement, the College was equally committed to developing students' writing skills. Along with the regular diet of expository essays and research papers, students were required to pass so-called "yes" papers. Instructors teaching intro

Help us provide an accessible education, offer innovative resources and programs, and foster intellectual exploration.

Site Search