Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College

President of the College

Authored Articles

Huffington Post Articles

In addition to authoring articles and opinion pieces for a variety of publications, Franklin & Marshall College President Daniel R. Porterfield is an invited regular contributor to Huffington Post College, among the news organization's other blog platforms. An archive of those essays and opinion pieces appears here.

The Liberal Arts College as a Springboard to Opportunity

March 12, 2013
Huffington Post

...Today's students are navigating a much longer transition to the traditional markers of adulthood -- marriage, family, and stable employment -- than their parents and grandparents. ... Great colleges will respond to the evolving needs of 20-something searchers and help them launch well into opportunity and growth. Liberal arts colleges are especially well positioned to do so, because our students feel personally known, valued, challenged and supported by the educators who work here.

An Open Letter to Mark Cuban

Feb. 7, 2013
Huffington Post

In our 21st-century global economy, which is knowledge-based, technology-driven and constantly changing, students need to develop their minds for lifetimes of higher-level thinking and learning. Those individuals who can best reason, write, research, analyze, compute, create and communicate will thrive. The societies that develop the most advanced thinkers will outcompete the others.

The Enduring Ideals of Dr. King

Jan. 18, 2013
Huffington Post

I'm deeply gratified that America has a designated day when we recognize Dr. King. As an educator, I share Dr. King's belief that providing all with equal access to an empowering education is the essential investment a democracy makes in its people and its future. "Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education," Dr. King wrote in the Morehouse College newspaper 56 years ago when he was a junior. That's no less true in 2013.

A Terrible Thing to Waste

Nov. 13, 2012
Huffington Post
 
I worry that we aren't making a forceful enough case to promising students about the value of creating a rigorous intellectual experience in college. And that's why, as the 2012-13 application season begins, we need to emphasize four key messages to those young people who have the talent and mindset to flourish in college.
 

Educational Change-makers Offer True Lessons of Public Service during Political Season

Sept. 11, 2012
Huffington Post

We should find inspiration in strong models of public service that speak to the better angels of our nature. This past summer I witnessed the actions of three sets of change-makers giving themselves over completely to education as the best way to empower young people, break cycles of poverty and create a brighter future for America.