The Future of Work
Traditionally, liberal arts colleges have excelled at preserving and transmitting the wisdom of the past. This traditional role is certainly of deep and abiding value. Yet in today's fast-moving world of "wicked problems," there is a critical need for liberal arts colleges to become more intentionally forward-looking. They need to engage the wider world more actively in envisioning and creating the knowledge needed for the future. In a word, liberal arts colleges must strive to imagine tomorrow.
Imagining tomorrow,
Entails grappling with the way the expectations of education and work are changing, with even more fundamental transformations to come. From the gig economy to maker spaces to hybrid work models, today's students will experience a working world often dramatically different from that of even a decade ago. Individuals entering the workforce today, too, are asking more of their jobs and careers. They are looking for work that offers flexibility and meaning, opportunities for collaboration and creativity, and the chance to connect their professional goals with their personal values.
Engaging this emerging world,
Liberal arts colleges are envisioning an education for the future that fosters a greater range of skills and dispositions. Such skills and dispositions range from cognitive capabilities, such as integrative, systems, and design thinking, to ethical judgment to technological literacy to cross-cultural competence. Significantly too, they include personal qualities, such as grit, self-efficacy, facility with ambiguity, a willingness to innovate, and the ability to collaborate and work in teams to solve unscripted problems.
Responding to this evolving future,
Franklin & Marshall College is beginning a new initiative aimed at liberal arts colleges. The College will be hosting a conference on the topic of "The Liberal Arts and the Future of Work" on June 1-3, 2023. Guided by a common belief in the essential role the liberal arts have in preparing their students for the evolving workplace, we hope to engage and inspire each other in a conversation about our collective efforts. Along with inviting teams of faculty and administrators, the College will host presidents of leading liberal arts colleges to participate in the convening.
Agenda
Thursday, June 1
5:00 p.m. | Welcome Reception
Friday, June 2
8:00 a.m. | Continental Breakfast
9:00 a.m. | Presidential Panel
10:15 a.m. | Morning Break
10:30 a.m. | Breakout Sessions
12:00 p.m. | Discussion Lunch
1:30 p.m. | Breakout Sessions
2:45 p.m. | Afternoon Break
3:15 p.m. | Breakout Sessions
5:00 p.m. | Dinner
Saturday, June 3
8:00 a.m. | Continental Breakfast
9:00 a.m. | Breakout Sessions
10:15 a.m. | Morning Break
10:30 a.m. | Breakout Sessions
12:00 p.m. | Discussion Lunch
1:30 p.m. | Plenary Moving Forward Session
Tentative agenda and schedule subject to change.
Collaborating Institutions
by invitation
Franklin & Marshall College
Aspen Institute
Babson College
Bentley University
Bucknell University
Carleton College
College of the Holy Cross
Colorado College
Connecticut College
DePauw University
Gettysburg College
Lawrence University
Mount Holyoke College
NYU Stern School of Business
Prescott College
Swarthmore College
Washington and Lee University
Wesleyan University
Plan Your Visit
Location
Franklin & Marshall College
637 College Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603
Plan Your Stay
Check out the variety of dining and overnight accomodation options in Lancaster. Or visit DiscoverLancaster for more information about the area. Check out campus with the F&M Interactive Campus Map.
Discount overnight room accomodations are available at the following Lancaster locations:
Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square
Reserve Online | $219.00/n.
Discount Deadline 5/11/2023
Residence Inn Lancaster
Call-in 717-299-9898 | Code: LABS
$169/n. (Thurs.), $209/n. (Fri.)
Discount Deadline 4/17/2023