When I arrived at DePauw, I intended to follow a pre-med track. The career path was one that everyone always said would provide me with a difficult yet comfortable lifestyle.
But it did not take me long to realize that was not the track I wanted to take. Not because I have anything against medicine, but because I found something that I actually wanted to pursue: technology.
I have always been a 'handy' person, but never really thought to translate that love for fixing things into a potential future. Computers are that future; technology is the trajectory that human ingenuity is following.
That is why I find it troubling that DePauw does not require, or at least offer, more technology-based classes. If we acknowledge that technology is the future, then why is DePauw not reflecting this in our academic curriculum?
DePauw has already shown an interest in pushing for a progressive liberal arts education. The School of Music is undergoing a transformation to establish it as a school ready to prepare music students for the realities of the twenty-first century music industry. The College of Liberal Arts should follow suit and look to prepare students, regardless of their academic focus, to work alongside the technology that will define the twenty-first century job market.
A few possibilities to fix this issue would be for the University to either require a 'technology' credit to graduate, or to simply offer more technology-based classes for the students to choose from.
The first potential reform would accomplish this issue completely. The course will not need to be a computer programming focused course, because that is too demanding and too specific a skill that is not entirely applicable going forward. Instead, I believe it would make sense to structure a class for non-computer science majors that focuses on the vital skills required to work with technology going forward. This sort of general tech-literacy would provide every DePauw graduate this important knowledge going into the work force.
If the school believes adding another requirement to a student's graduation checklist goes against the liberal arts mentality, DePauw should just make a conscious effort to offer more of these types of classes. Students understand that they need the ability to work with technology. By providing more classes that would prepare students to work alongside technology, the university would be giving students the choice of whether they view this skill as important going forward.
It is impossible to dispute the impact that technology has on the 'real world.' DePauw prides itself on being an institution that prepares its students for a future filled with success. Technology is instrumental to this success. If DePauw is unwilling to acknowledge this flaw in its course offering, the school is doing its students a disservice. If DePauw does not step up, it will fall behind other similar institutions.
-- White is a senior computer science major from Tulsa, Okla.