Dean Hexter with Chancellor Berdahl on "Bear in Mind"

By Genevieve Shiffrar, October 5, 2003

Bear in Mind is a radio-style talk show hosted by Berkeley's Chancellor Robert Berdahl. He discusses with Berkeley faculty, staff, students, and visitors topics such as current events, research interests, and campus issues.

Download an 11-minute audio clip of the Hexter-Berdahl Bear-in-Mind interview. (Audio-only interview in RealPlayer* format.)

In the September edition of Bear in Mind, Ralph Hexter, L&S Executive Dean and Dean of Arts & Humanities, discussed with the Chancellor a number of subjects relating to undergraduate education in the College: the value of a liberal-arts education in difficult economic times, the popular Freshman Seminar series, and ways to make the most of the rich educational opportunities available at Berkeley.

Listen to the interview by downloading the RealAudio clip or read a transcript of the interview, below.

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Chancellor Robert Berdahl: Although the College of Letters & Science is only one of 14 colleges and professional schools on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, it is by far the largest. With over half of the faculty of the entire University, three-quarters of the undergraduates, and nearly half of the graduate students on the campus, the College of Letters & Science rather typifies Berkeley and is representative of what Berkeley is. And today we are pleased to be joined by Dean Ralph Hexter, who is the Executive Dean of the College of Letters & Science, and the Dean of Arts & Humanities on this campus. Welcome, Ralph.

Dean Ralph Hexter: Good to be here.

R B: Tell me, Ralph, answer a question that a lot of parents ask me, and a lot of prospective students ask me. And that is, "Why should I take these classes in Letters & Science? Will that help me get a job? Isn't it more important for me to major in one of the professional schools or in engineering, or in some technology major that will translate into employment? What does an English major do?

R H: You know, I think that in today's economic world, we see it all around us, our careers are going to be filled with change. And nothing can prepare one better for that than the broad preparation of a liberal-arts education. A liberal-arts education, and we certainly embody this at the College of Letters & Science, involves a concentration in a major where every student learns the rigors of disciplinary thinking and, what I think is very, very important, that what you learn the first time around needs to be corrected and made more precise as you dig ever more deeply, as well as breadth, through the distribution requirements. And what we're preparing students for is really to embark in whatever field, on a life of learning and careers that will require not only the skills that they have honed in our College—communication (both written and oral), critical thinking, analysis, reflection—but to learn how to learn, since I daresay, many of them will have to retool, as we see so many of the citizens of the Bay Area doing just now.

R B: You don't really have to convince me because I'm a history professor and so I'm one of the faculty in the College.

R H: We're proud to have you on our faculty.

R B: But still that doesn't answer the question in a sense. It says, "OK, you are preparing people for life." That is important, obviously, and central, but can students with a liberal-art degree ... what do they do? Do they have to go on to get professional degrees afterwards?

R H: No, of course not. In our increasingly professional world, we know that many, many students will get professional degrees at the graduate level. And I have been told many times by faculty in some of these schools as well as practitioners in the field, that when they are looking for the students to admit into business school or medical school or law school, they really are less impressed with the preparation—the pre-professional preparation at the undergraduate level—than with excellence and intellectual curiosity.

I'm not trying to dodge your question about specifics. English majors could go on to law school, they could go on to business school, they could go into the world of journalism. Yes, some of them will go on to Ph.D.s and the kind of academic career that that permits one. But that is really a small minority. The majors from all of our departments do a wide variety of things, and they are very keenly sought, both by professional schools, by graduate schools, and by employers.

R B: Can you tell me a little bit about some of the programs that you are offering this year? I know we have a large number of Freshman Seminars, for example. And you are teaching a freshman seminar on the Peloponnesian War, I gather.

R H: That's right.

R B: Tell us a little about that seminar, what you expect out of it, and what the Peloponnesian War discussion will yield?

R H: Freshmen Seminars are, as the name implies, restricted to freshmen and we hope to have no more than 15 in each of these classes. And they are taught by tenured or tenure-track faculty—the professors of Berkeley.

R B: I think we are offering about 200 this year.

R H: Yes, we have about 100 a semester. And it has been going on for quite some time, and I have to say you have been a strong supporter of the program and everyone gets very excited about it.

I have taught two freshmen seminars before this. This is the first time I have taught the Peloponnesian War, that is, the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, one of your predecessors in history.

[audience laughs]

R B: A fairly distant predecessor!

R H: Yes. And I have to say that as we have entered into a new time of war, I felt that our students ought to have the opportunity to read the reflections of this keen analytical mind as he chronicles how Athens and Sparta and all their allies jockeyed for power. And also, how so many unexpected things came along and spelled defeat when victory seemed assured, and sometimes the other way. And how the external policies were so dependent on the internal policies. And the personalities of some of the major figures.

R B: We've been through some budget cuts and that is going to be the subject of later discussion for us, but can you give us a sense of just what the impact of those budget cuts have been on the College of Letters & Science?

R H: The good news, I suppose, is that thanks to you and the Executive Vice Chancellor, we had a very, very good estimate of the kind of cuts we would have to make. So already last year, the chairs of the departments were crafting their offerings. So even when, and I know this has appeared recently in the newspaper, they speak of cuts, what might not actually be apparent is that these were not courses that were cut just last week. Rather, these were courses that the department likes to offer, and may have offered in the past, but they didn't schedule them. And primarily, what we have tried to do is to focus the cuts in the upper-division and graduate courses, where often the class size was quite small. So at least, so far I think the largest impact will not be in the number of seats that are available but in the range of opportunities in elective choices that we have there. I wouldn't want to see that repeated again and again because it then will begin to change the richness of our offerings. But, that is what we have done so far.

R B: So you really have minimized the impact as much as possible.

R H: We have done everything we could. And we have made sure, by putting money specifically into such requirements that everyone needs to take, such as reading and composition, and certain language sequences. We need to get people started learning language tracks and the sciences and we will be hopeful that once again have the full richness of elective offerings.

R B: What do you think students should keep in mind as they approach their liberal-arts education?

R H: Well, one of the things that distinguishes us from all the other colleges is that our students enter without having declared a major. Some may well know what it is that they want to pursue. But I actually would urge every student to step back and look at the full range of offerings that we have here. Because whatever high school you came from, we have departments and topics that I daresay these students will never have heard of. So, not to just be self-indulgent, but follow your passions, follow your curiosities. Take some risks. Take a course because the reading list sounds exciting; because you know nothing about it and think it might intrigue you. Don't follow other people; don't follow what you think you ought to be doing, all the time. But learn what richness we have here and just build on that.

R B: Well let's throw it open to questions from our studio audience. I am sure you all have some question to ask Dean Hexter. So let's take the first question. Who would like to ask the first question?

Audience member: Hi, I'm Sasha Keller from the campus. Students often think of the Breadth Requirements as a hurdle to get over. And I was wondering if you could help students understand those breadth requirements a little bit better.

R B: Why don't you tell exactly about what the breadth requirements are. Not in detail but what in general students are expected to take to satisfy these breadth requirements.

R H: Well, beyond the campus requirements in American Cultures and reading and composition, all Letters & Science students need to fulfill breath in seven areas. These include foreign cultures, historical periods, quantitative science. That is not seven but that gives you an idea of the range. I think that it is true that once students get further along in their education, they are beginning to focus very much on their major and they can think of these breadth requirements, particularly if it is a distant area from their major, as an annoyance, a hurdle.

What I would do, and this connects very much to what I was just saying to you, Bob, is that if in the very beginning of their Berkeley career, they think about this idea of being curious and exploring these fields and look at the range of courses that they will take to fulfill the breadth requirements as opportunities. I think that you should talk to faculty and your friends about the courses they are taking. There are different ways to make breadth either compliment what you are interested in, or to have them fulfill a passion that you have never felt you never had the opportunity to pursue but that you do that as a side line.

R B: Well, thank you very much, Ralph. We really appreciate your being on Bear in Mind.

R H: Thank you, Bob.

R B: That was Dean Ralph Hexter, Executive Dean of Letters & Science at the University of California, Berkeley on Bear in Mind. Thanks, Ralph.

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Listen to the Hexter-Berdahl interview by downloading the audio clip (audio-only interview in RealPlayer* format.) or visit the Bear in Mind website to download additional segments of the September edition, or earlier editions in the Bear-in-Mind series.

* Real Audio provides free versions of their audio software. Finding the links on its website to the free versions is extremely challenging but not impossible. Try the Legacy Software Archives or look for small, light-colored text links somewhere on the Real homepage.