Transcript
Narrator 0:05
In May, 2012 Forbes Magazine published an article suggesting that universities cut humanities departments from their curriculum in order to make their students more employable. The article states that, for students, lenders and parents, it makes no sense to send a child to college to study humanities if they do not have a chance at getting a job that uses the skills they’ve developed. Is there any truth to this assessment? Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, doesn’t think so. At the Richard M. Fairbanks Symposium held at the University of Indianapolis on October 9, 2013, Buttigieg and Indiana Senator Richard Lugar discussed the centrality of the humanities to their leadership.
Pete Buttigieg 0:49
So for all the experiences I’ve had that prepared me to do what I knew now, from campaigns to time in the business community to even military service, nothing was as important in my formation as the time, of course, that I spent as a student. So I hope it’s recognized among students what an important moment you have on your hands right now, the only time in your life when it will be your full time job, or at least your primary job, to find out as much as you can about yourself and about the world that you operate in. That is incredible. It’s a great racket that we’ve managed to organize through the university, which may be the greatest invention of mankind. We’ve managed to organize opportunities to do that, because then you’ll be able to formulate your purpose, which may or may not be formulated in terms of a job title you’d like to have. I tend to think of that is secondary, but purpose in the sense of what you aim to do, so that whatever job title you get, you know what to use it for. And that’s where character is so important. That, by the way, and I’m not just pandering, is why humanities is so important, right? So I think the Senator and I both studied, I mean, I did history and literature for my first degree, philosophy, politics and economics for my second just about the only thing I didn’t study was policy and how to be a mayor and any of that stuff, but use the word character, which is a great word, tired word, because people use it and wear it out in some cliches, but it’s important, because there’s two kinds of challenges that any I think leader winds up dealing with. And one is what you might call technical challenges. They’re they’re problems that have a right answer. They’re things that, if you could just figure out how to do something a little more efficiently, a little more cleverly, a little more quickly, a little more cheaply, you’ve made progress. And by the way, leaders who are exceptionally good at that is one reason that Indianapolis and Indiana, more generally, has been in such good shape in the last half century. But that’s table stakes. It’s hard, don’t get me wrong, but that’s the beginning. The real tricky part is the challenge that comes to any leader to deal with decisions where there’s no amount of technical work is going to tell you the right answer, because there’s no technical right answer. You can’t solve the puzzle. It’s not math. The only thing you can do is make a choice between two alternatives that pit valid values against each other, situations where you can make one person or group better off, but not without making another person or group worse off. And how you handle those, how you handle those situations that put your values into conflict, is the very stuff of character, and you will have no better chance in your life to form and inform that character than the time you’re spending right now as students. Hopefully reading novels in history and philosophy as well as whatever your chosen field of study might be.
Narrator 3:29
Mayor Buttigieg isn’t alone in his ringing endorsement of the humanities. From 1977 to 2013 Richard Lugar held a senatorial seat within Congress throughout his many years of experience, Senator Lugar has found immense value in the humanitarian disciplines, especially writing.
Richard Lugar 3:48
I think it’s always been a challenge in public life. I sort of share your passion for reading and for study, something that’s been very important in my life. I think that’s important to take time, and I hope you will do that too as your experiences unfold, because some recollection along the road, which is historically accurate, at least from your own point of view, is very important in setting the argument for other historians or other people who may be writing about this sort of thing down the trail.
Narrator 4:16
Mayor Buttigieg believes that the lessons an individual draws from the humanities, continue throughout one’s career, and finds that reading sustains him in office.
Pete Buttigieg 4:26
About a year ago, I realized I wasn’t reading anymore. And reading got me everything good in life. And I wasn’t reading much, so we have a new rule that for not much, but four or five hours a week, there’s a requirement my staff has to help me protect just four or five hours when I can hole up and read and not necessarily read about policy, maybe just read about the Greeks, or read history or read poetry, because if you don’t do that, you can lose your mooring. On the other hand, I’ve never felt so much pressure away from study and scholarship, and it’s a strange thing if you have a scholarly disposition to find yourself in a job that seems almost to actively discourage, either just through scheduling pressure or also through the culture you’re immersed in, tends to discourage reflection in reading and writing.
Ted Frantz 5:12
This podcast was produced by the Institute for Civic Leadership and Mayoral Archives and the Department of Communication at the University of Indianapolis. It is made possible by the support of the Richard M Fairbanks Foundation, Indiana Humanities, and the Lily Endowment. For more information, please see our website, uindy.edu/mayoral.