Dear Class of 2012,
Pay no attention to Margaret Wente.
My guess is she had run out of diatribe topics last month when The Globe and Mail ran her rant against a liberal arts education, sardonically informing students graduating this year, if they’re on the ‘softer’ side of the Ivory Tower, they’ve got bupkis when it comes to job prospects after graduation.
Let’s face it – this is not news to most of us, especially to those who, like me (and Wente herself, mind you), graduated – or are graduating – with a degree in the arts, humanities or social sciences. We were tired of hearing this, long before she thought it appropriate to inform us. I challenge all of you, graduating on the ‘softer’ side of the academe, to count the number of times you’ve had to defend your degree choice.
Still, I’ll admit it: Wente’s not entirely off the mark. Not to burst any optimistic post-grad bubbles but it is difficult to find a job after graduation, particularly if you don’t hold a professional degree. But the current state of the job market is a sad reality for most graduates, not just English and Sociology majors. Just recently, a friend of mine with a MEng sent out roughly 200 resumes before landing an interview. I wish I were exaggerating. A similarly challenging job-hunt awaits most of you gearing up for convocation, I’m afraid.
But here’s what’s wrong with Wente’s column, on top of the magnification she uses for effect. The problem is the way in which she devalues and essentially spits on academic institutions and what I will forever see as training well worth my $30,000-plus student debt.
Let me first clarify what Wente purposely leaves murky.
According to the Canadian Undergraduate Survey Consortium’s most recent publication, the average student’s debt, post graduation, is roughly $15,500. More than 50 per cent of university students graduate with a debt less than $7,000 and while some 58 percent of undergraduate students graduate with an average debt of $26,680, the remaining 42 per cent graduate debt-free.
I may not be – and chances are, many of you aren’t either – among the fortunate 42 per cent. To make a meager dent in my student loans, I worked a mind-numbingly frustrating job – one I was lucky to get – after completing a BA and an MA in English. And while Wente seems to think this took me by surprise, it didn’t. I remember spending several classes listening to professors and instructors bluntly explain the harsh reality, even before the recession, waiting on the other side of The Gates. This “softer side” of the university is not “proudly disconnected from the job market,” as Wente says, and I sincerely doubt you are leaving this place geared up for jobs no one bothered to tell you didn’t exist.
Though Wente, who shares my academic and professional training, won’t admit the value of her education, I proudly do so, every chance I get. I didn’t just learn to read books and poems – I learned to read people and situations. I learned to communicate, to think critically, to listen carefully and to pay attention to detail. What job doesn’t require these skills? What’s more, the reason I chose to spend my time and borrowed money reading and writing was because I enjoyed it.
Given the chance, I’d do it again.
Wente seems to be under the impression most students view getting a degree as a transaction – I put in time and money, and four years later, men in robes will give me a degree and a job. I’m sure some of you think this way – and if you’re graduating from med school, OK, I’ll hand it to you – but this never was, nor is it now, the mandate of an academic institution. Western owed me exactly what it gave me, an education I value more than my student loan account. It is up to me, and it’s up to you, at the end of the day, to use the skills you gained and find a job.
What’s funny is Wente goes on to attack the training for the job I did find – the one that pays her bills, too. Shortly after I graduated, the recession was in full bloom so I went back to university – the best place to be at the time – and continued with journalism school, a professional program that no thanks to Wente’s columns, instilled realistic expectations, too.
I remember classmates complaining when a guest speaker in the first month told us one third of the class would be lucky to find a job in the field after graduation. He was right – some 10 of us did – but all 30 pressed on through the year and today, most are working in media. Some even benefited from their ‘irrelevant’ and ‘soft’ undergraduate training, employing skills they gained in sociology classes to work in developing nations abroad. Grads, don’t, for a minute, underestimate your ‘soft’ education.
Still, Wente’s underlying beef seems to be with the university itself, an institution that “desperately needs bums in seats” to perpetuate degree inflation and financially benefit from students like some of us, who choose to study something not immediately relevant to society. If what I’ve said doesn’t dispel the notion of the university as a degree factory, I don’t know what will.
I’m sure I don’t speak just for myself when I say I wasn’t “sold a bill of goods” by the academe. I personally chose, benefited from, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute spent on the Arts and Humanities’ production lines.
Fellow arts, humanities, social sciences and even journalism grads – take heart. The degree you’ve completed and will be paying for – in some cases, for years – was worth it. You didn’t do it just to get a job; you did it because you liked it. And one day, maybe not today, you might just like your job for it.