Dean of the College and Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Latham has been serving in his new role for just over a week now, but sit down for a short meeting with him and you’ll swear you’ve been schooled by a seasoned Grinnell College veteran.
Everything from the serious excitement with which he discusses his academic interests and pursuits, to the way he rattles off statistics on the percentage of the freshman class’s international student population or percentage of liberal arts students nationally only as compliments to a qualitative understanding of Grinnell’s core, to the fact that he had printed off my interview questions to use as a guide, to his wardrobe choice of a dress shirt, but no tie, suggest an fundamental alignment with Grinnellian values.
Formerly the Dean of the Liberal Arts College of Fordham University, a large research university with a business school, law school, education school, etc., Latham was attracted by the clarity of the mission that a standalone liberal arts college has the luxury of producing. A Pomona College graduate himself, Latham’s recognition of what a “crucial experience” an undergraduate liberal arts education can be, similarly incentivized his transition. To flesh out this idea, Latham provides a textbook explanation of the benefits of studying liberal arts: textbook only in its eloquence and completeness, but not lacking in authenticity.
“The liberal arts facilitates the development of a set of tools that can help you make deliberate decisions about what you want to do. These decisions require exposure to a wide range of disciplines that significantly enrich your life, and time for serious reflection,” Latham explains. “It’s the process of figuring out what matters to you.”
Latham cites Grinnell’s student-inquiry centered curriculum, structure of courses, and terrific reputation in student research as factors that distinguished Grinnell from other Liberal Arts candidates. Student-research in particular is an area that Latham would like to devote serious time and resources, in an effort to strengthen an already stellar program in an area he feels passionately about.
“What students can gain from research projects is truly amazing,” Latham says. “There are the practical benefits of co-authoring professional journal articles or presenting research at regional conferences, in terms of how these experiences strengthen resumes, personal statements, and job interviews. And then there are the less tangible, but maybe more important benefits of creating new knowledge, developing a greater degree of confidence and tolerance for obstacles, and again, figuring out what matters to you.”
Latham plans to investigate the ways in which students become involved in research opportunities on campus, such as MAPs and independent studies. From 2003-2013, 1400 Grinnell students engaged is some type of student research, and while Latham believes that this 37.5%, is a strong number, he is intent on discovering what more can be done.
“Could we reach the point we think it’s so valuable that we want to make research more accessible, so that everyone has the opportunity to pursue it? We have to ask those questions,” Latham says.
Interdisciplinary education is another area that Latham plans to sink his teeth into during his tenor at Grinnell. He offers this semester’s course on climate change as an example of problem-centered courses that encourage students to draw from different fields to investigate contemporary public policy issues. Other topics interdisciplinary in nature, such as water security, urban poverty, renewable energy, public health, and primary education are ones that Latham might like to see introduced as options to incorporate more interdisciplinary approaches at Grinnell.
Latham describes a program at Bryn Mawr college called “360,” where courses are clustered together to integrate a theme, such as human rights. For one semester, a cohort of students take 4 courses that view the issue from different lenses, such as history, economics, philosophy and political science. Upon completion, the students go abroad to work on an international project that tackles a pertinent human rights issue.
“While this requires a huge amount of coordination, and might not be exactly right for Grinnell, it shows that there are models out there for interdisciplinary approaches,” Latham says.
Latham recognizes that there are real challenges to successful and sustained implementation of meaningful programs. For one, he is Grinnell’s first externally appointed Dean, meaning there is much to be learned about Grinnell’s identity and direction.
“Then there is the tension between your immediate day to day tasks and the long term goals that you want to see realized,” Latham laments. “On one hand, there’s always fires you have to run around putting out and by noon on Monday I’ll have 150 unread e-mail.”
His phone rings 3-times during our 20 minute conversation, in case I was unconvinced of the competing demands for his time.
“But on the other hand, if that’s all you focus on than you end up just running really fast to stand still,” he says. “You have to strike a balance and carve out space to actually get your programs through.”
Latham has found that one way to resolve these competing objectives is through purposeful collaboration with both faculty and Grinnell students. He has already set up monthly meetings with department chairs and is confident that actionable programs will come out of these discussions. Latham also plans to meet regularly with the SGA cabinet, and is eager to hear what issues students would like to see addressed.
“I’ll be in the Grill from noon to 1 p.m. every Thursday,” Latham says. “I can quesadilla by myself, but I’d rather not.”
To close the interview I attempt gain some insight into “what matters” to Latham, so I ask him to talk a bit about his area of expertise, US foreign relations.
“Something that U.S policy makers and the American public get caught up in sometimes is this false notion that there will be a universal solution that can be applied to all problems similar in nature,” he says. “So for example, because a certain method for reconstruction was successful in Germany and Japan after WWII, this model should apply as well to modern day Iraq. But really that’s not the case.”
“So if we can’t derive prescriptions from history, why do we study it?”
I lob one over the heart of the plate, and he smashes it out of the park.
“Actually, examples like these demonstrate how much and understanding of history and culture do matter,” he says. “If you study the case of post WWII Japan, you find that the reason their reconstruction was successful was because the plan aligned well within the context of their culture, and so the Japanese owned it. So we really do need to know and understand the histories of different peoples to be able to construct any type of meaningful solutions.”
Given recent calls to more fully recognize the diversity of Grinnellians’ backgrounds and beliefs (in and out of the classroom), it seems as though Dean Latham’s experience and enthusiasm will be excellent assets in developing a more informed, accepting academic culture. Welcome to Grinnell!