An article in Polish national daily publication Gazeta Wyborcza featured the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) and Ivan Allen College as a positive example of how the liberal arts can be successfully mixed with the technical sciences to endow students with marketable job skills and the promise of a decent salary. The role and value of higher education in liberal arts are major topics of discussion in Poland, as humanities are currently depreciated and undervalued.

The article’s author, Piotr Toczyski of the Polish Academy of Sciences, introduces a report on wages of Polish alumni, comparing the minimum and maximum wages of graduates from technical and non-technical universities, along with an argument against the claim that only a technical education can provide a substantial salary. He suggests that American technical universities like Georgia Tech are becoming more interested in liberal arts and refers to the appointment of professor Richard Utz as chair of LMC as an indication of Georgia Tech’s own rising interest in a liberal arts education.

Toczyski quotes a section of Utz’s comments on the School’s mission and program that identify his interest in building bridges between the technical sciences and liberal arts, saying that this is the only answer to the complex social and cultural challenges of the future. He notes the School’s willingness and interest in building creative and interdisciplinary collaboration with other disciples at Georgia Tech as a positive force in the academic community and one to be replicated.

Read a translated excerpt in English or the original artical in Polish.