As liberal arts colleges are facing financial pressures from the economy in general & a pandemic in particular, academics have to struggle with the role of money within the academic enterprise. For this show, we gathered four faculty members to discuss their perspectives on the value, costs, and financial concerns of liberal arts education. n the end, we ourselves as faculty members realized that the very human community that a collegiate life creates can be priceless, and more than just training for a job.

This was recorded at four remote locations, so it doesn’t have the exact same feel as the collegial conversations alumni of the Cui Bono programs will remember. Nonetheless, it was great to get at least some of the same sort of conversation students and faculty have grown to love over the last decade at Concordia University Irvine’s Cui Bono club, and since the founding of CUI in 1976.

We discuss:

• The ancient Greek Sophists
• Why we love what we do
• The “hard” versus “soft” sciences and their relationship with the humanities
• Epistemology
• Interdisciplinary engagement
• The dangers of dogmatism
• The importance of relationships and expanded horizons for undergrads

Links to topics and articles we mentioned

Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy”

Disaster Academic Capitalism

A sociological study of satisfaction and choices related to a variety of jams