VOA常速英语2019--教育专家赞美人文教育的价值（在线收听）

Thank you for taking the time to sit with me today. First, tell us about your association.

谢谢你今天花时间和我坐在一起。首先，跟我们讲讲协会吧。

The Association of American Colleges and Universities has a mission of advancing the vitality and public standing of liberal education equity and quality as the foundations for excellence in undergraduate education in service to democracy.

美国学院和大学协会的使命是促进自由教育的活力和公众地位，公平和质量是为民主服务的优秀本科教育的基础。

Let’s talk about the status of small liberal arts colleges across the US. Where is it right now and what’s happening with them?

让我们来谈谈美国小型文理学院的现状。它现在在哪里，发生了什么事?

There’s a prevailing national rhetoric that calls into question the value of higher education in general, and liberal education in particular.

有一种流行的全国性言论对高等教育的整体价值提出了质疑，尤其是自由教育的价值。

A number of small liberal arts colleges are at risk, in part because of this rhetoric, but also because they have served very distinctive missions. Many small, faith-based institutions in the past, had relied on the clergy, to do administrative work, to teach classes. And as their numbers are dwindling, the colleges are finding that they’re having trouble keeping up with the payroll. But there are many, many liberal arts institutions that are thriving today, and at AAC&U we believe that that mission is more critical than ever.

一些规模较小的文理学院正面临风险，部分原因是它们的言辞，但也因为它们履行了非常独特的使命。在过去，许多小型的、以信仰为基础的机构，依靠神职人员来做行政工作、授课。随着他们人数的减少，这些大学发现他们在支付工资方面遇到了麻烦。但是，今天有许许多多文理学院蓬勃发展，在美国学院和大学协会，我们相信，这一使命比以往任何时候都更加重要。

Can you give me some examples of colleges that have either closed or been taken over by larger academic institutions, and examples of colleges that are doing okay.

你能给我举一些已经关闭或被大型学术机构接管的大学的例子吗？以及还有一些表现不错的大学的例子。

In the headlines recently there has been attention paid to places like Mount Ida College, looking at a partnership with the University of Massachusetts being absorbed by that.

在最近的头条新闻中，像艾达山学院这样的地方引起了人们的注意，因为它与马萨诸塞大学的合作关系正在被这所大学所吸收。

Marlborough College is looking at a perspective absorption by Emerson, hats being contested right now. At Sweetbriar and Hampshire colleges were thinking about ways that they could partner with other institutions- the Board of Sweetbriar made a decision to close the college,

莫尔伯勒学院正在研究爱默生所吸收的观点。在斯威特布赖尔学院和汉普郡学院，他们正在考虑与其他机构合作的方式——斯威特布赖尔学院的董事会决定关闭学院，

but the alumni got together and revitalized the college and it is continuing to grow and strengthen.

但是校友们聚集在一起，重振了学院，学院也在不断成长壮大。

Hampshire College decided a year and a half ago not to admit a first year class, but they have allowed students who had already been admitted to the college to attend if they chose to and are very active in recruiting a new class, and their numbers continue to grow.

汉普郡学院在一年半前决定不招收一年级的学生，但他们允许已经被学院录取的学生参加，如果他们愿意的话，而且他们非常积极地招收新班级，而且他们的人数还在继续增长。

So these are colleges that have been at risk, who have looked at innovative ways to take new directions. There’s a recent book out by Mary Marcy -- who is the president of Dominican in California -- and her book focuses on the small college imperative and the ways that colleges that are committed to the liberal arts, but are small, can partner with others with business and industry K through 12 to create new pathways for excellence for student success.

所以这些大学一直处于危险之中，它们一直在寻找创新的方法来开辟新的方向。加州多米尼加的总统会员玛丽·马西最近出版了一本书——她的书关注的是小型大学的必要性以及大学致力于人文学科的方式，但都是小的，可以与K到12的商业和行业伙伴合作，为学生的成功创造新的途径。

And so, colleges like Bates College have new innovative programs that are connecting curriculum to career in ways that will help address some of the concerns of the skeptics around the fact that a liberal education is seen as inconsistent with employability in this world that is STEM-focused. What is your assessment of Trinity College? Like many colleges, its had its set of challenges, but seems to be doing well.

因此，像贝茨学院这样的学院有新的创新项目，将课程与职业联系起来，这将有助于解决怀疑者的一些担忧，即在这个以stem为重点的世界上，人文教育被视为与就业能力不一致。你对三一学院的评价是什么？像许多大学一样，它也面临着一系列的挑战，但它似乎做得很好。

Trinity College is a very prestigious, liberal arts institution in Connecticut -- was founded in 1823with a mission to promote the Liberal Arts and Sciences, and since then has retained a reputation for excellence in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.

三一学院是康涅狄格州一所非常著名的文科院校，成立于1823年，其宗旨是促进文科和理科的发展，从那以后一直保持着文科和理科优秀的声誉。

But they also have established themselves as an anchor institution, and they demonstrate the ways in which their success is inextricably linked to the success of those in the communities that they seek to serve - and so they do have partnerships with business and industry with K through 12 in the Hartford region.

但他们也将自己确立为一个锚定机构，并展示了他们的成功与他们所服务的社区中那些人的成功密不可分的方式——所以他们确实与哈特福德地区的工商业有合作关系。

And I think that makes all the difference at a time when we are trying to establish new pipelines for a diverse populations in liberal arts colleges. What are some of the reasons colleges are closing, or being taken over by other academic institutions?

我认为，在我们试图为文理学院的多元化人群建立新渠道的时候，这一点至关重要。大学关闭或被其他学术机构接管的原因有哪些？

There are a variety of reasons why small liberal arts colleges are closing.

小型文理学院关闭的原因有很多。

There has been a disinvestment in higher education.

对高等教育的投资减少了。

And there’s also been this rhetoric that I mentioned where liberal arts colleges are being called into question.

我也提到过，文理学院也受到质疑。

There has been a shift away from the notion of higher education as a public good, to viewing it as a private commodity. So tuition in exchange for jobs, and as tuition-driven institutions have needed increase their tuition and fees, there’s been some skepticism about the value added of that type of education. And so many students are going to community college, to public institutions, as a way of dealing with the cost. They may transfer into four-year independent ... colleges but that’s had some impact.

高等教育的概念已经从公共产品转变为私人商品。因此，学费是工作的交换，而学费驱动的机构需要增加他们的学费和费用，有人怀疑这种教育的附加值。所以很多学生去社区大学，去公共机构，作为一种处理成本的方式。他们可能会转入四年独立生活…但这已经产生了一些影响。

And the fact that we have so many options. One of the great strengths of American higher education is the diversity of the types of institutions. We know that you can get an education that is a quality education at a two-year Community College, a four year public research-institution, a whole range of institutions, and so these options have created some challenges and risks for small liberal arts colleges.

事实上我们有很多选择。美国高等教育的一大优势是机构类型的多样性。我们知道，你可以在两年制的社区大学、四年的公共研究机构、各种各样的机构接受高质量的教育，因此，这些选择给小型文理学院带来了一些挑战和风险。

Some experts say some of these liberal arts colleges have had financial difficulty, and therefore closing because funds are being allocated to nonacademic initiatives like sports, sports facilities, things like that. What is your opinion about that? These are issues that we need to address; the issues of cost and allocation of scarce resources. When were talking about places like Trinity, or other small liberal arts colleges, they are most likely Division-3 schools so they’re not spending enormous amount of money on athletics, they don’t have athletic scholarships, but they recognize the importance of making sure that students have curricular and co-curricular experiences-- that they are learning, not only in the classroom, but issues of leadership outside of the classroom as well. What are some of the ways these problems can be mitigated?

一些专家说，这些文理学院有些资金困难，因此关闭，因为资金被分配给了体育、体育设施等非学术项目。你对此有什么看法？这些都是我们需要解决的问题；稀缺资源的成本和分配问题。当我们谈到像三一学院或其他小型文理学院这样的地方时，它们很可能是分三区的学校，所以它们不会在体育上花很多钱，它们没有体育奖学金，但是，他们认识到确保学生拥有课程和合作课程经验的重要性——他们不仅在课堂上学习，也在课堂之外学习领导力的问题。有哪些方法可以减轻这些问题？

Leaders of small liberal arts colleges need to tell their story in a more compelling way, not only to those inside of the academy, but to those outside of the academy as well, who may be skeptical about the value of a liberal education at a time when rapidly changing technology means rapid obsolescence. And in a world that is globally interdependent, the best preparation that we can offer students is one that teaches them to write, speak and think with precision, coherence and clarity, to anticipate and respond to objections, to engage in moral imagination, imagining what its like to be in the shoes of another different from oneself, and to be adaptable and flexible in the face of that rapid change. That’s exactly what a liberal education does for students.

领导人的小型文理学院需要告诉他们的故事在一个更令人信服的方式,不仅那些学院内部，但这些学院之外的，谁会怀疑人文教育的价值在快速变化的技术意味着快速退化。在全球相互依存的世界，我们可以提供给学生最好的准备就是教他们写作、精确地说话和思考，去预测和回应反对意见，去进行道德想象，想象自己站在另一个和自己不同的人的立场上是什么样子，去适应和灵活地面对快速的变化。

The narrow technical training that has been promoted by many individuals today, places students at risk because once those resources are outsourced or replaced by new technologies, the students lose the capacity to become innovators in their own lives without a liberal arts background. We don’t think at AAC&U that there is an inconsistency between a liberal education and technical or pre-professional education. We think a liberal education can be applied to students at all types of institutions, and that’s what we are championing at our organization.

如今许多人提倡的狭隘的技术培训，将学生置于危险之中，因为一旦这些资源被外包或被新技术取代，学生们就失去了在没有文科背景的情况下在自己的生活中成为创新者的能力。在美国学院和大学协会，我们不认为人文教育与技术教育或职前教育之间存在矛盾。我们认为，人文教育可以适用于所有类型的机构的学生，这是我们组织所倡导的。