The February 2000 Nancy Dye Interview on the Paula Gordon Show Advance information from the producers of the Paula Gordon Show
			ATLANTA, FEBRUARY 8, 2000--Educating people is the single most important thing we can do for society and for individuals, according to Dr. Nancy Dye, a leading voice in American higher education and President of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She is guest on "The Paula Gordon Show: Conversations with People at the Leading Edge." Nancy Dye is recognized as an authority in American social history, in which she received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. She is Oberlin¹s 13th President (the first woman), former dean of the faculty and professor of history at Vassar College. She also was associate dean of arts and sciences and full professor at the University of Kentucky, where she was their Outstanding Professor in 1979. President Dye has had fellowships and grants from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities. "Society's mirror and critics reside on America's college and university campuses," Dr. Dye has learned. "They deeply influence each other. Like society, the Academy is full of contradictions. Higher education is an integral part of society. It is not now and never has been in an 'ivory tower.' Nor should it be. Higher education encompasses society. It's a powerful laboratory for our students and for our future." What's the proper role for universities and colleges? "There is a powerful need to pass on ancient wisdom and accumulated information. That has to be balanced with the need to assure that students can create genuinely new tools for meeting the world's increasingly complex challenges. A good liberal arts education does both especially well," she assures us. "In fact, it changes a person's life." President Dye is impatient with rhetoric calling for education to be "lean and mean." "America is the richest nation that has ever been. Of course we can afford to educate our children, to offer art and music in our public schools. The connections, both intentional and unintentional, between campuses and the rest of us are more numerous, complicated, important, and porous than ever before." The current trend to split teaching and scholarship troubles President Dye, who is a firm supporter of tenure. "Tenure energize professionals. It validates them and makes them more--not less--productive. And it assures that they are not afraid to be critics of society, a much needed role," declares Dye. Entirely "virtual" universities? "Not likely," President Dye is confident. "Learning is a deeply social process that requires time and face-to-face contact. That means professors interacting with students while the Internet and technology also play vital roles on campus" President Dye concludes.
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