As we revisit these questions, we must go beyond our own little world to the expectations the larger world continues to have for the residential liberal arts college, which, at its best, reflects the educational benefit of living the life of the mind in small, integrated communities, and on ground shared by students, faculty, and staff. While we assume the importance of study across the curriculum, we must give students more opportunities to consider the long-term consequences of what they have learned in the classroom. These communities should be places where faculty, staff, alumni, and guests regularly encourage students to look outward from the confines of their own experience and to reflect upon how and why education matters. This outward turn is especially important in those institutions in isolated or rural settings. It should establish an educational environment that is more than simply task-oriented.
Students take on challenging academic work every day, and they are graded on their efforts.
A properly designed and functioning residential system should provide a place where students discover the pleasures of learning apart from the process of evaluation, of learning for its own sake. It should encourage the continuation of conversations between students and faculty, among students, and within the extended college community. Faculty have interests beyond their academic work, and should have opportunities to share these with students. Meals, receptions, and other on-site activities, in encompassable settings, provide occasion for such exchange. It should allow students to test ideas and stretch themselves.