When Dr Gage Averill, Dean of Arts, gave his opening speech at Thursday night’s Arts Career Expo (ACE), he seemed to touch a nerve.
“Anybody here whose parents ever asked ‘How are you going to make any money?’” Nervous laughter and several dozen raised hands followed.
“I know that line,” he said.
Averill, in many ways, embodies the changing attitudes of academia. His approach to the faculty follows the movement from “chalk talk” to a more discussion- and dialogue-based style of learning.
It may be due, in part, to his unlikely past. Before he was thrust into the university, Averill made a living as a school bus driver, a tractor driver, handyman, espresso server, musician and “failed Time-Life book seller.”
“Be open to accident,” he said.
According to Carol Naylor, Associate director of Career Development, it’s a message that is particularly important for Arts students. “An Arts degree is, by definition, flexible,” she said.
Naylor works for Career Services as part of the Center for Arts Student Services (CASS). She emphasized that, upon graduation, it is no harder for an Arts student to find a job than a student from any other faculty. “The challenges differ,” she admitted, “but there’s this myth that an Arts degree is somehow less employable.”
This “less-than” mentality echoes the comments with which Averill opened ACE, and a long-held belief that a BA is not a valuable degree. UBC is part of the BC Post-Baccalaureate Survey, a research initiative that tracks post-secondary graduates two and five years out of university.
“The stats show that in Arts, it’s no different,” said Naylor of the 2007 survey. “There are some differences—maybe a little less average salary two years out—but by five years out that gap isn’t as big.
“One of the questions they ask is ‘To what level is what you’re doing now related?’ For Arts it shows that it is less related, but to me that doesn’t mean less satisfied or less rewarding. Arts students are out-scoring in terms of jobs satisfaction.”
A Maclean’s article dated November 18, 2010 noted a rise in budget cuts to the humanities in both the Canada and the US, partly as a way of diverting money to college curriculum and trade schools. Averill called these cutbacks “shortsighted and retrograde” and stressed that the pattern will not follow to UBC. “The increasing focus of this campus is on an Arts education that is more real-world, to use a tired phrase.”
In an ACE panel entitled “Why I hire BAs,” the word “experience” was thrown around a number of times. Carol Naylor echoed this importance. “I think of that old research term ‘necessary but not sufficient.’ The degree is not less than your experience, but without that experience, it’s not enough.”
She pointed out that the Faculty offers several ways of facilitating this experience. Both the Arts Internship and Tri-Mentoring programs exist to provide practical knowledge and guidance within a selected field. While it’s best for students to involve themselves in co-curricular activities as early as possible, it’s never too late.
“My sense is that students walk around with the feeling that there is a single mistake they can make that will doom their entire future,” Naylor said. “Every small decision you make has the potential to be a career decision.”
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