In 1987, President Ronald Reagan famously went to the Berlin Wall, which had divided East and West Berlin for a generation, and he issued this plea to the Soviet Union鈥檚 leader: 鈥淢r. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!鈥� Two years and five months later, the wall came tumbling down, as did, not long afterward, the Soviet Union. There are many walls remaining today鈥攊ncluding some in higher education that we at the Carroll School and Boston College have been busy cracking.
I鈥檓 speaking of the thick and tall barriers between disciplines, schools, and departments. This edition of the聽Carroll Connection聽includes several illustrations of how we are hacking away at those walls鈥攎aking it possible for students to step across multiple boundaries.
There is, for example, the newest interdisciplinary studies program at Boston College鈥擬anaging for Social Impact and the Public Good. Sponsored by both the Carroll School and the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, it is the first such program at the University to cross borders between schools and their curricula.
Just two items below this message is聽a feature story about the Summer Management Catalyst Program. If you were to look for management students in a Catalyst class, you wouldn鈥檛 find any. That鈥檚 because all of the students are primarily liberal arts majors, mostly from the Morrissey College. They鈥檙e able to step across academic lines. They鈥檙e digging deeply into the major disciplines of management, integrating these ideas with the best of the liberal arts tradition.
With three Catalyst summers under our belt, we鈥檙e now exploring the possibility of creating a minor in management tailored specifically to students at other schools of the University.
Also featured here is聽the summer internship program of our Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action. It brings together students from both Carroll and Morrissey, young men and women with a shared interest in urban revitalization as well as real estate. They鈥檙e not just off on their own, working remotely with local organizations and firms. They鈥檙e also coming together regularly during the summer for rigorous academic work鈥�integrating聽(there鈥檚 that word again) fieldwork and classroom learning.
And then there鈥檚聽the annual Forbes Under 30 Summit coming to Boston next month. Boston College is serving as the conference鈥檚 academic partner through our Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship and the School of Social Work鈥檚 Center for Social Innovation. The collaboration between these two centers is one example of how entrepreneurship is serving as a focal point of convergence between our schools and students.
I can talk all day about many other border-crossing programs and initiatives鈥攕tories for future (and past) editions. And I can talk all聽测别补谤听about the imaginative, energetic, passionate, and top-rated faculty that is driving innovation at the Carroll School. Our professors are breaking down the silos and constantly finding new ways to engage our students at higher levels.
For now, I鈥檇 like to close with a word about the point of it all.
It鈥檚 about ideas. As I see it, we鈥檙e helping students work with a far more lively range of ideas and perspectives than they might otherwise encounter. We鈥檙e giving them the tools to use those ideas and discover new ones in the future, long past graduation. That鈥檚 regardless of whether their formal course of studies is finance or philosophy, anthropology or accounting.
Ideas are what add value to the work done by knowledge professionals of all kinds. They鈥檙e what separates people with broad (and deep) learning from those with narrow, technical skills. They are the seedbeds of true innovation. And you don鈥檛 find these ideas in one little box marked 鈥渄iscipline,鈥� 鈥渟pecialty,鈥� or even 鈥渟chool.鈥� Ideas are everywhere. They鈥檙e waiting to be found, integrated (did I use that word again?), and applied in fresh contexts.
To help people find the ideas, you have to knock down some walls. Or at least carve out openings so that our students can pass freely between the reimagined East and West Berlins of higher education.
Andy Boynton 鈥�78, P鈥�13
John and Linda Powers Family Dean
Carroll School of Management