[Music]
the liberal arts is our most powerful
vaccine and antidote against isolation
alienation the stream ISM radicalization
and all of those behaviors that tend to
divide us the liberal arts can empower
us to be active collaborators and agents
of positive change
I’m Guillermo I also go by Dean Dean of
our College of Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences here at the Paul and up you
know Dean’s do a quite a bit of
recruiting and today I would like to
recruit your help in reimagining the
liberal arts beyond its traditional
well-established value my hope is that
we may collectively acknowledge that the
liberal arts has a powerful meaning in
putting together collaboration now I
believe in leadership guided by
collaboration I am here today inspired
by the thinking of the faculty and staff
of my college yet I’m frequently
intrigued by the fact that we all talk
about the importance of collaboration
and yet in colleges and universities we
tend to go really shy in embracing it or
teaching it maybe it is because we
continue to celebrate what I call 20
century I shape people the specialist
people that know everything about
something instead of deshay people who
also know something about everything
a contemporary be true vien men a
Renaissance individual now many of you
know that my background is not in the
liberal arts I was interested in the
liberal arts but growing up in Lima Peru
long time ago I was told that that’s
something that only rich kids do
everyone else needs a real job now I
know that’s not true
but at that time I didn’t know better
and quite frankly I didn’t dare to
challenge my environment so that’s an
alternative I was directed towards
architecture and yes you can guess I
became a totally committed architect all
dressed in black and wearing very cool
glasses in architecture school I was
taught to collaborate to work with a
number of disciplines in the building
industry following very strict protocols
thought and took pride of understanding
my clients when I was designing a
hospital I thought I understood doctors
nurses patients if I was designing
school I thought I understood faculty
staff students but I was wrong I
understood organizational charts
processes procedures but not people
people are a lot more complex to
understand I am
to learn this in my case through a long
time and perhaps some regrettable
experiences that I would like to share
with you in 1978 there was a Maoist
doctrine that pursued the creation of a
communist this communist dictatorship
that started to emerge in universities
in lima the group pushing for that
doctrine later became known as the
terrorist group The Shining Path Sendero
Luminoso and and they wanted to
classroom time to spread the doctrine
now at that time I was member of student
government’s in my college and we were
really not interested on listening or
understanding what they have to tell us
their narrative at that time was not
aggressive yet but we thought that it
was going to take away time from our
design classes and instead of engaging
them intellectually in our classrooms
and lecture halls we turn around and
went back to our design studios we were
not alone with the exception of few
schools of Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences many did the same and two years
later in that group went and rudra at
about that time I graduated with my
bachelor degree in architecture and went
to the University of Toronto to get my
masters of architecture this was my
first experience in a location a
university where there was an
undergraduate liberal arts emphasis
which by the way it’s uncommon in most
places around the world it’s a very
North American thing and my
the sign work in the program was still
pretty good but I noticed that my
Canadian classmates had a deeper
understanding of the world they had an
insightfulness they were able to
articulate ideas in an amazing way and I
wanted to do that but I guess I was
feeling like an eye shape person someone
who knows everything about how to put a
building together but not a lot more
soon after I returned to Lima with the
idea of picking up where I left and to
my surprise I found that the Shining
Path was now engaged in a guerrilla war
in Lee I couldn’t understand what was
going on why things had evolved in that
direction
where were all of this going and I just
wanted to design I was an architect I
wanted to do architecture but my world
was constantly hit by exploding car
bombs or brought to a standstill by
citywide blackouts and in a city of six
million souls believe me that’s a scary
thing
or terrorized by strict shootings the
abduction of anyone who appeared to have
the money or the influence to serve the
cause or the assassination of those who
stand in the way of the terrorist so
with the feeling that there was nothing
I could do about it
in 1985 together with my wife who’s also
an architect we migrated to the
Netherlands the Netherlands took us in
and we pursued doctoral degrees at Delft
University of Technology there we lived
and worked not understanding why our
ten years later the College of
okay texture at Texas A&M made us an
offer we couldn’t refuse and we came
back to this side of the pond and this
time for the second time I was in a
place where I could have access to
courses in Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences and I decided I was going to
take advantage of it what fallows was
amazing and to understand what I mean I
would like to take you into an exercise
that explains what is a t-shape person
now this is an exercise that I conduct
here it’s experiential and I do it with
our first year honor students now you
may wonder why I pick up on that group
it’s not because they are honor students
it’s because they are freshmen and they
still do what we ask them to do I know
that with you arm I need to appeal to a
higher power so I’m gonna pull a Jedi
trick on you and tell you that this is
the part of my talk you have been
waiting for please stand up wherever you
are
go ahead this is Obi one asking you to
stand up and those of you that cannot
stand up follow as much as you can
wherever you are for those of you at
home if you are at the top of a ladder
painting a ceiling don’t follow my
instructions okay so first I’m going to
ask you to put your arms on your sides I
shape you’re getting a clue here and I’m
going to ask you to spin around three
times get set go
a one and A two and A three please
remain standing
okay so what what happened okay maybe
the professional dancers in the room got
to show off but not a lot happened now
let me ask you to spread your arms and
establish a t-shape you can go a little
bit high a little bit low and I’m going
to ask you to spin around again three
times get set go okay one okay oh I like
what you’re doing there okay all right
okay so so what happened obviously the
volume in the room went up this is some
fairy I know that but what’s important
for us to understand is that by having
to spin around you have to negotiate
your position in relation to the
position of someone else you have to
start talking you need to start
communicating
maybe arranging some choreographies out
there which actually were looking very
nice what’s important for us to
understand again is that you were
collaborating because you had a common
purpose but different positions
different perspectives different
opinions that God in the way of doing
open-arms symbolize the liberal arts
knowledge base it is our common
denominator it’s what allows us to
communicate it’s what allow us to
understand each other maybe even to be
empathic to each other see things from
the perspective of someone else and be
able to collaborate so going back to
it was after auditing a number of
courses at Texas A&M in the liberal arts
yes I was that assistant professor
sitting in the back of some of those 101
lecture halls that something happened I
was aware that the amount of new
knowledge I was taking in was not that
big actually was small I was not taking
many of those courses but its impact in
my understanding of the world was huge
it was like when you have a handful of
pieces in the puzzle
the last ones and they go into this
bigger picture and suddenly that image
emerges I started to understand
everything I understood what could be
all of those things I might have done
differently back in Lima that might have
changed my life and maybe the lives of
many others I started to be a t-shape
person and a passionate advocate of the
liberal arts in all our disciplines in
all our professions I believe that in
today’s world we need an abundant supply
of t-shaped people in the 20th century I
shape people work together to take us to
the moon in the 21st century we’re gonna
need t-shaped people to collaborate big
time to address what we called wicked
problems wicked problems are problems
that have very high social complexity
these are very large problems that are
systemic and are fluid and if we solve
part of the problem we may be triggering
the emergence of other problems or the
creation of other problems
good examples climate change poverty and
all its different manifestations and in
my opinion the worst hate and violence
violence in our schools violence in our
cities violence in the world we need to
raise our game the good news is that the
liberal arts can provide us not only
with a common denominator to collaborate
but with a maximum common denominator
that in term can maximize our ability to
communicate and to work together and to
collaborate the liberal arts can make us
not only active collaborators but
leading collaborators now we are at the
pole and of course it’s perfectly
natural for us to ask ok so what’s to be
my take in design disciplines we have
the design project and the design studio
the driving force in the physical
environment
we’re intent knowledge and skills are
articulated to create collaborative
products everything around us here is
product of a design studio at one time
or another in similar way I believe that
the liberal arts has the capacity to
develop multidisciplinary projects that
articulate purpose understanding and
advocacy in addressing the big
challenges and opportunities of the
future in doing so I believe and make a
call for the creation of collaborative
teaching learning environments where the
liberal arts may drive projects nested
inside courses taught by faculty from
different departments for students from
different mayor’s collaborating with
communities and Industry bringing us to
the frontline of our battle with the
wicked problems in order to achieve this
I’m going to be asking our students
beyond what’s going to be your mayor in
college what’s going to be the purpose
in life I will be asking our faculty how
can we make our academic silos more
permeable to each other how can we teach
together courses multidisciplinary
courses that are closer to purpose and
not only to the structure of our
programs and departments and last but
not least I’m going to be asking society
to dare to embrace the liberal arts
understanding that by doing that we will
be embracing humanity at its maximum
potential in that embrace I believe that
we will be able to transform isolation
into inclusion alienation into unity
extremism into moderation and
radicalization into sincere respect for
each other may the liberal arts be with
you [Applause]
the liberal arts is our most powerful
vaccine and antidote against isolation
alienation the stream ISM radicalization
and all of those behaviors that tend to
divide us the liberal arts can empower
us to be active collaborators and agents
of positive change
I’m Guillermo I also go by Dean Dean of
our College of Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences here at the Paul and up you
know Dean’s do a quite a bit of
recruiting and today I would like to
recruit your help in reimagining the
liberal arts beyond its traditional
well-established value my hope is that
we may collectively acknowledge that the
liberal arts has a powerful meaning in
putting together collaboration now I
believe in leadership guided by
collaboration I am here today inspired
by the thinking of the faculty and staff
of my college yet I’m frequently
intrigued by the fact that we all talk
about the importance of collaboration
and yet in colleges and universities we
tend to go really shy in embracing it or
teaching it maybe it is because we
continue to celebrate what I call 20
century I shape people the specialist
people that know everything about
something instead of deshay people who
also know something about everything
a contemporary be true vien men a
Renaissance individual now many of you
know that my background is not in the
liberal arts I was interested in the
liberal arts but growing up in Lima Peru
long time ago I was told that that’s
something that only rich kids do
everyone else needs a real job now I
know that’s not true
but at that time I didn’t know better
and quite frankly I didn’t dare to
challenge my environment so that’s an
alternative I was directed towards
architecture and yes you can guess I
became a totally committed architect all
dressed in black and wearing very cool
glasses in architecture school I was
taught to collaborate to work with a
number of disciplines in the building
industry following very strict protocols
thought and took pride of understanding
my clients when I was designing a
hospital I thought I understood doctors
nurses patients if I was designing
school I thought I understood faculty
staff students but I was wrong I
understood organizational charts
processes procedures but not people
people are a lot more complex to
understand I am
to learn this in my case through a long
time and perhaps some regrettable
experiences that I would like to share
with you in 1978 there was a Maoist
doctrine that pursued the creation of a
communist this communist dictatorship
that started to emerge in universities
in lima the group pushing for that
doctrine later became known as the
terrorist group The Shining Path Sendero
Luminoso and and they wanted to
classroom time to spread the doctrine
now at that time I was member of student
government’s in my college and we were
really not interested on listening or
understanding what they have to tell us
their narrative at that time was not
aggressive yet but we thought that it
was going to take away time from our
design classes and instead of engaging
them intellectually in our classrooms
and lecture halls we turn around and
went back to our design studios we were
not alone with the exception of few
schools of Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences many did the same and two years
later in that group went and rudra at
about that time I graduated with my
bachelor degree in architecture and went
to the University of Toronto to get my
masters of architecture this was my
first experience in a location a
university where there was an
undergraduate liberal arts emphasis
which by the way it’s uncommon in most
places around the world it’s a very
North American thing and my
the sign work in the program was still
pretty good but I noticed that my
Canadian classmates had a deeper
understanding of the world they had an
insightfulness they were able to
articulate ideas in an amazing way and I
wanted to do that but I guess I was
feeling like an eye shape person someone
who knows everything about how to put a
building together but not a lot more
soon after I returned to Lima with the
idea of picking up where I left and to
my surprise I found that the Shining
Path was now engaged in a guerrilla war
in Lee I couldn’t understand what was
going on why things had evolved in that
direction
where were all of this going and I just
wanted to design I was an architect I
wanted to do architecture but my world
was constantly hit by exploding car
bombs or brought to a standstill by
citywide blackouts and in a city of six
million souls believe me that’s a scary
thing
or terrorized by strict shootings the
abduction of anyone who appeared to have
the money or the influence to serve the
cause or the assassination of those who
stand in the way of the terrorist so
with the feeling that there was nothing
I could do about it
in 1985 together with my wife who’s also
an architect we migrated to the
Netherlands the Netherlands took us in
and we pursued doctoral degrees at Delft
University of Technology there we lived
and worked not understanding why our
ten years later the College of
okay texture at Texas A&M made us an
offer we couldn’t refuse and we came
back to this side of the pond and this
time for the second time I was in a
place where I could have access to
courses in Liberal Arts and Social
Sciences and I decided I was going to
take advantage of it what fallows was
amazing and to understand what I mean I
would like to take you into an exercise
that explains what is a t-shape person
now this is an exercise that I conduct
here it’s experiential and I do it with
our first year honor students now you
may wonder why I pick up on that group
it’s not because they are honor students
it’s because they are freshmen and they
still do what we ask them to do I know
that with you arm I need to appeal to a
higher power so I’m gonna pull a Jedi
trick on you and tell you that this is
the part of my talk you have been
waiting for please stand up wherever you
are
go ahead this is Obi one asking you to
stand up and those of you that cannot
stand up follow as much as you can
wherever you are for those of you at
home if you are at the top of a ladder
painting a ceiling don’t follow my
instructions okay so first I’m going to
ask you to put your arms on your sides I
shape you’re getting a clue here and I’m
going to ask you to spin around three
times get set go
a one and A two and A three please
remain standing
okay so what what happened okay maybe
the professional dancers in the room got
to show off but not a lot happened now
let me ask you to spread your arms and
establish a t-shape you can go a little
bit high a little bit low and I’m going
to ask you to spin around again three
times get set go okay one okay oh I like
what you’re doing there okay all right
okay so so what happened obviously the
volume in the room went up this is some
fairy I know that but what’s important
for us to understand is that by having
to spin around you have to negotiate
your position in relation to the
position of someone else you have to
start talking you need to start
communicating
maybe arranging some choreographies out
there which actually were looking very
nice what’s important for us to
understand again is that you were
collaborating because you had a common
purpose but different positions
different perspectives different
opinions that God in the way of doing
open-arms symbolize the liberal arts
knowledge base it is our common
denominator it’s what allows us to
communicate it’s what allow us to
understand each other maybe even to be
empathic to each other see things from
the perspective of someone else and be
able to collaborate so going back to
it was after auditing a number of
courses at Texas A&M in the liberal arts
yes I was that assistant professor
sitting in the back of some of those 101
lecture halls that something happened I
was aware that the amount of new
knowledge I was taking in was not that
big actually was small I was not taking
many of those courses but its impact in
my understanding of the world was huge
it was like when you have a handful of
pieces in the puzzle
the last ones and they go into this
bigger picture and suddenly that image
emerges I started to understand
everything I understood what could be
all of those things I might have done
differently back in Lima that might have
changed my life and maybe the lives of
many others I started to be a t-shape
person and a passionate advocate of the
liberal arts in all our disciplines in
all our professions I believe that in
today’s world we need an abundant supply
of t-shaped people in the 20th century I
shape people work together to take us to
the moon in the 21st century we’re gonna
need t-shaped people to collaborate big
time to address what we called wicked
problems wicked problems are problems
that have very high social complexity
these are very large problems that are
systemic and are fluid and if we solve
part of the problem we may be triggering
the emergence of other problems or the
creation of other problems
good examples climate change poverty and
all its different manifestations and in
my opinion the worst hate and violence
violence in our schools violence in our
cities violence in the world we need to
raise our game the good news is that the
liberal arts can provide us not only
with a common denominator to collaborate
but with a maximum common denominator
that in term can maximize our ability to
communicate and to work together and to
collaborate the liberal arts can make us
not only active collaborators but
leading collaborators now we are at the
pole and of course it’s perfectly
natural for us to ask ok so what’s to be
my take in design disciplines we have
the design project and the design studio
the driving force in the physical
environment
we’re intent knowledge and skills are
articulated to create collaborative
products everything around us here is
product of a design studio at one time
or another in similar way I believe that
the liberal arts has the capacity to
develop multidisciplinary projects that
articulate purpose understanding and
advocacy in addressing the big
challenges and opportunities of the
future in doing so I believe and make a
call for the creation of collaborative
teaching learning environments where the
liberal arts may drive projects nested
inside courses taught by faculty from
different departments for students from
different mayor’s collaborating with
communities and Industry bringing us to
the frontline of our battle with the
wicked problems in order to achieve this
I’m going to be asking our students
beyond what’s going to be your mayor in
college what’s going to be the purpose
in life I will be asking our faculty how
can we make our academic silos more
permeable to each other how can we teach
together courses multidisciplinary
courses that are closer to purpose and
not only to the structure of our
programs and departments and last but
not least I’m going to be asking society
to dare to embrace the liberal arts
understanding that by doing that we will
be embracing humanity at its maximum
potential in that embrace I believe that
we will be able to transform isolation
into inclusion alienation into unity
extremism into moderation and
radicalization into sincere respect for
each other may the liberal arts be with
you [Applause]
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