The Franklin Chronicles

Our newest media platform is our blog, the Franklin Chronicles – Arts and Sciences Matters. A successor to our print magazine, The Franklin Chronicles, this blog allows us to continue to communicate the importance of the arts and sciences to an expanded audience through a variety of means – articles and announcements, video, news and opinion – to pick up the conversation of why the arts, humanities and sciences matter so much at this juncture in the history of our university, our nation and the world.

The ability to aggregate and prioritize disparate information based on history, the present and the future is as important as ever – though it has perhaps never been more elusive. It is becoming clear that the broad range of knowledge and critical thinking skills that are at the core of the liberal arts will be the key to progress on the enormous challenges ahead. Where we once transcended human capacity by landing on the moon, citizens are now locked in a struggle to re-imagine how we will continue to thrive on an increasingly crowded, resource-thin planet. Enter the arts, humanities and sciences.

What can one do with an English, biology, psychology, art or math major? The question is really, “what can’t one do?” The skills growing in value are the less tangible ones – leadership, creativity, communication, an ability to synthesize complex arguments, managing people and interests in overlapping constituencies. These skills are not gleaned in a vacuum, but through an extended exposure to a broad range of disciplines.

With 84 undergraduate majors and 76 graduate degrees across thirty departments, the Franklin College is organized into five broad divisions: Fine Arts, Social Sciences, Biological Sciences, Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the Humanities, along with several dozen centers, institutes and programs the cross disciplinary and college boundaries. The Franklin Chronicles is similarly organized to cut across these broad divisions, reconnecting them to capture the human-scale activity of Franklin students and faculty. As they pursue the thoughtful application of knowledge across disciplines – the constantly self-updating evolution that is a classical education – we’ll be here to share their stories and expand our mission. Arts and Sciences Matter, as never before.