Bradley Cooper’s (COL ’97) appearance at Georgetown was one of the liveliest and most popular on-campus speeches in recent memory. The A-list alum discussed topics ranging from college advice to underwear preferences. But one serious inquiry stood out from the otherwise light-hearted question-and-answer session. A student asked Cooper whether he felt his works redefined masculinity, citing roles of his that she thought diverged from normal male archetypes. Cooper and the audience laughed uneasily, as if she hadn’t asked a serious question. When it became obvious that she was serious, Cooper, in a roundabout way, made it clear that he hadn’t thought much about the subject, although he admitted that he was indeed helping to redefine masculinity. From Cooper’s answer, another question follows: if Georgetown graduates don’t think ethically about their work, what is the point of our Jesuit education?
In their Georgetown careers, most Hoyas take several classes related to ethical behavior to fulfill their philosophy and theology requirements. The University also emphasizes ethical thinking through programs like Pluralism in Action, and you can always catch a glimpse of our core values when they’re plastered on the outer wall of the ICC. Chaplains-in-residence and Jesuit professors can challenge our conceptions of spirituality and encourage ethical thinking. These factors all give our Georgetown education its unique ethical dimension.
And yet, I’ve seen little evidence that we apply this thinking to our lives outside the classroom. There’s a better chance that ethics will come up in a discussion about foreign policy than in one about our everyday lives. Even though students recognize how ethical thinking applies to law, literature, religion, and policy, they seem to disregard its application to their lives after college. In campus debates over our neighbors’ opposition to the 2010 Campus Plan, for example, I have yet to hear any students ask how we ought to treat our neighbors. Is the way we currently behave toward them fair and respectful? Is it becoming for students who are supposed to be women and men for others? A Georgetown student body that takes ethics seriously in its day-to-day life would behave very differently than how it does today.
Ethical thinking should also continue to influence us even after we leave Georgetown. Our alums go into almost every field imaginable, from accounting to zoology. While some of these careers seem more tied to ethics than others, every field requires ethical thinking and practice, as firms like Arthur Andersen and Goldman Sachs aptly demonstrate. As men and women for others, Georgetown graduates should be well-qualified to assess the consequences of their actions to themselves, others, and society, and to think objectively about how they practice their discipline. But if graduates do not incorporate Georgetown’s core values into their lives and careers after college, has the University succeeded in providing them with a liberal arts education?
Georgetown’s ability to successfully educate undergraduates in ethical thinking is absolutely crucial to its legitimacy as a Jesuit liberal arts university. Part of what students are paying for is growth that transcends commerce and arrives at the heart of what it means be human. This brings me to something else Cooper said. When asked about the value of a liberal arts education compared to other degrees in the field of entertainment, he provided an unexpected answer. He simply replied that a liberal arts education was not a detriment to working in Hollywood. While this is helpful knowledge, I had expected him to state reasons why a liberal arts education was especially useful in show business. After all, as an important cultural figure, it is beneficial for Cooper to understand the underlying philosophy and history of the culture which he is shaping. Taken together, Cooper’s answers suggest a serious failure on the part of the University.
It seems that students may not understand the meaning, and hence the value, of a liberal arts education and that they may have trouble translating the values that they discuss in class into actual practice. While the University uses a core curriculum, it does little to instruct students on the broader purpose of the liberal arts.
Many students find joy in discovering art, philosophy, or literature at Georgetown, but a true liberal arts education also results in a lifelong pursuit of truth, curiosity about the world, and practical wisdom. To accomplish this vital task, the University should seriously examine how practical living can be incorporated into courses as an integral part of the ethical education it offers. In the meantime, students should look for ways to apply what they have learned and contemplate their actions beyond the front gates.
