As I performed and reviewed our interviews, I was amazed by the incredible quotes our interviewees provided us.  Some quotes I appreciate for their power and economy–their ability to make such a strong point in so few words.  Others I appreciate for their complexity–for our interviewees ability to articulate intense interrogations of the contemporary human condition and its relationship to the liberal arts at Geneseo from a pathetically inarticulate prompt.  For those people who want a brief synopsis of what we discussed in this project–and for those quotes that may not have found their way into our “creating conversations” page–here is a list of quotes I thought shed light and nuance into our project:

I don’t want to say music is a means of expression—because it’s not for everyone, but I think by attending to music and all the components that go into music, the performance of music, the consumption of music, the creation of music, recording music, live settings, different situations and places—coming at that from a sort of total understanding can help us not only better appreciate arts and the role of the arts in a person’s life, but also help us understand other people in a way that reading a philosophical or political text can’t quite get across. B. McCorkle

Musicologists that have been writing about music for decades still have this problem:  How do we use words to talk about something that’s kind of the opposite of words—its music because it can’t be put into words.  It’s challenging and so it’s not as formalized as literature.  B. McCorkle

There’s a history of culturally privileging the eye over the ear. B.McCorkle

You can touch a book, point to words, everyone knows what words mean generally.  In music it’s much more complicated. B. McCorkle

Geneseo does not provide sufficient access to art forms. B. McCorkle

With the growing push toward stem and have graduates be employed post-graduation, I feel like the idea of these thoughtful world citizens be nurtured in their four or five years here is something that’s really being left at the wayside. B. McCorkle

If we made a new gen ed course that every student had to take and we said that half the course-load would be staffed by adjuncts, it would never get approved.  If it’s so central to Geneseo’s mission—it should be taught by Geneseo faculty.  J. Behrend

The college shouldn’t hold [adjuncts] to the same standard because they aren’t investing in them.  J. Behrend

Any new course takes an awful lot of work.  J. Behrend

It’s not clear that we retain adjuncts that teach humanities. J. Behrend

What I found interesting in reading Locke, is how influenced some western philosophers are by native peoples.  Sometimes it’s a matter of whether you choose to be aware of that or not. J. Behrend

You can make an argument after Tuesday’s election that we need more liberal arts and more civic engagement. J. Behrend

Clearly we’re in an era of constrained resources for higher education—we’re still going to have to have a maximum amount of students here without a full staff—how do you go ahead and provide enough humanities sections to get people to graduate?  J. Behrend

You can’t have a west without a non-west.  You have to understand what the non-west or non-wests are.  The west only became as great as it did because it drew from the non-west—often in not so kind ways . J. Kirk

Wherever you get your humanities education its different and you can only enrich.          J. Kirk

I think we have about the right amount [of gen ed/liberal arts requirements].  It’s important to understand the difference in methodologies between the natural sciences and social sciences and humanities and languages.  J. Kirk

We need some people out there who know how different minds work and who have the capacity to cross those boundaries, otherwise I think there’s a tendency to just box in.  J. Kirk

The whole department could shrink or evaporate.  Any time you change something, there are so many moving parts nobody can envision. K. Asher

My favorite SOFI comment was “thanks for making this course almost enjoyable.  I wouldn’t try to make it enjoyable, that would be too frivolous, but I try to make it almost enjoyable. K. Asher

That was one of the ideas—there’d be a real common experience that tied the students together as well as an intellectual one too, to give them that background.  K. Asher

That’s a lot of tension on the faculty–what kind of change should happen, if any, and so on. K. Asher

So it’s really not out of a conservative western point of view, but really, you have to be academically responsible. K. Asher

If you hire someone to teach three courses, you’re getting close to a moral obligation to pay them a grown up salary.  K. Asher

The Arab Springs—we’re so fortunate in America to not have lived through any of these things, but at the same time it means that we don’t have any of that primary experience.  K. Zaslavsky

I don’t know if I’ve ever taken a course that had to do with understanding the current state of the world.  K. Zaslavsky

It’s issue of viewpoint—if you only get info from what you see as legitimate viewpoints—you’re formulating other viewpoints as illegitimate.  K. Zaslavsky

Everything I do has to relate to sociology in some way, if I’m spending my time wisely. K. Zaslavsky