50th ANNIVERSARY
Newsletter of the College of Liberal Arts
No Better Career Base than a Liberal Arts Education
T
he humanities have always been a fundamental part of the University of Southern Indiana, and instrumental to those programs was Dr. James Blevins, both in the beginning and over the course of his 34 years with the University. He Joined the faculty of Indiana State University-Evansville (ISUE) in 1966 as assistant professor of English, becoming an associate professor and then professor before being named the first chair of the Division of Humanities. Blevins believed in the study of liberal arts as a way of providing students with the kind of education they could always use. “I’ve often heard CEOs say that they want people who can reason, communicate and be flexible. I can’t think of a better education to promote those qualities than an education in the liberal arts,” he said. A true teacher, Blevins was instrumental in organizing USI Society for the Humanities, a group of about 200 community and University members who worked together to extend the influence of the humanities programs to the community. Among the programs he initiated that benefitted both students and community members were: RopeWalk Writers Conference (now New Harmony Writers Workshop), Center for Communal Studies, Historic Southern Indiana, Historic New Harmony and New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art. These community ties also earned him the 1994 Mayor’s Arts Award. In 1988, the Division of Humanities became the School of Liberal Arts, and Blevins was named its dean. During his entire tenure at the University, he played a leading role implementing and developing liberal arts programs as the institution grew. The end of the 80s was a time of theatrical growth for the University as it assumed management of New Harmony Theatre in 1988 and a year later began producing plays at Lincoln Amphitheatre. At the time, Blevins said USI was the only university in the country to produce two professional theatres. His love of theatre was a driving force behind the effort and energy to create the Theatre Program that began in 1970. It has since grown into a stellar program that now produces plays in the state-of-the-art Performance Center on the USI campus. As an art lover and life-long educator, Blevins was always on the search to bring students good material and discover ways to get them to interact. Aside from theatre, he developed and taught a much-loved film class for 15 years.
Dr. Blevins visited New York City regularly, often taking in several plays in a week.
Before the Liberal Arts Center was constructed in 2000, faculty and staff were spread out across campus. The new structure—equipped with cutting-edge technology in a studio theatre, foreign language labs, music studio, lecture halls, and more—brought faculty and staff back under one roof, fulfilling a long-time goal of Blevins. When Blevins arrived at the University in 1966, there were 893 students attending and 17 faculty and administrators, and by the time he retired the University had expanded to nearly 9,012 students with 420 faculty. While there were once a handful of programs offered in 2000 within the College of Liberal Arts, there are now 25 undergraduate degrees and five master’s degrees. The College has come a long way in 50 years, but one thing has remained constant, a liberal arts education still provides an exceptional foundation for a multitude of career paths.