Universitas: The Social Restructuring of American Undergraduate Education

232 Pages·1998·0.843 MB·English

by  Thomas E. Boudreau

UNIVERSITAS
The Social Restructuring
of American
Undergraduate Education
Thomas E. Boudreau
Foreword by John M. Carfora
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Boudreau,Tom.
Universitas : thesocialrestructuringofAmericanundergraduate
education / ThomasE.Boudreau ; forewordbyJohnM.Carfora.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0–275–95584–2(alk.paper)
1. Education,Higher—Aimsandobjectives—UnitedStates.
2. Education,Higher—UnitedStates—Administration. 3. Education,
Higher—Socialaspects—UnitedStates. I. Title.
LA227.4.B67 1998
378.73—DC21 97–23660
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:1)1998byThomasE.Boudreau
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe
expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:97–23660
ISBN:0–275–95584–2
Firstpublishedin1998
PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
TM
Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe
PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CopyrightAcknowledgments
ReprintedwithpermissionofSimon&SchusterfromTheAimsofEducationandOther
EssaysbyAlfredNorthWhitehead.Copyright1929byMacmillanPublishingCompany;
copyrightrenewed(cid:1)1957byEvelynWhitehead.
GratefulacknowledgmentisalsogiventoHarrietE.Whitehead(Mrs.T.NorthWhitehead)
forpermissiontocitefromTheAimsofEducationandOtherEssaysbyAlfredNorth
Whitehead.
Contents
Foreword by John M. Carfora vii
Preface xi
Introduction: Educational Agnostics—The American Campus
in Crisis 1
Part I: The Search for First Principles
1. Back to Basics: Revisiting Plato’s Republic 11
2. The Languaged Life of Learning: The Intersubjective
Imperative 29
3. Reconceiving the University: The Great Books Versus the
Great Debate 47
4. Rediscovering Atlantis: A Navigator’s Guide to Western
Civilization 61
Part II: Restructuring Undergraduate Education in the United States
5. Slaying the Sacred Cows: The Restructuring of the
University 77
vi Contents
6. Returning Home: The Odyssey of Learning 101
7. The Coming Global Campus: The Intercultural Imperative 123
8. The Groves of Akademos: The Campus as Community 145
Part III: A Vision of the University
9. A Vision of the University: The Importance of Leadership
on Campus 159
10. ‘‘The Illimitable Freedom of the Mind’’: Jefferson’s
University and the Federalist League 185
Conclusion: Universitas—Restoring the Whole 201
Postscript 207
Select Bibliography 209
Index 215
Foreword
When Tom Boudreau asked me to write the foreword to this book
I was somewhat surprised, for I knew that Tom had been consulted
by several prominent scholars familiar with his thinking and research
on the ideals, culture and realities of higher education. New books
on higher education always attract the excitement of distinguished
thinkers who anxiously want to participate in the debate about its
future in the United States and the impact that ‘‘future’’ might have
upon higher learning in other nations. Universitas attracted just such
attention long before its publication.
ThetimingofTom’srequestcouldnothavebeenmoreprovidential
asIhadjustfinishedreadingthe1966editionofTheUniversityinthe
ModernWorldbyLord(Lionel)Robbins,thendirectoroftheLondon
School of Economics and chairman of the British Committee on
HigherEducation.IwaspreparingcommentsIcouldeffectivelyincor-
porate into welcoming remarks for a group of faculty and senior uni-
versity officials from European and American campuses who had
gathered for acomprehensiveseriesof lecturesanddiscussionsonthe
ever-popularthemeof‘‘continuityandchangeinAmericanhighered-
ucation.’’ItwasmyplantocomplementideasoutlinedintheRobbins
work, a European classic that quickly received international acclaim,
withcommentsfromClarkKerr’sTheUsesoftheUniversity,oneofthe
mostinfluentialbooksonhighereducationwrittenthiscentury.
viii Foreword
In my welcoming address and subsequent lectures I also focused
uponthepowerfulviewsofKerrandRobbinsandfollowedwithare-
viewoftheideasofaselectgroupofthinkerswho,inmyopinion,have
helpedestablishthestandardbywhichscholarsjudgeinfluentialbooks
on higher education. Such a list would include the writings of Alfred
North Whitehead (The Aims of Education), John Henry Cardinal
Newman (The Idea of the University), Thorstein Veblen (The Higher
LearningInAmerica),RobertPaulWolff(TheIdealoftheUniversity),
Abraham Flexner (Universities, English, German, American), Robert
Hutchins (The Higher Learning in America),ChristopherJencksand
David Riesman (The Academic Revolution), William Bennett (To Re-
claim a Legacy), Ernest Boyer (The Undergraduate Experience in
America and The Academic Profession: An International Perspective),
ArthurLevine(WhyInnovationFails),AllanBloom(TheClosingofthe
AmericanMind),DerekBok(BeyondtheIvoryTowerandUniversities
andtheFutureofAmerica)andPageSmith(KillingtheSpirit:Higher
EducationinAmerica).Obviously,thisimpressivecollectionisneither
mutuallyexclusivenorcollectivelyexhaustive.
With permission from Tom Boudreau to outline ideas presentedin
Universitas for the purposes of my lectures, I presentedthesubstance
of Tom’s thinking to this very formidable audience. His ideas were
very well received, which did not surprise me; Tom and I had been
professionally involved in public discussions, debates and lectures
concerning the history, realities and future of higher educationinthe
United States and abroad for over a decade, so I was comfortable
with the nuances of the material and with Tom’s thinking. Without
pretense or a false sense of importance, the time had arrived to move
Universitas forward from the ‘‘esoteric’’ pages of a manuscript in
progress to the ‘‘exoteric’’ world of collegial examination.
Since 1993, Universitas has been shared and discussed with many
higher education administrators and faculty colleagues in the United
States and abroad. These demanding professionals—though not al-
ways in agreement with every view presented in Universitas—have
nevertheless found it to be a work of substance, reflection and pro-
fessional renewal.
It should be kept in mind that Universitas was primarily written
for students and parents who, in the opinion of Tom Boudreau, ‘‘of-
ten arrive at the university campus with very different expectations
fromthepresidingadministratorsandeducators.’’Heisreferringspe-
Foreword ix
cifically to parents and students who arrive at the academy with a
relatively favorable opinion of higher learning and who are genuinely
concerned with the affordability and overall quality of the under-
graduate experience. These students and parents arrive on campus
asking one fundamental question: Will this college or university pro-
videaninterestingandpersonallyrewardingundergraduateeducation
as well as one that will also provide the requisite foundation skills,
competenciesandknowledgetoobtainemploymentaftergraduation?
With this in mind, Universitas has received praise from students and
parents for having helped them prepare for their ‘‘immersion’’ into
the collegiate culture and the undergraduate experience.
WritingUniversitashasnotbeenaneasytaskforTom,asthe‘‘gen-
esis’’ of the book, as Tom has explained, came from the death of a
friend and soldier in the Persian Gulf War. Though most of the first
draftwaswrittenduring1991,formorethanayearthemanuscriptwas
reviewedatlengthbyfacultycolleagues,universityadministratorsand
a variety of other higher education professionals who were invited by
Tomtocritiquehiswork.Duringthistime,conflictinBosniaattracted
internationalconcern,andTomwaspulledawayfromthemanuscript
as he became actively involved helping the Bosnian people cope with
the ravages of war. He was only able to return to the manuscript in
1993–1994whileavisitingprofessoratSyracuseUniversityandduring
the spring of 1996 when a visiting assistant professor in the Political
Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Tom finished
Universitas in 1997, during his current appointment as visiting assis-
tant professor in Dispute Resolution at the School for Social and Sys-
temicStudiesatNovaSoutheasternUniversity.
As anyone who has authored a book knows intimately, it is a dif-
ficult enough process when you live in one place for the duration of
the writing, revision and publishing process. Having moved several
times since he began this book in 1991, it is a wonder that Tom
managed to finish Universitas, let alone produce such an interesting
and provocative work.
One final comment. A noted professor recently wrote to me that
‘‘Universitas is a highly reflective book—a work of personal and pro-
fessional renewal—that has helped me rethink the way I see my ‘re-
lationship’ to teaching, research, and the academy in general.’’ This
is important, if not essential, since how we, as professors and campus
administrators, see ourselves, view the complex academic systems we
x Foreword
manage and contemplate the future of higher learning will, in turn,
profoundly affect how we work to change ourselves, our learning
environments and the future of higher education.
JOHN M. CARFORA
Dartmouth College
Hanover, N.H.
Preface
In normal times, I would probably never write abook ontherestruc-
turing of American higher education. My usual area of academic ex-
pertise is in dispute resolution—specifically in international law and
diplomacy. Yet, as a reading of recent news headlines reveals, these
are not normal times: The razing of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of
the Soviet Union, genocide in the Balkans and the global ecological
crisis all indicate a world on the move in new and unanticipated di-
rections.
On a personal level, these headlines came home to haunt me on
the day, during the spring of 1991, when I learned that a young
friend, nineteen-year-old Pvt. Pat Wanke of the 101st Airborne, was
killed when his unit was sent back into Iraq after the Persian Gulf
War. This news shocked and saddened me as though a member of
my own family had died. I felt a special source of frustration, even
failure, since I had dedicated my professional life to the study and
prevention of war. Overwhelmed by feelings of sorrow, I couldn’t
read or even think about war and peace issues for weeks after the
news of Pat’s death arrived.
In this state of mind, I began to search for an affirmative interest
and topic that could help me deal with this despair. Fortunately, the
potential of higher education has always been a source of hope for
me. As a result, I began to muse on the ‘‘ideal undergraduate edu-
xii Preface
cation’’; and soon I was writing an article that grew into a large
manuscript and, finally, into this book.
So, in a very real sense, Universitas never would have been written
except for the personal tragedy of a young man’s death in the desert
after the Persian Gulf War. Pat’s death forced me to find new ways
of thinking about activities that are life-giving and nurturing of the
young—as well as of all of us. So, writing this book about education
has given me, once again, hope in the future, especiallyfortheyoung
embarking upon their university studies.
In this spirit, I hope that this book provides affirmative and con-
structive recommendations for unleashing the potential of higher ed-
ucation—particularly undergraduate education—for future students
and their teachers. Even though I am a professional educator, I ad-
mittedly didnotbeginthisbookasan‘‘expert’’ineducationaltheory
or reform. Yet, sometimes nonexperts see new possibilities missed by
the so-called specialists. Specifically, as a nonexpert, I began to ques-
tion the obvious and criticize conventions without fear of offending
my professional peers. I must confess that I have indulged in this
liberty to the fullest possible extent in the following pages.
Fortunately, since embarking upon this project, I have also devel-
oped considerable expertise in educational foundations and theory
alongtheway.ThemorethatIhavereadordiscussedwithcolleagues
fromdozensofcollegesanduniversities,themorethatIhaverealized
that there is profound dissatisfaction with the current status quo in
higher education. The time seem right for critical reflection and re-
form. I am confident that the issues that I raise in the following
chapters will not disappear until critical evaluation of, and serious
experimentation with, undergraduate education begins.
Since I have made my primary professional commitment to under-
graduate education, I am especially concerned about the actual ex-
periences of undergraduate students. Unfortunately, these
experiences often have little or no true relationship to thoseidealized
imagesofhighereducationheldbyparents,professors,administrators
or found in the glossy and picturesque pamphlets sent out by admis-
sions offices, which almost inevitably describe the undergraduate ex-
perience in highly imaginative, figurative and even fictional terms.
Hencearises my purpose in writingthisbook:Iamconvincedthat,
all too often, current educational policies and practices in American
institutionsofhigherlearningcontributetoanincoherent,disjunctive
and wasteful four-year experience for many undergraduate students.