Joining the Real World

"The philosophers have interpreted the world," wrote Karl Marx. "The point, however, is to change it." That, in essence, is the purposeful goal of higher education put forward by a new self-study report of the emphatically non-Marxist University of Oklahoma. Published this month, the document argues that it is time for universities to abandon the ideal of aloof scholarship that analyzes but never commits to action, that describes but never defines moral values. The true goal of the university is to become "passionately involved in questions of spiritual and moral values in the real world."*

The most recent of many wide-ranging college self-studies--others have been produced by Fordham, Berkeley, Bennington, Northwestern, Swarthmore and Columbia--the Oklahoma report was directed by the university's unacademic new president, J. Herbert Hollomon, 49. A metallurgical engineer and a former Acting Under Secretary of Commerce, Hollomon was given a year to learn his job before being formally inaugurated. To find what he ought to do, he enticed 572 people, including students, faculty, alumni, legislators and business and cultural leaders, to work on the report. The study touches on matters as mundane as how to collect student rents, as fundamental as defining what the university of today must do.

Myths to Existentialism. The report faces up to student complaints that higher education has drifted into irrelevancy. One key recommendation is that the university be organized so flexibly that it can quickly create new colleges addressed to contemporary problems, then dissolve them when need or interest wanes. The study recommends the creation of five such colleges as soon as possible. One might be devoted to action on urban problems, another to social philosophy, with related courses ranging from the study of ancient myths to existentialism.

The report also urges the university to organize temporary ad hoc courses on such questions as Viet Nam or Black Power, now found mainly in student-run "free colleges." Without spelling out how to arrive at the answers, it also suggests that the university should frankly tackle major student concerns: "the problems of sex, the nature of love and the applications of ethics, morality, politics and law to life." This might tax a professor's teaching ability, but it should also prove rewarding. The study recommends that professors' promotions be based on an evaluation of their teaching skill by their colleagues--a rare practice now--as well as research scholarship.

Constitutional Government. Oklahoma also proposes to combat the "loneliness, frustration and lack of meaningful participation" that pervades many campuses by splitting its big campus (current enrollment: 15,500) into small congenial groups. Freshmen, who need more counseling and personal attention, would live in housing units holding 50 students, upperclassmen in groups of about 250. The housing units would largely shape and enforce their own social regulations. A central student congress would have almost a free hand to gov ern student activities and suggest changes in any university-wide policy. The power relationship between the student congress, the faculty senate and the administration would all be spelled out in a university constitution--a relatively simple notion that few major campuses have attempted to carry out.

Instead of chasing every available federal research dollar, the report suggests, the university should look inward and accept only those projects that will directly relate to its own goals. As part of an involvement in pragmatic off-campus problems, the report proposes that the university enter into contracts with private industry in order to introduce new ideas and inventions, such as new ways to dispose of industrial wastes. The university would supply the expertise, while the company would offer its management savvy and resources. Once an innovation was shown to be feasible, the university could move on to another company, and another contract.

*An opposing view was expressed last week by Professor Jacques Barzun, former provost of Columbia University, who complained that universities are so involved in action projects that they are turning into "public utilities" instead of scholarly institutions. "The university is getting to resemble the Red Cross, with direct help to whoever is suffering now."

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