Disucussion for September 6 session - click "Edit" to add your notes/questions, then "Save":

Questions from Tom:

• What does Harkavy mean by "Platonism", and why does he regard it as a problem in American universities?

• Many academics would argue that there is no realistic alternative to "commodification". Being labor-intensive, the research & teaching that are the primary activies of universities keep getting more expensive. Meanwhile, government support for these activities has been flat, or decreasing. And tuition income has risen as fast as the market will bear. Universities have been able to maintain their quality primarily by getting private money -- gifts (which often have hidden strings), contracts, and industrial affiliate programs. This is "commodification". What could Harkavy say in response?

• Graduate students are trained to be expert in very specialized domains, and to teach somewhat more broadly. Is it realistic to expect faculty to be less discipline-focused when that's what they've been taught? Wouldn't Harkavy's reforms of higher education have to start with graduate education?

• It's not hard to get university administrators to see that they have an interest in the well-being of the immediate communities in which they are situation (as in the case of Penn and West Philadelphia). But it's harder to argue that it's in the university's interest to invest resources into more distant communities -- even when they're as close as East Palo Alto is to Stanford. How might a case be made for universities to serve communities they are not embedded in?

• What inducements would lead universities to accept a more "engaged" role, along the lines Rice advocates? There are obvious material rewards for academics who do work that is commericially useful, so in a free market, universities will become more engaged -- but not in doing the kind of service work Rice, Harkavy, and others would like them to. Rather, academic work becomes "commodified" (in Harkavy's terms). Should the government be imposing conditions on universities that receive their funds? Or should money now going to scientific research be redirected towards more community-oriented work? In short, how do we get from here to there?

Questions from Todd

• R. Eugene Rice's "The Struggle for New Meanings"

• "..egged on by generous foundation support.." (p. 1) - Why? Who is driving this?

• "..major turning points have come about every 50 years.." (p. 2) - Really? Major turning points in what exactly?

• "..the number of doctoral degrees granted between 1960 and 1970 tripled, and the prestige of being a professor rose significantly" (p. 3) - How and why did this happen? What have been the effects?

• "Quality is maintained by peer review and professional autonomy" (p. 3) - What is the rationale?

• "..discipline-based departments" (p. 3) - Why?

• "Yet rarely have members of the academy succeeded in discovering the emerging issues and bringing them vividly to the attention of the public." (p. 4) - Is this true? If so, what accounts for it?

• p. 5: What are the characteristics of..
  • the "collegial culture"?
  • the "managerial culture"?

• Does faculty reward structure have to be a "one size fits all" model?

• What universities/colleges are cited as innovative in expanding definition of scholarship? What do they have in common?

• Diagram p. 6: Why do prestigious universities seem to most value the lower right corner?

• How does the "expert model" (p. 7) get in the way?

• What is "noblesse oblige" (p. 7) in an academic context?

• Can non-academics be part of peer review?

• How do discussions about the purpose of scholarship affect decisions made by students?

• What is the "Noah principle"? (p. 8) Is it ironic given recent events?

• Are community-based research and service with producing cutting edge research?

• Ira Harkavy's "The Role of Universities in Advancing Citizenship and Social Justice in the 21st Century":

• In what ways are academic and democratic values consonant? Opposed?

• "..the university is the Messiah of democracy.." (p. 6, quote from William Rainey Harper) - What about the more traditional vision of the Messiah and of the belief many hold that society should be governed by God?

• "..our particular form of democratic self-government" (p. 11, quote from Alexander Astin) - Are universities governed democratically? Are they models for society?

• What is platonization, according to Harkavy? (p. 12) How did it gain such a hold on universities?

• "When universities openly and increasingly pursue commercialization, it powerfully legitimizes and reinforces the pursuit of economic self-interest by students and contributes to the widespread sense among them that they are in college solely to gain career skills and credentials." (p. 14) and "by their obvious preoccupation with enhancing their resources and reputations and in a variety of other ways, universities strongly contribute to their students' accepting the values of materialism, competitiveness, and individualism" (p. 18) - Is this a legitimate criticism? What is wrong with "materialism, competitiveness, and individualism"? Does the financing mechanism of education contribute to materialist goals in education?

• What are "disciplinary isolation" and "siloization" (p. 15)?

• Does heightening "cognitive dissonance" (pp. 17-18) about universities' behavior and their higher purpose necessarily imply that action will be brought more in line with antecedent values?

• What are the features of Penn's approach to building democracy?

• Are faculty getting research articles out of Penn's community-based research? How is it affecting Penn's standing among universities?

• Universities like Stanford and Penn have massive resources. Why do we need to be more exclusive? With the Internet, couldn't we be educating many more people?

• An underview question: What if we already mostly know how to build strong communities, obviating new research, and that the bottleneck is resources at a higher jurisdictional level (e.g. Federal)? Could Penn's approach work with this possibility?

• Presidents' Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education:

• "We believe that the challenge of the next millenium is the renewal of our own democratic life and reassertion of social stewardship." - What does this mean?

• Stanley Fish's "Why We Built the Ivory Tower":

• Who benefits if Fish's perspective carries the day? Who benefits if his perspective loses out?

• What might cause someone to agree with Fish's perspective? Or the opposite?