Honors 398 H
What are we all supposed to be doing here on a university campus? What are our aims and purposes? To whom do we owe their successful pursuit? How shall we balance the demands of teaching, research, and service that have arisen and will continue to arise in the 21st century? In this course we will reflect on the challenge of academia to deliver on its promise to inform and serve its various constituents and stakeholders. Throughout the semester, our concerns will divide along two general fault lines. These can be presented as themes: (1) the university as a place of public purpose and service; and (2) the university as a place of values and a value-added experience for those who are a part of it.
With respect to the first of these themes, such questions arise as: How is the history of the American university, originally conceived with religious underpinnings, related to its contemporary mission as an institution that is to serve a diverse public in a pluralistic society?; Does the plurality of our constituents impose any constraints on the manner in which knowledge is pursued?; Should “academic freedom” ever have any limits?; What ought the role of research be at a university (and at which kind of university)? How do we negotiate the funding of public and private support for research, and who owns the rights to the fruits of such research, once borne? Are we, in essence, a grand think tank, here to produce and disseminate new information for the world to consider, or a well-organized training factory poised to prepare and “credential” professionals to enter the work-force, or an institution of liberal education focused on “learning for learning’s sake,” or rather, some combination of these? If some combination, then what combination? If we are here to educate not just the privileged, but all who wish to advance their well-being by participating in the university experience, what does this imply about our responsibility as a society to make higher education accessible and affordable? Just what, precisely, is the nature of our responsibility to the public?
The second theme invokes the issue of what we value in this place, as well as the question of what value higher education adds to the well-lived life, which in turn gets us into questions about our identity, normative commitments, and politics. What should we do at a university that we do not or cannot do elsewhere? What, exactly, is “education” and why is it a good thing? This is all to ask: how do we go about determining the content of higher education, particularly when what is being taught in our classrooms poses challenges to the various worldviews that are often markedly different than those typically found on a university or college campus. For example, what arguments are available for defending the pursuit of scientific knowledge when that knowledge rubs up against values espoused by practitioners of particular religious traditions? How do we get past the “culture wars” that pervade our classrooms? Finally, what is the relationship between education and citizenship? What moral expectations ought we to expect universities to promote among its administration, faculty, and students?
In the course of pursuing these two clusters of questions, we will read several classical and contemporary thinkers who have written on the problems facing higher education, including: Plato, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Dewey, Thomas Jefferson, John Henry Cardinal Newman, A. Bartlett Giamatti, David Goodstein, Donald Kennedy, Clark Kerr, Derek Bok, Bill Cronon, George Marsden, and Jane Smiley. It is plainly apparent from this list that the course will have an interdisciplinary flavor to it, venturing onto fields as diverse as education, history, sociology, philosophy, religious studies, and even some of the hard sciences, particularly when we cover issues surrounding research. As such, this course will expose students to several disciplines by way of addressing a series of ubiquitous, seminal questions about the place at which they have chosen to spend a few years of their lives.
The purpose of this course is to bring an exciting and important new course into the curriculum and to expose students to the benefits of taking a team-taught course where one of the instructors is the president of the university. This aim has several benefits, for example: it will (1) give students the chance to grapple self-reflectively with issues about higher education that directly concern them; (2) promote conversations across the disciplines; (3) create a unique opportunity for interaction between the student body and the faculty and administration; (4) raise the standards of intellectual rigor and academic breadth in our classrooms; and (5) open sessions of the seminar to the general community of the university. Additionally, we fully expect our course to have ramifications in terms of influencing some of the policies that Chico State University will consider adopting or reconsidering in the future. To be sure, this course is intended to have “real-world” implications and will, over the course of a semester, precipitate a “learning community” consisting of representatives at the highest level of administration, faculty in various departments, students, and several, nationally renowned leaders in higher education.
Course Requirements consists of three papers of 5-6 pages, which are due at the end of each of the three units, and a class participation grade, which includes attendance and a written component. The papers will each count for 25% and the class participation grade will be 25% as well. In the three papers, you will be asked to interpret, and optionally criticize or develop the ideas that emerge from the readings. We expect you to put significant effort into these and will say more about them before the first one is due. A word on class participation: each week, you should come prepared, with readings in hand, at the beginning of every class. You must also come with a typed sheet of paper with a series of discussion questions (and, if you wish, additional reflections) that occur to you based on your preparation for that week’s class. You will hand these in each class, except for the three sessions on which papers are due. This will all be part of your class participation evaluation. You are expected to be in attendance at every session. There are no exceptions to this rule. Unless you have an extreme emergency, you must be present.
The reading is substantial and at times will be difficult. Do not panic. It is our job to help you to understand the major concepts and authors’ arguments, and we will go out of our way to answer any questions that you may have. Please consider, however, that adequately understanding these authors requires effort on both of our ends. Passages that are especially difficult will become more accessible to you if you have already struggled through them on at least one prior occasion on your own. Finally, enjoy yourself! The books you will be reading are not only historically important in terms of the development of higher education, but they are also profoundly engaging and, correspondingly, will serve as springboards for exciting class discussions throughout the semester.
Grading breaks down as follows:
25% First paper (5-6 pages)----due end of Part I (October 2nd)
25% Second paper (5-6 pages)---due end of Part II (November 6th)
25% Third paper (5-6 pages)---due end of Part III (December 18th)
25% Class Participation---including attendance, class discussion, and written class discussion questions to be submitted each session.
Another Word on Class Participation
Each week you will be expected to consult three websites in order to acquaint yourselves with the current debates pertaining to higher education. The websites are:
We will likely begin each period discussing some of the “hot-button” issues mentioned in these sites that are relevant to our topic for the week. We see this course as an exercise in self-reflection. As such, we want you to come to class prepared to contribute actively to these conversations.
(1) Derek Bok, Our Underachieving Colleges (Princeton University Press, 2006)
(2) Bowen, William G.; Kurzweil, Martin A. and Tobin, Eugene M. Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education (University of Virginia Press, 2005)
(3) George Marsden, The Soul of the American University (Oxford University Press, 1996)
(4) Jane Smiley, Moo (Flamingo, 1996)
(5) Course packet, to be purchased at Mr. Kopy, 119 Main Street, Chico
Part I
Week 1 (August 28th): Introduction to Course---Roles and Purposes in Higher Education in a Democratic Society
Week 2 (September 4th): The History of Higher Education and the Advent of the American University
Reading:
Arthur Levine, “A Chronological History of Undergraduate Education: From Ancient Greece to the Present,” (Course Packet)
Plato, Socrates’ Apology (translated by Benjamin Jowett), (Course Packet)
Benjamin Franklin, “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania” (1749), (Course Packet)
Week 3 (September 11th): University Education and Democracy---The Values of Civility, Community, Reason, Respect, and Academic Freedom
Reading:
John Dewey, “Democracy and Education,” (Course Packet)
Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to Peter Carr,” (Course Packet)
George Marsden, The Soul of the American University (pp.3-96)
Week 4 (September 18th): The Role of Religion on the University Campus--- Sectarian and Non-sectarian Models
Reading:
Thomas Jefferson (excerpts), “Publicly Supported Education” (Course Packet)
George Marsden, The Soul of the American University (pp.99-262)
Week 5: (September 25th): Education, Religion, and the “Elusive Ideal” of Academic Freedom
Reading:
George Marsden, The Soul of the American University (pp.265-444)
Donald Kennedy, Academic Duty, Chapter 1 “Academic Freedom, Academic Duty” (Course Packet)
Week 6 (October 2nd): The Goals of Liberal Education
Reading:
William Cronon, “Only Connect…”, (Course Packet)
Cardinal John Henry Newman “Scope and Nature of University Education,” (Course Packet)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “On Education,” (Course Packet)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar,” (Course Packet)
Paper #1 is due
Week 7 (October 9th): The University and its Obligation to the Public; Funding for Higher Education
Reading:
A. Bartlett Giamatti, A Free and Ordered Space, selections, (Course Packet)
Clark Kerr, “The Idea of a Multiversity,” (Course Packet)
The California State University Budget (Chico and CSU system) (hand-out)
Week 8 (October 16th): Higher Education and Justice---Can we aim for Excellence and Equity?
Reading:
William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil, Eugene M. Tobin, Susanne C. Pichler, eds. Equity And Excellence In American Higher Education, pp. 13-259
Week 9 (October 23rd): Are We Meeting Our Objectives?---Learning to Think, Read, Write, and Become good Citizens
Reading:
Derek Bok, Our Underachieving Colleges (pp.1-193)
Week 10 (October 30th): The University as Preparation for the World and for a Career
Reading:
Derek Bok, Our Underachieving Colleges (pp.194-344)
Week 11 (November 6th): The Political University: Culture Wars, Public Discourse and Civility
Reading:
Judith Rodin and Stephen Steinberg, eds. Public Discourse in America, Introduction: “Incivility and Public Discourse” and Part 6: “Creating Community through Public Discourse” (Course Packet)
Paper #2 is due
Week 12 (November 13th): The American University, Research, and Ethics
Reading:
Donald Kennedy, Academic Duty, “To Discover;” “To Publish;” “To Tell The Truth;” (Course Packet)
David Goodstein, “The Big Crunch,” (Course Packet)
David Goodstein, “Conduct and Misconduct in Science,” (Course Packet)
Week 13 (November 20th): Life on the Campus---A Critical (and Comical) Look at the “College Experience”
Reading:
Begin Jane Smiley, Moo
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 14 (December 4th): Discussion of Campus life: Constructive Suggestions for Improvement?
Reading:
Finish Jane Smiley, Moo
Week 15: (December 11th) Discussion of Town and Gown Relations; Course Wrap-up.
Reading: to be announced
December 18th: Paper #3 is due