| Show By An Idea Man In Transition The American university is in It can be more than an abstract principle set apart from social But it may also be an integral part of the determination of that change as well as an institution shaped and fashioned by the forces interacting within American universities have been structured with an almost paternal which has prevented individuals within the institution from acting out of context with prevailing social During the past few society has experienced a broadening at the same a fragmentation of existing patterns which have vastly the current development of the The enormous influx of the rising costs of the remaking of the university into a vast business enterprise packaging students with the appropriate intellectual tools for a professionally deficient society and most important in the final analysis the tremendous demand for greater specialization of students in professional fields have produced an educational direction unique to the The same paternal spirit continues to direct the university towards the satisfaction of these new social The situation created by the university's response to social demand is in many ways contrary to the values which universities of the past have tried to Foremost among these values is the value of more general of Education is administered today in terms of Often the technical student finds his program filled with so many courses related to his later job requirements that his education in more generalized or unrelated subjects is superficial and Several questions bear merit of our Is the present direction of Amer- ican universities Are we prepared to surrender the ideal of the past to the technical demands of the Can the functional role of today's specialized university meet the challenge of the international situation which we as citizens of a troubled world must now A chasm is opening between the philosophically educated idea man and the technically educated man of As each learns less about the field of the communication becomes increasingly more Developing problems seem trivial and but this in itself is only The problem is not yet manifest in its most insidious Both the idea man and the man of function will become susceptible to being grossly The idea man may fail to accurately judge the values of technical data and The man of function will be increasingly susceptible to every political perversion that comes on the national When this nation reaps the harvest of its own demands for there will be no avoiding the responsibility for failure to provide the common base for communication generalized It is still a matter of but strongly indicated by our current academic that the institution bearing the brunt of national criticism will be the American university an institution whose proud idealism has bowed be-Jore social Robert S. Clark |
