College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be - Second Edition 9780691246383

Table of contents :
CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
INTRODUCTION
ONE. WHAT IS COLLEGE FOR?
TWO. ORIGINS
THREE. FROM COLLEGE TO UNIVERSITY
THREE. FROM COLLEGE TO UNIVERSITY
FIVE. BRAVE NEW WORLD
SIX. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
SEVEN. AFTER THE PANDEMIC
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX

Citation preview

More praise for College “At a time when many are trying to reduce the college years to a training period for economic competition, Delbanco reminds readers of the ideal of demo­ cratic education. . . . ​The American college is too impor­tant ‘to be permitted to give up on its own ideals,’ Delbanco writes. He has underscored ­these ideals by tracing their history. Like a ­great teacher, he has inspired us to try to live up to them.” —­Michael S. Roth, New York Times Book Review “The book does have a thesis, but it is not thesis-­ridden. It seeks to persuade not by driving a stake into the opponent’s position or even paying much attention to it, but by offering us examples of the experience it celebrates. Delbanco’s is not an argument for, but a display of, the value of a liberal arts education.” —­Stanley Fish, New York Times “A thoughtful, literate, and gracefully written reminder of what higher educa­ tion needs to be.” —­Elizabeth R. Hayford, Library Journal “Well researched, succinct, and eloquently written, this ­little book should be in ­every library in ­every institution of higher learning.” —­Choice “[College] ­will give a lot of plea­sure to anyone who cares about undergraduate education. It offers a fascinating history of the creation and growth of US colleges and universities, some sombre reflections on the tension between the desire of many universities to be known as ­great research institutions and the needs of their undergraduates, and some angry thoughts about the way in which elite education reinforces economic in­equality. . . . ​Delbanco writes with the exasperated energy of a radical assistant professor half his age, and displays an unforced affection for undergraduate students that is deeply engaging and permeates the book with an infectious optimism about the possibilities of liberal education in spite of all the obstacles that he lists.” —­Alan Ryan, Times Higher Education “Delbanco explores American higher education in a manner befitting a scholar of Melville and the Puritans, with a humanist’s belief in lessons from history and in asking what the right ­thing is to do.” —­Clare Malone, American Prospect “Delbanco’s recent book is to be praised, for it reminds us that college should be about character formation and not a surrender to a customer ser­vice men­ tality that inflates accomplishments to please ­future employers, placate doting parents and repair fragile egos. . . . ​Enlightening.” —­Robert J. Parmach, Amer­i­ca “[An] eloquent book—­a combination of jeremiad, elegy and call to arms.” —­Alan Cate, Plain Dealer “[College] gives a clear picture of all the forces, both within and outside the university, working against the liberal arts.” —­Joseph Epstein, Weekly Standard

“[Delbanco] makes a plea for the ­great intangibles of a college education.” —­Katharine Whittemore, Boston Globe “­Those who love traditional colleges and universities, but also recognize the imperative of reducing inequalities in income and opportunity, confront a profound moral and intellectual challenge. Andrew Delbanco, one of our most humane and rigorous scholars, has turned his energies to this conun­ drum in his elegant and eloquent book. He writes that ‘it is an offense against democracy to presume that education should be reserved for the wellborn and the well-­off.’ That is where all of our debates must start.” —­E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Our Divided Po­liti­cal Heart “The special quality of this book stems from its firm grounding in the history of higher education. The result is a work that leads us to look with suspicion on claims that our colleges are deteriorating, challenges us to think anew about other trends that are often viewed as pro­gress, and reminds us of the subtler aims achieved by teaching at its best.” —­Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University “An intelligent, nonbombastic look at the state of higher education, College is a hugely useful primer for pre­sent and ­future faculty members, and their students. It should be read by ­every provost and dean, and by anyone responsible for maintaining a flourishing democracy. Delbanco’s pen is neither dipped in the nostalgia for the golden days that never ­were, nor brushed with the cynicism that embitters ­those who have accepted the culture of universal commodification. This is a lively, engaging, and impor­tant book.” —­Mary P. McPherson, president emeritus of Bryn Mawr College and executive officer of the American Philosophical Society “As a defense of liberal education, the humanities, and elite residential colleges, this book offers a more balanced and articulate argument than recent works on higher education and the professoriate. An easy read that is clear, varied, literate, and in­ter­est­ing, this book makes the reader think.” —­James Axtell, College of William & Mary “This terrific book is wonderfully direct and engaging, and full of well-­chosen historical examples and relevant quotations. Delbanco’s love of learning comes through clearly. He eloquently articulates and defends a certain ideal conception of the undergraduate experience and rightly makes us worry about the prospects for preserving it.” —­Michael McPherson, The Spencer Foundation

ANDREW DELBANCO

COLLEGE What It Was, Is, and Should Be Second With a newEdition afterword by the author

PRINCETON UNIVERSIT Y PRESS Princeton and Oxford

Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press Copyright Published © 2023 2012 Princeton University Press, 41Press William Street, Chapter 7 by © by Princeton University Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Published by Princeton, New Princeton Jersey 08540 University Press, 41Press William Street, Published by Princeton University 41 William Princeton, In the United New Kingdom: Jersey 08540 PrincetonPress, University Press, 6Street, Oxford Street, Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the Woodstock, United Oxfordshire Kingdom: Princeton OX20 99 Banbury Road, Oxford OX21TW 6JXUniversity Press, 6 Oxford Street, Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, In the UnitedOxfordshire Kingdom: Princeton Woodstock, OX20 1TWUniversity Press, 6 Oxford Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 press.princeton.edu Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved press.princeton.edu Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved First 2012 with a new afterword by the author, 2014 New published paperbackin edition, All Rights Reserved press.princeton.edu First 2014 New paperback Paperback ISBNedition, 978-0-691-16551-6 with a new afterword by the author, 2014 New paperback with a new afterword by the author, 2014 All Rights Reserved Second edition, 2023 Paperback ISBNedition, 978-0-691-16551-6 Library of Congress Control Number 2014953719 Paperback ISBN 978-0-691-16551-6 New paperback with Number a new afterword by the author, 2014 Paperback ISBNedition, 9780691246376 Library of Congress Control 2014953719 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Library of Congress Number 2014953719 Paperback ISBN 978-Control 0-691-16551-6 E-book ISBN 9780691246383 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro and Trajan Pro British Library Catalogingin-Number Publication Data is available 2014953719 Library of Congress Control 2022949922 This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro and Trajan Pro Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ This book has been composed in Garamond Premier Pro and Trajan Pro British Library Catalogingin-Publication Data is available Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America Printed onhas acidfreecomposed paper. ∞ in Garamond Premier Pro and Trajan Pro This book been Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in United States∞of America onthe acidfree paper. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 9 8 in 7 the 6 5United 4 3 2States 1 of America Printed 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The true college will ever have one goal—not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes. —W.E.B. DuBois

To my students

CONTENTS CONTENTS



Preface to the Paperback Edition

xi

First Edition  xi xvii Preface toxi the Paperback Edition

xi

Introduction Preface xvii 1 ONE

What Is College1 For? Introduction

9

TWO ONE

OriginsIs College 36 What For?

9

THREE Origins From College TWO 36 to University

67

FOUR From Who Went? Goes? Who67Pays? THREE CollegeWho to University

102

FIVE FOUR

Brave New World 125 Who Pays? Who Went? Who Goes?

102

SIX FIVE

What New Is to Be Done?125 150 Brave World

SIX SEVEN

Afterword to New178 Paperback Edition What Is toPandemic  Bethe Done? 150 After the

179

Acknowledgments 187 Afterword to the New203 Paperback Edition

179

Notes 207 191 Acknowledgments 243 Index 223 Notes 191

Index 223

187

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

When colleagues heard that I was writing a book about college, they would sometimes ask me why. It seemed to me a surprising question, like asking a doctor why she is interested in hospitals and patients, or an architect why he cares about buildings and the people who live or work in them. It is true that most books on this subject are written by scholars who study it as a professional specialty, or by retired presidents who have led one kind of academic institution or another. So why would a professor of American literature distract himself with it? Occasionally, the question even carried a hint of suspicion or disapproval, as if I were losing interest in my “field.” I have two answers, which seem worth stating here at the outset of the book that I ended up writing. The first can be stated very briefly. Undergraduate education—how its purposes and practices have been expressed and enacted—is a fascinating part of America’s history. I hope this book will convey some sense of that fascination. xi xvii

Preface Preface to the First Edition

The second answer is a little more extended, and requires a story. Soon after I arrived at Columbia University twenty-six years ago, a meeting of the college faculty was called to discuss the latest budget crisis. (There is always a crisis—but this one was especially severe.) At that meeting, the president of the university announced that the deficit in the budget of the arts and sciences division, of which the undergraduate college is a main part, was growing so rapidly that he had no choice but to urge an end to Columbia’s policy of “need-blind admissions” in order to rein in expenditures on financial aid. As a new arrival, I was unfamiliar with most of my new colleagues, but I recognized a number of distinguished faculty in the room. One by one, they rose in protest. They said that the president’s proposal would not stand. They said that the policy of need-blind admissions expressed a basic value: that our college must be open to any qualified applicant regardless of financial means. A motion was made, and passed by acclamation, that the faculty would give back a percentage of its scheduled salary raise to be paid into the pool of funds reserved for financial aid. The president retreated, and the need-blind admissions policy was retained. Of course, I voted yes. Like Ishmael in Moby-Dick, “I was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs.” And, like Ishmael vowing to join the hunt for the white whale, I had no idea of what I was saying. On my way across campus after the meeting, I confessed to myself that need-blind admissions, though it sounded like justice and fairness and goodness itself, was for me just a slogan. I had no grasp of what it meant. Where did the idea come from? Who decides who needs what? What does the policy cost? How is it paid for?

xii xviii

Preface to the First Preface Edition Preface

I don’t think my ignorance was unusual. Faculty often know next to nothing about how the institutions in which they work became what they are, how they are organized, where the lines of authority begin and end, or just about anything else outside their home department or division. In some ways, this disconnectedness is a good thing. It allows the freedom to concentrate on whatever subject stirs the passion and made academic work exciting in the first place. But in other ways it is a problem, because it hinders faculty from participating in the life of their college or university as informed citizens. In the years following that meeting, I undertook to educate myself about American higher education so I could better understand certain central questions—not just about admissions and financial aid, but about curriculum, teaching techniques, the financial structure of academic institutions, and, more generally, the premises and purposes of college education. In so doing, I followed the principle that governs my own teaching—that in order to comprehend problems of the present, it is helpful to know something about the past. After a while, I organized a colloquium for graduate students—future faculty—to discuss the history, current state, and prospects for colleges and universities in the United States. With my colleague Roger Lehecka, former Columbia College dean of students, I also began to teach a course for undergraduates about equity and access in American higher education. Eventually, when I felt I had become reasonably informed about these issues, I began to write about them. This book is the result. I hope it will be a useful book not only for present and future college faculty, but for present and future college students as well. And at a time when Americans are bombarded with sound-

xiii xix

Preface Preface to the First Edition

bitesThe andsecond half-truths about and universities— abouta answer is a our littlecolleges more extended, and requires their lowI student pampered story.high Sooncost, after arrived achievement, at Columbia (putatively) University twentysix faculty, and so on— I also have had a broader audience in mind. years ago, a meeting of the college faculty was called to discuss It’s hope that crisis. anyone concerned witha crisis— what itbut means, the my latest budget (There is always this and one what it takes, to educate in ourthe republic will of find was especially severe.) At citizens that meeting, president thesome uniinterest here too. that the deficit in the budget of the arts and versity announced Newcollege York City sciences division, of which the undergraduate is a main September part, was growing so rapidly that he had no choice but2011 to urge an end to Columbia’s policy of “need-blind admissions” in order to rein in expenditures on financial aid. As a new arrival, I was unfamiliar with most of my new colleagues, but I recognized a number of distinguished faculty in the room. One by one, they rose in protest. They said that the president’s proposal would not stand. They said that the policy of need-blind admissions expressed a basic value: that our college must be open to any qualified applicant regardless of financial means. A motion was made, and passed by acclamation, that the faculty would give back a percentage of its scheduled salary raise to be paid into the pool of funds reserved for financial aid. The president retreated, and the need-blind admissions policy was retained. Of course, I voted yes. Like Ishmael in Moby-Dick, “I was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs.” And, like Ishmael vowing to join the hunt for the white whale, I had no idea of what I was saying. On my way across campus after the meeting, I confessed to myself that need-blind admissions, though it sounded like justice and fairness and goodness itself, was for me just a slogan. I had no grasp of what it meant. Where did the idea come from? Who decides who needs what? What does the policy cost? How is it paid for?

xiv xx xviii

COLLEGE

INTRODUCTION

Imagine a list of American innovations that would convey some sense of our nation’s distinctiveness in the world. Depending on the list-maker’s mood, it might include the atom bomb, jazz, the constitutional rights of criminal defendants, abstract expressionism, baseball, the thirty-year fixed rate mortgage, and fast food. Everyone would have a different version; but unless it included the American college, it would be glaringly incomplete. At least in a vague way, we all know this. Americans, particularly those in or aspiring to the middle class, talk about college all the time—from the toddler’s first standardized test, through the nail-biting day when the good or bad news arrives from the admissions office, to the “yellow, bald, toothless meetings in memory of red cheeks, black hair, and departed health,” as Ralph Waldo Emerson described his twentieth college reunion nearly two centuries ago (men aged more quickly in those days). The best week of the year for your local news vendor is probably the week U.S. News & World Report comes out with its annual college rankings 1

Introduction Introduction

issue. Rival publications from Playboy to Princeton Review peddle their own lists of best party colleges, best “green” colleges, best for minorities, best for cost versus value, and, of course, their versions of the best of the best. If you Google the word “college”—even if you screen out such irrelevancies as “electoral college” or “college of cardinals”—you run the risk of overloading your computer. When I tried it not long ago, I got 52,800,000 hits. Most of the chatter does little, however, to answer the question of what a good college is or ought to be. In fact, the criteria we use to assess the quality of a college—number of publications by its faculty, size of endowment, selectivity in admissions, rate of alumni giving, even graduation rates—tell very little about what it does for its students. In a New Yorker article not long ago, Malcolm Gladwell pointed out that faculty compensation, which is one standard measure of college quality, may actually have an inverse relation to faculty engagement in teaching—since the best-paid professors are likely to be at research universities, where 1 undergraduate teaching tends to be a sideline activity.1 Yet we use the terms “college” and “university” interchangeably. “She went to Michigan,” we say, or “he goes to Oberlin”— not bothering with the noun that follows the name, as if a college and a university were the same thing. They are not. They are, to be sure, interconnected (most college teachers nowadays hold an advanced university degree), and a college may exist as a division or “school” within a university. But a college and a university have—or should have—different purposes. The former is about transmitting knowledge of and from the past to undergraduate students so they may draw upon it as a living resource in the future. The latter is mainly an array of research activities conducted by faculty and graduate students with the aim of creating new knowledge in order to supersede the past. 2

Introduction Introduction

Both of these are worthy aims, and sometimes they converge, as when a college student works with a scholar or scientist doing “cutting-edge” or “groundbreaking” research—terms of praise that would have been incomprehensible before the advent of the modern university. More often, however, these purposes come into competition if not conflict, especially as one moves up the ladder of prestige. As the man who created one of the world’s great universities, the University of California, acknowledged with unusual honesty, “a superior faculty results in an inferior concern for undergraduate teaching.” It has been nearly fifty years since Clark Kerr identified this “cruel paradox” as “one of our more pressing problems.” Today it is more pressing than ever.22 But what, exactly, is at stake in college, and why should it matter how much or little goes on there? At its core, a college should be a place where young people find help for navigating the territory between adolescence and adulthood. It should provide guidance, but not coercion, for students trying to cross that treacherous terrain on their way toward self-knowledge. It should help them develop certain qualities of mind and heart requisite for reflective citizenship. Here is my own attempt at reducing these qualities to a list, in no particular order of priority, since they are inseparable from one another: 1. A skeptical discontent with the present, informed by a sense of the past. 2. The ability to make connections among seemingly disparate phenomena. 3. Appreciation of the natural world, enhanced by knowledge of science and the arts. 4. A willingness to imagine experience from perspectives other than one’s own. 5. A sense of ethical responsibility. 3

Introduction Introduction

TheseRival habitspublications of thought from and feeling aretohard to attain and peddle harder issue. Playboy Princeton Review to sustain. They cannot becolleges, derived best from“green” exclusive studybest of the their own lists of best party colleges, for humanities, the natural sciences, or the social sciences, and they minorities, best for cost versus value, and, of course, their versions cannot be of fully by the academic study, no matter of the best thedeveloped best. If yousolely Google word “college”— even if howscreen well “distributed” or “rounded.” It is absurd to imagine them you out such irrelevancies as “electoral college” or “college as commodities to berun purchased delivered your to student conof cardinals”—you the riskby ofand overloading computer. sumers. Ultimately they make themselves known not in grades or When I tried it not long ago, I got 52,800,000 hits. examinations butchatter in the does way we livehowever, our lives.to answer the quesMost of the little, encouraging and fostering them should be among the tionStill, of what a good college is or ought to be. In fact, the criteria aimsuseoftoa assess collegetheeducation, in the pages that I will we quality ofand a college— number of follow publications have critical things to say about how well we are doing at meeting by its faculty, size of endowment, selectivity in admissions, rate of this responsibility. been reluctant, however, to join thewhat hue alumni giving, evenI have graduation rates—tell very little about and cryfor that the condition of our colleges dire.long Everywhere, it does its students. In a New Yorker articleis not ago, Maland allGladwell the time— or so, at least, seems— we hear about which “admincolm pointed out thatitfaculty compensation, is istrative bloat, overpriced tuition, overpaid teachers, decadent faone standard measure of college quality, may actually have an 3 This crysince of crisis cilities, subpar educational experiences.” inverse and relation to faculty engagement in teaching— the is very old. As earlyare as 1776, Abigail Adams was writing to her bestpaid professors likely to be at research universities, where 1 husband that college students “complain that activity. their professor . . . undergraduate teaching tends to be a sideline is taken offuse by public business to their detriment, ” and that Yet we the terms “college” andgreat “university” interchangeeducation has “never been in ”a we worse a century ably. “She went to Michigan, say,state.” or “heMore goes than to Oberlin”— later, the president of noun Stanford University declared “the not bothering with the that follows the name, as ifthat a college most problem in same American is the and a pressing university were the thing.higher They education are not. They are,care to 4 It would not of underclassmen, the freshmen and sophomores.” be sure, interconnected (most college teachers nowadays hold be advanced difficult touniversity compile degree), a list of and similar laments stretching an a college may exist as a from divithe colonial period intoathe present.But a college and a university sion or “school” within university. So anyone whohave— writesdifferent about thepurposes. state of our has have— or should Thecolleges formertoday is about atransmitting boy-who-criedwolf problem. But that does not mean that the knowledge of and from the past to undergraduate wolf is not themay door. Theupon American is going through students so at they draw it as acollege living resource in the fu-a period oflatter wrenching change, buffeted by forces— globalization; ture. The is mainly an array of research activities conducted economic instability; ongoing revolution in creating information by faculty and graduatethe students with the aim of new technology; the increasingly evident inadequacy of K– 12 educaknowledge in order to supersede the past. 24

Introduction Introduction

tion;Both the elongation adolescence; the sometimes breakdownthey of faculty tenof these areofworthy aims, and converge, urewhen as anaacademic norm; works and, perhaps most important, colas college student with a scholar or scientistthedoing lapse of consensus about what students should know— that make “cutting-edge” or “groundbreaking” research—terms of praise its task morehave difficult contentious than everthe before. Forofnow, that would been and incomprehensible before advent the let me pause on just one of these what is sometimes modern university. More often,forces— however, these purposes called come the “casualization” “adjunctification” of the by up waythe of into competition ifornot conflict, especially as faculty— one moves the CEO of a hightech company who offers an ominous analogy. ladder of prestige. As the man who created one of the world’s great Once upon time, he says, thousands of pianists provided universities, theaUniversity of California, acknowledged with live unmusic in America’s moviefaculty theaters; then, oneinferior day, the technolusual honesty, “a superior results in an concern for ogy of the soundtrack arrived, allyears thosesince musicians undergraduate teaching.” It has and beensuddenly nearly fifty Clark went out of business except for “two piano players [who] moved Kerr identified this “cruel paradox” as “one of our more pressing to L.A.” toToday produce movie music. problems.” it is recorded more pressing than ever.2By analogy, course “content” (readings, sets,and quizzes, and the like) But what, exactly,lectures, is at stakeproblem in college, why should it matcan nowmuch be uploaded ontoon interactive instructors ter how or little goes there? Atwebsites, its core, aand college should hired, essentially as pieceworkers, to evaluate students’ work onbe a place where young people find help for navigating the terriline. People who, in the prepast, would haveprovide been teachtory between adolescence anddigital adulthood. It should guiders inbut college classrooms have to “go and do more productive ance, not coercion, forwill students trying to cross that treacherous 5 things”— as way thosetoward obsolete playersIthad to do.help terrain onjust their self-piano knowledge. should them It is no accident that scienceoriented institutions such as develop certain qualities of mind and heart requisite for reflective MIT and Carnegie Mellon are leading the way in developing citizenship. Here is my own attempt at reducing these qualities to new fororder “online” learning; and while, as former a list,technologies in no particular of priority, since they are inseparable Princeton president William Bowen puts it, these technologies from one another: have1.already proven their value forthe fields “whereinformed there is aby‘single A skeptical discontent with present, a right answer’ to many questions” (Bowen’s example is statistics), sense of the past. the 2. jury is out on to whether they can be among successfully adapted as a The ability make connections seemingly dispameans rate to advance genuinely humanistic education. As the Britphenomena. ish education scholar Wolfworld, writes,enhanced “we havebynot found 3. Appreciation of Alison the natural knowlany lowcost, high-technology edge of science and the arts.alternatives to expert human teachers”— at least not yet.6 4. A willingness to imagine experience from perspectives This specter, it is spreading across the landscape of other thanthough one’s own. higher education, will be only a shadow edging into view on the 5. A sense of ethical responsibility. 53

Introduction Introduction

periphery the story tofrom be told in thistobook. ThatReview is because my issue. Rivalofpublications Playboy Princeton peddle focusown is onlists theofsocalled colleges, so far been their best partyelite colleges, best which “green”have colleges, best for relatively immune to the gutting of the faculty that is already minorities, best for cost versus value, and, of course, their versions far advanced at more Yet the role of the best of the best. Ifvulnerable you Googleinstitutions. the word “college”— evenof if faculty is changing no college is impervious to you screen out such everywhere, irrelevanciesand as “electoral college” or “college thecardinals”— larger forcesyou that, depending one’s point ofyour view, promise of run the risk on of overloading computer. to transform, or threaten to undermine, it. As these forces bear When I tried it not long ago, I got 52,800,000 hits. down upon us, neither nor celebration will InMost of the chatter lamentation does little, however, to answer thedo. quesstead,ofthey seem to me to compel us to confront basiccriteria question what a good college is or ought to be. Insome fact, the tions the the purposes of a college education we useabout to assess qualityand of apossibilities college—number of publications at a time when there is more and more demand for it by its faculty, size of endowment, selectivity in admissions,and rateless of and less agreement about what it should be. In the face of these alumni giving, even graduation rates—tell very little about what uncertainties, this bookInisaan attempt state some fundamental it does for its students. New Yorkertoarticle not long ago, Malprinciples that have beenout inherited from compensation, the past, are under radicolm Gladwell pointed that faculty which is cal challenge in the present, and, in my view, remain indispensone standard measure of college quality, may actually have an able for relation the future. inverse to faculty engagement in teaching—since the the storyare begins, say a bit more about my best-Before paid professors likely Itoshould be at research universities, where 1 choice of emphasis. As tends one scholar it, over the history of undergraduate teaching to be aputs sideline activity. American higher education, “the pattern set by Harvard, Yale, Yet we use the terms “college” and “university” interchangeand Princeton  became that all over the counably. “She went . to.  .Michigan, ” we of say,colleges or “he goes to Oberlin”— 7 Along with handful of others, institutions have try.”bothering not withathe noun that follows these the name, as if a college established curricular norms, financial and a university were the sameadmissions thing. Theyprocedures, are not. They are, to aid principles, and even the rites and ceremonies of college life. be sure, interconnected (most college teachers nowadays hold However unhealthy thedegree), public obsession withmay them may or an advanced university and a college exist as abe, divihow or disproportionate attentionBut theya college command gross dission “school” withinthe a university. and(a a university proportion considering relatively smallThe enrollments), it rehave— or should have—their different purposes. former is about mains the case that it is these institutions through which the long transmitting knowledge of and from the past to undergraduate arc of educational history bestitbe And if in they students so they may drawcan upon asdiscerned. a living resource thehave fupeculiar understanding past, they wieldconducted considerture. Thesalience latter is for mainly an array of the research activities ablefaculty influence the present debatewith overthe which by andingraduate students aimeducational of creatingprinnew ciples should be sustained, adapted, or abandoned in the future. knowledge in order to supersede the past. 26

Introduction Introduction

But ifofmy institutional relatively narrow, have also Both these are worthyfocus aims,isand sometimes theyI converge, tried to keep in view the enormous diversity, as one writer puts it, as when a college student works with a scholar or scientist doing 8 One of of the “widely varying instances of what we call college.” “cutting-edge” or “groundbreaking” research—terms of praise the great strengths of America’s educational “system” is thatof it has that would have been incomprehensible before the advent the never really been a system all. There are roughly four thousand modern university. More at often, however, these purposes come colleges in the United rural, urban, asand into competition if notStates: conflict, especially onesuburban; moves upnonthe profit, forprofit; secular, religious; some small and independent, ladder of prestige. As the man who created one of the world’s great others within research some highly selective, universities, thelarge University of institutions; California, acknowledged with unothershonesty, that admit almost faculty anyoneresults who applies and hasconcern the means usual “a superior in an inferior for to pay. Over theteaching.” last twenty years or nearly so, I have moreClark than undergraduate It has been fiftyvisited years since aKerr hundred colleges of many kinds, which has helped, I hope, to identified this “cruel paradox” as “one of our more pressing 2 mitigate theToday risk ofit imagining them as close variations of the ones problems.” is more pressing than ever. I know But best. what, exactly, is at stake in college, and why should it matEvenmuch a quick thisonlandscape radically the ter how or scan little of goes there? Atreveals its core,how a college should meaning of college is changing, and how rapidly the disparities be a place where young people find help for navigating the terri9 For a relatively students, among institutions are growing. tory between adolescence and adulthood. It should few provide guidcollege the sortfor ofstudents place that Anthony Kronman, former ance, butremains not coercion, trying to cross that treacherous dean ofon Yaletheir Lawway School, recalls his daysItatshould Williams, terrain toward self-from knowledge. helpwhere them his favorite class took place at the home of a philosophy professor develop certain qualities of mind and heart requisite for reflective whose two golden slept onateither sidethese of the fireplace citizenship. Here is retrievers my own attempt reducing qualities to besideorder the hearth” whilesince the they sunset the Berka“like list,bookends in no particular of priority, arelitinseparable shire one hillsanother: “in scarlet and gold.” For many more students, college from means the anxiousdiscontent pursuit ofwith marketable skillsinformed in overcrowded, 1. A skeptical the present, by a underresourced institutions, where little attention is paid to that sense of the past. elusive entity sometimes the “whole person.” For still oth2. The ability to makecalled connections among seemingly dispaers, it means traveling by night to a fluorescent office building or rate phenomena. to a3.“virtual classroom” thatnatural exists only inenhanced cyberspace. is a pipe Appreciation of the world, byItknowldream edge to imagine thatand every of science thestudent arts. can have the sort of experience4.that our richesttocolleges, their best,from provide. But it is a A willingness imagineatexperience perspectives nightmare that affords othersociety than one’s own. the chance to learn and grow only to the wealthy, brilliant, or lucky few. Many remarkable teachers 5. A sense of ethical responsibility. 73

Introduction Introduction

in America’s communityfrom colleges, unsung privateReview colleges, and issue. Rival publications Playboy to Princeton peddle underfunded live thisbest truth everycolleges, day, working to their own listspublic of bestcolleges party colleges, “green” best for keep the ideal of democratic education alive. minorities, best for cost versus value, and, of course, their versions And so of it isthe mybest. unabashed aim in this book “college”— to articulateeven what of the best If you Google the word if a college— anysuch college— should as seek to do for its students. A you screen out irrelevancies “electoral college” or “college short statementyou of that be found inyour Johncomputer. Updike’s of cardinals”— runobligation the risk ofcan overloading last novel, Terrorist, about the son of an absentee Egyptian imWhen I tried it not long ago, I got 52,800,000 hits. migrant an Irish American motherto growing Rust Mostfather of theand chatter does little, however, answerup theinquesBelt of New Jersey. Thecollege boy isispersuaded bybe. a local imam he tion what a good or ought to In fact, the that criteria should learn thethe pieties and of number his father’s faith rather we use to assess quality of purities a college— of publications than expose himself to moral corruption in an American by its faculty, size of endowment, selectivity in admissions,college. rate of For different reasons, the boy’s mother also sees no need for her alumni giving, even graduation rates—tell very little about what son to for extend his student high school. the it does its students. In a days New beyond Yorker article not longWhen ago, MalcollegeGladwell counselor disagrees and faculty tries tocompensation, change her mind, colm pointed out that whichshe is asks, “What would he study at college?” The counselor replies, one standard measure of college quality, may actually have an “What studies— art, history. The storysince of maninverse anybody relation to facultyscience, engagement in teaching— the kind,paid of civilization. How we to gotbehere, what now?” bestprofessors are likely at research universities, where In the pagesteaching that follow, questions will1 be asked undergraduate tendsthese to be two a sideline activity. about “How“college” we got here, what now?” interchangeYetcollege we useitself: the terms and “university” ably. “She went to Michigan,” we say, or “he goes to Oberlin”— not bothering with the noun that follows the name, as if a college and a university were the same thing. They are not. They are, to be sure, interconnected (most college teachers nowadays hold an advanced university degree), and a college may exist as a division or “school” within a university. But a college and a university have—or should have—different purposes. The former is about transmitting knowledge of and from the past to undergraduate students so they may draw upon it as a living resource in the future. The latter is mainly an array of research activities conducted by faculty and graduate students with the aim of creating new knowledge in order to supersede the past. 28

ONE WHAT IS COLLEGE FOR?

One of the peculiarities of the teaching life is that every year the teacher gets older while the students stay the same age. Each fall when classes resume, I am reminded of the ancient Greek story of a kindly old couple who invite two strangers into their modest home for a meal. No matter how much the hosts drink, by some mysterious trick their goblets remain full even though no one pours more wine. Eventually, the guests reveal themselves as gods who have performed a little miracle to express their thanks. So it goes in college: every fall the teacher has aged by a year, but the class is replenished with students who stay forever young.1 For this and many other reasons, the relation between teacher and student is a delicate one, perhaps not as fraught as that between parent and child, or between spouses or siblings, but sometimes as decisive. Henry James captured it beautifully in a story called “The Pupil,” which is not about a college teacher but about a private tutor who has come to love the child whom he is trying to save from his parents: 9

One One

When he tried to figure to himself the morning twilight of childhood, so as to deal with it safely, he perceived that it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the instant one touched it, was already flushing faintly into knowledge, that there was nothing that at a given moment you could say a clever child didn’t know. It seemed to him that he both knew too much to imagine [the child’s] simplicity and too little to disembroil his tangle. Embedded in this passage is the romantic idea that the student possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the teacher’s task is to probe for the lever that releases knowledge into consciousness. In trying to make it happen, even—perhaps especially—a good teacher can sometimes seem brutal. The famously demanding Joseph Schwab, for example, who taught for years in the “Biological Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known for “putting one student in the hot seat for a while . . . working that person as thoroughly and creatively as possible before moving on to another.” One Chicago alumnus, Lee Shulman, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy hands, damp foreheads” and, to put it mildly, “an ever-attentive 2 demeanor.”2 This figure of the “tough love” teacher—think of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker or Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase—has become a cliché of our culture, and like all clichés, it contains some truth, though doubtless simplified and unduly generalized. It also seems less and less pertinent to the present. At most colleges today, a student experiencing such anxiety would likely drop the class for fear of a poor grade (compulsory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become rare), 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

and the teacher would risk a poor score on the end-of-semester 3 evaluations.3 Whatever the style or technique, teaching at its best can be a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to cheat death—by giving witness to the next generation so that what we have learned in our own lives won’t die with us. Consider what today we would call the original “mission statement” of America’s oldest college. The first fund-raising appeal in our history, it was a frank request by the founders of Harvard for financial help from fellow Puritans who had stayed home in England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite their mercenary purpose, the words are still moving almost four hundred years after they were written: After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the 4 churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.4 These mixed sentiments of faith and dread have always been at the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college commencement in the eyes of parents who watch, through a screen of memories of their own receding youth, as their children advance into life. College is our American pastoral. We imagine it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal thump of tennis balls or the clatter of cleats as young bodies trot up and down the fieldhouse steps. Yet bright with hope as it may be, every college is shadowed by the specter of mortality—a place where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 11

One One

weather and term,”tothe air is the redolent withtwilight the “OctoWhen he the triednew to figure himself morning 5 berish smell of cured of childhood, so asleaves.” to deal with it safely, he perceived that But what, exactly, is supposed to that happen in this at bittersweet it was never fixed, never arrested, ignorance, the place— beyond sunbathing and bodytoning and the competitive instant one touched it, was already flushing faintly into exertions, athletic and otherwise, for which are just knowledge, that there was nothing that these at a given mo-the preliminaries? First of all, shouldchild be said that the pastoral image ment you could say it a clever didn’t know. It seemed of college has little to do with what most college students experito him that he both knew too much to imagine [the encechild’s] today.simplicity A few years Michael S. McPherson, president andago, too little to disembroil his tangle. of the Spencer Foundation and former president of Macalester Embedded this passage is the romantic idea that of theWilliams student College, andinMorton O. Schapiro, former president possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the College (now of Northwestern University), pointed out that teacher’s taskliberal is to probe for the lever that releases knowledge “the nation’s arts college students would almost certainly into consciousness. fit easily inside a Big Ten football stadium: fewer than one hun6 trying tostudents make itout happen, perhaps million.” especially— a dredInthousand of moreeven— than fourteen good teacher canthe sometimes brutal. The famously demandSince then, numberseem of undergraduates has grown by ing Joseph Schwab, for example, who taughtwhile for years the “Bionearly a third, to around eighteen million, theinnumber in logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known liberal arts colleges—by which McPherson and Schapiro meant “putting one student in the hotis seat while . . . working aforfouryear residential college that not for parta of a big university, that person as thoroughly creatively possible before movand where most students and study subjectsasthat are not narrowly ing on to another.” One Chicago alumnus, Lee Shulman,remains former vocational such as nursing or computer programming— president of theMany Carnegie Foundation for the of about the same. college students today, of Advancement whom a growing Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy number are older than traditional college age, attend commuter hands, damp foreheads” and, to put itonmildly, “an everattentive or online institutions focused mainly vocational training. Of2 ten, they work andfigure go to of school at the same and take more demeanor.” This the “tough love”time, teacher— think of than years to their degree, they complete it at all. Anniefour Sullivan in complete The Miracle Worker orifProfessor Kingsfield in FivePaper years from now, students the United States The Chase— hasundergraduate become a cliché of ourin culture, and like all are projected to exceed million,doubtless and President Obama clichés, it contains some twenty truth, though simplified and wants togeneralized. accelerate the growth. Butless only a small fraction will atunduly It also seems and less pertinent to the 7 tend college in anything the atraditional sense of the such word.anxpresent. At most collegeslike today, student experiencing thedrop context, theforquestion remains: the ietyWhatever would likely the class fear of a poor gradewhat’s (compulpoint? My colleague Mark Lilla put the matter well not long sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become rare), 12 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

ago he spoke to the of Columbia College near and when the teacher would riskfreshmen a poor score on the endof-semester 3 the end of their first college year. He was talking, of course, to evaluations. students in a the college described Whatever stylecommonly or technique, teachingasat“elite.” its bestDivided can be aroughly generative act,between one of the waysmen by which humanthese beings try to equally young and women, students cheat death— by giving witness to the next generation so that were more racially diverse than would have been the case even what have ourinown livesborn won’tabroad die with us. Cona few we years ago.learned Aboutinone ten was or has some sider callwith the original statement” otherwhat claim,today suchwe as would a parent a foreign“mission passport, to be an of America’s oldest college. first it’s fundraising in our “international” student; and,The though hard to tellappeal the financial history, it was a frank request by the founders of Harvard for means of the students from their universal uniform of tee shirts financial fromone fellow Puritans who had stayed and jeans,help roughly in seven (a somewhat higher ratehome than in at England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite other Ivy League colleges) is eligible for a Pell grant, a form of their mercenary purpose, the words are still moving almost four federal financial aid that goes to children of low-income families. hundred years after they were written: As they filed into the lecture room, they gave each other the After Godthat hadsignify carriednew us safe to New England, and we had the public hugs friendships, or, in some cases, built our houses, provided our livelihood, mutually averted eyes that tellnecessaries of recent for breakups. They seemed reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled simultaneously fatigued and at ease. Once they had settled into civil out government, of the next wesome longed theirtheseats, came theone iPhones and things laptops, offor which and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it stayed aglow for the whole hour, though mostly they listened, posterity; tothe leave an illiterate ministry tohow the and rapt.toAnd when dreading Lilla made following surmise about churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.4 why they had come to college, they reacted with the kind of quiet laughter that meant they of knew heand wasdread tellinghave the truth: These mixed sentiments faith always been at the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college You figured, correctly, that to be admitted you had to excommencement in the eyes of parents who watch, through a ude confidence about what Americans, and only Ameriscreen of memories of their own receding youth, as their children cans, call their “life goals”; and you had to demonstrate advance into life. College is our American pastoral. We imagine you have a precise for achieving them. It was all it asthat a verdant world where plan the harshest sounds are the reciprocal bullshit; you balls knoworthat, I know that.asThe realbodies reasontrot thump of tennis the and clatter of cleats young you down were excited about college wasbright because youhope had as quesup and the fieldhouse steps. Yet with it may tions, buckets of questions, not life plans and PowerPoint be, every college is shadowed by the specter of mortality—a place presentations. My students have season convinced me that where, in that uniquely American of “fall andthey football 13 11

One One

are far less interested in getting what want than in When he tried to figure to himself thethey morning twilight 8 figuring out just it is that’s of childhood, so what as to deal with itworth safely,wanting. he perceived that was never fixed, never arrested, ignorance, at theon beNo it college teacher should presume to that answer this question one touched it, was alreadyheflushing faintly into halfinstant of the students, though, too often, or she will try. (Requiring knowledge, there wasa hazard nothingofthat a givenprofession.) modiscipleship has that always been the at teaching ment you could say a clever child didn’t know. It seemed Instead, the job of the teacher and, collectively, of the college, is to him that knewwork too of much to imagine helptostudents inhe theboth arduous answering it for[the themselves. child’s] simplicity andattoo little to disembroil hismany tangle. To be sure, students a college like mine have advantages. Elite institutions confer onromantic their students enormous benEmbedded in this passage is the idea that the student efits in thelatent competition for positions of leadership in business, possesses knowledge of ultimate things, and that the government, itself.that As soon as they are adteacher’s taskand is tohigher probeeducation for the lever releases knowledge mitted, even those without the prior advantage of money have into consciousness. already gotten getting what they want— thougha In trying toa boost make toward it happen, even— perhaps especially— not figuring what’s wanting. In goodnecessarily teacher cantoward sometimes seemout brutal. Theworth famously demandfact, for some, the difficulty of that rises in in proportion ing Joseph Schwab, for example, whoquestion taught for years the “Bioto the number ofcourse choicesat they have. Many college students are logical Sequence” the University of Chicago, was known away from their parents for thehot firstseat time, in working our age for “putting one student in the for although a while . . . of Facebook and Skype and Google Chat and the like, they are that person as thoroughly and creatively as possible before movnever away. Their seem limitless, but powerful ing onreally to another.” Onechoices Chicagomay alumnus, Lee Shulman, former forces constrain them, including what their parents want them president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of to want. Students under financial pressureclass face “fostered special problems, Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s clammy 9 but students privileged problems too.attentive hands, damp from foreheads” and,families to put ithave mildly, “an everCollege2isThis supposed a time whenlove” suchteacher— differences recede demeanor.” figuretoofbethe “tough think of if not vanish. The notion of shared selfdiscovery for all students is, Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker or Professor Kingsfield in of course, staple ofhas exhortations to freshmen just coming in and The Paper aChase— become a cliché of our culture, and like all valedictions to seniors about to go out—doubtless an idea invoked so often clichés, it contains some truth, though simplified and that it, too, has become cliché. In other unduly generalized. Itaalso seems less cultures, and less however, pertinentit would to the be an oddity. The colleges American college has always differed fundamenpresent. At most today, a student experiencing such anxtally from the European university, where students are expected to iety would likely drop the class for fear of a poor grade (compulknowcourses what they want (and they are capable ) beforerare), they sory of the sort thatwhat Schwab taught haveofbecome 14 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

arrive. is true even risk at the ancient English colleges ofsemester Oxford and theThat teacher would a poor score on the end-of3 and Cambridge, to which students apply around age seventeen to evaluations. “read” this or that once arrived, rarely Whatever the subject, style orand technique, teaching at venture its best outside can be their chosen field of formal study. By contrast, in America— a generative act, one of the ways by which human beingsintrypart to becausedeath— of ourby prosperity, which still exceeds of mostsoofthat the cheat giving witness to the next that generation rest ofwe thehave world— we try to extend the won’t time for chances what learned in our own lives diesecond with us. Conand to defer the day when determinative choices must be made. sider what today we would call the original “mission statement” In 1850, whenoldest Herman Melville, formal schooling ended at of America’s college. Thewhose first fundraising appeal in our age seventeen, that “a whaleship my Yale College and history, it was wrote a frank request by the was founders of Harvard for my Harvard, ” hefrom usedfellow the word “college” as the of home the place financial help Puritans who hadname stayed in where (to use our modern formulation) he “found himself.” England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite few years ago, I camethe across a manuscript diary— also, four as it theirAmercenary purpose, words are still moving almost happens, years from after 1850— kept by awritten: student at a small Methodist colhundred they were lege, Emory and Henry, in southwest Virginia. One spring eveAfter God had carried us safe to New England, and we had ning, after attending a sermon by the college president that left built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, him troubled and apprehensive, he made the following entry in reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled his journal: “Oh that the Lord would show me how to think and the civil government, one of the next things we longed for how to choose.” That sentence, poised somewhere between a wish and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it and a plea, sounds archaic today. For many if not most students, to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the God is no longer the object of the plea; or if he is, they probchurches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.4 ably do not attend a college where everyone worships the same god inmixed the same way. Many colleges began as denomiThese sentiments of American faith and dread have always been at national institutions; but today religion is so much a matter of the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college private conscience, of punishable infractions commencement in and the the eyesnumber of parents who watch, throughsoa small (even rules against theown academic sinyouth, of plagiarism are only screen of memories of their receding as their children loosely enforced), that fewiscollege presidents wouldWe presume to advance into life. College our American pastoral. imagine intervene in the private lives of students for purposes of doctrinal it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal or moral eraclatter of spiritual authority to thump of correction. tennis ballsThe or the of cleats as youngbelonging bodies trot college is longthe gone. And yetsteps. I have up and down fieldhouse Yetnever brightencountered with hope asa itbetter may formulation— “show me howbytothe think andofhow to choose”— of be, every college is shadowed specter mortality— a place what a college should strive to be: an aid to reflection, a place where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 15 11

One One

andWhen processhewhereby takethe stock of theirtwilight talents and tried toyoung figure people to himself morning passions and beginsotoassort outwith theiritlives in he a way that is that true to of childhood, to deal safely, perceived themselves and responsible to others. it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the instant one touched it, was already flushing faintly into

2knowledge, that there was nothing that at a given mo-

Many objections cansay bealodged against whatknow. I haveItjust said. For ment you could clever child didn’t seemed onetothing, all colleges, whatever their past or present religious him that he both knew too much to imagine [the orientation, now exist and in a context pluralism that propchild’s] simplicity too littleoftosecular disembroil his tangle. 10 erly puts inculcation at odds with education. Then there is the Embedded in thisarrive passage is the romantic idea that the student fact that students in college already largely formed in their possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the habits and attitudes, or, in the case of the increasing number of teacher’s task is to probe for the lever that releases knowledge “nontraditional” (that is, older) students, preoccupied with the into consciousness. struggles of adulthood—finding or keeping a job, making or In trying to make it right happen, even— perhaps Many especially— saving a marriage, doing by one’s children. collegea good teacher seem brutal. The famously demandwomen, who can nowsometimes outnumber men, are already mothers, often ing Joseph for example, taught for years in the “Biosingle. AndSchwab, regardless of age orwho gender or social class, students logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known experience college—in the limited sense of attending lectures, for “putting onetaking student in theashot seat forpart a while . . . working writing papers, exams— a smaller of daily life than that person as thoroughly and creatively as possible before did my generation, which came of age in the 1960s and 70s. movThey ing to in another.” One alumnus, Leeon, Shulman, former live on now an ocean of Chicago digital noise, logged online, booted president the Carnegie Foundation Advancement of up, as the of phrase goes, 24/7, linked to for onethe another through an Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy arsenal of gadgets that are never “powered down.” hands, dampjust foreheads” put itofmildly, “anin,everattentive Having survivedand, the to travails getting students in 2 selective colleges find themselves under instant and constant demeanor.” This figure of the “tough love” teacher— think of pressureSullivan to prepare forMiracle competing withorgraduates comparable Annie in The Worker ProfessorofKingsfield in colleges theyhas getbecome out. Those in openThe Paperonce Chase— a cliché of ouradmissions culture, andcolleges, like all many ofitwhom must copetruth, with though deficits doubtless in their previous schoolclichés, contains some simplified and ing, maygeneralized. not be able It to also compete what weless call pertinent the “same to level, unduly seemsatless and the” but theyAt aremost likelycolleges to feel even more pressure to justify the cost of present. today, a student experiencing such anxearning a credential inthe theclass hopefor that will give them fighting iety would likely drop fearit of a poor grade a(compulchance in postcollege life. In other words, college is less andrare), less sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become 16 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

a respite from what myrisk campus newspaper to call “the real and the teacher would a poor score onused the endof-semester 3 world.” This is true of colleges of all types and ranks. evaluations. It may also the be objected that there isteaching nothing at new any be of Whatever style or technique, itsabout best can an objection a good merit. Whenbeings the first athis— generative act, onewith of the waysdeal by of which human tryadto ministrators atby Stanford (foundedtointhe 1891) wanted to know cheat death— giving witness next generation so why that the new classinhad to enroll, heardus.mainly what we freshman have learned ourchosen own lives won’t they die with Conabout the California climate, the prestige of the new university, sider what today we would call the original “mission statement” 11 Twenty yearsinlater, andAmerica’s the (at that time) low living expenses. of oldest college. The first fund-raising appeal our the president Reserve a clergyman history, it wasofa Western frank request by University, the founders of Harvardwith for the wonderfully donnish name Charles Thwing, found home that stufinancial help from fellow Puritans who had stayed in dents were less interested in “hard reading and high thinking” England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite than acquiringpurpose, the “ ‘touch’ of college life”moving in orderalmost to impress their in mercenary the words are still four prospective employers. the same time, at Penn State, an hundred years after theyAround were written: English professor complained of being pestered with a recurrent After about God had uswhat safe toheNew we had question thecarried value of was England, teaching:and “Lissun, Prof, built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, how is this dope going to help a guy get a job and pull down reared convenient God’s worship, andeminent settled critic 12 Andplaces fifty for years after that, the a good salary?” the civil government, one of things we longed for for Lionel Trilling (who taught allthe hisnext life at Columbia, except and looked was toand advance learning and perpetuate it his visiting stints atafter Harvard Oxford) had come to feel that to posterity; dreading leave anasilliterate ministry to the students regarded collegeto“merely a process of accreditation, churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.4 with an economic-social end in view.”13 So mixed it’s an old and familiar story.and If we lookhave through thebeen eyes of These sentiments of faith dread always at fiction writers who set their stories and novels on a college camthe heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college pus, most of whatinwethe seeeyes in the looks a lotwatch, like the present.a commencement of past parents who through In Mark novel Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), a young man screen of Twain’s memories of their own receding youth, as their children goes up from smalltown Missouri to Yale, pastoral. and comes with advance into life. College is our American Weback imagine nothing to show except two new habits: drinking and gambling. it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal In EdgarofAllan “William Wilson” get a trot picthump tennisPoe’s ballsstory or the clatter of cleats as(1839), youngwe bodies ture of the University of Virginia besotted up and down the fieldhouse steps. as Yeta place brightwhere with hope as it boys may indulge round-istheclock gambling and whoring. Prettyamuch be, everyincollege shadowed by the specter of mortality— place the same scene is described 165 years later in Tom Wolfe’s novel where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 17 11

One One

I Am Charlotte Simmons in which students have their When he tried to figure(2004), to himself the morning twilight mouths fastened perpetually theitspigot beer kegthat except of childhood, so as to dealto with safely, of he aperceived when taking a break to have sex— though some seem capable it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the of doing bothone simultaneously. Andalready in a still more recent instant touched it, was flushing faintly novel, into The Askknowledge, (2010), by that Sam there Lipsyte, narrator college was the nothing that recalls at a given mo- in the 1970s as ayou time when and his housemates “drank local beer, ment could sayhe a clever child didn’t know. It seemed smoked homegrown and shake”: to him that he both knew too much to imagine [the child’s] simplicity and toothe little to disembroil his and tangle. Senior year I moved into House of Drinking Smoking, the cheap room . . . screwed bluethe bulb Embedded in took this passage is the romantic ideaathat student in the ceiling and slept there, mostly alone . . . drank in the possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the living a crew that included . . . guy . . . teacher’s task room is to with . . . probe for the lever that releasesa knowledge may or may not have been a student, though by dint intowho consciousness. of methtoaddiction have counted as an especially— apprenIn his trying make it could happen, even— perhaps a 14 tice chemist. good teacher can sometimes seem brutal. The famously demanding Joseph Schwab, forto example, who for years inof thefact. “BioSuch fictions tend be borne outtaught by recollections In logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known a recent oral history, the distinguished physician Spencer Forefor “putting one student in the hot seat for of a while . . . working man, who became the transformative leader New York’s Monthat person as thoroughly as possible beforehe movtefiore Hospital, describedand thecreatively small liberal arts college ating on to alumnus, Lee Shulman, former tended inanother.” the 1950sOne as a Chicago place where “the difference between the president of the for the of premeds and theCarnegie non-pre-Foundation meds” was that “theAdvancement pre-meds began Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy drinking Thursday night. Everybody else drank every night.”15 hands, dampalways foreheads” and,oftoaccounts put it mildly, “an everattentive One should be wary of college life that posit 2 some golden This age when went tolove” bed early and rose early, demeanor.” figurestudents of the “tough teacher— think of using night in to The refresh themselves sleep (solo, of course) Anniethe Sullivan Miracle Workerwith or Professor Kingsfield in for the lofty laborshas of the day toa come. been The Paper Chase— become cliché It of has ournever culture, andso.like all In fact, for much of itstruth, history, college was a quasi– penaland inclichés, it contains some though doubtless simplified stitutiongeneralized. where boysItwere by their parents toto “temunduly also“sentenced” seems less and less pertinent the 16 Only because could not affordsuch to repliporary custody.” present. At most colleges today, a they student experiencing anxcate would the quadrangle at Oxford Cambridge, with its iety likely dropsystem the class for fear and of a poor grade (compulstone walls and guarded gates, did the founders of Harvard build sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become rare), 18 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

a high around the risk yard— not so much keep the and and thefence teacher would a poor score onto the endof-cows semester 17 3 goats out as to keep the students in. Today we expect the oppoevaluations. site:Whatever that goingthe to college to be teaching released into style ormeans technique, at itsa playground best can be of unregulated freedom. a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to Thedeath— most obvious freedomsois,that of cheat by givinginstance witness oftothe theexpanded next generation course,wesex, which has in come longlives waywon’t fromdie thewith daysus. when it what have learned our aown Conwas a furtive extracurricular activity, as described in the novels sider what today we would call the original “mission statement” of F. Scott Fitzgerald or J. P.The Marquand, inraising whichappeal Princeton or America’s oldest college. first fundin our Harvarditboys, be matched some designated history, was waiting a franktorequest by thewith founders of Harvarddebfor utante, find relief with prostitutes or who servingor, as Philip financial help from fellow Puritans hadgirls; stayed home in Roth described it two generations later, when “coeds” were England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite “thrust up againstpurpose, the trunks trees are in the by boys despertheir mercenary theof words stilldark” moving almost four ate in those lastafter minutes before their dates had to return, alone, hundred years they were written: to their dorms. In most colleges, this is ancient history. A couple After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had of years ago, the Office of Residential Life and Learning at one built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, well-regarded northeastern college felt compelled to institute a reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled rule banning “any sex act in a dorm room while one’s roommate the civil government, one of the next things we longed for is present.”18 Presumably, exemption is granted to the roommate looked whoand wants to beafter partwas of to theadvance action. learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave ministryof tofreedom the Over the past half century oran so,illiterate this expansion 4 churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. has been the most obvious change in college life—not just sexual freedom, but sentiments what mightofbe called of demeanor These mixed faith andfreedom dread have always beenand at deportment, freedom of choice as fields and courses have vastly the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college multiplied, and, perhaps mostofimportant, freedom judgmenta commencement in the eyes parents who watch,of through as the of role of the college arbiter of values all but disapscreen memories of theirasown receding youth,has as their children peared. few colleges any pastoral. particularWe course for advanceRelatively into life. College is ourrequire American imagine graduation, and the course catalogue is likely to be somewhere it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal between encyclopedia the of proverbial Chinese menu— thump ofan tennis balls or theand clatter cleats as young bodies trot from choosesteps. a little this and littleasofitthat, up andwhich downstudents the fieldhouse Yetofbright withahope may unless they are majoring in one of the “hard” sciences, in awhich be, every college is shadowed by the specter of mortality— place case their range of choice is much narrower. where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 19 11

One One

This situation makes certain the ironies. Oldtwilight institutions When he tried to figurefor to himself morning invoke their own so antiquity in with theiritpromotional materials (“reof childhood, as to deal safely, he perceived that assuring printed matter, ” as Thorstein Veblen described it it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the long ago,instant by which “marketable illusions” are soldfaintly to theinto public), one touched it, was already flushing while within thethat institution, past isthat denounced a dark age knowledge, there wasthe nothing at a givenasmoof meddling presidents, and a faculty of “old ment youtrustees, could sayautocratic a clever child didn’t know. It seemed 19 Traces of boys” with benighted views of just about everything. to him that he both knew too much to imagine [the the child’s] reviled simplicity old collegeand survived tilltonot all that long ago. I can too little disembroil his tangle. remember when a full-time employee of the college library paEmbedded in this passage is the romantic that thesprawled student trolled the reading room tapping the shoesidea of students possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that back in their chairs with their feet on the table until they satthe up teacher’s task is to probe for the lever that releases knowledge (or, more likely, woke up) and planted them back on the floor. intoAll consciousness. that sort of thing has been thrown out with a hearty good In trying make it happen, even—perhaps especially— riddance—andtoyet, as one college chaplain wrote not long ago,a good canseem sometimes seem demandtoday’steacher students to “want tobrutal. retain The theirfamously hard-won autoning for example, who taught for years in the “Bio-a omy,Joseph whileSchwab, at the same time insisting that institutions assume logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known moral responsibility for protecting them from the consequences for “putting one student in the hot seathave for agiven while . . . working of that autonomy.” College authorities up their role that person thoroughly andwhen creatively as possible before of acting in as loco parentis, but trouble breaks out over,movsay, ing onincendiary to another.”“hate Onespeech, Chicago alumnus, Leeto Shulman, former some ” they still tend get blamed for president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of not parentally stepping in. If and when they do so, they are likely Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy to be indulgent. Except in the “hard” sciences, academic failure, hands, damp foreheads” and,is to putand it mildly, “an everattentive especially in elite colleges, rare; cheating, except in the 2 military academies, tendsoftothe be treated a minor lapse. think of demeanor.” This figure “toughaslove” teacher— Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker or Professor Kingsfield in The3Paper Chase—has become a cliché of our culture, and like all So college culture has undergone many deep changes— some slow clichés, it contains some truth, though doubtless simplified and to establish themselves, suchseems as the less advent elective courses unduly generalized. It also andofless pertinent to and the the end of chapel in athe late nineteenth century, othpresent. Atcompulsory most colleges today, student experiencing such anxers sudden, such as thethe abandonment the late iety would likely drop class for fearofofparietal a poor rules gradein(compul1960s. There have been deep changes, too, in what some the sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have becomecall rare), 20 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

“learning style” ofwould college students. Carlin Roand the teacher risk a poor The scorecultural on the critic end-ofsemester 3 mano, who has taught in several colleges, reports that for many evaluations. undergraduates today, asked to teaching read “a whole from Whatever the stylebeing or technique, at its book, best can be A to Z, feels like a marathon unfairly imposed on a jogger”— a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try toa problem that some faculty are trying solvegeneration by gathering stucheat death— by giving witness to thetonext so that dents we outside class toinread such as or what have of learned our long own works lives won’t dieParadise with us.Lost ConUlysses aloud. The sociologist Tim Clydesdale, who teaches at the sider what today we would call the original “mission statement” College of New Jersey, speaksThe of afirst “new epistemology, ” by in which of America’s oldest college. fundraising appeal our he meansitthat longerby“arrive in awe ofoftheHarvard institution history, wasstudents a frank no request the founders for and its faculty, content to receive theirwho education via lecture financial help from fellow Puritans had stayed homeand in happy to let the faculty decide what was worth knowing.” Now England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite they show up knowing “full well that are authorities can be foundfour for their mercenary purpose, the words still moving almost every position and any claim, and consequently  .  .  . hundred years after theyknowledge were written: [they are] dubious (privately, that is) about anything we claim After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had to be true or important.” The Harvard English professor Louis built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, Menand thinks that college teachers have yet to adapt the old reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled “linear model for transmitting knowledge—the lecture monothe civil government, one of the next things we longed for logue in which a single line of thought leads to an intellectual and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it climax after fifty minutes—to a generation of students who are to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the accustomed to dealing with multiple information streams in short churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.4 bursts.”20 The fact is there is always a lag between what’s happening in the mental world ofofstudents anddread that of the always faculty,been and by These mixed sentiments faith and have at the time the latter catches up with the former, new students have heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college arrived with new attitudes, so the cycle begins the 1960s,a commencement in the eyes of parents whoagain. watch,In through students to be theown left receding of facultyyouth, on social and children political screen of tended memories of to their as their issues. Ininto the 2010s, it is likely to be the otherpastoral. way around. advance life. College is our American We imagine Former Princeton president William Bowen keeps on his it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal desk anof alabaster calendar inscribed with a comment the natuthump tennis balls or the clatter of cleats as youngby bodies trot ralist Burroughs: “Newsteps. timesYet always! up andJohn down the fieldhouse brightOld withtime hopeweascannot it may 21 good isadvice. And by yet,the in specter some essentials, it is also true keep.” be, everyIt’s college shadowed of mortality— a place that colleges change very little. New college presidents find out where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 21 11

One One

fastWhen that they havetolanded slowestchangingtwilight institutions he tried figure in to the himself the morning in American life— even, than the post office. Thethat Ohio of childhood, soslower, as to deal with it safely, he perceived University economist Richard Vedder gets reliable laughs when it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the he tells corporate audiences that “with flushing the possible exception instant one touched it, was already faintly into of prostitution, teaching is the profession hasmohad absoknowledge, that there wasonly nothing that at that a given lutely no productivity the didn’t 2400 years Socrates.” ment you could sayadvance a clever in child know.since It seemed Shortly before the economic debacle of 2008, former to him that he both knew too much to imagine [thepresident of Johns Hopkins William Brody that “if went to child’s] simplicity and too littleremarked to disembroil hisyou tangle. a [college] class circa 1900, and you went today, it would look exEmbedded in this passage the to romantic idea thatplant the in student actly the same, while if you iswent an automobile 1900 22 possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the and today, you wouldn’t recognize the place.” teacher’s to true probethat forthe thestrongest lever thatforce releases knowledge It maytask wellis be in academia is into consciousness. inertia. But, contrary to his intention, Vedder’s joke could be In trying make happen,prostitution even—perhaps construed to to mean thatit neither nor especially— teaching cana good teacher through can sometimes seemof brutal. demandbe improved economies scale;The andfamously Brody’s invidious ing Joseph Schwab, for example, whoataught for years in the comparison was badly timed, since few months later the“Bioauto logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known companies (except for Ford) came within a whisker of going for “putting oneour student in the hotorseat a while . . . belly up, while colleges more lessforweathered theworking storm. that comment person as thoroughly creatively as possible movHis also wasn’t and exactly accurate, since inbefore the college ing on to another.” alumnus,have Lee Shulman, former classroom of 1900One you Chicago would probably seen no women president the visiting Carnegieone Foundation forwomen’s the Advancement of unless youofwere of the new colleges; nor Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy would you have seen any persons of color, unless you were visithands, foreheads” and, or to Morehouse. put it mildly,What “an everattentive ing, say,damp Tuskegee or Howard is true is that 2 the method This of teaching in the 1900“tough was pretty the think same of as demeanor.” figure of love” much teacher— it is now: no PowerPoint, different code—but otherwise Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Workerdress or Professor Kingsfield in recognizable. The Paper Chase—has become a cliché of our culture, and like all Anditso, I think, are truth, the students. They havesimplified always been clichés, contains some though doubtless and searching for purpose.ItThey beenless unsure of their unduly generalized. also have seemsalways less and pertinent togifts the and goals, susceptible to the demands— overt and covert— of present. Atand most colleges today, a student experiencing such anxtheirwould parents and drop of thethe abstraction we call There is iety likely class for fear of a“the poormarket.” grade (compulmuch talk today, as well there should be, about students sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have becomeresortrare), 22 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

ing to bingerisk drinking response toendtheseof-pressures, and thecheating teacheror would a poorinscore on the semester 3 while others fall into chronic anxiety and depression. It is probevaluations. ablyWhatever true that the thesestyle problems have grown in recent along or technique, teaching at its years, best can be 23 with our awareness of them. But lest we think that something a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to altogether newbyis giving happening, consider passage from an cheat death— witness to thethis next generation so 1871 that novel we by have Harriet Beecher Stowe, in the man what learned in our ownwritten lives won’t dievoice with of us.aConthinking to his sider whatback today we senior would year: call the original “mission statement” of America’s oldest college. The first fund-raising appeal in our During my last year, the question, “What are you good history, it was a frank request by the founders of Harvard for for?” had often borne down like a nightmare upon me. financial help from fellow Puritans who had stayed home in When I entered college all was distant, golden, indefinite, England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite and I was sure that I was good for almost anything that their mercenary purpose, the words are still moving almost four could be named. Nothing that had ever been attained by hundred years after they were written: man looked to me impossible. Riches, honor, fame, anyAfter had other carriedman us safe to Newhad England, andout we had thing God that any unassisted wrought for built ourwith houses, provided forwork our livelihood, himself his own rightnecessaries arm, I could out also. reared convenient places for God’s worship, and But as I measured myself with real tasks, andsettled as I the civil government, one of the next things we longed rubbed and grated against other minds and whirled for and looked after was to advance and of perpetuate round and round in the various learning experiences college it to dreading leave aninilliterate life,posterity; I grew smaller andtosmaller my ownministry esteem, to andthe 4 churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the oftener and oftener in my lonely hours it seemed asdust. if some evil genius delighted to lord overhave me and sitting These mixed sentiments of faith and it dread always been at at my bedside or fireside to say “What are you good the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every for, college to what purpose all the pains and money that have been commencement in the eyes of parents who watch, through a thrown away onof you? You’ll be anything; you’llchildren screen of memories their ownnever receding youth, as their only mortify poorismother that haspastoral. set her heart advance into life.your College our American We imagine on you, and make your Uncle Job ashamed of you.” Can it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal any of anguish thethe depths of of those blues in which a trot thump tennisequal balls or clatter cleats as young bodies man’s whole hangs insteps. suspense before with his own eyes, up and down theself fieldhouse Yet bright hope as it may and he doubts whether he himself, with his entire outfit be, every college is shadowed by the specter of mortality—a place and in apparatus, body, soul, and spirit, isn’tofto“fall be, after all, where, that uniquely American season and football 23 11

One One

a complete failure? Better, thinksthe never to have been When he tried to figure to he himself morning twilight 24 born, than to be to nowith purpose. . . . of childhood, so born as to deal it safely, he perceived that it was never neverinarrested, the have With a few smallfixed, changes diction, that theseignorance, sentencesatcould onetoday. touched it, as wasthen, already flushing faintly beeninstant written Now, most students haveinto no clear knowledge, that there was nothing that at a given moconception of why or to what end they are in college. Some stument couldbeen say aaimless, clever child didn’t know. It seemed dents haveyou always bored, or confused; others selfto him that he both knew too much to imagine [the possessed, with their eyes on the prize. Most are somewhere in child’s]looking simplicity and too little to disembroil between, for something to care about. his tangle. What does all this meanisfor (students, Embedded in this passage thethose romantic idea faculty, that theadminisstudent trators, alumni, legislators, trustees)things, who have possesses latentdonors, knowledge of ultimate andsomething that the to say about in America’s Surely it means teacher’s taskwhat is tohappens probe for the lever colleges? that releases knowledge that college has an obligation to make itself a place not just into every consciousness. for In networking credentialing for perhaps learning especially— in the broada trying toand make it happen, but even— and meaning of that word. It means studentsdemanddeserve gooddeep teacher can sometimes seem brutal.that Theall famously something more from than semisupervised fun the sering Joseph Schwab, forcollege example, who taught for years inor the “Biovices an employment Good colleges can still beknown translogicalofSequence” course agency. at the University of Chicago, was formative in one the sense of the titlehot of seat a bestbook,working Colleges for “putting student in the forselling a while . . . that Change Lives, which has become a welcome alternative to that person as thoroughly and creatively as possible before movthe usual guides (Barron’s, Princeton Review,Lee U.S. News &former World ing on to another.” One Chicago alumnus, Shulman, Report), list colleges in a hierarchy of prestige that presidentwhich of thesimply Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of conforms to theinrelative sizeclass of their endowments. Teaching, almost recalls exactly that sitting Schwab’s “fostered clammy Fordamp all these reasons, itand, is particularly painful colhands, foreheads” to put it mildly, “anwhen ever-those attentive 2 leges at the top of the usual oneslove” with the most resources demeanor.” This figure of lists, the the “tough teacher— think of and (as they like to claim) the most talent, fail to confront their Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker or Professor Kingsfield in obligations— when, as the former dean of Harvard College, The Paper Chase—has become a cliché of our culture, and like all Harry Lewis, puts it, theytruth, “affect horror” that “students attend clichés, it contains some though doubtless simplified and college in the hope of becoming successful, .  .  . unduly generalized. It also seems financially less and less pertinentbut  to the offer students neither a coherent view ofexperiencing the point of such a college present. At most colleges today, a student anxeducation nor any guidance on how they might discover for iety would likely drop the class for fear of a poor grade (compulthemselves larger in life.” Lewis’s “the sory coursessome of the sort purpose that Schwab taught havecritique becomeofrare), 24 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

servicecollege is more than gripe at his and thestation teacherconception” would risk aofpoor score on the end-a ofsemester 25 3 home institution. It is a call for every college to do what every evaluations. trueWhatever teacher, atthe leaststyle since hasteaching asked every student to do: orSocrates, technique, at its best can be engage in some serious selfexamination. a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to cheat death—by giving witness to the next generation so that what4we have learned in our own lives won’t die with us. ConWhat,what then,today are today’s prevailing answers to “mission the question, what is sider we would call the original statement” college for? There basically three. most common answer is of America’s oldestarecollege. The firstThe fundraising appeal in our an economic one, though it is really twofounders linked answers: first, that history, it was a frank request by the of Harvard for providinghelp morefrom people withPuritans a collegewho education is goodhome for the financial fellow had stayed in economic health of the nation; and, second, that going to college England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite is good for the economic of moving the individuals their mercenary purpose, competitiveness the words are still almost who four constituteyears the nation. hundred after they were written: Politicians tend to emphasize the first point, as when Richhad carried us safe under to NewPresident England,Clinton, and we had ard After Riley,God secretary of education said in built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, a much-quoted comment that we must educate our workers for reared convenient places forfuture: God’s worship, settledpreparan increasingly unpredictable “We are and currently civil government, of the longed for that ing the students for jobs thatone don’t yet next existthings using we technologies and been lookedinvented after wasintoorder advance learning and perpetuate haven’t to solve problems that we itdon’t posterity; dreading yet.” to leave an illiterate ministry thesame eventoknow are problems President Obama makestothe 4 churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. point more briefly: “countries that out-teach us today will out26 compete us tomorrow.” These mixed sentiments of faith and dread have always been at forofthe competitivethe As heart thesecond college economic idea. They rationale— are evidentthe at every college ness of individuals— it’s clear that a college degree long ago sup-a commencement in the eyes of parents who watch, through plantedofthe high school diploma as the minimum qualification screen memories of their own receding youth, as their children for entryinto intolife. the skilled market, and there is abundant eviadvance Collegelabor is our American pastoral. We imagine dence that people with a college degree earn more money over it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal the course of their lives peopleofwithout Onebodies authority thump of tennis balls orthan the clatter cleats asone. young trot claims who holdsteps. a BAYet degree earn roughly perup and that downthose the fieldhouse bright with hope as60it may centevery more, on average, over their lifetime than those who do not. be, college is shadowed by the specter of mortality— a place Some estimates put the worth of a BA degree at about a million where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 25 11

One One

dollars in incremental lifetime earnings. conservative When he tried to figure to himself theMore morning twilight analysts,oftaking account of to thedeal costwith of obtaining theperceived degree, arrive childhood, so as it safely, he that at a more modest number, but there is little dispute that one it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at thereason 27 to go to college is to increase one’s earning power. instant one touched it, was already flushing faintly into For such economic alone,that it is that the knowledge, that therereasons was nothing at aalarming given moUnited has been relative to know. other developed mentStates you could say aslipping clever child didn’t It seemed nations as measured by the percentage of its younger population to him that he both knew too much to imagine [the withchild’s] at least some postsecondary education. There are differsimplicity and too little to disembroil his tangle. ences of opinion about how much we have slipped, but there is Embedded in this that passage is the romantic that the student general agreement American leadershipidea in higher education possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the is in jeopardy and can no longer be taken for granted. For the first teacher’s task is to probe lever that knowledge time in our history, we facefor thethe prospect that releases the coming generainto consciousness. tion of adult Americans will be less educated than their elders.28 In trying make general it happen, even— perhaps especially— Within thistogloomy picture are some especially disturb-a good teacher can brutal. The famously demanding particulars. Forsometimes one thing,seem flat or declining college attainment ing Joseph Schwab, for example, for years in theto“Biorates (relative to other nations) who applytaught disproportionately milogical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known norities, who are a growing portion of the American population. for “putting student the hot seat a while . . . working And financialone means has a in shockingly largefor bearing on educational that person aswhich, thoroughly and to creatively as possible movopportunity, according one authority, looksbefore like this in ing on to another.” Oneare Chicago alumnus, Leemaking Shulman, former today’s America: if you the child of a family more than presidentper of year, the Carnegie forby theageAdvancement of $90,000 your oddsFoundation of getting a BA twenty-four are Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy roughly one in two; if your family’s income is between $60,000 hands, damp foreheads” and,roughly to put it mildly, “anifeverand $90,000, your odds are one in four; yourattentive parents 29 2 make less thanThis $35,000, odds“tough are onelove” in seventeen. demeanor.” figureyour of the teacher—think of Moreover, whoWorker do get or to Professor college, highachieving Annie Sullivanamong in Thethose Miracle Kingsfield in students affluent familiesaare fouroftimes more likely to atThe Paperfrom Chase— has become cliché our culture, and like all tend a selective college poorsimplified families with clichés, it contains somethan truth,students though from doubtless and 30 And prestigious comparable grades and testseems scores.less unduly generalized. It also and since less pertinent to colthe leges (prestige correlates selectivity)such serve as present. At most colleges almost today, aexactly studentwith experiencing anxfunnels intolikely leadership and(compulgoverniety would drop thepositions class for in fearbusiness, of a poorlaw, grade ment, this means that our “best” colleges are doing more sussory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have becometorare), 26 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

tain the thanteacher to retard the risk growth of inequality in endour ofsociety. Yet and would a poor score on the semester 3 colleges are still looked to as engines of social mobility in Amerievaluations. can Whatever life, and it would be or shameful if they became,ateven more than the style technique, teaching its best can be they already are, a system for replicating inherited wealth. a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to Not surprisingly, as inwitness any discussion economic matters, one cheat death— by giving to the of next generation so that finds dissenters from theinpredominant view. Some theus. right say what we have learned our own lives won’t dieon with Conthat pouring more public investment into higher education, in the sider what today we would call the original “mission statement” form of enhanced individuals institutions, of America’s oldestsubsidies college.for The first fund-orraising appealisina bad our idea. They the easy availability government funds is one history, it say wasthat a frank request by theoffounders of Harvard for reason forhelp inflation the price of tuition. financial frominfellow Puritans whoThey had argue stayedagainst homethe in goal of universal college education as a fond fantasy and, instead, England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite for a sorting system such asthe onewords finds in countries, their mercenary purpose, areEuropean still moving almostwhere four children are directed according to test results early in life toward hundred years after they were written: the kind of schooling deemed suitable for them: vocational trainAfter God had carried us safe to New England, and we had ing for the low-scorers, who will be the semiskilled laborers and built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, functionaries; advanced education for the high-scorers, who will reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled be the diplomats and doctors, and so on.31 the civil government, one of thewhether next things longed forto go Others, on the left, question thewe aspiration and looked wassense to advance learning andstudents perpetuate to college reallyafter makes for “lowincome whoit can posterity; dreading to leave illiterate ministry to venture, the leasttoafford to spend money and an years” on such a risky 4 churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. given their low graduation rates and high debt. Such skeptics point too, that mostofnew jobs to have be created These out, mixed sentiments faith andlikely dread alwaysover beenthe at next decade will probably not require a college degree. From this the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college point of view, thein“education cruel distraction commencement the eyes ofgospel” parentsseems who awatch, through a from really of provides security to youth, familiesas and screen“what of memories their own receding theirchildren: children good jobsinto at fair robust unions, affordable access health advance life.wages, College is our American pastoral. Wetoimagine 32 care and transportation.” it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal Oneofcan be on either side of these questions, or somewhere thump tennis balls or the clatter of cleats as young bodies trot in andfieldhouse still believe in the of with achieving upthe andmiddle, down the steps. Yet goal bright hope universal as it may college Consider an analogy from another sphere of be, everyeducation. college is shadowed by the specter of mortality— a place public debate: health care. One sometimes hears that eliminatwhere, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 27 11

One One

ing When smoking untold billionsthe because of the immense hewould tried tosave figure to himself morning twilight costofofchildhood, caring for patients whowith develop lung he cancer, emphysema, so as to deal it safely, perceived that heart disease, or diabetes— among the many diseases caused it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the or exacerbated by touched smoking.it,Itwas turns out,flushing however, thatinto reducing instant one already faintly the knowledge, incidence ofthat disease curtailing the major therebywas nothingsmoking that at a(one givenofmopublichealth successes recent decades) end up ment you could say aofclever child didn’t may know.actually It seemed costing us more, since people who don’t smoke live longer, and to him that he both knew too much to imagine [the eventually expensive therapies chronic diseases and the child’s]require simplicity and too little tofor disembroil his tangle. inevitable infirmities of old age. Yet who does not think it a good Embedded this passage is the romantic idea that the student thing when in a person stops smoking and thereby improves his or possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the her chances of living a longer and healthier life? In other words, teacher’s task to probe for the lever that releases measuring the is benefit as a social cost or social gain doesknowledge not quite into consciousness. get the point—or at least not the whole point. The best reason to trying istothat make it happen, even— perhaps especially— endIn smoking people who don’t smoke have a better chancea 33 good brutal. Theabout famously demandThe bestseem reason to care college— who to leadteacher better can lives.sometimes ing Schwab, for example, who taught forthere— years inis the goes,Joseph and what happens to them when they get not“Biowhat logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known it does for society in economic terms but what it can do for indifor “putting onecalculable student inand theincalculable hot seat forways. a while . . . working viduals, in both that person as thoroughly and creatively as possible before moving 5 on to another.” One Chicago alumnus, Lee Shulman, former president the Carnegie Foundation forofthe Advancement of The secondofargument for the importance college is a political Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy one, though one rarely hears it from politicians. This is the arguhands,on damp foreheads” and, to putbasis it mildly, ever-attentive ment behalf of democracy. “The of our“an government, ” as 2 Thomas Jefferson theofmatter near the endteacher— of the eighteenth demeanor.” This put figure the “tough love” think of century, is “the opinion of the people.” so if the Kingsfield new republic Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker And or Professor in was Paper to flourish andhasendure, above all, anand educated The Chase— becomeit arequired, cliché of our culture, like all citizenry— a conviction which Jefferson was joined by John clichés, it contains some in truth, though doubtless simplified and Adams, generalized. who disagreed withseems him on everythingtoelse, unduly It also lessjust andabout less pertinent the but who At concurred that “the whole peopleexperiencing must take upon present. most colleges today, a student suchthemanxselveswould the education ofthe theclass whole must be willing to iety likely drop forpeople, fear of and a poor grade (compul34 bear the expense of it.” sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become rare), 28 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

is more true than ever. All ofscore us are day andThis the teacher would risk a poor onbombarded the end-of-every semester 3 with pleadings and persuasions, of which many are distortions evaluations. andWhatever deceptions— political appeals, of the advertisements, style or technique, teaching at its punditry best can be sorts—designed ourbyloyalty, moretrynaraallgenerative act, onetoofcapture the ways which money, human or, beings to rowly, death— our vote. health-tocare will bankrupt the cheat bySome givingsaywitness thereform next generation so that country, that it in is an actwon’t of justice; someus.believe what we others have learned ouroverdue own lives die with Conthat abortion is the work of Satan, others think that to deny sider what today we would call the original “mission statement”a woman the right to college. terminate anfirst unwanted pregnancy is ainform of America’s oldest The fund-raising appeal our of abuse;itsome that charter are the salvationfor of history, was aassure frankusrequest by theschools founders of Harvard a broken school system, others are equally they violate financial help from fellow Puritans who sure had that stayed home in the public trust; some regard nuclear energy as our best chance England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite to break free from fossil fuels, othersare describe it, especially the their mercenary purpose, the words still moving almostinfour wake of the tsunami in Japan, as Armageddon waiting to haphundred years after they were written: pen. Any such list could be extended indefinitely with conflictAfter God had carried us safe to New England, and we had ing claims between which citizens must choose or somehow mebuilt our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, diate, so it should be obvious that the best chance we have to reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled maintain a functioning democracy is a citizenry that can tell the the civil government, one of the next things we longed for difference between demagoguery and responsible arguments. and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it About a hundred years ago, a professor of moral philosophy to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the at Oxford, John Alexander Smith, got to the nub of the matter. churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.4 “Gentleman,” he said to the incoming class (the students were all men thosesentiments days), “Nothing that willhave learnalways in thebeen course Theseinmixed of faith andyou dread at of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in afthe heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college ter life—save onlyinthis— that of if you workwho hardwatch, and intelligently commencement the eyes parents through a you should be able to when a man youth, is talking rot, and that, screen of memories of detect their own receding as their children 35 in my view, the College main, if isnot sole, purpose of education.” advance intoislife. ourthe American pastoral. We imagine Americans tend to where preferthe a harshest two-syllable synonym, bullshit, it as a verdant world sounds are the reciprocal for the of onesyllable rot— and soaswe might say that thump tennis ballsAnglicism, or the clatter of cleats young bodies trot theand most important thing one canYetacquire college up down the fieldhouse steps. bright in with hope isasaitwellmay It’sthe a technology that will never befunctioning bullshit meter.36 by be, every college is shadowed specter of mortality— a place come obsolete. where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 29 11

One One

Puttingheittried this way may to sound flippant, but a serious When to figure himself the morning twilightpoint is atofstake: education democracy not only requires extendchildhood, so asfor to deal with it safely, he perceived that ing iteducational opportunity but also implies something was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at theabout what kind of democratic citizens need. A very instant oneeducation touched it, was already flushing faintly into good caseknowledge, for college that in this sense been that madeatrecently by former there washas nothing a given moYalement Law you School dean Kronman, who now teaches in could say Anthony a clever child didn’t know. It seemed a Great Books program for Yale undergraduates. In a book with to him that he both knew too much to imagine [the the child’s] double-simplicity entendre and title,too Education’s End: WhyhisOur Colleges little to disembroil tangle. and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life, KronEmbedded passageofisstudy the romantic that the student man arguesin forthis a course (at Yale itidea is voluntary; at my possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the college, Columbia, it is compulsory) that introduces students to teacher’s task is to probe for the lever that releases knowledge the constitutive ideas of Western culture. At Yale, relatively few into consciousness. students, about 10 percent of the entering class, are admitted to In trying makeis called it happen, even— perhapsAt especially— this program, to which “Directed Studies.” Columbia,a good teacher can sometimes seem brutal. The famously the “Core Curriculum” is required of all students, whichdemandhas the ing Joseph Schwab, for example, who taught for to years in the “Bioadvantage, since they are randomly assigned sections (curlogical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known rently capped at twenty-two), of countering their tendency to for “putting one student in the hot seatthe forsame a while . . . working associate mainly with classmates from socioeconomic that person as thoroughly creatively as possible before movor ethnic background, or and in their own major or club or fratering to another.” One Chicago alumnus, Lee Shulman, former nityon house. The Core also counters the provincialism of the facpresident of and the Carnegie Foundation forwith the graduate Advancement of ulty. Senior junior professors, along student Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy instructors, gather weekly to discuss the assigned texts—a rare hands, damp for foreheads” put it mildly, opportunity faculty and, fromtodifferent fields,“an andeverat attentive different 2 stages of their careers, substantive questions. And, demeanor.” This figuretoofconsider the “tough love” teacher— think of not least amonginitsThe benefits, it links allor students in the college to Annie Sullivan Miracle Worker Professor Kingsfield in one Paper another through body ofa common knowledge: once they The Chase— hasabecome cliché of our culture, and like all have gone through some the Core, student is a complete stranger clichés, it contains truth,nothough doubtless simplified and to any other. unduly generalized. It also seems less and less pertinent to the Whether suchcolleges a curriculum an option or an obligation, its present. At most today, aisstudent experiencing such anxvaluewould is vividly evident in Kronman’s enumeration of the ideas it iety likely drop the class for fear of a poor grade (compulraises for discussion and debate: sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become rare), 30 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

of would individual and toleration; ofofdemoandThe the ideals teacher riskfreedom a poor score on the endsemester 3 cratic government; of respect for the rights of minorities evaluations. and for human rightsorgenerally; a reliance onatmarkets Whatever the style technique, teaching its bestascan be a mechanism for the of economic and atry to a generative act, one of organization the ways by which humanlife beings recognition the need for markets be regulated by aso that cheat death—byofgiving witness to thetonext generation political a reliance, politiwhatsupervenient we have learned in authority; our own lives won’t in diethe with us. Conrealm, on the of the bureaucratic administration, sidercalwhat today we methods would call original “mission statement” with its formal division of functions and legal separation of America’s oldest college. The first fund-raising appeal in our history, it was a frank requestanbyacceptance the founders oftruths Harvard for of office from officeholder; of the financial help science from fellow whoemployment had stayedofhome of modern and thePuritans ubiquitous its in England rather than make the journey to New England. technological products: all these provide, in many partsDespite of theirthe mercenary the words areofstill moving almost world, thepurpose, existing foundations political, social, andfour hundred years after they were written: economic life, and where they do not, they are viewed as aspirational goals toward which everyone has the strongest After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had moral and material reasons to strive.37 built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places worship, and settled Anyone who earns a BA fromfora God’s reputable college ought to underthe civil government, one of the next things we longed for stand something about the genealogy of these ideas and practices, andthe looked after processes was to advance learning andhave perpetuate it the about historical from which they emerged, to cost posterity; an illiterate to the tragic whendreading societies to failleave to defend them,ministry and about alterna4 churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. tive ideas both within the Western tradition and outside it. That’s aThese tall order forsentiments anyone to satisfy onand his or her own— and one of the mixed of faith dread have always been at marks of an educated person is the recognition that it can never be the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college adequately done and is therefore the more doing. commencement in the eyes of all parents whoworth watch, through a screen of memories of their own receding youth, as their children 6 advance into life. College is our American pastoral. We imagine Both these world cases for college— the argument forthe national and it as a of verdant where the harshest sounds are reciprocal individual competitiveness, theof argument inclusive thump of tennis balls or theand clatter cleats as for young bodiesdemtrot ocratic citizenship— are serious But there is a up and down the fieldhouse steps.and Yetcompelling. bright with hope as it may third case, more rarely heard, perhaps because it is harder to arbe, every college is shadowed by the specter of mortality—a place ticulate without soundingAmerican platitudinous andofvague. I first heard where, in that uniquely season “fall and football 31 11

One One

it stated plain to and passionate waythe after I had spoken Wheninhea tried figure to himself morning twilightto an alumni group fromsothe college in which I teach. I had been comof childhood, as to deal with it safely, he perceived that mending Columbia’s core curriculum— which, in addition it was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the to twoinstant yearlong in it, literary and philosophical classics, onecourses touched was already flushing faintly into also requires the study art and music forthat oneat semester each. Reknowledge, thatofthere was nothing a given mocently, a new called “Frontiers of Science, ” designed ment youcourse could say a clever child didn’t know. It seemedto ensuretothat students leave college with some basic understanding of him that he both knew too much to imagine [the contemporary scientific has been added. The emchild’s] simplicity anddevelopments, too little to disembroil his tangle. phasis in my talk was on the Jeffersonian argument—education Embedded in this passage is finished, the romantic idea that the student for citizenship. When I had an elderly alumnus stood possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that prothe up and said more or less the following: “That’s all very nice, teacher’s is tomissed probe the for main the lever thatWith releases knowledge fessor, buttask you’ve point.” some trepidainto consciousness. tion, I asked him what that point might be. “Columbia,” he said, In trying to to make happen, even—perhaps especially—a “taught me how enjoyit life.” good teacher can sometimes seem brutal. The famously demandWhat he meant was that college had opened his senses as well ing Joseph for example, who taught for years in the “Bioas his mindSchwab, to experiences that would otherwise be foreclosed for logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known him. Not only his capacity to read demanding works of literature for student inpolitical the hotideas, seat for while . . . working and“putting to grasp one fundamental butaalso his alertness to that as thoroughly and creatively as been possible before movcolorperson and form, melody and harmony, had heightened and ing on to another.” One alumnus, former deepened— and now, in Chicago the late years of hisLee life,Shulman, he was grateful. president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Such an education is a hedge against utilitarian values. It has no Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy room for dogma—only for debate about the meaning, or meanhands, to put it mildly, “an everattentive ings, ofdamp truth.foreheads” It slakes theand, human craving for contact with works 2 of art that somehow register one’s own love” longings and yetthink exceed demeanor.” This figure of the “tough teacher— of what has been able to articulate for oneself. As the Annieone Sullivan in The Miracle Workerby or and Professor Kingsfield in gentleman reminded it is among invaluable The Paper Chase— hasme, become a clichéthe of our culture,experiences and like all of the fulfilled life, some and surely colleges have ansimplified obligationand to clichés, it contains truth,our though doubtless coax andgeneralized. prod students toward it. less and less pertinent to the unduly It also seems If all At thatmost seems too pious oraearnest, think of a comparably present. colleges today, studentIexperiencing such anxpersonal comment I once my fear colleague Judith Shapiro, foriety would likely drop theheard class for of a poor grade (compulmer provost of Bryn Mawr and then president of Barnard, make sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become rare), 32 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

to a group of young people should from and the teacher would risk about a poorwhat scorethey on the end-expect of-semester 3 college: “You want the inside of your head to be an interesting evaluations. place to spendthe thestyle rest or of technique, your life.” What both Whatever teaching at Judith its bestand canthe be Columbia alum were talking about is sometimes called “liberal a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to education”— hazardous term today since nothingsonecescheat death—aby giving witness to the nextit has generation that sarily we to do with liberalinpolitics in the sense of the what have learned our own livesmodern won’t die with us. word. Con(Former Beloit College president Victor Ferrall suggests scrapsider what today we would call the original “mission statement” ping that troublesome adjective it with something of America’s oldest college. The and firstreplacing fund-raising appeal in our 38 bland like “broad, open, inclusive, simply “general.”) history, it was a frank request by ”theorfounders of HarvardThe for phrase liberal derives fromwho the had classical tradition financial help education from fellow Puritans stayed home of in artes liberales, which was reserved in Greece and Rome— where England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite women were considered and are slavery an accepted featheir mercenary purpose,inferior the words still was moving almost four ture of civilized society— for “those free men or gentlemen poshundred years after they were written: sessed of the requisite leisure for study.”39 Conserved by medieval After God had carried safe to New England,we andcall wethe hadRescholastics, renewed in theusscholarly resurgence built our provided necessaries forthe our livelihood, naissance, andhouses, again in the Enlightenment, tradition of liberal reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled learning survived and thrived in Europe, but remained largely the the civilofgovernment, possession ruling elites.one of the next things we longed for and to the advance learning and perpetuate it Seenlooked in thisafter longwas view, distinctive American contribution to posterity; dreading to leave anit, illiterate ministry to theof the has been the attempt to democratize to deploy it on behalf 4 churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the cardinal American principle that all persons, regardlessdust. of origin, have the rightsentiments to pursue happiness— and that have “getting to know, These mixed of faith and dread always been” in at Matthew Arnold’s muchquoted phrase, “the best which has been the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college thought and said in the thatwatch, pursuit.through This viewa commencement theworld” eyes ofis helpful parentstowho of whatofitmemories means toof betheir educated is often caricatured as snobbish screen own receding youth, as their children and narrow, to the old and wary ofpastoral. the new;We butimagine in fact advance intobeholden life. College is our American it is neither, as Arnold makes clear by the (seldom quoted) phrase as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal with which he completes his clatter point: “and through this knowledge, thump of tennis balls or the of cleats as young bodies trot turning a stream fresh and steps. free thought upon ourhope stockasnotions up and down theoffieldhouse Yet bright with it may 40 In isother words,byknowledge past helpsa place us to andevery habits.” be, college shadowed the specterofofthe mortality— think critically about the present. where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 33 11

One One

Arguably the most eloquent defense liberal education When he tried to figure to himself theofmorning twilight remains that of Arnold’s John he Henry Newman of childhood, so as tocontemporary deal with it safely, perceived that in TheitIdea of a University (1852), where, in a definition that was never fixed, never arrested, that ignorance, at the encompasses as well what is customarily calledinto the “huinstant science one touched it,as was already flushing faintly manities, ” he describes liberal knowledge knowledge, that there was nothing thatasat“knowledge a given mo- which stands onyou its own whichdidn’t is independent of sequel, ment couldpretensions, say a clever child know. It seemed expects no complement, refuses to be informed (as it to him that he both knew too much to imagine [theis called) by any end,simplicity or absorbed any art, in order duly to present child’s] and into too little to disembroil his tangle. 41 itself to our contemplation.” In today’s America, at every kind Embedded in this passage is the romantic idea that the student of institution— from underfunded community colleges to the possesses latent knowledge of ultimate things, and that the wealthiest Ivies—this kind of education is at risk. Students are teacher’s task is to probe for the lever that releases knowledge pressured and programmed, trained to live from task to task, into consciousness. relentlessly rehearsed and tested until winners are culled from In trying to makehave it happen, perhaps calls especially— the rest. They scarcely time foreven— what Newman contem-a good teacher can many sometimes seem The to famously demandplation, and too colleges dobrutal. too little save them from ing Schwab, for example, who taught for years marginal in the “Biothe Joseph debilitating frenzy that makes liberal education or 42 logical Sequence” course at the University of Chicago, was known merely ornamental—if it is offered at all. for In “putting one student in the hot seat for a while . . . working this respect, notwithstanding the bigotries and prejudices thatearlier person as thoroughly and creatively as quick possible movof generations, we might not be so to before say that toing oncolleges to another.” Chicagoover alumnus, Leethe Shulman, former day’s markOne an advance those of past. Consider of thecollege Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of apresident once-popular novel written a hundred years ago, Stover Teaching, recalls that sitting in Schwab’s class “fostered clammy at Yale (1912), in which the young Yalie declares, “I’m going to do 43 hands, toour putage, it mildly, “an to everattentive Stothe bestdamp thingforeheads” a fellow canand, do at I’m going loaf.” 2 ver speaks from immemorial past, and what he saysthink is likely demeanor.” Thisthe figure of the “tough love” teacher— of to sound to us today a sneering boast from the idle rich. But Annie Sullivan in Thelike Miracle Worker or Professor Kingsfield in therePaper is a more dignified senseaincliché which ” is theand colloquial The Chase— has become of “loaf our culture, like all equivalent of what some Newman by doubtless contemplation, and and has clichés, it contains truth,meant though simplified always been part of the promise American “I loaf and inunduly generalized. It also seemsofless and lesslife. pertinent to the vite my soul, ” sayscolleges Walt Whitman in that great democratic present. At most today, a student experiencing suchpoem anxSongwould of Myself, leanthe andclass loaffor at fear my ease observing spear of iety likely“Idrop of a poor gradea(compulsummer grass.” sory courses of the sort that Schwab taught have become rare), 34 10

What What Is Is College College For? For?

every would American oughton to the defend waning andSurely, the teacher risk college a poor score end-this of-semester 3 possibility, whatever we call it. And an American college is only evaluations. trueWhatever to itself when it opens its doors to all—rich, middling, the style or technique, teaching at its best canand be poor— who have the capacity to embrace the precious chance a generative act, one of the ways by which human beings try to think and reflect engulfs If we are serioussoabout cheat death— by before giving life witness to them. the next generation that democracy, that meansin everyone. what we have learned our own lives won’t die with us. Consider what today we would call the original “mission statement” of America’s oldest college. The first fund-raising appeal in our history, it was a frank request by the founders of Harvard for financial help from fellow Puritans who had stayed home in England rather than make the journey to New England. Despite their mercenary purpose, the words are still moving almost four hundred years after they were written: After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.4 These mixed sentiments of faith and dread have always been at the heart of the college idea. They are evident at every college commencement in the eyes of parents who watch, through a screen of memories of their own receding youth, as their children advance into life. College is our American pastoral. We imagine it as a verdant world where the harshest sounds are the reciprocal thump of tennis balls or the clatter of cleats as young bodies trot up and down the fieldhouse steps. Yet bright with hope as it may be, every college is shadowed by the specter of mortality—a place where, in that uniquely American season of “fall and football 35 11

TWO ORIGINS

The assumption that young adults should pass through a period of higher education before entering a life of commerce or service is, of course, much older than the United States and older, too, than the English colonies that became the United States. Aristotle identified the years between puberty and age twenty-one as the formative time for mind and character, and it was customary for young Greek men to attend a series of lectures that resembled our notion of a college “course.” In Augustan Rome, gatherings of students under instruction by settled teachers took on some of the attributes we associate with modern colleges (libraries, fraternities, organized sports), and, by the Middle Ages, efforts to regulate the right to teach by issuing licenses were under way in such nascent educational centers as Paris and Padua—presaging the modern idea of a faculty with exclusive authority to grant degrees.1 In short, college in the broad sense of the term has a history that exceeds two millennia.

36

Origins Origins

But college as we know it is England fundamentally an English persons who emigrated to New in the 1630s, nearlyidea. 150 It wasgraduates brought of to one NewofEngland early in the better seventeenth century were these institutions— than 1 in every by English Protestants who left home in dissent from the estab75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of lished church. To these “Puritans”century. (as theirThe enemies Americans up until the twentieth collegecalled with them, by far on of their putative severity oformind and was spirit), eduthe account highest representation (35 graduates affiliates) Emmancation was vitally important, and while drew upon ancient uel College, founded at Cambridge in thethey late sixteenth century on and medieval precedents, they had particularly in mind their what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” own experience in the of Old Cambridge Oxford. Emmanuel turned outcolleges to be the Englishand “oak” to the New Founded in the thirteenth century, the earliest English colEngland sapling planted by Puritan emigrants in 1636 at Newleges for in scholars whose dutowne,were soonessentially renamed retreats Cambridge honor of of divinity the English univerties included celebrating mass for the soul of the benefactor who sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merhad the college and thereby spared them from menial chantendowed and Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed 7 work. today’s might say that the first colleges were half hisInestate andterms, all his we library. 2 by the fifteenth groups of graduate students on they fellowship. In the fund-raising request sent to But prospective donors century, it had become common for the resident scholars to back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God supply or fit supplement livingofbyMr. giving instruction for seeing “to stir uptheir the heart Harvard, ” and byand wayacof commodation to follow younger we would call underasking others to hisstudents example,whom explained the purpose for graduates. boarders (or,his as they were known at Cambridge, which theyThese intended to use books and funds: to “advance pensioners) were sometimes kinsmen of the college benefactor, learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they or candidates admitted on the recommendation of some trusted had in mind was, among others, theological learning. In what schoolmaster who spoke for their character andonly competence in they would have called a providential mercy, the book from Latin. There were no entrance examinations. John Harvard’s library to survive an eighteenth-century fire was Vouched for or not, undergraduates were guarded and a tract entitled Christian Warfare.8 watched studentstothen, no less were not reliably But itsince is a mistake imagine thethan firstnow, American colleges as compliant with thesolely wishes parentsand or dogma. patrons.Fewer One visitor to seminaries devoted toof doctrine than half seventeenthCambridge shockedultimately to witness entered “swearof Harvard’scentury seventeenthcenturywas graduates ing, drinking, rioting, and hatred of all piety and virtue” the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical among as well the students, who could not be trusted to obey the college rules, as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 including thearithmetic prohibition “fierceAnother birds” inearly theirappeal rooms.for A tion, as did andagainst geometry. few years a student mob jammed the Great Hall of Trinity funds, thisearlier, one specifically for the Harvard library, enumerated the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math37 39

Two Two

College, smoking, hissing, and throwing pellets at the actors who 3 displeased them in a play written by one of the Trinity fellows.3 By the later fifteenth century, the cloistered structure of the Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accessible from an inner courtyard connected by walkways to chapel, library, and hall. The hall—a great room with rushes strewn on the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a means of controlling dirt—was the center of college life. It was in hall that dining, lectures, and sometimes musical and theatrical performances took place; at one end stood the “high table,” where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the only college official permitted to marry, lived with his family in 4 an attached house.4 Part of the point—an important part—was for undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someday to be worthy of sitting among them. To this end, the initiates, or, to use the penal metaphor, the inmates, were kept in, and the public kept out. Traffic flowed through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.55 The student’s day began with predawn worship, followed by lectures, study, and meditation in what was in some respects a monastic regime of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who toughened himself at football in the courtyard of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton. But if it was a strict and confined world, it was also coddled and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives from the Latin collegium, meaning society or community—in which young men, denied the pleasures of tavern and town, were offered recreation in the college gardens, bowling green, tennis court, bathing pool, or archery range.66 Among the roughly 20,000 38

Origins Origins

persons who emigrated to New England in the 1630s, nearly 150 were graduates of one of these institutions—better than 1 in every 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far the highest representation (35 graduates or affiliates) was Emmanuel College, founded at Cambridge in the late sixteenth century on what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” Emmanuel turned out to be the Old English “oak” to the New England sapling planted by Puritan emigrants in 1636 at Newtowne, soon renamed Cambridge in honor of the English university town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merchant and Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed 7 half his estate and all his library.7 In the fund-raising request they sent to prospective donors back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God for seeing fit “to stir up the heart of Mr. Harvard,” and by way of asking others to follow his example, explained the purpose for which they intended to use his books and funds: to “advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they had in mind was, among others, theological learning. In what they would have called a providential mercy, the only book from John Harvard’s library to survive an eighteenth-century fire was a tract entitled Christian Warfare.88 But it is a mistake to imagine the first American colleges as seminaries devoted solely to doctrine and dogma. Fewer than half of Harvard’s seventeenth-century graduates ultimately entered the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as well as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 tion, as did arithmetic and geometry.9 Another early appeal for funds, this one specifically for the Harvard library, enumerated the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math39

Two Two

ematics,” smoking, and alonghissing, with Augustine’s Citypellets of Godatand InCollege, and throwing theCalvin’s actors who 3 stitutes, library Erasmus’s Colloquies and even displeased themholdings in a playincluded written by one of the Trinity fellows. 10 In of short, the By bawdy of thecentury, Romanthe playwright Plautus. the comedies later fifteenth cloistered structure the the American college was conceived from the start as more than Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accesnarrowly with the larger aim, the historian Samsible fromecclesiastical, an inner courtyard connected byaswalkways to chapel, uel Eliotand Morison puthall— it, to a“develop the with wholerushes man— his body library, hall. The great room strewn on and soul as well as his intellect” toward the formation of a person the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a inclinedoftocontrolling “unity, gentility, service.” means dirt—and was public the center of college life. It was Religion, to be lectures, sure, came To study the Bible was to in hall that dining, andfirst. sometimes musical and theatrilearn to parse God’s word— task,stood since,the in “high what Chriscal performances took place;noatsmall one end table,” tians called the Old Testament, God spoke through shadows where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the (“types” or “umbra”) of truths astoyet unrevealed, and,his infamily the New only college official permitted marry, lived with in 4 Testament, parables andpoint— prophecies requiringpart— informed of the an important was an attachedthrough house. Part interpretation. Yet the didsocial not contain all God’s truth. God for undergraduates to Bible witness and intellectual exchange also expressed his punitive or protective will through historical among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someevents (pilgrimages, holy wars) and judgments of nature (flood, day to be worthy of sitting among them. earthquake, drought). And heor, conferred on all human beings the To this end, the initiates, to use the penal metaphor, capacity for responsive natural intimations of flowed his suinmates, were kept in, pleasure and the at public kept out. Traffic pernatural excellence such as the celestial dance of sun, moon, through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.5 The and stars,day thebegan symmetrical beauty of plants and trees,by orlectures, the ripstudent’s with predawn worship, followed ples that outward in perfect circles whenrespects a stone isa thrown study, andflow meditation what was in some monasintoregime tranquil Godand furnished the natural world what tic of water. discipline deprivation. This was thewith stringent Jonathan Edwards (Yale, class of 1720; appointed president of world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who Princeton inhimself 1758) called “beauties delightofusSidney and weSussex can’t toughened at football in thethat courtyard tell why”— as when “we ourselves pleased in beholding the College, Cambridge) and,find a little later, Isaac Newton. color violets, but and we know notworld, what secret or Butofifthe it was a strict confined it was regularity also coddled 11 harmony it is that creates that pleasure in our minds.” and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives American required to study fromThe theearly Latin collegium,college meaning societyitsorstudents community— in not only scriptural texts the andpleasures commentaries, history which young men, denied of tavernbut andalso town, were and natural philosophy— a tripartite division of knowledge coroffered recreation in the college gardens, bowling green, tennis 6 responding roughly to today’s triumvirate of humanities, social court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 40 38

Origins Origins

sciences, and emigrated natural sciences. college aspired to be anearly place 150 (in persons who to NewAEngland in the 1630s, Newman’s laterofformulation) “all branches knowledge” were graduates one of these where institutions— better of than 1 in every are “connected together, because the subjectmatter of knowl75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of edge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far of Creator.” Its subject(35 wasgraduates nothingor less, in Edwards’s words, thethe highest representation affiliates) was Emmanthan “the university ofCambridge things,” a phrase thatsixteenth preserves the root uel College, founded at in the late century on meaning of the word “university”: the gathering all knowlwhat Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritanoffoundation.” edge into a unified whole. Until the last third of the nineteenth Emmanuel turned out to be the Old English “oak” to the New England this sapling planted bywhat Puritan emigrants in 1636 Newcentury, effort to grasp Frederick Barnard (the at man for towne, the soonwomen’s renamedcollege Cambridge honor of was the English whom at myinuniversity named)univercalled sity town. To this fledgling a Puritan mer“the beautiful truths which New are toEngland be read college in the works of God” 12 chant and the Emmanuel graduateofnamed Johncolleges. Harvard bequeathed remained official purpose America’s 7 halfToday, his estate and all his library. the word “interdisciplinary” is bandied about at evthe fundraising request they sent to prospective donors ery In academic conference and praised in every dean’s report, but back England, foundersinstitutions of the neware college God in factinmost of ourthe academic muchthanked less interdisfor seeingthan fit “towere stir up thecounterparts heart of Mr. in Harvard, ” and of ciplinary their the past. In by theway early asking others to follow his example, explained the purpose for American college, since all studies were unified as one integrated which to use his booksbetween and funds: to or “advance study ofthey the intended divine mind, boundaries “fields” “discilearning andnot perpetuate it to is posterity.” The kind of learning they plines” did exist. “There not one truth in religion, another had in mind was, theological learning. In what in mathematics, andamong a thirdothers, in physics and in art, ” as one Harvard they would have called a providential mercy, the only book graduate (class of 1825) put the matter. “There is one truth, from even 13 library to survive an eighteenth-century fire was John Harvard’s as one God.” a tract entitled Christian Warfare.8 2But it is a mistake to imagine the first American colleges as seminaries devoted solelysome to doctrine and dogma. Fewer than half Yet this dream of what today would call “consilience” did of Harvard’s seventeenthcentury graduates ultimately entered not exhaust the meaning of the college idea. For the Puritans, the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as well according to Morison, as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 learning apart from college life was early not worth Another appeal for tion,university as did arithmetic and geometry. having; and the humblest resident tutor was accounted a funds, this one specifically for the Harvard library, enumerated teacher most eminent community the more need suitable for volumes on than “law,the phisicke, Philosophy, and Math41 39

Two Two

lecturer. Book learning alone might bepellets got byatlectures andwho College, smoking, hissing, and throwing the actors reading;them but itinwas only by studying disputing, displeased a play written by oneand of the Trinity eating fellows.3 andthe drinking, playing century, and praying membersstructure of the same By later fifteenth the as cloistered of the collegiate community, in close and constant association Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms acceseach with their tutors, that the priceless siblewith from an other inner and courtyard connected by walkways to chapel, gift of character could beaimparted to young men. strewn on library, and hall. The hall— great room with rushes the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a Already in his own day (Morison was writing nearly seventymeans of controlling dirt—was the center of college life. It was five years ago), the man who wrote these words was deliberately in hall that dining, lectures, and sometimes musical and theatrianachronistic. Even after motorcars had become commonplace, cal performances took place; at one end stood the “high table,” he liked to travel on horseback from his home on Beacon Hill to where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the Harvard Yard, where he tethered his mount to a hitching post only college official permitted to marry, lived with his family in before lecturing in riding boots. And even when the “old-time an attached house.4 Part of the point—an important part—was college,” as historians sometimes call it, gave way to the modern for undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange university, the appeal to character persisted in official pronounceamong their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire somements of what the university was all about. Writing in 1886, the day to be worthy of sitting among them. founding president of Johns Hopkins, an institution mainly deTo this end, the initiates, or, to use the penal metaphor, the voted to advanced undergraduates were initially inmates, were keptresearch in, and where the public kept out. Traffic flowed absent, insisted that a university must never be “merely a place for through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.5 The the advancement of with knowledge or for the acquisition student’s day began predawn worship, followed of bylearning; lectures, 14 it will always be a place for the development character.” study, and meditation in what was in someofrespects a monasToday, this assertion and that deprivation. a college should with tic regime of discipline Thisconcern was theitself stringent something character will strike as a throwback anworld that called produced John Milton andusOliver Cromwellto(who other time and world. Character, is a word with Sussex a contoughened himself at football in moreover, the courtyard of Sidney fusing history. It has been used as a synonym for probity, but also College, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton. for sheer as when laureate spoke, But ifstamina— it was a strict and Nobel confined world,Arthur it was Lewis also coddled at hiscollegial— installation chancellor oflike the the University of Guyana, of and the as latter adjective, noun “college, ” derives character the determination “to practice thing over from the as Latin collegium, meaning society the or same community— in and over again, while others are enjoying themselves; to push which young men, denied the pleasures of tavern and town, were oneself from the easy partcollege to the hard part;bowling to listengreen, to criticism offered recreation in the gardens, tennis 15 6 and use it; to reject one’s own work and try again.” court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 42 38

Origins Origins

Sometimes the wordtohas been put toinunsavory uses. By the persons who emigrated New England the 1630s, nearly 150 early graduates twentiethofcentury, it hadinstitutions— become a thinly term were one of these betterdisguised than 1 in every of discrimination between the model Protestant gentleman 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentageand of the putatively grasping parvenu— in particular, the importunate Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far Jew— knocking on the college door. During Morison’s underthe highest representation (35 graduates or affiliates) was Emmangraduate years, Harvard’s president, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, uel College, founded at Cambridge in the late sixteenth century on proposed “a personal estimate of character on the part of the Adwhat Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” mission authorities” in to order to control the “dangerous increase Emmanuel turned out be the Old English “oak” to the New in the proportion of Jews” top floor of oneindormitory had England sapling planted by(the Puritan emigrants 1636 at New16 And even in becomesoon unaffectionately known asin“Kike’s towne, renamed Cambridge honor Peak”). of the English univerthe absence of overt bigotry, judgments of “character” tend to sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merboil to how comfortable the judge feels in the bequeathed presence of chantdown and Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard 7 the Inand a letter to Lowell, halfjudged. his estate all his library. Harvard alumnus Judge Learned Hand from the president’s plantoforprospective screening out unIn demurred the fund-raising request they sent donors desirables: “If anyone could devise an honest test for character, back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God” Hand wrote, “perhaps would well. I doubt its feasibility for seeing fit “to stir upitthe heartserve of Mr. Harvard, ” and by way of except detect of it,for it asking to others toformal followand his obvious example,delinquencies. explained theShort purpose seems me intended that students canhis only be chosen by teststoof“advance scholarwhich to they to use books and funds: 17 If the “newer ship, unsatisfactory as those no doubt are.  .  .  .” learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they races, ” as they were sometimes referred to, were outperforming had in mind was, among others, theological learning. In what the old boyshave in grades scores, thenmercy, so be it: them in. from they would calledand a providential theletonly book despite its history misuseanand abuse, there is something JohnYet Harvard’s library to of survive eighteenthcentury fire was 8 worth conserving in the claim, as Newman put it, that education a tract entitled Christian Warfare. “implies upontoour mentalthe nature, and the formation But itanisaction a mistake imagine first American colleges of as 18 College, more than brainfor thisthan or that a character.”devoted seminaries solely to doctrine andtraining dogma. Fewer half functional should becentury concerned with ultimately character—entered the atof Harvard’stask, seventeenthgraduates tenuated modern word for what the founders of our first colleges the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as well would have called soul heart. Although no longerattenagree as Christian— took upor a considerable partwe ofmay the students’ 9 on theasattributes of virtue codified inAnother biblical commandments early appeal for tion, did arithmetic andasgeometry. or, for that in Enlightenment preceptslibrary, ( Jefferson thought funds, this matter, one specifically for the Harvard enumerated the aim of education was to produce citizens capable of “temperneed for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math43 39

Two Two

ate liberty”), students still and come to college not at yetthe fully formed College, smoking, hissing, throwing pellets actors who 3 as social beings, be deterred sheer selfinterest displeased them and in a may play still written by one offrom the Trinity fellows. toward a life of enlarged andcloistered civic responsibility. By the later fifteenthsympathy century, the structure of the This idea that the aim of education includes fostering Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: roomsethical accesas well as analytical intelligenceconnected long predates the churches from sible from an inner courtyard by walkways to chapel, which the colleges of course, much library, andearly hall.American The hall— a greatarose, room and withis,rushes strewn on olderfloor thantoChristianity In the Beit from Midrash the be gathereditself. up and burned timeoftoancient time asJu-a daism, typically located physically as well as spiritually near the means of controlling dirt—was the center of college life. It was in hall that dining, sometimes and theatrisynagogue, studentslectures, prayed and for insight and musical clarity of mind becal place;Torah at one end To stood “high table,” foreperformances embarking ontook the day’s study. jointhe Plato’s academy where tutors in thecentury company of the who, as the in Athens of dined the fourthBCE wasMaster, to acknowledge “a only college official to marry, lived his via family in change of heart and permitted the adoption of a new waywith of life a pro4 19 Part of the point— an important part— was an attached house. cess akin to our own understanding of religious conversion.” In for undergraduates witness social intellectual exchange firstcentury Rome, to in Seneca’s famousand letter on the purpose of among their superiors, in theyet hope that theyaccount would of aspire somelearning, we find a measured passionate the power dayliberal to be education worthy of to sitting them. of clearamong the mind of cant by inviting it to rise To this end, the initiates, or, to use penal pedantry: metaphor, the above the palaver of everyday life as wellthe as above inmates, were kept in, and the public kept out. Traffic flowed We have no leisure toentrance hear lectures on the through a single point of and exit, thequestion porter’s gate.5 The whether [Ulysses] was seatost between Italy and by Sicily, student’s day began with predawn worship, followed lectures, or outside our known ourselves encounter study, and meditation in world. . . . what was We in some respects a monasstorms of of the spirit, which toss us daily, andwas ourthe depravtic regime discipline and deprivation. This stringent ity drives us into all the ills which troubled Ulysses. . . . world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who Show me rather,atbyfootball the example Ulysses, how I am Sussex toughened himself in theofcourtyard of Sidney to love my country, my wife, my father, and how, College, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton.even afterifsuffering I am to sail toward these But it was a shipwreck, strict and confined world, it was alsoends, coddled honourable as they are. Why try to discover whether and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives wascollegium, a pattern of purity, or whether she had the in fromPenelope the Latin meaning society or community— laugh on her contemporaries? Or whether sheand suspected which young men, denied the pleasures of tavern town, were that the man in her presence was Ulysses, before she offered recreation in the college gardens, bowling green, tennis knew it waspool, he? or Teach me rather purity is, and how Among the roughly 20,000 court, bathing archery range.6what 44 38

Origins Origins

greatwho a good we havetoinNew it, and whether is 1630s, situated in 150 persons emigrated England in itthe nearly 20 body orofinone theof soul. werethe graduates these institutions—better than 1 in every 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of Whether expressed in Hebrew, Greek, Roman, Christian, or Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far the secular terms of modernity, none of these educational aspirathe highest representation (35 graduates or affiliates) was Emmantions gainsays the obvious fact that all lives are shaped by a mysteuel College, founded at Cambridge in the late sixteenth century on rious confluence of innate disposition and external influence, over what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” which no institution can possibly exert complete control. Yet the Emmanuel turned out to be the Old English “oak” to the New fact that students can be touched and inspired as well as trained England sapling planted by Puritan emigrants in 1636 at Newand informed has always been the true teacher’s aim and joy. In towne, soon renamed Cambridge in honor of the English univerAmerica, where this view of education has been held by traditionsity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan meralists and progressives alike, Emerson gave it memorable expreschant and Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed sion when he wrote in his journal that “the whole secret of the half his estate and all his library.7 teacher’s force lies in the conviction that men are convertible. And In the fund-raising request they sent to prospective donors they are. They want awakening.” Teachers have always been—and, back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God let us hope, always will be—in the business of trying to “get the for seeing fit “to stir up the heart of Mr. Harvard,” and by way of soul outothers of bed,toout of herhisdeep habitual sleep.”21 the purpose for asking follow example, explained which they intended to use his books and funds: to “advance 3 learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they When turnwas, fromamong teachers to students, another striking had in we mind others, theological learning. Incontiwhat nuitywould over the long history of college mercy, comes into view: theirfrom age they have called a providential the only book has stayed relatively constant. More four hundred John Harvard’s library to survive anthan eighteenthcenturyyears fire ago, was the English scholastic Roger Ascham proposed that the ideal 8 a tract entitled Christian Warfare. timeBut to begin at seventeen. Some and halfcolleges centuries it is acollege mistakeis to imagine the firsttwo American as later, the average age of Harvard freshmen was sixteen and a half. seminaries devoted solely to doctrine and dogma. Fewer than half Fifty years after that, at Yale,century the average had crept up to eighteen, of Harvard’s seventeenthgraduates ultimately entered widely considered to be “the normal age, under reasonably the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical asfavorwell 22 able conditions” for college matriculation. as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 hasarithmetic been continuity, too, in the way educators describe Another early appeal for tion,There as did and geometry. the stages that young people pass through en route to intellectual funds, this one specifically for the Harvard library, enumerated and ethical respect, Puritans made little the need formaturity. volumesInonthis “law, phisicke, Philosophy, anddistincMath45 39

Two Two

tion between college and and church. Bothpellets institutions existedwho to College, smoking, hissing, throwing at the actors 3 serve human beings at war with themselves, original displeased them in a play written by one of thetainted Trinitybyfellows. sin yet the seedcentury, of grace— thatstructure is, between By harboring the later fifteenth thedivided, cloistered of the will to pride and selfand theinimpulse to humility and selflessOxbridge college hadlove emerged its modern form: rooms accesness. from Puritans spokecourtyard longinglyconnected of the change that can save these sible an inner by walkways to chapel, creaturesand from themselves bya opening their minds andstrewn hearts on to library, hall. The hall— great room with rushes hitherto incomprehensible contradictions such as “God’s justice the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a mixed of with his mercy” as well own means controlling dirt— was as thetheir center of powerlessness college life. It and was perseverance— in short, to the nature of in hall that dining, lectures, andparadoxical sometimes musical andexistence theatriin all its boundedness boundlessness. To be the educated this” cal performances tookand place; at one end stood “high in table, sense— in the root sense, that is, of the Latin ex ducere, to lead where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the forth,college or, according to an alternative only official permitted to marry,Latin livedsource, with hiseducare, family to in 4 rearattached or bringhouse. up children— be enlarged by “new part— affections, Part of is thetopoint— an important was an and undergraduates new language,” freed from the limits jealous self-exchange regard in for to witness social andofintellectual which one has hitherto been confined. “Education, ” as Emerson among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire some23 summed up the matter, amounts to “drawing out the soul.” day to be worthy of sitting among them. Almost century and a halfor, later, the educational psychologist To this aend, the initiates, to use the penal metaphor, the William in describing thepublic ideal trajectory freshman inmates, Perry, were kept in, and the kept out. from Traffic flowed 5 to senior year, offered what was essentially a translation of The through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.these first principles. A true education, he believed (as paraphrased by student’s day began with predawn worship, followed by lectures, anotherand distinguished L. Leea Knefelstudy, meditation educational in what waspsychologist, in some respects monaskamp), is one whereby the studentThis learns “accommotic regime of discipline andcollege deprivation. wastothe stringent date uncertainty, paradox, and the demands of greater complexworld that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who ity.” The process, wrote,in“begins with simplistic forms in toughened himselfPerry at football the courtyard of Sidney Sussex which a Cambridge) person construes world unqualified College, and, ahis little later,inIsaac Newton.polar terms of absolute goodbad; it world, ends with those But if it rightwas awrong, strict and confined it was also complex coddled forms through which he undertakes to affirm his own commitand collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives 24 mentsthe in aLatin worldcollegium, of contingent knowledge values.”in from meaning societyand or relative community— The terms of description changed, but even as it allows which young men, deniedmay the have pleasures of tavern and town, were for the relativism life, this account of the psychological offered recreationofinmodern the college gardens, bowling green, tennis 6 and ethical growth of college students is remarkably congruent 20,000 court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 46 38

Origins Origins

with much views to of New what England college isinfor. than achievpersons whoearlier emigrated theMore 1630s, nearly 150 ing competence toof solve problems and perform werethe graduates of one these institutions— better complex than 1 in tasks, every education means attaining and sustaining curiosity and humility. 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of It means growing an embattled sense self into more Americans up untilout theof twentieth century. Theofcollege witha by far generous view of life as continuous self-or reflection inwas lightEmmanof new the highest representation (35 graduates affiliates) experience, witnessedinexperience of others. uel College,including founded atthe Cambridge the late sixteenth century on With these ends in view, Puritans spoke almost indistinwhat Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” guishably teaching preaching. Consider Cotton, Emmanuelabout turned out to and be the Old English “oak”John to the New arguably leading minister of Newemigrants England’sin first generation. England the sapling planted by Puritan 1636 at NewIn his history of early New England, Magnalia Christi univerAmeritowne, soon renamed Cambridge in the honor of the English cana (1702), Cotton Mather (Cotton’s grandson), portrays him sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan meras a man religious faith and scholarly are essenchant andwhose Emmanuel graduate named John attainment Harvard bequeathed 7 tially one andand the all same. A “universal scholar, and a living system half his estate his library. of the arts,raising and a request walkingthey library, ” he the very ideal to In liberal the fundsent towas prospective donors which every studious young person should aspire. His reputation back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God as preacher wasstir thatupofthe a man erudite andby eloquent foraseeing fit “to heartnot of merely Mr. Harvard, ” and way of but alsoothers able to young peopleexplained so they might “be fitted asking to inspire follow his example, the purpose for 25 arguments, buttomost of all for public which theyservice.” intendedBytohis usevoice his and books and funds: “advance by his manifest commitment to the impossible yet imperative learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they task in of aligning hisamong own lifeothers, with models of virtue that he had mind was, theological learning. Infound what (mainly) in have scripture, was mentor to his students the same they would calledhea providential mercy, the onlyinbook from way that he waslibrary pastortotosurvive his flock. In his theological John Harvard’s an eighteenthcenturywritings, fire was 8 which were largely concerned with what we would call moral a tract entitled Christian Warfare. psychology, explored mystery of learnBut it is he a mistake to the imagine the and firstcontingency American colleges as ing, which,devoted he believed, in steps, sometimes seminaries solelysometimes to doctrineproceeds and dogma. Fewer than half by leaps, sometimes by sheer surprise in the absence of exertion, of Harvard’s seventeenthcentury graduates ultimately entered sometimes by slow and arduous accretion through diligent the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical aswork. well Such a teacher is convinced that everyone has the capacity to as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 learn as and but thatand thegeometry. moment ofAnother electric early connection appeal befor tion, didgrow, arithmetic tween teacher student cannot predicted or planned. For funds, this oneand specifically for the be Harvard library, enumerated some students it may never come (“some go all the way through the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math47 39

Two Two

college,” as Perry put it, “and somehow manage schoolCollege, smoking, hissing, and throwing pelletsto at remain the actors who 26 boys to thethem end”); others it may least expected. displeased infor a play written by come one ofwhen the Trinity fellows.3 In order create the best conditions for it to structure take hold,ofsuch By thetolater fifteenth century, the cloistered the aOxbridge teacher avoids exhibitionistic erudition, speaks in plain rather college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accesthan from floridanlanguage, and, humble before the subject, undersible inner courtyard connected by walkways to chapel, stands himself merely thea human instrument by which library, and hall.asThe hall— great room with rushes strewnGod on may choose to convey to the student the “spirit of discernment.” the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a Such a of teacher also knows is no telling whether, means controlling dirt—there was the center of when, collegeorlife. It was thehall transmission willlectures, take place. in that dining, and sometimes musical and theatriIn our mostly postassumptions cal performances tooktheistic place; academic at one endworld, stoodthese the “high table,” may seem remote and possibly bizarre— but perhaps they are where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the less socollege than they appear. Every true teacher, after all, his understands only official permitted to marry, lived with family in 4 that, along with teacher students, a an mysterious third force is Partand of the point— important part— was an attached house. present in every classroom. Sometimes thisintellectual force worksexchange in favor for undergraduates to witness social and of learning; sometimes it works against it. This is because ideas among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire somemusttocross an invisible interval between day be worthy of sitting among them. the mind of the teacher andTo thatthis of end, the student, and there no telling when a provoking the initiates, or, tois use the penal metaphor, the thought will crossing that space, what exactly will inmates, weresucceed kept in,inand the public kept or out. Traffic flowed 5 happen to it during its transit from speaker to hearer. One never through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate. The knows how teacher’s willworship, be received by the by student, in student’s daythe began with voice predawn followed lectures, whose and mindmeditation it mixes with alreadyideas that have accustudy, in what wasresident in some respects a monasmulated from prior experience and, perhaps, from teachers. tic regime of discipline and deprivation. This wasother the stringent Sometimes the spoken word is nothing but noise that evaporates world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who into air or has no effect in the mind the student toughened himself at football in theofcourtyard ofbeyond Sidney annoySussex ance or confusion. Sometimes it can have surprising and powerful College, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton. effects— it is aimpossible say whyworld, or when thisalso will coddled happen But ifyet it was strict andto confined it was for some students and not for others. and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives for this invisible and inaudible force was fromThe thePuritan Latin word collegium, meaning society or community— in grace. One needthe to pleasures share their or to be awere bewhich youngdoes men,not denied of belief— tavern and town, liever inrecreation any conventional sense— to understand whattennis they offered in the college gardens, bowling green, 6 grace to my own students meant. To explain their concept of court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 48 38

Origins Origins

(the rarewho student at my to college who comes from an evangelical persons emigrated New England in the 1630s, nearly 150 background needs no of explanation), I sometimes draw were graduates of one these institutions— better thanan1 analogy in every from outside the classroom. Imagine that two college roommates 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of go out together to see production of Shakespeare’s greatbyplay, Americans up until the atwentieth century. The college with far Kinghighest Lear, about an old man cruelly duped by his own the representation (35 graduates or affiliates) was children, EmmanwhoCollege, is losing his grip power and dignity and even his own uel founded at on Cambridge in the late sixteenth century on senses, and ends up wandering alone under the open sky without what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” shelter or mercy hope. Thethe roommates go to see to a local proEmmanuel turnedorout to be Old English “oak” the New duction ofsapling the play, and when it is done, one of in them out England planted by Puritan emigrants 1636comes at Newof the theater saying, “You know, I’ve seen itofdone better; let’s get towne, soon renamed Cambridge in honor the English univerasity beer, ” or, “I don’t know what all the fuss is about; this guy had it town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan mercoming, a real whiner.” chant andhe’s Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed the young7 man has had a devastating expehalfMeanwhile, his estate and allother his library. rience. He funddoesn’t knowrequest why or they how,sent but he himselfdonors thinkIn the raising to finds prospective ing about his own father— about the obligations of children to back in England, the founders of new college thanked God parents and, matter, parents savage for seeing fit for “tothat stir up the heart of to Mr.children; Harvard,about ” andthe by way of sadnessothers that comes uponhis many peopleexplained in their broken old age;for in asking to follow example, the purpose fact, hethey findsintended himself thinking about every his“advance life in a which to use his books andaspect funds:ofto new way. Does he want to have children of his own? If so, how learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they will he Maybe he thinks about becoming a physihad in bring mindthem was, up? among others, theological learning. In what cian;would or maybe decided to call home tothe seeonly howbook his father they havehe’s called a providential mercy, from is doing, with whom had a difficult relationship; John Harvard’s libraryhe’s to survive an eighteenthcenturyor, firemore was 8 but feels a sudden conviction likely, he doesn’t know what to do a tract entitled Christian Warfare. thatBut his plans priorities need tothe be revisited and revised. One it is aand mistake to imagine first American colleges as thing he knows forsolely sure to is that he doesn’t wantFewer to endthan up half like seminaries devoted doctrine and dogma. Lear wandering alone on the heath.graduates In short, the world has been of Harvard’s seventeenthcentury ultimately entered transformed for him while it remains utterly unchanged for his the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as well friend. And yettook theyup have heard the same words,attenseen as Christian— a considerable partvoices of theand students’ 9 the same bodies and props about on theearly sameappeal stage, for or, Another tion, as did arithmetic and moving geometry. to put this it inone mechanistic terms, experienced the same aural and funds, specifically for the Harvard library, enumerated visual stimuli. the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math49 39

Two Two

It is impossible to say why somethingpellets so important has hapCollege, smoking, hissing, and throwing at the actors who 3 pened to one of these young men and notof tothe theTrinity other. Their SAT displeased them in a play written by one fellows. scores be identical. fact, thethe onecloistered whom thestructure play leaves By may the later fifteenthIncentury, of unthe moved may have higher scores and better grades and better prosOxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accespects from to make the dean’s list. The difference is imsible an inner courtyard connected bybetween walkwaysthem to chapel, measurable anyThe testing instrument, and with has nothing do with library, andby hall. hall— a great room rushes to strewn on which one has studied harder for tomorrow’s exam on Elizabethan the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a drama. of While most ofdirt— us who in education today no means controlling waswork the center of college life.have It was language to dining, accountlectures, for this mystery, that doesmusical not mean mysin hall that and sometimes andthe theatriteryperformances does not exist.took place; at one end stood the “high table,” cal Such inexplicable differences were of intense where tutors dined inhuman the company of the Master, who,interest as the to the founders of America’s first colleges, and sometimes their only college official permitted to marry, lived with his family efin 4 differences run closer than we might expect forts to elucidate the Part of the point—an important part—was an attached house. to we are likelytotowitness think today. for exchange instance, forwhat undergraduates socialThey and believed, intellectual that learning can be blocked by pride (in either teacher stuamong their superiors, in the hope that they would aspireor somedent), that it can also beamong blocked by shame. Today, social psyday to and be worthy of sitting them. chologists of “stereotype low academic To thisspeak end, the initiates, or,threat” to use to theexplain penal metaphor, the achievement minority students who may distrusted inmates, werebykept in, and the public kepthave out.been Traffic flowed or demeaned by adults as well as peers ever since they can rememthrough a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.5 The ber. Someday such students, are expected poorly student’s began with knowing predawn they worship, followedtobydolectures, or to fail, themselves fulfilling expectation of study, andfind meditation in what was that in some respectsina spite monastalent and effort. It’s a phenomenon that researchers have shown tic regime of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent to be widespread, and is closely akin to what one seventeenthworld that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who century minister hadatinfootball mind when told his congregation that toughened himself in thehecourtyard of Sidney Sussex “sometimes a dejectedand, discouraged Christian thinks he hath so College, Cambridge) a little later, Isaac Newton. much against his and comfort, as will put ittowas silence best Buttoifsay it was a strict confined world, also the coddled 27 and ablest Ministers.” collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives Let risk one more anachronistic analogy. Consider the from themeLatin collegium, meaning society or community— in Puritans’ paradoxical insight knowledge canand sometimes eswhich young men, denied thethat pleasures of tavern town, were tablish itself in theinmind only when we give up trying to tennis attain offered recreation the college gardens, bowling green, 6 of the inestimable worth of it. This is part of why Newman spoke court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 50 38

Origins Origins

contemplation, and Whitman loafing.inThe for spiripersons who emigrated to NewofEngland thecapacity 1630s, nearly 150 tual apprehending without plan or foresight what were surprise, graduatesfor of one of these institutions— better than 1 in every Emerson called “the miraculous in the common” has been an 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentageenof during theme in psychological writing at least since Augustine, Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far whose conversion, reported the Confessions, comes him the highest representation (35ingraduates or affiliates) wasupon Emmanwithout volition, as aatgift unsoughtinand uel College, founded Cambridge theunearned. late sixteenth century on In such cases, as Edwards wrote a millennium andfoundation.” a half later, what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan “no improvement composition of natural no Emmanuel turnedor out to be the Old Englishqualifications”— “oak” to the New effort, as sapling we might say, tobyconcentrate or focus— deEngland planted Puritan emigrants in yields 1636 atthe Newsired Weber, a close student ofofthe traditowne,result. soon Max renamed Cambridge in honor theProtestant English univertion to which Edwards belonged, put it this way: “ideas sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritancome merwhen we do not expect them, and not when we are brooding and chant and Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed 7 searching at our We encounter the same point in Emerhalf his estate anddesks.” all his library. son’sInlecture on memory, in which he says sometimes “we are the fundraising request they sent that to prospective donors assisted by a dream to recall what we could not find awake, ” and back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God in Henry of how indifference to the for seeing Adams’s fit “to stiraccount up the heart ofhis Mr.sullen Harvard, ” and by way of music ofothers Beethoven suddenly gave wayexplained to an overwhelming sense asking to follow his example, the purpose for of its hitherto unheardtobeauty: which they intended use his books and funds: to “advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they A prison-wall that barred his senses on one great side of had in mind was, among others, theological learning. In what life, suddenly fell, of its own accord, without so much as they would have called a providential mercy, the only book from his knowing when it happened [and] a new sense burst out John Harvard’s library to survive an eighteenth-century fire was like a flower in his life, so superior to the old senses, so bea tract entitled Christian Warfare.8 wildering, so astonished at its own existence, that he could But it is a mistake to imagine the first American colleges as not credit it, and watched it as something apart, accidental, seminaries devoted solely28to doctrine and dogma. Fewer than half and not to be trusted. of Harvard’s seventeenth-century graduates ultimately entered No ministry, effort or and exertion precedes or leads to thisclassical breakthrough. the the study of logic and ethics— as well It happens unbidden and in unlikely circumstances (amid the as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 “fumes tobacco poor beer” in a early Berlinappeal rathskelAnother for tion, as of didcoarse arithmetic andand geometry. ler), leaves the listener and permanently funds,but thisitone specifically for thethoroughly Harvard library, enumerated transformed. the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math51 39

Two Two

We may know more today did Augustine, Edwards, EmCollege, smoking, hissing, andthan throwing pellets at the actors who 3 erson, Weber, orinAdams processes displeased them a play about writtenthe by basic one ofneurological the Trinity fellows. thatBy constitute that account for the pleasure the latermemory fifteenthorcentury, the cloistered structureweoftake the in creativity observed or expressed. Yet it is striking how little Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accesthe latest teachingconnected and learning diverge from longsible fromtheories an innerof courtyard by walkways to chapel, established on these Take,with for example, William library, and views hall. The hall—matters. a great room rushes strewn on James on how one is sometimes blocked in the effort to retrieve the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a an elusive memory: dirt—was the center of college life. It was means of controlling in hall that dining, lectures, and sometimes musical and theatriYou know how it is when you try to recollect a forgotcal performances took place; at one end stood the “high table,” ten name. Usually you help the recall by working for it, where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the by mentally running over the places, persons, and things only college official permitted to marry, lived with his family in with which the word was connected. But sometimes this an attached house.4 Part of the point—an important part—was effort fails: you feel then as if the harder you tried the less for undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange hope there would be, as though the name were jammed, among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someand pressure in its direction only kept it all the more from day to be worthy of sitting among them. rising. And then the opposite expedient often succeeds. To this end, the initiates, or, to use the penal metaphor, the Give up the effort entirely; think of something altogether inmates, were kept in, and the public kept out. Traffic flowed different, and in half an hour the lost name comes saunterthrough a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.5 The ing into your mind, as Emerson says, as carelessly as if it student’s day began with predawn worship, followed by lectures, had never been invited. Some hidden process was started study, and meditation in what was in some respects a monasin you by the effort, which went on after the effort ceased, tic regime of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent and made the result come as if it came spontaneously.29 world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who Anyonehimself who hasatever staredinatthe a math problem struggled to toughened football courtyard of or Sidney Sussex write a recalcitrant sentence, and, after up, felt the elements College, Cambridge) and, a little later,giving Isaac Newton. fall But intoifplace suddenly obviousworld, ease, knows whatcoddled James it waswith a strict and confined it was also meant. Today, neuroscientists speak of the same phenomenon and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives that hethe called jamming, butmeaning they are society likely toorusecommunity— new acronyms from Latin collegium, in such asyoung TOTsmen, (“Tipof-the-the Tongue events”), and come to thewere unwhich denied pleasures of tavern and town, surprising conclusion thatcollege “massing”— or, bowling to use the colloquial offered recreation in the gardens, green, tennis 6 term, “cramming”— is a poor study method since exerting unrecourt, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 52 38

Origins Origins 30 On 150 the mitting effortemigrated can defeattothe purpose of in thethe exertion. persons who New England 1630s, nearly basis graduates of controlled experiment, they recommend after were of one of these institutions— betterthat than 1 inasking every a75rhetorical question, a good teacher can get “generation benefits men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of by leaving pause giving thecentury. answer”— other with wordsbythat Americansaup untilbefore the twentieth Theincollege far “a mind must work to grow, ” and that students learnwas more by acthe highest representation (35 graduates or affiliates) Emman31 It’s good tocentury have data tiveCollege, thinkingfounded than byat“passive absorption.” uel Cambridge in the late sixteenth on to corroborate these claims, but thecalled most“asurprising thing about what Queen Elizabeth presciently Puritan foundation.” the findings is that they are presented as discoveries. Emmanuel turned out to be the Old English “oak” toThe the latter New England sapling planted by Puritan emigrants in 1636 are at Newtwo phrases, “work to grow” and “passive absorption” from towne,(Charles soon renamed Cambridge honor of the English 1869 W. Eliot) and 1915 in ( John Dewey). In 1870,univerYale’s sity town. To this fledgling England college Puritan clergyman president, Noah New Porter, remarked thata “the mostmerefchant and Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed fective teaching” is teaching by questioning— a pedagogical truth 7 half his estate and all his library. that has never been better demonstrated than in the Platonic diaIn the fund-raising requestfive they sent toyears prospective logues composed some twentyhundred ago. donors back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God 4 fit “to stir up the heart of Mr. Harvard,” and by way of for seeing asking others to follow example, explained the purpose for In short, genuinely newhis educational ideas are rare. But somewhich they intended his books and learning funds: tois “advance times old ones, such astotheuse Socratic idea that a collablearning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they orative rather than a solitary process, can take new form. That is had mind was, among others, theological learning. In what whatinhappened when the Christian idea of monastic community they would have called a providential mercy, the only book from evolved into the idea of college as a place where students live as John Harvard’s library to survive an eighteenthcentury fire was well as learn together. In this respect, too, the college idea, after 8 aittract entitledto Christian Warfare.echoed was carried New England, and extended the Puriit is a mistake imaginebythewhich first American colleges tans’But conception of thetochurch— they did not meanasa seminaries devoted solely to doctrine and dogma. Fewer than half physical structure of wood or stone (this they called the meetingof Harvard’s seventeenthcenturyofgraduates ultimately entered house) but a voluntary gathering seekers who come together the ministry,support. and theHere studyisofJohn logicCotton and ethics— classical as wella for mutual on what constitutes as Christian— true church: took up a considerable part of the students’ attention, as did arithmetic and geometry.9 Another early appeal for I cannot tellspecifically how better for to compare it than to a musical funds, this one the Harvard library, enumerated instrument, wherein though there be many pipes, yet one the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math-

53 39

Two Two

blast smoking, of the bellowes puts intopellets them all, so that allwho College, hissing, andbreath throwing at the actors of themthem at once forth into a kind displeased in abreak play written by one of of themelody, Trinity and fellows.3 givethe a pleasant sound to the ears those thatstructure stand by;of the By later fifteenth century, theofcloistered all of them dohad make but oneinInstrument, onerooms sound, Oxbridge college emerged its modern and form: acces32 yetan variety musick. connected by walkways to chapel, sibleand from innerofcourtyard library, and hall. The hall—a great room with rushes strewn on In the relatively homogeneous society of colonial New England, the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a this aspiration toward unity in multiplicity—an early version, means of controlling dirt—was the center of college life. It was one might say, of “e pluribus unum”—was doubtless more fanciin hall that dining, lectures, and sometimes musical and theatriful than actual. But as an ideal it was as basic to college as to the cal performances took place; at one end stood the “high table,” church. where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the Cotton Mather invoked it when he noted in his history that only college official permitted to marry, lived with his family in students in the university towns of continental Europe “board . . . an attached house.4 Part of the point—an important part—was here and there at private houses,” but that the English view, carfor undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange ried to New England, was that they should be “brought up in a among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire somemore collegiate way of living.” College was about young people day to be worthy of sitting among them. from scattered origins converging to live together—taking their To this end, the initiates, or, to use the penal metaphor, the meals together, attending lectures and sermons together, inmates, were kept in, and the public kept out. Traffic sharing flowed the daily rhythms of study and social life. At the heart of5 The this through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate. “collegiateday way” waswith a concept ofworship, what might be called lateral student’s began predawn followed by lectures, learning— proposition that students have respects something imporstudy, and the meditation in what was in some a monas33 tantregime to learn one another. tic offrom discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent This idea, routinely endorsed today the websites and(who broworld that produced John Milton and in Oliver Cromwell chures of many American colleges, becomeofsoSidney familiar that toughened himself at football in thehas courtyard Sussex we take it for granted. It is what Nathaniel Hawthorne (BowCollege, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton. doin, class 1825) had in mind whenworld, he remarked that coddled “it conBut if itofwas a strict and confined it was also tributes greatlythe to latter a man’s moral like and the intellectual health, to be and collegial— adjective, noun “college, ” derives brought habits of companionship withorindividuals unlike from theinto Latin collegium, meaning society community— in himself,young who men, care little pursuits,ofand whose and which deniedforthehispleasures tavern and sphere town, were abilitiesrecreation he must goinout himselfgardens, to appreciate.” It is whattennis Newoffered theofcollege bowling green, man had in mind he spoke of 6college a place where stuAmongasthe roughly 20,000 court, bathing pool,when or archery range. 54 38

Origins Origins

dents arewho “brought, by familiar a relation where persons emigrated to Newintercourse” England in into the 1630s, nearly 150 “theygraduates learn to of respect, consult, to aid each other.” what were one ofto these institutions— better than 1It’s in every Dewey meant when he described education as “a mode of social 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of life” in which “the the besttwentieth and deepest moral precisely Americans up until century. Thetraining college iswith by far thathighest which one gets through to enter into proper the representation (35having graduates or affiliates) was relations EmmanwithCollege, others founded in a unity of work and thought.” It’s whycentury William uel at Cambridge in the late sixteenth on Perry insisted that maturity in a college student means realizing what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” there is something from peers.34 “oak” to the New Emmanuel turned to outlearn to be the one’s Old English The principle behindbyallPuritan these emigrants assertions inmay selfEngland sapling planted 1636seem at Newevident to us,renamed but it isCambridge by no means universally Withunivera few towne, soon in honor of the so. English exceptions— such as Roosevelt Academy in the Netherlands (a sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merbranch of Emmanuel the University of Utrecht) or Lingnan in chant and graduate named John HarvardUniversity bequeathed 7 Hong the all residential college is virtually unknown outside half hisKong— estate and his library. the In AngloAmerican world. That is part point of Randall the fundraising request they sentoftothe prospective donors Jarrell’s college novel Pictures from an Institution (1952) (a back in England, the founders of the new college thankedthinly God veiled portrait of Bennington College), where émigré professors, for seeing fit “to stir up the heart of Mr. Harvard,” and by way of grateful as they to have found sanctuary from Nazified asking others to are follow his example, explained thethe purpose for universities Europe,to simply can’t absorb thefunds: strange which they of intended use his books and toAmerican “advance notion that “students might be right about something” andthey the learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning 35 professor wrong. had in mind was, among others, theological learning. In what is hardhave to overstate the importance thisonly ideabook of lateral theyItwould called a providential mercy,ofthe from learning. It is the source the question that every admissions John Harvard’s library to of survive an eighteenthcentury fire was 8 supposed to ask of every apofficer in every selective college is a tract entitled Christian Warfare. plicant: does this candidate to the class?” It unBut it“what is a mistake to imagine thebring first American colleges as derlies the devoted opinionsolely by Supreme Court in seminaries to doctrine andJustice dogma.Lewis FewerPowell than half theHarvard’s “affirmative action” case of Bakke vs. University of California of seventeenthcentury graduates ultimately entered (1978), in which the court ruled that consideration of a canthe ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as well didate’s race is constitutional for the purpose of ensuring “the as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 views” among students interplay of arithmetic ideas and and the exchange Another early appeal for tion, as did geometry.of from different are modern reformulations funds, this one backgrounds. specifically forThese the Harvard library, enumerated of the ancient (by American standards) view that a no the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, college, and Math55 39

Two Two

less thansmoking, a church,hissing, exists and fundamentally as anat“interaction of College, throwing pellets the actors who 3 consciences, ” andinthat admission should based primarily displeased them a play written by one ofbethe Trinity fellows.on 36 the By candidate’s edifie another.” the later “aptness fifteenthto century, the cloistered structure of the Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accessible5from an inner courtyard connected by walkways to chapel, The place where comes alive, or atwith leastrushes where strewn it can and library, and hall.the Theidea hall— a great room on should, is the classroom. Here is an account of what the idea the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time asina practiceofmeant for one student, born andofschooled in China, means controlling dirt— was the center college life. It was who the United States long agomusical in order attend in hallcame thatto dining, lectures, and not sometimes andtotheatriBowdoin (founded 1794), encountered the modern cal performances took place;where at oneheend stood the “high table,” version of the Puritan principle that no communicant should where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the “takecollege any ancient for to truth till they only officialdoctrine permitted marry, lived have with examined his family it” in 4 for attached themselves: an house. Part of the point—an important part—was for undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange Coming from a culture in which a “standard answer” is among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someprovided for every question, I did not argue with others day to be worthy of sitting among them. even when I disagreed. However, Bowdoin forced me to To this end, the initiates, or, to use the penal metaphor, the re-consider “the answer” and reach beyond my comfort inmates, were kept in, and the public kept out. Traffic flowed zone. In my first-year seminar, “East Asian Politics,” I was through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.5 The required to debate with others and develop a habit of student’s day began with predawn worship, followed by lectures, class engagement. This sometimes meant raising counstudy, and meditation in what was in some respects a monasterarguments or even disagreeing with what had been tic regime of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent put forward. For instance, one day we debated what roles world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who Confucianism played in the development of Chinese toughened himself at football in the courtyard of Sidney Sussex democracy. Of the 16 students in the classroom, 15 agreed College, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton. that Confucianism impeded China’s development; but I But if it was a strict and confined world, it was also coddled disagreed. I challenged my classmates. Bowdoin made me and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives consistently question the “prescribed answer.” That was from the Latin collegium, meaning society or community—in the biggest challenge for me.37 which young men, denied the pleasures of tavern and town, were A necessary, though not college sufficient, condition for green, this kind of offered recreation in the gardens, bowling tennis 6why, in all but the very richlearning is small class size— which is court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 56 38

Origins Origins

est institutions, educational andEngland fiscal interests always in tenpersons who emigrated to New in theare 1630s, nearly 150 sion. graduates The educational is simple: a class were of one ofpremise these institutions— bettershould than 1be in small every enough to permit every student to participate in the giveand75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of take of discussion. The economics are simple too: the lower the Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far ratiohighest between students and (especially tenured faculty), the representation (35faculty graduates or affiliates) was Emmanthe College, higher the cost. at Cambridge in the late sixteenth century on uel founded Yet in many collegespresciently the principle is defended with impressive what Queen Elizabeth called “a Puritan foundation.” ferocity, especially by alumni whoOld want future“oak” students to New have Emmanuel turned out to be the English to the something like the experience they had, and whoinmake England sapling planted by Puritan emigrants 1636 generous at Newcontributions to that Cambridge end. I haveinseen it atofwork in an array of towne, soon renamed honor the English univerinstitutions, at public colleges such as the Beaufort branch of the sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merUniversity of South Carolina, Norwalk College chant and Emmanuel graduate or named John Community Harvard bequeathed 7 in coastal Connecticut, well as at colleges in what is sometimes half his estate and all his as library. called “heartland”— some keenly aware of In the American fund-raising request they sentoftothem prospective donors their Protestant (if not strictly Puritan) heritage, such as Valpaback in England, the founders of the new college thanked God raisoseeing University Wheaton in”Illinois, for fit “to in stirIndiana, up the heart of Mr.College Harvard, and by Baylor way of University in Texas, Geneva College inexplained western Pennsylvania, to asking others to follow his example, the purpose for name just Of course, and individual dewhich theya few. intended to usethe hisinstitutional books and funds: to “advance scendants of the people who invented the idea of lateral learning learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they exercise no monopoly overothers, it. It is not a Puritanlearning. idea, or aInProteshad in mind was, among theological what tant idea; is a timeless as evident in Talmudic debate or they wouldithave called a idea— providential mercy, the only book from Socratic dialogue as in to thesurvive Anglo-anAmerican college. Butfire in was the John Harvard’s library eighteenthcentury 8 certain distinctive problems context of such a college it presents a tract entitled Christian Warfare. andBut possibilities. it is a mistake to imagine the first American colleges as A renowned teacher own institution, Trilling, seminaries devoted solely at to my doctrine and dogma. Lionel Fewer than half remarked nearseventeenththe end ofcentury his life graduates that when,ultimately “through entered luck or of Harvard’s cunning, ” smallgroup discussion works well, it “can have the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical special as well pedagogic value.” Coming from Trilling, whose quietly reflective as Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 style gave great intensity in the classroom called Another (students early appeal for tion, as didhim arithmetic and geometry. him, irony intended, Trilling”), was high funds,with thisno one specifically for“Thrilling the Harvard library,this enumerated praise. What he meant was that a small class can help students the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math57 39

Two Two

learn howsmoking, to qualify their and initial responses to hard It College, hissing, throwing pellets at thequestions. actors who 3 can help them the written difference between insights displeased themlearn in a play by one of theinformed Trinity fellows. andBy mere opinionating. It can provide the pleasurable chastisethe later fifteenth century, the cloistered structure of the ment of discovering that others in seeits themodern world differently, and that Oxbridge college had emerged form: rooms accestheir from experience is not replicable by, or even reconcilable with, sible an inner courtyard connected by walkways to chapel, one’s own. its The best,hall— a small class room is an exercise in deliberative library, andAt hall. a great with rushes strewn on democracy, in which the teacher is neither oracle nor lawgiver the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a but a kind of provocateur. means of controlling dirt—was the center of college life. It was Letthat me offer an example my own experience. It was a litin hall dining, lectures, from and sometimes musical and theatrierature class in which students be teachers cal performances tookthe place; at onealso endhappened stood theto“high table,” themselves— high school teachers from a public school in central where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the Northcollege Carolina. One of the poems we read together a wellonly official permitted to marry, lived with hiswas family in 4 known poemhouse. by Emily of which these are the first PartDickinson, of the point— an important part— was an attached two stanzas: for undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someMy Life had stood—a Loaded Gun— day to be worthy of sitting among them. In Corners—till a Day To this end, the initiates, or, to use the penal metaphor, the The Owner passed—identified— inmates, were kept in, and the public kept out. Traffic flowed Andacarried Me away— through single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.5 The student’s withinpredawn worship, followed by lectures, And day nowbegan We roam Sovereign Woods— study, and meditation in what was in some respects a monasAnd now We hunt the Doe— tic regime of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent And every time I speak for Him— world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who The Mountains straight reply— toughened himself at football in the courtyard of Sidney Sussex This poem may be readand, as aawoman’s account of how it feels to be College, Cambridge) little later, Isaac Newton. confined the status an confined instrument of a man’s allowed But if to it was a strictofand world, it was will, also coddled only enough independence to serve as a facilitator of his pleaand collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives sure. At thecollegium, students seemed such a reading, from thefirst, Latin meaningconvinced society orbycommunity— in and they added to denied the discussion manyofparticular that which young men, the pleasures tavern andinsights town, were tended to support it. offered recreation in the college gardens, bowling green, tennis court, bathing pool, or archery range.6 Among the roughly 20,000 58 38

Origins Origins

Then,who toward the endtoofNew the session, as we were1630s, considering the persons emigrated England in the nearly 150 later stanzas (“And do of I smile, cordial light / were graduates of one thesesuch institutions— betterUpon than the 1 inValley every glow —  / It is as a Vesuvian face / Had let its pleasure through — 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage ”), of one usually voluble member of the class, who had been strikingly Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far silent, spokerepresentation up. What she (35 saidgraduates was roughly this: this was poem moves the highest or affiliates) Emmanme College, as an expression power.inItthe reads a transcript of my uel foundedofaterotic Cambridge latelike sixteenth century on own marriage (“And when at Night — Our good Day done — /I what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” guard My Master’s ‘TisOld better than the EiderDuck’s / Emmanuel turned Head — out to be /the English “oak” to the New Deep Pillow — have shared — ”). Itemigrants celebratesinthe completion England saplingtoplanted by Puritan 1636 at Newof one human life by itsCambridge cleaving toin another. a love poemuniverabout towne, soon renamed honor Itofisthe English how surrendering the will can enlarge the self. What we concluded sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merat the end our discussion wasnamed not thatJohn one Harvard side or the other had chant and of Emmanuel graduate bequeathed 7 wonhis theestate day on behalf its preferred reading, but that the poem half and all hisoflibrary. existed in the difference them.sent to prospective donors In the fundraising between request they I can think of many such occasions when a student’s back in England, the founders of the new college thankedinterGod vention broke up a complacent consensus in my class. And for seeing fit “to stir up the heart of Mr. Harvard,” and by wayyet of small classes guarantee large learning. “There will be stuasking othershardly to follow his example, explained the purpose for dents,” they as Trilling wenttoonuse to say, be induced to say which intended his “who bookscannot and funds: to “advance anything at all, and there will be those who cannot be kept learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learningfrom they trying to say everything.” And, he added, “even a measured arhad in mind was, among others, theological learning. In what ticulateness does called not ensure the cogency of what is said.” they would have a providential mercy, the only book from remark library puts metoinsurvive mind of story our son told my JohnThis Harvard’s anaeighteenthcentury firewife was 8 and me some years ago on a visit home from college. He was taka tract entitled Christian Warfare. ing But an art course, and thethe discussion leader, acolleges graduate it ishistory a mistake to imagine first American as student teaching the to first time, projected onto thethan screen seminaries devotedforsolely doctrine and dogma. Fewer halfa slide reproduction of Alfred Stieglitz’s famousultimately photograph “The of Harvard’s seventeenthcentury graduates entered Steerage, ” showing emigrants packed onto the deck of a the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as ship well in New York harbor. One of the students, very bright and selfas Christian—took up a considerable part of the students’ atten9 assured, launched into aand discussion of the “liminality” the voyAnother early of appeal for tion, as did arithmetic geometry. agers, conveyed by the blurry of the image; the jourfunds, asthis one specifically for thequality Harvard library, enumerated ney, she said, had halferased them, leeching out of them their the need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math59 39

Two Two

Old World identityhissing, before and theythrowing had formed a new identity the College, smoking, pellets at the actorsinwho New World. Other developed thethe point, contributing displeased them in a students play written by one of Trinity fellows.3 competitive allusions to various of “hegemony” By the later fifteenth century,theories the cloistered structureand of “althe terity” until one student suggested that the teacher try adjustOxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accesing the slideanprojector. Sure enough, the image came sharply into sible from inner courtyard connected by walkways to chapel, focus—and but the went on undeterred. The moral of the library, hall.discussion The hall— a great room with rushes strewn on story (of special salience to the humanities these days) is that it’s the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a always of a good idea todirt— bring was one’sthe bullshit to class, to means controlling centermeter of college life. and It was expect andlectures, then theand needle will jump off theand dial. in hall that now dining, sometimes musical theatriAnd yet a well-took managed be ofthe exceptional ef-” cal performances place;discussion at one endcan stood “high table, fect. It can envelop the mind in multiple perspectives that lead where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the toward whatofficial William James (atogreat teacher to whom W.E.B. only college permitted marry, lived with his family in 4 DuBois looked as “my guide to clear thinking”) called part— “that ideal Part of the point— an important was an attached house. vanishingpoint towards whichsocial we imagine that all our temfor undergraduates to witness and intellectual exchange 38 That phrase captures porary truths will some day converge.” among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someaday distinctively American of truth as always in flux, to be worthy of sittingconception among them. in-thethan readymade. pragmatist concepTo making this end,rather the initiates, or, to use This the penal metaphor, the tion of truth thepublic idea ofkept revelation received and inmates, wereruns keptcounter in, andtothe out. Traffic flowed 5their absorbed by persons who have nothing to add to it except through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate. The consent. sense, is an ideaworship, at odds followed with the by “Augustinstudent’s In daythat began withit predawn lectures, ian strain piety” thatinanimated mind and out of study, andofmeditation what wastheinPuritan some respects a monaswhich several of our firstand colleges took form. But Puritanism also tic regime of discipline deprivation. This was the stringent had within it a protodemocratic conception of truth emerging world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who through discussion andfootball debate in among human beings who Sussex are intoughened himself at the courtyard of Sidney herently equal. College, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton. But if it was a strict and confined world, it was also coddled and6collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives There the wasLatin another form ofmeaning teachingsociety towardorwhich the foundfrom collegium, community— in ers of the firstmen, American felt particular devotion. This which young denied colleges the pleasures of tavern and town, were was the recreation lecture—originally a medieval (derived from the offered in the college gardens,term bowling green, tennis 6 Latin legere, to read) for reading aloud and explicating scripcourt, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 60 38

Origins Origins

tural, or classical textsEngland by scholars whose in personspatristic, who emigrated to New in the 1630s,students, nearly 150 the Gutenberg era, possessed books ofthan their1 own. In werepregraduates of one of rarely these institutions— better in every the Puritan tradition, the word “lecture” acquired a more specific 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentage of meaning. in parishes where AmericansBy upthe untillater the sixteenth twentieth century, century. The college with bythe far resident clergyman was unable or unwilling to satisfy public the highest representation (35 graduates or affiliates) wasthe Emmandemand forfounded preaching, unsatisfiedinlaity sometimes uel College, at Cambridge the late sixteenth hired centurysupon plementary lecturers, typically men fresh out of college, whose what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” charge was turned to preach times each week— on weekdays as Emmanuel outseveral to be the Old English “oak” to the New well as onsapling the Sabbath. England planted by Puritan emigrants in 1636 at NewCommitted as theyCambridge were to what I have called towne, soon renamed in honor of the lateral Englishlearning, univerPuritans nevertheless suspected that too much talk from the laity sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merwith guidance from the clergy could lead to insolence chanttoo andlittle Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed 7 and heresy— stressed the need to hear from learned half his estateand and so all they his library. lecturers wellraising as fromrequest themselves. In fact, their zeal for serIn theasfundthey sent to prospective donors mons became a point of sore dispute in old England, where the back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God stateseeing church emphasized sonic scenic aspects of way public for fit “to stir up thethe heart of and Mr. Harvard, ” and by of worship— the to sound of his the example, organ, the sight of the the purpose scarlet-clad asking others follow explained for priest seen light refracted stained Fortothose who which theyinintended to usethrough his books and glass. funds: “advance took seriously St. Paul’s injunction that “faith cometh by hearing” learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they (Romans 10:17), this kind of spectacle was bothlearning. too little In andwhat too had in mind was, among others, theological much. One have reason theya providential emigrated tomercy, New England thefrom first they would called the only in book place Harvard’s was their belief that infusion of grace was likeliest towas ocJohn library to the survive an eighteenthcentury fire 8 witnessing the sacraments or cur not while a penitent sinner was a tract entitled Christian Warfare. evenBut while communion, butthe when or she was listening it istaking a mistake to imagine firstheAmerican colleges as to a gospel devoted preachersolely whosetovoice couldand melt the heart. seminaries doctrine dogma. Fewer than half The ideal listener was inwardly measuring the entered preachof Harvard’s seventeenthcentury restless, graduates ultimately er’s claims against his own experience (“Go home and consider the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as well whether the things been taught or no,”attenJohn as Christian— took that up a have considerable part were of thetrue students’ 9 Cotton toldarithmetic his listeners), mind forearly scriptural appealanafor tion, as did andsearching geometry.herAnother 39 Although a lecture takes logues to what or she was funds, this one he specifically forfeeling. the Harvard library, enumerated place in public, listening to it was— and, ideally, still is— a funthe need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math61 39

Two Two

damentally privatehissing, experience. “The preacher’s words had taken College, smoking, and throwing pellets at the actors who a deep impression mywritten conscience, ” one young Englishman displeased them in aon play by one of the Trinity fellows.3 reported his diary around 1590,the yetcloistered the same structure words made so By theinlater fifteenth century, of the little impression friendsinthat they “fellform: uponrooms me inaccesjestOxbridge college on hadhis emerged its modern 40 Puritans so ing manner, ” full ofcourtyard mockery and contempt. sible from an inner connected by walkways towere chapel, committed thisThe halfprivate, half-room publicwith form of religious library, and to hall. hall— a great rushes strewn exon perience, and so convinced that the lecturesermon was among the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a God’s ways of sortingdirt— the saved fromcenter the damned, means of controlling was the of collegethat life.inItearly was New to which oneand faction removed in order found in hallEngland, that dining, lectures, sometimes musical andtotheatrisermondrenched took churches, cal performances place;the ataverage one endchurchgoer stood the could “high expect table,” to attend roughly seven thousand sermons in a lifetime, which where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the amounted a permitted sermon might last two or more) only college(since official to marry, livedhours with his family to in 41 4 nearly “fifteen thousand concentrated listening.” Part hours of theofpoint— an important part—was an attached house. was the context— a world saturated by theexchange spoken for This undergraduates to witness social and intellectual word— in which the American college first arose, and from among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire somewhich theworthy modern collegeamong lecturethem. derives. Scientists have beday to be of sitting lieved as strongly as those we would call huTo in thisit end, the initiates, or,whom to use today the penal metaphor, the manists. Two afterthe thepublic founding Harvard, find inmates, were centuries kept in, and keptofout. Trafficwe flowed 5 and William Barton Rogers, a professor of chemistry at William through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate. The Mary andday thebegan University of Virginia, who followed went on by to lectures, become student’s with predawn worship, the first of MIT, unfavorably comparing study, andpresident meditation in what was in some respects “exclusive a monastextbook and recitation” to the “greater impressiveness of tic regimestudy of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent 42 The tradition that Rogers invoked knowledge orally conveyed.” world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who was not, as we mightatthink, that thecourtyard thundering preacher who toughened himself football inofthe of Sidney Sussex sends forth settled TRUTH fromlater, his pulpit or podium. There College, Cambridge) and, a little Isaac Newton. were, noifdoubt, preacherteachers, and it always willcoddled be. But But it was such a strict and confined world, was also the real power of the tradition lies in its exploratory reflectiveand collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives ness, asthewhen thecollegium, teacher speaks fromsociety sketchyornotes rather than from Latin meaning community— in from ayoung controlling script,the in pleasures order to of allow spontaneous selfwhich men, denied tavern and town, were revision.recreation He or shein speaks from inside the subject, an tennis openoffered the college gardens, bowlingwith green, 6 ness to new discoveries even while moving through an argument court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 62 38

Origins Origins

made before. lecture (or 1630s, sermon) should personsmany whotimes emigrated to No Newgood England in the nearly 150 be closed to second it must have abetter dialogic were graduates of onethoughts; of these institutions— thanquality— 1 in everya spirit of selfquestioning that draws the listeners into honest 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated percentageinof quiry into themselves. Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far whatrepresentation should we make today of this time-honored trust in the But highest (35 graduates or affiliates) was Emmanthe power offounded the spoken word? In in our world, itcentury is hard on to uel College, at Cambridge thewired late sixteenth imagine sitting for hours in a drafty meetinghouse silent except what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” for the sound of theout preaching voice, one’sto pew the Emmanuel turned to be the Oldpinned Englishto“oak” thebyNew eyes of a clergyman who seems somehow privy toinone’s sins. England sapling planted by Puritan emigrants 1636secret at NewSome today Cambridge think that the lecture has become as towne,educators soon renamed in college honor of the English univerobsolete as the hellfire sermon. Rather than listening continuously, sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan mermany are e-mailing, “smart” chant students and Emmanuel graduatetexting, namedand Johnchecking Harvardtheir bequeathed 7 phones duringand class. those who do unplug themselves for a half his estate all As hisfor library. while, exactly, are request they supposed to get from a long donors monoIn what, the fundraising they sent to prospective logue when they are accustomed to surfing and multitasking and back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God “dealing multiple in short bursts”? It’sofa for seeingwith fit “to stir upinformation the heart ofstreams Mr. Harvard, ” and by way question that goes to the his larger questionexplained of whether asking others to follow example, theAmerica’s purpose colfor leges can stillintended lay claim to ause useable past. and funds: to “advance which they his books At least the beginning of an answer is kind suggested by Emerlearning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The of learning they son’s comment that “it is not instruction, but provocation, that had in mind was, among others, theological learning. In what I canwould receive from another soul.” The hallmark the great they have called a providential mercy, the onlyofbook from lecturer has always been power provoke, century and there no John Harvard’s library to the survive an to eighteenthfireiswas 8 reason to think this power diminished. In fact, in our age of dea tract entitled Christian Warfare. graded speech, such a lecturer need—if not, to use But public it is a mistake to imagine the fills firstaAmerican colleges as today’s ubiquitous marketing language, a niche.Fewer Onethan lecturer seminaries devoted solely to doctrine and dogma. half mayHarvard’s be hotly seventeenthdemonstrative, another so shylyultimately inattentiveentered to the of century graduates students in the room that they feel they have eavesdropped the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as on wella private conversation between the speaker herself. I stillattenhear as Christian— took up a considerable partand of the students’ 9 from as Columbia alumniand of ageometry. certain ageAnother how theyearly flocked to lisappeal for tion, did arithmetic ten to this Meyer thefor great historian whose glowing funds, oneSchapiro, specifically the art Harvard library, enumerated eyes and transported smile as he spoke of Cézanne or Kandinthe need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math63 39

Two Two

sky led more than hissing, one student to say, “Whatever he’sactors smoking, College, smoking, and throwing pellets at the who I’ll have some.” displeased them in a play written by one of the Trinity fellows.3 Or the consider this account of William James bystructure another of grateBy later fifteenth century, the cloistered the ful student, George Santayana: Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms accessible from an inner courtyard connected by walkways to chapel, Perhaps in the first years of his teaching he felt a little in library, and hall. The hall—a great room with rushes strewn on the professor’s chair as a military man might feel when the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time as a obliged to read the prayers at a funeral. He probably means of controlling dirt—was the center of college life. It was conceived what he said more deeply than a more scholasin hall that dining, lectures, and sometimes musical and theatritic mind might have conceived it; yet he would have been cal performances took place; at one end stood the “high table,” more comfortable if someone else had said it for him. He where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the liked to open the window, and look out for a moment. only college official permitted to marry, lived with his family in I think he was glad when the bell rang, and he could be an attached house.4 Part of the point—an important part—was himself again until the next day. But in the midst of this for undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange routine of the class-room the spirit would sometimes among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire somecome upon him, and, leaning his head on his hand, he day to be worthy of sitting among them. would let fall golden words, picturesque, fresh from the To this end, the initiates, or, to use the penal metaphor, the heart, full of the knowledge of good and evil.43 inmates, were kept in, and the public kept out. Traffic flowed 5 In this passage get not only a portrait a great teacher Thea through a singlewe point of entrance and exit,ofthe porter’s gate.but glimpse ofday what college its best can be. followed by lectures, student’s began withatpredawn worship, study, and meditation in what was in some respects a monas7 tic regime of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent To anyone glancingly the history of Amerworld that even produced Johnacquainted Milton andwith Oliver Cromwell (who ican education, it is hardly news that our colleges have their toughened himself at football in the courtyard of Sidney Sussex origins inCambridge) religion, or and, that athey structure, and College, littlederive later, their Isaac aims, Newton. pedagogical methods from Protestantism, and, more But if it was a strictmainly and confined world, it was also coddled particularly, from the stringent form of Protestantism whose and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives partisans at first derisively by their enemies, later from the were Latincalled— collegium, meaning society or community— in proudlyyoung by themselves— Manyofcolleges, both oldwere and which men, deniedPuritans. the pleasures tavern and town, relativelyrecreation new, retain of their religious origins in, for exoffered in vestiges the college gardens, bowling green, tennis 6of the library or in a chapel ample, the neoGothic architecture court, bathing pool, or archery range. Among the roughly 20,000 64 38

Origins Origins

spire thatwho risesemigrated above thetocenter what was once the nearly center)150 of persons New (or England in the 1630s, campus and from which everything else radiates were graduates of one of these institutions— betteroutward. than 1 in every Yet many academics have a curiously uneasy with 75 men, a ratio comparable to the college-educated relation percentage of these origins, as if they pose some threat or embarrassment to Americans up until the twentieth century. The college with by far our secular representation liberties, even(35 though the battle for academic freethe highest graduates or affiliates) was Emmandom againstfounded clerical at authority wasinwon ago. If you were on to uel College, Cambridge the long late sixteenth century remind just about any major university president today that his what Queen Elizabeth presciently called “a Puritan foundation.” or her own turned institution thisEnglish or that “oak” religious denomiEmmanuel out arose to be from the Old to the New nation, likely get the the proverbial Englandyou’d sapling planted byresponse Puritan of emigrants in 1636Victorian at Newlady who, hearing of Darwin’s claim thatEnglish men descend towne, soonupon renamed Cambridge in honor of the univerfrom apes, replied that she hoped it wasn’t so— but if it were, that sity town. To this fledgling New England college a Puritan merit not become widely known. chant and Emmanuel graduate named John Harvard bequeathed 7 is a pity a waste, there is much to be learned halfThis his estate and and all his library.since from including the clerical the essential aims Inthe thepast, fundraising request theypast, sentabout to prospective donors and challenges of college education. We tend not to remember, back in England, the founders of the new college thanked God or perhaps to forget, that college” was confor seeing fithalf“todeliberately stir up the heart of Mr. Harvard, and once by way of ceived not as ato road to wealth or as a screening for a social asking others follow his example, explainedservice the purpose for club, but as intended a trainingtoground pastors, more which they use hisfor books andteachers, funds: toand, “advance broadly, public servants. Founded as philanthropic institutions, learning and perpetuate it to posterity.” The kind of learning they the English of America’s colleges were “expected, ” as had in mindoriginals was, among others, theological learning. In what Morison puthave it, “to dispense alms to outsiders, wellbook as charity they would called a providential mercy, theasonly from 44 founder of the to their own children.” John Harvard’s library toBenjamin survive anFranklin, eighteenthcentury fireUniwas 8 versity of Pennsylvania, who was both a conservator and renovaa tract entitled Christian Warfare. tor of tradition, put it the thisfirst way:American “The ideacolleges of what as is Butthe it Puritan is a mistake to imagine true merit, devoted should . . . be often presented to youth, explain’d and seminaries solely to doctrine and dogma. Fewer than half impress’d on their minds, century as consisting in anultimately Inclinationentered join’d of Harvard’s seventeenthgraduates with an Ability to serve Mankind, one’s Country, Friends, and the ministry, and the study of logic and ethics—classical as well Family . . . which Ability should be thepart great Aimstudents’ and Endattenof all as Christian— took up a considerable of the 45 9 learning.” tion, as did arithmetic and geometry. Another early appeal for Franklin’s friend Benjamin foundedlibrary, Dickinson College funds, this one specifically for Rush the Harvard enumerated athe hundred miles west of Philadelphia, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, need for volumes on “law, phisicke, Philosophy, and Math65 39

Two Two

with the smoking, stipulationhissing, that it and be built near the courthouse— so who that College, throwing pellets at the actors 3 its students,them as Dickinson’s currentbypresident it, could make displeased in a play written one of theputs Trinity fellows. the By short “observe government in action” and become thewalk later to fifteenth century, the cloistered structure of the “engaged with their society in order to prepare them to lead in Oxbridge college had emerged in its modern form: rooms acces46 ouran own time, when some collegesbyseem to havetoless than it.” In sible from inner courtyard connected walkways chapel, a firm grasp on their from library, and hall. The public hall—aobligations, great roomsuch withprecedents— rushes strewn on both the era of religion and of Enlightenment— should not the floor to be gathered up and burned from time to time asbea cause for butwas for the emulation. means of embarrassment controlling dirt— center of college life. It was As that for obligations to ourand “own children”— to students, that in hall dining, lectures, sometimes musical and theatriis—performances it may help totook recallplace; the derivation the word which we” cal at one endofstood the by “high table, name the person who stands at the lectern or sits at the head of where tutors dined in the company of the Master, who, as the the seminar table. That word, to of marry, course,lived is “professor”— a term only college official permitted with his family in 4 thatattached once referred a person professes a faith, aspart— in the was Puof thewho point— an important an house.toPart ritanundergraduates churches, wheretothe profession made before theexchange congrefor witness socialwas and intellectual gation as a kind of public initiation. Surely this meaning is one among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someto which should still wish to laythem. claim, since the true teacher day to be we worthy of sitting among must be athe professor in the root of themetaphor, word—a perToalways this end, initiates, or, to usesense the penal the son undaunted by the incremental fatigue work, inmates, were kept in, and the public kept of out.repetitive Traffic flowed who remains ardent, even fanatic, in the service of his calling. through a single point of entrance and exit, the porter’s gate.5 The student’s day began with predawn worship, followed by lectures, study, and meditation in what was in some respects a monastic regime of discipline and deprivation. This was the stringent world that produced John Milton and Oliver Cromwell (who toughened himself at football in the courtyard of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge) and, a little later, Isaac Newton. But if it was a strict and confined world, it was also coddled and collegial—the latter adjective, like the noun “college,” derives from the Latin collegium, meaning society or community—in which young men, denied the pleasures of tavern and town, were offered recreation in the college gardens, bowling green, tennis court, bathing pool, or archery range.6 Among the roughly 20,000 66 38

THREE FROM COLLEGE TO UNIVERSITY

Nearly a century after the first English settlement at Jamestown, and eighty years after the “pilgrims” landed at Plymouth, there were still only two colleges in the American colonies, Harvard (founded in 1636) in the north, and William and Mary (1693) in the upper south. Between the outset of the eighteenth century and the outbreak of the Revolution, the number grew to nine, with New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania accounting for all the growth. The two oldest colleges were joined by Yale (1701); The College of New Jersey (1746), which became Princeton University in 1896; King’s College (1754), which took a patriotic new name, Columbia, in 1784; the College of Philadelphia (chartered in 1755, it became the University of Pennsylvania in 1779); the College in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1764), renamed in 1804 for an early benefactor, Nicholas Brown; Queen’s College (1766), which became Rutgers in 1825, in honor of a Revolutionary War hero; and Dartmouth (1769), which began in 1754, in Connecticut, as a 67

Three Three

missionary school for Indians, before obtaining its college charter 1 and moving to its present location in Hanover, New Hampshire.1 In some cases, new colleges arose for reasons similar to those that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of disaffection with its brethren, or because of the inconvenience or expense of travel, broke away and formed a new congregation in a new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotton Mather, a member of Harvard’s governing board, became so unhappy with the fall from orthodoxy in Cambridge that he encouraged the formation of a new college a hundred miles south, at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. Yale, in turn, provided impetus for a new institution yet further south when a hotly pious student, David Brainerd, accused his tutor during the Great Awakening of the 1740s of having “no more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked out for his impudence. When sympathetic “New Light” alumni, including Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr (father of the future vice president and dueling opponent of Alexander Hamilton), concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly cold, they gave their support to a new college at “Prince-Town”— about which Burr was later supposed to have said, “if it had not been for the treatment received by Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, New Jersey College would never have been erected.”22 A more secular version of the same schismatic process led Thomas Jefferson, early in the nineteenth century, to found the University of Virginia as a corrective to the “languor and inefficiency” into which his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen.33 By the 1820s, the pace was accelerating at which new colleges were forming—again, in some instances, by disgruntled refugees from older ones, as when Oberlin (founded in 1833) opened its doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 68

From From College College to University to University

Seminary, who had become enraged at the Lane administration for suppressing debate over slavery. By now the United States had some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their total enrollment was still tiny—fewer than four thousand students out of thirteen million people. Some were short-lived, others were to become eminent and enduring, and most remained closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one Yale graduate complained in 1852, that “you go sixteen times a 4 week to chapel, or woe to you.”4 Endowments were generally meager, tuition revenue dependent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numbered between thirty and a hundred), and support from the local denomination variable. In the words of historian Richard Hofstadter, most colleges were “precarious little institutions, denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges at all, but glorified high schools or academies that presumed to 5 offer degrees.”5 In a lively recent book, the writer Anya Kamenetz puts it more pungently: “any college that trumpets its ‘centurieslong tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.”66 Such, at least, was once the standard account of so-called higher education before the Civil War—that it amounted to a smattering of weak institutions of little use to young men entering the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not hard to find contemporaries who buttress this view. In MobyDick (1851), when the owner of the whale ship Pequod wants to convey to young Ishmael that he is shipping out under a strange (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has been in colleges as well as among the cannibals,” as if only a very peculiar person would venture into the vicinity of either. Future senator Charles Sumner (Harvard, class of 1830) remarked that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 69

Three Three

Harvard College.” Henry Adams (class of 1858), that missionary school for Indians, before obtaining itsconcurred college charter the college little, and that little ill” andNew sent him into the1 and moving“taught to its present location in Hanover, Hampshire. 7 manysimilar students, colworld as “ancases, autobiographical In some new colleges blank.” arose forFor reasons to those lege drove was a deadening routine memorization and “recitation” that proliferation of theof churches: one faction, out of diswhereby you before your professor to demonstrate your affection withstood its brethren, or because of the inconvenience or mastery,ofortravel, to expose deficiency, scanning Horaceinora expense broke your away and formed at a new congregation Virgil, or performing a mathematical calculation, or finding the new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because CotrightMather, scriptural passage of with which togoverning justify a theological point. ton a member Harvard’s board, became so And ifwith work dull, discipline— least so it that seemed to unhappy thewas fall from orthodoxy inatCambridge he enoutsiders— was nil. According one member of the Peabody couraged the formation of a newtocollege a hundred miles south, family, crimes “worthy of the penitentiary were of frequent at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. occurrence” the provided New England including setting off Yale, ininturn, impetuscolleges, for a new institution yet furexplosives, smashing windows, stoning the homes of unpopular ther south when a hotly pious student, David Brainerd, accused faculty stealing chickens, “borrowing” and“no rehis tutormembers, during the Great Awakening of the 1740shorses of having turning them with manes shorn. That perennial form of student more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked protest— food riot— was sosympathetic common that college seemed litout for histhe impudence. When “New Light” alumni, tle more than a “disorderly inthe Virginia, including Jonathan Edwardsburlesque.” and Aaron One Burr student (father of future expelled for inciting a hissing protest at against what he vice president and dueling opponent of supper Alexander Hamilton), called “flysoup, ” did not make clear whether he thought the soup concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly had of boiledtoflies or the hall at was so infested that cold,been theyconcocted gave their support a new college “PrinceTown”— too many fliesBurr drowned in supposed his bowl. to Either about which was later haveway, said,his “if classmates it had not 8 joined him loud solidarity. been for theintreatment received by Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, 2 joyless unCrediting this image college asbeen stultifying and A more secNew Jersey College wouldofnever have erected.” less students took matters into their own hands, some accounts ular version of the same schismatic process led Thomas Jefferson, renderinthese years as what used totobefound called, historians of of Virmeearly the nineteenth century, thebyUniversity dievalasEurope, the “dark In fact, books about ginia a corrective to theages.” “languor andmany inefficiency” into higher which 3 sense of the past education, to the extent that they consider a his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. useful for understanding the present,atbegin story after By at theall1820s, the pace was accelerating whichthe new colleges the Civil War with theinrise of the researchbyuniversity andrefugees ignore were forming— again, some instances, disgruntled 9 Thereits is the putatively primitive time (founded college” altogether. from older ones, as when“oldOberlin in 1833) opened doubtless something right about that version, but there is also doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theologicala 70 68

From From College College to University to University

good deal wrong with— or atenraged least missing it. It is rather Seminary, who had become at the from— Lane administration like dismissing debate those who before us the because they did had not for suppressing over lived slavery. By now United States live in houses with central heating or because they held retrosome fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their grade views aboutwas racestill or religion or sex.than four thousand stutotal enrollment tiny—fewer Inout fact,ofathirteen numbermillion of experiments in educational reform dents people. Some were shortlived,were othunder way the 1820s and ‘30s, and many and colleges lively ers were to by become eminent and enduring, mostwere remained sites of debate about religion and politics as well as education closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one itself. The newcomplained Universityinof1852, Virginia offered today Yale graduate that “you go what sixteen timeswea 4 would eightor “tracks”— including in specialized subjects such week tocall chapel, woe to you.” as anatomy and law. a number of relatively Endowments wereAtgenerally meager, tuition young revenuecolleges, depenincluding Union (1795), Amherst (1821), Hobart (founded as dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numGenevabetween Collegethirty in 1822), Trinity (founded as Washington bered andand a hundred), and support from the College in 1823), modern languages and science began Richard to suplocal denomination variable. In the words of historian plant the classics— and the rumblings of reform wereinstitutions, felt, too, at Hofstadter, most colleges were “precarious little 10 venerable institutions such as Harvard and Yale. denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges Thebut fact is that something of value was happening in the colat all, glorified high schools or academies that presumed to 5 leges degrees.” regardless In of awhere stood on the writer curricular debates— or livelythey recent book, Anya Kamenetz offer at least somepungently: students were bringingthat something with puts it more “any college trumpetsvaluable its ‘centuries6 them to college. The Civil War historian James McPherson long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” points out,atfor example, the the extraordinarily high percentage of Such, least, was once standard account of so-called college education graduates among of the abolitionist movement. higher before leaders the Civil War— that it amounted toIna a sample ofof250 antislavery leaders, nearly had entereither smattering weak institutions of little use80 topercent young men been graduated from, or spent some time in, a college— and ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is this not at a period when less than 2 percent of the overall population hard to find contemporaries who buttress this view. In Moby11 But did this whale mean ship that Pequod going towants college was college Dick (1851), educated. when the owner of the to had something do with acquiring, or at least heightening, convey to youngtoIshmael that he is shipping out under a strangea sense of outrage at slavery? Or did it mean that young men (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahabwith “has “knives in their brains” (Emerson’s phrase for the youth of the been in colleges as well as among the cannibals,” as if only a very 1830s) ready for carving up assumptions dear by elders peculiar person would venture into theheld vicinity of their either. Fuwere senator more likely to goSumner to college than those dull minds and ture Charles (Harvard, classwith of 1830) remarked athat tendency to acquiesce? “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 71 69

Three Three

This sort of question— thebefore chickenand-eggitssort, or what is missionary school for Indians, obtaining college charter sometimes the question versus correlation— and movingcalled to its present locationofincause Hanover, New Hampshire.is1 impossible answer much In some to cases, new with colleges aroseconfidence, for reasonsespecially similar to when those asked of the past. Were colleges enlarging the minds of that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out oftheir disstudents?with Or were those who to college more likely than affection its brethren, or went because of the inconvenience or others toofbe largeminded they got there? The evidence expense travel, broke awaybefore and formed a new congregation in a pushes in opposite directions. On the one hand, to stay for new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cot-a moment with the caseofofHarvard’s race, between 1826 board, and 1866 a total ton Mather, a member governing became so of twenty-with eighttheAfrican Americans inin the entire United States unhappy fall from orthodoxy Cambridge that he enreceived bachelor’s degrees of college a black population that, south, by the couraged the formation of aout new a hundred miles end of that period, exceeded four and a half million, including at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. more than hundred thousand before the Yale, in six turn, provided impetusemancipated for a new institution yetCivil fur12 On War,south some when whosea families hadstudent, been free for generations. ther hotly pious David Brainerd, accused the tutor otherduring hand, the some colleges clearlyofattracted citizens his Great Awakening the 1740syoung of having “no with reform on their minds— not only new colleges such as more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked Oberlin, first to beWhen genuinely integrated as well as the first out for histhe impudence. sympathetic “New Light” alumni, committed to coeducation, oldBurr ones. On an including Jonathan Edwards but and also Aaron (father of American the future bookpresident tour in 1842, the United States to vice and Charles dueling Dickens opponentfound of Alexander Hamilton), be a vulgar country driven by the democratically distributed concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly motive of gave greed, butsupport he made exception for“Princethe “University cold, they their to an a new college at Town”— of Cambridge” (his the same Harvard thatit Sumner about which Burr wasname later for supposed to have said, “if had not and Adams which by he Mr. praised for “the humanising been for the disparaged), treatment received Brainerd at Yale College, 2 friendships tastes and desires it has engendered; the affectionate New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secto which it has given rise; the amount of vanity and prejudice it ular version of the same schismatic process led Thomas Jefferson, 13 has dispelled.” early in the nineteenth century, to found the University of Virsome to antebellum colleges were regressive, giniaNo as doubt a corrective the “languor and inefficiency” into stuffy, which 3 and mired in the past. Others were restless, open, and vibrant. At his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. leastBythrough thethe mid1800s, retainedatsome of the the 1820s, pace was most accelerating whichversion new colleges religious uniformity which they hadbybegun (Princeton was were forming— again,with in some instances, disgruntled refugees Presbyterian, Brown was Baptist, so on), in but1833) whatever their from older ones, as when Oberlinand (founded opened its particular creed in what has been aptly called “an age of moral doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 72 68

From From College College to University to University

pedagogy, theyhad agreed that their primary remained the Seminary,”who become enraged at thepurpose Lane administration development ofdebate sound over character in By their students. for suppressing slavery. now the United States had To that end, a senioryear course in moral philosophy, some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole populationtaught their by the college president, was virtually universal, though details total enrollment was still tiny—fewer than four thousand stuvariedout from collegepeople. according to its particular religious dents of college thirteentomillion Some were short-lived, othaffiliation. one historian it, theand course we ers were to As become eminent describes and enduring, most(today remained would allied call it with the “capstone was “designed toasdraw closely this or thatexperience”) denomination— so much so, one together all the scrambled admonitions and reprimands that had Yale graduate complained in 1852, that “you go sixteen times a week to chapel, woe to you.” theretofore beenorlavished on a 4youth, to arrange them in a sysEndowments tuition depentematic body, andwere offergenerally them as meager, the moral legacyrevenue of the ages to 14 dent on unpredictable typically life.” numbe studied, cherished, andenrollments presumably, (students obeyed throughout bered andcharacter a hundred), support from the Thebetween view ofthirty human thus and systematized was not local denomination variable. In the words of historian Richard very different in its essentials from that of the Puritan founders, Hofstadter, “precarious little though theremost now colleges tended towere be more allowance forinstitutions, willed selfdenomination-and ridden, poverty-stricken  .  . of . inthefact improvement less emphasis on seizure soulnot by colleges irresistat all,grace. but glorified schools by or academies that presumed to ible Here, ashigh expounded James McCosh, a Scottish5 In a lively recent book, the writer Anya Kamenetz offer degrees.” born philosopher in the tradition of John Witherspoon, another puts it morewho pungently: “any college trumpets its ‘centuriesScotsman, had preceded him asthat president of Princeton, is a 6 long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” representative statement: Such, at least, was once the standard account of so-called Freedom and law are . . . fundamental of higher education before thethe Civil War—thatcharters it amounted to a [the] kingdom of mind. The mind is virtuous when the smattering of weak institutions of little use to young men enterare inmarket union, when free willmanagerial is moving in accoring two the labor or thethe stillsmall class. It is not dance with the fixed law. The mind is criminal when hard to find contemporaries who buttress this view. Inthe Mobywill is unfaithful to her andship husband thewants law. to Dickfree (1851), when the owner ofpartner the whale Pequod There thatthat instant schism,out those family convey to begin youngfrom Ishmael he isthat shipping under a strange dissensions, if we so speak, which do so distract the soul. (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has from these inward contests can be” as noifescape beenAnd in colleges as well as among thethere cannibals, only a very by means of awould lawful venture divorce. . . . that internal peculiar person intoHence the vicinity of either. Fuwhich rages in the breasts class of all of whose has turedissension senator Charles Sumner (Harvard, 1830)will remarked the law of their nature, that is, the law of of thatrebelled “not oneagainst single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates 73 69

Three Three

God—aschool schismfor which, butbefore for Divine interposition, missionary Indians, obtaining its collegemust charter for ever, being impossible the distracted parties 1 andexist moving to itsitpresent location in for Hanover, New Hampshire. either tocases, separate the onearose hand,fororreasons cordially to unite In some newoncolleges similar to those 15 on the other. that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of disaffection with its brethren, or because of the inconvenience or Going to college was an exercise in self-examination, self-discipline, expense of travel, broke away and formed a new congregation in a and self-abnegation. Or so, at least, it was supposed to be. new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotton 2Mather, a member of Harvard’s governing board, became so unhappy with the fall from orthodoxy in Cambridge that he enBut if Puritanism retained residual force in the doctrinaire relicouraged the formation of a new college a hundred miles south, gion taught in the nineteenth-century college, those who did at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. the teaching felt under increasing pressure to prove the worth of Yale, in turn, provided impetus for a new institution yet furtheir work. By the second half of the century, a defensive tone was ther south when a hotly pious student, David Brainerd, accused creeping into the official communications that all colleges issue— his tutor during the Great Awakening of the 1740s of having “no now as then—to appeal for public support. We find Yale’s presimore grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked dent, for example, in a book tellingly titled The American Colout for his impudence. When sympathetic “New Light” alumni, leges and the American Public (1870), extolling college life with a including Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr (father of the future lengthy catalogue of benefits that suggests a certain anxiety in his vice president and dueling opponent of Alexander Hamilton), salesmanship: warmth college friendships, the earnestness concluded that“the Yale, no lessofthan Harvard, had gone hopelessly of college rivalries, the revelations of character, the manifestations cold, they gave their support to a new college at “Prince-Town”— of growth, issues villainy and passion retribution about whichthe Burr wasoflater supposed to have in said, “if it had and not 16 shame, the rewards of perseverance in triumph and honor . . .” been for the treatment received by Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, PointsJersey that College would once have gone without saying—2 the valuesecof A more New would never have been erected.” Christian education, of training in process the Greek LatinJefferson, classics, ular version of the same schismatic led and Thomas of living at close quarters with one’s peers— were now proclaimed early in the nineteenth century, to found the University of Virby colleges defendingtothemselves against public doubt.into which ginia as a corrective the “languor and inefficiency” In some quarters, doubt derision. his alma mater, William andturned Mary, to had fallen.3 By the early 1890s, the By largely self-educated Carnegie at was denouncing “colthe 1820s, the paceAndrew was accelerating which new colleges lege education asagain, it exists with its focus on antiquated ideas were forming— intoday, some”instances, by disgruntled refugees 17 and “dead languages, ” as suitable only “for life on another planet.” from older ones, as when Oberlin (founded in 1833) opened its A few to years later, the Irishborn from Chicago journalist Peter doors students and faculty nearby Lane Finley Theological 74 68

From From College College to University to University

Dunne, writing in thebecome voice ofenraged the fictional Dooley, identified Seminary, who had at theMr. Lane administration two types of college: Speechless Thought” for suppressing debatethe over“Colledge slavery. Byivnow the United States and had “th’ Colledge iv Thoughtless Speech.” In the latter, some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their totalTh’enrollment still tiny— fewer than fouryoung thousand stuhead iv thiswas colledge believes in thrainin’ dents out of thirteen million people. Some were shortlived, othmen f ’r th’ civic ideel. . . . He believes ‘young men shud ers were to become and enduring,an’ and most remained be equipped witheminent Courage, Discipline, Loftiness iv closely allied with this or that denomination— so much so, Purpose;’ so I suppose Packy [Dooley’s son], if he wint as one Yalethere, graduate in 1852, that Erasmus “you go H. sixteen times a wud complained listen to lectures fr’m . . . Noddle, 4 week to chapel, or woe to you.” Doctor iv Loftiness iv Purpose. I loft, ye loft, he lofts. I’ve Endowments were generally meager, tuition revenue depenalways felt we needed some wan to teach our young th’ dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numCourage they can’t get walkin’ home in th’ dark, an’ th’ bered between thirty and a hundred), and support from the loftiness iv purpose that doesn’t start with bein’ hungry local denomination variable. In the words of historian Richard an’ lookin’ f ’r wurruk. An’ in th’ colledge where these Hofstadter, most colleges were “precarious little institutions, studies are taught, its undhershtud that even betther thin denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges gettin’ th’ civic ideel is bein’ head iv a thrust.18 at all, but glorified high schools or academies that presumed to 5 Somedegrees.” thirty years Horsefeathers Groucho Marx In alater, livelyin recent book, the(1932), writer Anya Kamenetz offer weighed in aspungently: President “any Quincy Adams U., puts it more college thatWagstaff, trumpets of itsHuxley ‘centuries6 who breaks out into a spontaneous song of himself: long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” Such, at least, was once the standard account of so-called I don’t know what they have to say / It makes no differhigher education before the Civil War—that it amounted to a ence anyway / Whatever it is, I’m against it. / No matter smattering of weak institutions of little use to young men enterwhat it is or who commenced it, I’m against it! / Your ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not proposition may be good / But let’s have one thing underhard to find contemporaries who buttress this view. In Mobystood: / Whatever it is, I’m against it. / And even when Dick (1851), when the owner of the whale ship Pequod wants to you’ve changed it or condensed it, I’m against it! / For convey to young Ishmael that he is shipping out under a strange months before my son was born / I used to yell from night (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has till morn: / Whatever it is, I’m against it! / And I’ve kept been in colleges as well as among the cannibals,” as if only a very yelling since I’ve first commenced it, I’m against it. peculiar person would venture into the vicinity of either. FuAs long as colleges connected to mainstream ture senator Charlesremained Sumner securely (Harvard, class of 1830) remarked American culture, this kind of thing could be shrugged off as just that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 75 69

Three Three

so much grousing by Indians, people left outside the campus gates. But missionary school for before obtaining its college charter by Dunne’s longlocation before Groucho’s, connection was1 and movingtime, to its and present in Hanover,the New Hampshire. becoming In somestrained. cases, new colleges arose for reasons similar to those The strain had manyofcauses. One obvious problem the that drove proliferation the churches: one faction, outfor of disold-time colleges their resolute Protestantism in a society or of affection with its was brethren, or because of the inconvenience increasing andaway ethnic Catholic instiexpense of religious travel, broke anddiversity formed (the a newfew congregation in a tutions, beginning with Georgetown, founded in 1789, were ininew neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because CottiallyMather, seminaries for aspirants to thegoverning priesthood). In 1850, more ton a member of Harvard’s board, became so than ninewith out the of ten Americans had been born in the unhappy fall from orthodoxy in Cambridge thatUnited he enStates; bythe theformation centennial 1876, amore Americans were couraged of year a newofcollege hundred miles south, 19 foreignborn than would be the case a hundred years later. at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. Another problem was the publication, in 1859, Darwin’s The Yale, in turn, provided impetus for a newofinstitution yet Orifurgin ofsouth Species, whose enervating effect onDavid religious orthodoxy had ther when a hotly pious student, Brainerd, accused been anticipated as early the 1830s byofgeologists estimated his tutor during the GreatasAwakening the 1740swho of having “no the age of the earth to be much older than what the Bible seemed more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked to warrant, as well as by advocates of a “higher who out for his impudence. When sympathetic “New criticism” Light” alumni, questionedJonathan the divine authorship of theBurr Bible(father itself. of the future including Edwards and Aaron story ofand howdueling theology lost its primacy, and how nature, viceThe president opponent of Alexander Hamilton), history, and human psychology came increasingly to be viewed concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly from they a scientific rather than atoreligious perspective has been told cold, gave their support a new college at “PrinceTown”— in many variations by many historians. is “if a convenient about which Burr was later supposed to Darwin have said, it had not starting but in truth the by story no distinct been forpoint, the treatment received Mr.has Brainerd at Yalebeginning College, 2For our puror— since we are still in the midst of it— clear end. New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secposes, it mayofbethe enough say that the transformation the colular version same to schismatic process led ThomasofJefferson, leges, in as of in American life,the became evidently imearly theeverything nineteenthelse century, to found University of Virperative the aftermath the Civiland War, which opened, to use ginia as aincorrective to theof“languor inefficiency” into which 3 hitherto granite Emerson’s geologic metaphor, “a cleavage in the his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. 20 of the By past.” the 1820s, the pace was accelerating at which new colleges a few colleges into that chasmby (for one thing,refugees the war wereNot forming— again, fell in some instances, disgruntled drained students for military neveropened emerged, from older ones, away as when Oberlin service), (foundedsome in 1833) its and those that did survive found themselves in a nation vastly doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 76 68

From From College College to University to University

expanded westward settlement andatimmigration but also conSeminary, by who had become enraged the Lane administration tracted by new debate networks communication the States telegraph, for suppressing overofslavery. By now the(first United had then the telephone) and transport (the railroads, later the autosome fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their mobile), and withwas a pressing needfewer for expert in modern total enrollment still tiny— than training four thousand stu21 industrial, bureaucratic, and legal techniques. dents out ofagricultural, thirteen million people. Some were short-lived,Even othbefore of the war, Congress passed Morrill Act ers werethetomidpoint become eminent and enduring, and the most remained (1862) providing grants of federal land to the loyal states— thirty closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one thousand acrescomplained for each ofin its senators and go representatives— Yale graduate 1852, that “you sixteen times a 4 earmarked for the purpose of establishing new colleges “where week to chapel, or woe to you.” the Endowments leading objectwere shallgenerally be, without excluding other scientific or meager, tuition revenue depenclassical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are related dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numto agriculture the mechanic arts.” These “landgrant”from colleges bered betweenand thirty and a hundred), and support the eventually evolved into the system of words state universities that today local denomination variable. In the of historian Richard includes suchmost institutions international caliber the UniverHofstadter, collegesofwere “precarious littleas institutions, sity of Illinois, Pennsylvania State University, and many denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not more. colleges At the same time, the old apprenticeship system was shrinkat all, but glorified high schools or academies that presumed to 5 ing, and careersInsuch as law andbook, medicine were beginning to rea lively recent the writer Anya Kamenetz offer degrees.” quireitamore professional degree as evidence of competence and puts pungently: “anyboth college that trumpets its ‘centuries6 men for modern as a device for gatekeeping. To prepare young long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” careers, began move prescribed cenSuch,colleges at least, was toonce thebeyond standard accountcurricula of so-called tered on theologybefore and the Everythat college, in every to era,a higher education theclassics. Civil War— it amounted tries to accommodate its felt obligations to the past (represented smattering of weak institutions of little use to young men enterby alumni and veteran faculty), the present (boards of ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. trustees, It is not legislatures, current donors), and the future (new and prospechard to find contemporaries who buttress this view. In Mobytive students)— and nineteenthcentury college was no exDick (1851), when thethe owner of the whale ship Pequod wants to ception.toWith orIshmael withoutthat the he consent of all its the convey young is shipping outconstituents, under a strange pace of change, begun in the antebellum years, accelerated. The (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has number of elective in specialized subjects” as multiplied, stubeen in colleges as courses well as among the cannibals, if only a very dents were assigned to recitation sections their propeculiar person would venture into the according vicinity oftoeither. Fuficiency as demonstrated by examination or byofpassing a prereqture senator Charles Sumner (Harvard, class 1830) remarked uisite course, and instruction was increasingly organized through that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 77 69

Three Three

academic departments rather than controlled president or missionary school for Indians, before obtainingbyitsthe college charter 22 a coterie of faculty elders. location in Hanover, New Hampshire.1 and moving to its present It issome tempting construe as a similar sudden to and toIn cases, to new collegessuch arosechanges for reasons those tal break the past— onofwhat that drovefrom proliferation of an theonslaught churches: by onemodernity faction, out dishad been with essentially a premodern conception what education affection its brethren, or because of theofinconvenience or should be. In fact,broke longaway before the congregation Civil War or in thea expense of travel, andDarwin formedor a new ensuing intellectual, social, and economic transformations, there new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cothad Mather, been notable dissenters who sawgoverning America’sboard, colleges as hopeton a member of Harvard’s became so lessly backward and to whatinwas needed. As as unhappy with the fallirrelevant from orthodoxy Cambridge thatearly he enthe 1730s,the Benjamin Franklin was lampooning Harvard as an couraged formation of a new college a hundred miles south, intellectually constipated place, and he soon suggested a at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. new kindYale, of college at provided Philadelphia (it eventually the Univerin turn, impetus for a newbecame institution yet fursity of Pennsylvania) thatpious would produce “discoveries . . . to the ther south when a hotly student, David Brainerd, accused benefit mankind.” Franklin’s fellowofPhiladelphian Benjamin his tutorofduring the Great Awakening the 1740s of having “no Rush envisioned a great university that would be an incubator more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked of American progress, and, during his presidency (1808– 1816), out for his impudence. When sympathetic “New Light” alumni, James Madison proposed a federally university— to no including Jonathan Edwards and Aaronfunded Burr (father of the future avail— in no fewer fouropponent messages to vice president and than dueling of Congress. Alexander Hamilton), When research universities finally did in hopelessly the post– concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard,emerge had gone Civil they War gave years,their thesupport colleges— did notTown”— become cold, to aeven newthose collegethat at “Princeuniversities hadsupposed no choicetobut to adapt to them. about whichthemselves— Burr was later have said, “if it had The not very word “university” been for the treatmentacquired received abynew Mr.meaning. BrainerdItathad Yalepreviously College, 2” but now it been used interchangeably with the word “college, New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secdenoted an of entirely different kind process of institution whoseJefferson, mission ular version the same schismatic led Thomas encompassed research and professional alongside the early in the nineteenth century, to foundtraining the University of Virteaching “undergraduates”— a term that came into ginia as a of corrective to the “languor and inefficiency” intogeneral which 3 use in order to distinguish candidates for the college degree from his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. those more studies. Some the new Bypursuing the 1820s, the advanced pace was accelerating at of which newuniversicolleges ties took shape again, aroundinthe core of a colonial college (Harvard, were forming— some instances, by disgruntled refugees Yale, Columbia), while others, such(founded as Chicago and Northwestfrom older ones, as when Oberlin in 1833) opened its ern, came into being without any preexisting foundation and with doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 78 68

From From College College to University to University

initial benefactions from such captains of industry as Carnegie Seminary, who had become enraged at the Lane administration and John D. Rockefeller. Stillslavery. othersBy (Clark, Johns Hopkins) for suppressing debate over now the United Stateswere had founded with no undergraduate students at all. some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their the Columbia which was mainly in the first totalOn enrollment was campus, still tiny— fewer than fourbuilt thousand studecade of of thethirteen twentieth century afterSome the university moved dents out million people. were short-had lived, othuptown to make roomand forenduring, its growingand research activities, ers were in toorder become eminent most remained there stands a domed building with these words inscribed across closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one its façade: “Erected for the Students that Religion and Learning Yale graduate complained in 1852, that “you go sixteen times a 4 May Hand in Grow with Knowledge.” week Go to chapel, or Hand woe toand you.”Character Whenever I walkwere past generally this building, which stillrevenue houses the ofEndowments meager, tuition depenfice of the campus chaplain, I think of a point that one of my dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numteachers insistedthirty upon as an axiom of intellectual history: when bered between and a hundred), and support from thea principle is explicitlyvariable. expressedIninthe formal proclamations monlocal denomination words of historian or Richard uments, it’s amost goodcolleges bet thatwere contemporaries no longer believe Hofstadter, “precarious little institutions, it. “Erected for the students” suggests that the other university denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges buildings erected something else. Andthat so they were: for at all, but were glorified highforschools or academies presumed to 5 advancing a particular discipline such the as mathematics chemisIn a lively recent book, writer Anya or Kamenetz offer degrees.” try oritlaw. Aspungently: for religion, it was becoming an anachronism, and puts more “any college that trumpets its ‘centuries6 life. was certainly no longer at the center of campus long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” All theat rising universities— whether of new reSuch, least, American was once the standard account so-or called newed—were modeled tothe oneCivil degreeWar— or another the renowned higher education before that itonamounted to a German universities of the day, where academic prevailed, smattering of weak institutions of little use to freedom young men enterresearch laboratories as well as graduate seminars first attained ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It istheir not modern form, and “professors could function exclusively as scholhard to find contemporaries who buttress this view. In Mobyars and researchers” since theyof “did haveship to bother Dick (1851), when the owner thenot whale Pequodthemselves wants to 23 In due course, these with remedying deficiencies.” convey to youngundergraduate Ishmael that he is shipping out under a strange emerging institutions absorbed schools of medicine and law that (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has had begun independently, and acquired teacher-”training been in colleges as well as among the cannibals, as if onlyschools, a very along withperson schoolswould of engineering and business. peculiar venture into the vicinity of either. Fuaspect of theSumner new universities was theof transformation of tureOne senator Charles (Harvard, class 1830) remarked their faculties into certified professionals, complete with a peer that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 79 69

Three Three

review system andfornational for accreditation. In efmissionary school Indians,standards before obtaining its college charter fect,moving regulatory authority over higher educationNew shifted from the1 and to its present location in Hanover, Hampshire. churches to such associations the Modern In some cases,academic new colleges arose forasreasons similarLanguage to those Association (founded in 1883), the American Historical Associathat drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of distion (1884), anditsthe American Mathematical (1888)—ora affection with brethren, or because of the Society inconvenience process that culminated in 1915 with the formation of the Ameriexpense of travel, broke away and formed a new congregation in a can Association of University Professors (AAUP) under the new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotleadership Dewey and Arthur Lovejoy,board, a distinguished ton Mather,ofa John member of Harvard’s governing became so historian with at Johns Hopkins, for the purpose of defending unhappy the fall from orthodoxy in Cambridge that heacaendemic freedom from incursions presidents and trustees. Spocouraged the formation of a newbycollege a hundred miles south, radic conflict between faculties and presidents persisted into at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. the twentieth as whenimpetus CharlesforBeard, leading Yale, incentury, turn, provided a newColumbia’s institution yet furhistorian, in 1917 overstudent, the firing by President ther southresigned when a hotly pious David Brainerd,Nicholas accused Murray faculty members who1740s had ofpublicly ophis tutorButler duringof thetwo Great Awakening of the having “no posed America’s engagement in World War I. (Beard described more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked the university trustees who stood with Butler as “reactionary and out for his impudence. When sympathetic “New Light” alumni, visionless Jonathan in politics, narrowand andAaron medieval religion.”) on including Edwards Burrin(father of theBut future a national scaleand thedueling tide hadopponent turned. In Andrew Dickson vice president of1895, Alexander Hamilton), White, first president of Cornell, whose private endowment was concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly augmented by land State theTown”— Morrill cold, they gave theirgranted supportto toNew a newYork college atunder “PrinceAct, looked thelater era supposed of the oldtodenominational colleges about whichback Burr at was have said, “if it had not and declared himself well rid ofby“aMr. system of control in been for the treatment received Brainerd at Yalewhich, College, 2 Rhetoric or selecting a Professor of Mathematics or Language or New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secPhysics or Chemistry, first and above to what sect or ular version of the sameasked schismatic process ledall Thomas Jefferson, 24 even to wing or branch of ato sect he belonged.” early in what the nineteenth century, found the University of Virend of the the American giniaByasthe a corrective to nineteenth the “languorcentury and inefficiency” intocollege which 3 found itself in an utterly transformed environment, of which the his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. most feature was newnew university. Byconspicuous the 1820s, theinstitutional pace was accelerating at the which colleges In itsforming— orientation toward specialized scholarship and research, were again, in some instances, by disgruntled refugees the university wasasboth to the collegesinand—as the PhD from older ones, whena rival Oberlin (founded 1833) opened its degree became the standard credential for college teaching (by doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 80 68

From From College College to University to University

1903, William was warning against PhD octopus”)— Seminary, whoJames had become enraged at the“the Lane administration the source of future faculty even forBy those thatStates remained for suppressing debate over slavery. nowcolleges the United had apart from the new universities. This was both a boon and some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population theira problem. It encouraged and four elevated standards total enrollment was stillprofessionalism tiny—fewer than thousand stuthroughout American higherpeople. education. also lived, created dents out of thirteen million Some But wereitshortoth-a context ambitious regarded underers wereintowhich become eminentacademics and enduring, and teaching most remained graduates as a distraction and a burden. closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one universities that hadintaken form“you around an established YaleAtgraduate complained 1852, that go sixteen times a 4 college, floated week to proposals chapel, or were woe to you.” to relegate undergraduate teaching Endowments to what amounted to a secondclass faculty failed depenor forwere generally meager, tuition of revenue mer researchers, while at some urban institutions there were even dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numplans tobetween ship undergraduates from theand main campusfrom to some bered thirty and a out hundred), support the 25 In the view WilliamRichard Rainey affiliated college in the country. local denomination variable. In the words ofofhistorian Harper, first most president of thewere University of Chicago, keeping colHofstadter, colleges “precarious little institutions, lege students around at all was “a temporary concession to the denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges weakness the founder” ( John D. who, inexplicaat all, butof glorified high schools or Rockefeller), academies that presumed to 26 5 faculty began to benbly, had a soft spot them. In a for lively recentMeanwhile, book, the writer Anya Kamenetz offer degrees.” efit from competitive recruitments. when a rival university puts it more pungently: “any collegeAnd that trumpets its ‘centuries6for was a reduced came wooing, one of the first things to bargain long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” teaching in order free the up time for research— as when the Such,load at least, wastoonce standard account of so-called Harvardeducation philologist Francis Child that was it excused, in 1876, higher before the James Civil War— amounted to a from grading undergraduate in use response to men a jobenteroffer smattering of weak institutionspapers of little to young 27 from Johns Hopkins. ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not it all seems a predestined that led inexohardIntoretrospect find contemporaries who buttressprocess this view. In Mobyrably (1851), to the when educational hierarchy take ship for granted in Dick the owner of thewe whale Pequod today, wants to which the word “college” honorific deconvey to young Ishmael has thatbeen he isreduced shippingfrom out an under a strange noting high educational attainment to a kind of diminutive— (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “hasa baby in step in the as credentialing process. It’s now”been fortyayears been colleges well as among the cannibals, as if only very since theperson Carnegie Commission on the Higher Education estabpeculiar would venture into vicinity of either. Fulishedsenator formalCharles classifications which to rank in this ture Sumnerby(Harvard, class institutions of 1830) remarked hierarchy, with universities (“research” and “comprehensive”) that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 81 69

Three Three

at the top, and colleges (“liberal arts,”obtaining “community”) at the botmissionary school for Indians, before its college charter tom.moving This naming system location has yet tointake into account the explo-1 and to its present Hanover, New Hampshire. siveIn growth of for-new profit institutions, which defy classification, some cases, colleges arose for reasons similar to those though at least one critic thinks they deserve a category that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, outalloftheir dis28 own: “marketing universities.” affection with itsmachines brethren,masquerading or because ofasthe inconvenience or One of effect of the formalized as thecongregation Carnegie Founexpense travel, broke away andhierarchy, formed a new in a dation (parent organization of the commission) has lately recnew neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotognized, is that “many institutions soughtboard, to ‘move up’ the ton Mather, a member of Harvard’shave governing became so 29 Some institutions that are essentially classification unhappy withsystem.” the fall from orthodoxy in Cambridge that he libeneral arts colleges, such as Wesleyan, Drew, aorhundred the University of the couraged the formation of a new college miles south, South (better known as Sewanee), call themselves universities at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. on the Yale, grounds that provided they enroll a relatively few institution graduate students. in turn, impetus for a new yet furIn short, culture today regardsDavid the research university ther southacademic when a hotly pious student, Brainerd, accused as the most evolved species in the institutional chain of being, his tutor during the Great Awakening of the 1740s of having “no and implies— or at least invites the inference— that those below more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked it degrees of truncation or“New failure. This alumni, process outexhibit for hisvarying impudence. When sympathetic Light” of invidious differentiation in theBurr second halfof ofthe thefuture nineincluding Jonathan Edwardsbegan and Aaron (father teenth century,and when, as oneopponent historian of puts it, America’s colleges vice president dueling Alexander Hamilton), 30 were first “bitten by the bug of university aspiration.” concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly cold, they gave their support to a new college at “Prince-Town”— 3 which Burr was later supposed to have said, “if it had not about One for waythe to treatment follow thereceived processbyisMr. to pay attention toCollege, the inbeen Brainerd at Yale 2 those colternal debates that broke out within and between New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more seclegesversion that were in same the best positionprocess to become universities— as ular of the schismatic led Thomas Jefferson, wheninPrinceton’s McCosh and Harvard’s Eliot met on neutral early the nineteenth century, to found the University of Virground New Yorktointhe 1885“languor to discuss a college curriculum ginia as in a corrective andwhat inefficiency” into which 3called the “Trinity should be. McCosh came to defend what he his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. of studies”— “Language and . . . PhiBy the 1820s, the paceand wasLiterature . . . accelerating atScience, which new colleges losophy”—which, under first and third still included were forming—again, in his some instances, byrubrics, disgruntled refugees Classics. Though hewhen was certainly more conservative of the from older ones, as Oberlin the (founded in 1833) opened its two presidents, he was not the hidebound traditionalist that dedoors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 82 68

From From College College to University to University

tractors made to be. enraged In fact, soon after arriving at PrinceSeminary, whohim hadout become at the Lane administration ton in 1868, he had introduced elective courses (to the States dismayhad of for suppressing debate over slavery. By now the United some fifty faculty), although the range of choice was strictly limited, colleges, though relative to the whole population their and only juniors could choose freshmen total enrollment and was seniors still tiny— fewer thanthem fourwhile thousand stuand continued followSome a fully prescribed curricudentssophomores out of thirteen millionto people. were short-lived, othlum. McCosh believed that “physical science”and should beremained included ers were to become eminent and enduring, most in every course of study, but he also insisted that “mental closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as and one moral science” must be required of all students. This was because Yale graduate complained in 1852, that “you go sixteen times a impressionable are4 susceptible to the temptation of week to chapel,young or woepeople to you.” unbelief: if “our students are instructed in matter are Endowments were generally meager, only tuition revenuethey depen31 apt to conclude there is nothing but matter.” dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numEliot, on the other convincedand thatsupport “a well-instructed bered between thirtyhand, and awas hundred), from the youthdenomination of eighteen can select for a better course of study local variable. In himself the words of historian Richard than any college faculty.” Several underlay view: that Hofstadter, most colleges werepremises “precarious littlethis institutions, adenominationgood college does a good job of choosing worthy students caparidden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges ble of selfthat schools individual differences that in talent and disat all, but direction, glorified high or academies presumed to 5 position shouldIn beacultivated andbook, encouraged, andAnya that the college lively recent the writer Kamenetz offer degrees.” atmosphere healthy competition the its student’s will puts it moreof pungently: “any collegewill thatensure trumpets ‘centuries6 and absorbing. to excel in whatever field seems most congenial long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” Besides, theonce American boy has passed theofage Such,“atateighteen least, was the standard account so-when calleda 32 In short, McCosh to wasa compulsory external discipline is useful.” higher education before the Civil War—that it amounted for control and guidance, while Eliot wasuse fortofreedom. smattering of weak institutions of little young men enterBehind their disagreement were two very different of ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. views It is not the psychological and intellectual of young men. hard to find contemporaries who development buttress this view. In MobyEliot (1851), believed thatthe theowner internalization of ship responsible Dick when of the whale Pequod ambition wants to occurs before college if itthat is tohe occur at all. McCosh considered convey to young Ishmael is shipping out under a strange such early maturity unlikely or at least unreliable. In this respect (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has his judgment was either informed or— depending on one’s view been in colleges as well as among the cannibals,” as if only a very of it—distorted, his wide acquaintance educational peculiar person by would venture into the with vicinity of either.instiFututions not only in Scotland England,class but of in 1830) Germany, Switture senator Charles Sumnerand (Harvard, remarked zerland, and Holland. In general, he was right that the graduates that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 83 69

Three Three

of Europeanschool equivalents of America’s high schools (notably the missionary for Indians, before obtaining its college charter Gymnasium, likely routeintoHanover, higher education for aca-1 and moving tothe its most present location New Hampshire. demically inclined young Germans) likely tosimilar be more In some cases, new colleges arosewere for reasons to profithose cient than their American counterparts in languages, history, that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of and disliterature,with as well as science.orWith suchofdiscrepancies in mind, affection its brethren, because the inconvenience or he believed that the firstaway two and yearsformed of the aAmerican college must expense of travel, broke new congregation in a continue to build the groundwork of a liberal education by innew neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cottroducing students to tested truths about the physical and moral ton Mather, a member of Harvard’s governing board, became so universe. with In the twoorthodoxy years, there should stillthat be strong unhappy thesecond fall from in Cambridge he enguidance, the if not total control, of the student’s plan ofmiles study.south, couraged formation of a new college a hundred Eliot, on the other hand, regarded all this sort of thing as a at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. dragYale, on imagination and ambition. It raised specter ofyet a uniin turn, provided impetus for a newthe institution furformly elementary curriculum “determined byBrainerd, the needsaccused of the ther south when a hotly pious student, David leasttutor capable students.” It favored “superficiality” over his during the Great Awakening of the 1740s of “thoroughhaving “no ness, ” and violated the principle that “society is best served when more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked everyforman’s peculiar skill, faculty, or aptitude is developed and out his impudence. When sympathetic “New Light” alumni, 33 utilized toJonathan the highest possible degree.” including Edwards and Aaron Burr (father of the future man the debate in the of carrying off a viceNeither president andwon dueling opponent of sense Alexander Hamilton), prize or compelling the loser’s home institution to conform to concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly the winner’s view. it is clear enough who the best of it cold, they gave theirBut support to a new college at got “PrinceTown”— in the which long run. most today, Eliot’s approach is not the about BurrAtwas latercolleges supposed to have said, “if it had norm.for With notablereceived exception John’s College, few been the the treatment by of Mr.St.Brainerd at Yale very College, 2 philosophy, limit their students’ coursework to classic works of New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secliterature, and more than a few students virtuular version of science, the samewhile schismatic process ledgive Thomas Jefferson, ally unlimited freedom to study whatever want. A couple of early in the nineteenth century, to found they the University of Viruniversitycolleges, Columbia and Chicago, and a fewinto indepenginia as a corrective to the “languor and inefficiency” which 3split the difference dent colleges such as Ursinus College, try to his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. along McCosh’s by requiring core courses of Bythe the lines 1820s,ofthe pace wasmodel accelerating at which new colleges freshmen and sophomores in which, withbythe aid of classic texts, were forming— again, in some instances, disgruntled refugees students (inones, the language the current Ursinus catalogue), from older as when of Oberlin (founded in 1833) opened“reits flect on the great questions of human existence . . . What does it doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 84 68

From From College College to University to University

mean to bewho human? How should we at live lives? What is the Seminary, had become enraged theour Lane administration 34 universe and how do we fit slavery. into it?”By now the United States had for suppressing debate over But most colleges today do neither. There population might be some some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole their sort of freshman “gateway” course before students plunge total enrollment was still tiny—fewer than four thousand into stuspecialization or intomillion a grab bag of unrelated subjects, and there dents out of thirteen people. Some were short-lived, othis some loose “distribution” requirement thatremained makes it ersprobably were to become eminent and enduring, and most hard, though probably not impossible, to study only one closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so,subject as one all the time. In other words, except for proselytizing institutions Yale graduate complained in 1852, that “you go sixteen times a 4 such Jones Oral Roberts universities, very few colleges weekas toBob chapel, or or woe to you.” tell Endowments their studentswere whatgenerally to think.meager, With equally exceptions, tuition rare revenue depenmost are unwilling even to tell them what’s worth thinking dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically about. numbered between thirty and a hundred), and support from the local4denomination variable. In the words of historian Richard Some tell themost foregoing storywere as a tale of modernization achieved Hofstadter, colleges “precarious little institutions, against the resistance of stubborn traditionalists like the actual denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges Dr.all, McCosh or thehigh fictional Professor Wagstaff it at but glorified schools or academies that(“Whatever presumed to 5 is, I’mdegrees.” against it”). Others tell itbook, as a the story of disintegration, to In a lively recent writer Anya Kamenetz offer which resistance is noble“any butcollege futile. that Bothtrumpets versionsits have a share puts it more pungently: ‘centuries6 of truth and there is little to be gained by refighting the old long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” battles— particular institutions, every Such,atatleast least,not wasoutside once the standard account ofsince so-called college education has its ownbefore culturetheand constituency needs to come higher Civil War—thatand it amounted to a to its own accommodation between theuse needs and wants of its smattering of weak institutions of little to young men enterstudents, which are rarely the same thing. ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not both tellingswho is the fact that of hardMissing to findfrom contemporaries buttress thisrelatively view. Inlittle Mobythis story beenthe driven byofreflective consideration what’s Dick (1851),haswhen owner the whale ship Pequod of wants to best fortocollege Despite good deal academic proconvey youngstudents. Ishmael that he isashipping outofunder a strange paganda to the contrary, the fact is that when modern univer(to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has sity leaders determine to deploy resources, been in colleges as well how as among the cannibals, ” aswhich if only“fields” a very to invest person in, andwould so on, venture undergraduates to beofofeither. marginal peculiar into thetend vicinity Fuconsequence. As Clark Kerr put it, “undergraduate education in ture senator Charles Sumner (Harvard, class of 1830) remarked the large university is more likely to be acceptable than outstandthat “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 85 69

Three Three

hard toforimagine ing.”35 It is school missionary Indians,many beforepresidents obtainingof itsmajor collegeresearch charter universities speakinglocation about undergraduate education with1 and moving today to its present in Hanover, New Hampshire. Kerr’s not new to mention kindfor ofreasons concernsimilar and command In candor, some cases, collegesthe arose to those of detail that McCosh and Eliot brought to their debate. that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of disA relatively fewbrethren, college students (lessof than percent of the toaffection with its or because the1 inconvenience or tal) still of attend residential that exist apart expense travel,independent broke away and formedcolleges a new congregation in a from a large university— but virtually all faculty, wherever or new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotwhomever teach, have been trained in a university and so ton Mather,they a member of Harvard’s governing board, became naturally with bringthe their with them the undergraduate unhappy falltraining from orthodoxy ininto Cambridge that he enclassroom.the Seen in this wider view,college McCosh doesn’t quite couraged formation of a new a hundred milesdeserve south, his reputation as crank and curmudgeon, and Eliot doesn’t at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. quite deserve reputation as the GreatforInnovator. Long before he Yale,his in turn, provided impetus a new institution yet furproclaimed the need for “Liberty in Education, the trendaccused toward ther south when a hotly pious student, David ”Brainerd, earlytutor specialization already under way— not so much his during thewas Great Awakening of the driven 1740s of having “no by highminded concern for students as by the economic, demomore grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked graphic, andimpudence. professional imperatives of the “New emerging university. out for his When sympathetic Light” alumni, One force in favor of specialization some would prefer including Jonathan Edwards and Aaron(or, Burras(father of the future to callpresident it, fragmentation) has opponent always beenofthe dependable fact that vice and dueling Alexander Hamilton), the size of the student body tends to increase. As Eliot acknowlconcluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly edged,they a university havetoaalarge ofat students, many cold, gave their“must support new body college “Prince-else Town”— of its numerous courses of highly specialized about which Burr was later supposed to haveinstruction said, “if it will hadfind not 36 Growth isreceived driven, by too,Mr. by Brainerd the unrelenting for no hearers.” been for the treatment at Yale need College, 2 tuition revenue to support research activities, to generate funds New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secfor the provision financial aid for needyled students the exular version of theof same schismatic process Thomas(to Jefferson, tent that thenineteenth institutioncentury, is committed to what we nowadays call early in the to found the University of Vir“socioeconomic diversity”), and toand create an alumni base for ginia as a corrective to the “languor inefficiency” into which 3 future benefactions. For all these reasons, colleges, especially his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. those universities, always grow and seldom shrink, Bywithin the 1820s, the pacealmost was accelerating at which new colleges exceptforming— for thoseagain, that in sometimes undershoot their enrollment were some instances, by disgruntled refugees targets. In the second half Oberlin of the twentieth from older ones, as when (foundedcentury, in 1833)growth openedwas its also spurred by the spread of coeducation to previously allmale doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 86 68

From From College College to University to University

institutions thathad were loath to reduceattheir number of male stuSeminary, who become enraged the Lane administration 37 In the twentyit isnow being the push dents. for suppressing debate first overcentury, slavery. By thedriven UnitedbyStates had to enroll more international students. some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their happens in totalSometimes enrollmentthe wasgrowth still tiny— fewer gradually, than four sometimes thousand stuspurts. Inofcommunity colleges, for Some instance, dents out thirteen million people. wereenrollments short-lived, have othsoared wake ofeminent the recent young and not-soers wereintothe become andrecession enduring,asand most remained young adults seek to retrain themselves for future employment. closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one But one pace or another,inthe upward trendgoinsixteen studenttimes num-a Yale at graduate complained 1852, that “you 4 bers been evident at least 150 years—which, given the weekhas to chapel, or woe for to you.” concurrent increase in generally the general population and the relatively Endowments were meager, tuition revenue depensmaller increase in the number of colleges, was and is inevitable. dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numIn 1869,between aware ofthirty the growth he was takingfrom officethe as bered and aimperative hundred),asand support Harvard’s president, variable. Eliot conceded “one hundred and fifty local denomination In the that words of historian Richard young men cannot be so intimate with each other fifty used to Hofstadter, most colleges were “precarious littleas institutions, be.” Growth, in other words, puts the collegiate ideal at risk. Yet denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges by all, thebut timeglorified of his debate with McCosh in 1885, thepresumed number to of at high schools or academies that 5 freshmen at Harvard hadrecent doubled. In my at Kamenetz Columbia In a lively book, the own writertime Anya offer degrees.” (I joined its faculty in 1985), size that of the college has grown by puts it more pungently: “any the college trumpets its ‘centuries6 (urgent after the 50 percent. In seeking increased tuition revenue long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” recession student financial need up account and endowment inSuch, drove at least, was once the standard of so-called come down) by admitting more students United States, higher education before the Civil War—from that the it amounted to a as well as recruiting more from abroad, willmen no doubt smattering of weak institutions of little the usecollege to young entercontinue to grow apace for the foreseeable future. ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not is growth generally bad educational coherence? For hardWhy to find contemporaries whoforbuttress this view. In Mobyone thing, a curriculum that few compulsory Dick (1851),inwhen the owner ofpreserves the whaleeven shipa Pequod wants to courses,to theyoung moreIshmael studentsthat there the moreout theunder student popuconvey heare, is shipping a strange lation in these courses will exceed the supply of faculty able or (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has willing teach them. proponent of free course choice put been into colleges as wellAsasone among the cannibals, ” as if only a very it as longperson ago as would 1825, “the old principle requiring every stupeculiar venture into the of vicinity of either. Fudent senator to pass Charles throughSumner the hands of everyclass instructor canremarked no lonture (Harvard, of 1830) ger be wisely applied, since the time for the whole academic that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduateslife of 87 69

Three Three 38 This writerobtaining had in mind a bygone age has not been protracted.” missionary school for Indians, before its college charter whenmoving each compulsory subject— classics, and to its present locationtheology, in Hanover, Newmathematics, Hampshire.1 history, and cases, so on— hadcolleges been taught by areasons single professor, In some new arose for similar tounder those whom every student would therefore study at one time or another that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of disin his college Already or by because the 1840s, kind of miniaturaffection withcareer. its brethren, of that the inconvenience or ism had become thing away of theand pastformed at some institutions, and even expense of travel,abroke a new congregation in a the more modest goal of having every student follow a common new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotcourse of study becameofelusive since,governing as the number students ton Mather, a member Harvard’s board,ofbecame so grows, maintaining compulsory curriculum meansthat hiring an unhappy with the falla from orthodoxy in Cambridge he enever-largerthe number of faculty prepared to ateach it. miles south, couraged formation of a new college hundred Such a faculty is expensive to recruit and retain, at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to theespecially faith. in a competitive academic market, andfor in aorder the curriculum Yale, in turn, provided impetus new for institution yet furto work well, those whopious teachstudent, it mustDavid work Brainerd, collaboratively in ther south when a hotly accused the tutor sense during of setting particular doing his theaside Greattheir Awakening ofresearch the 1740sinterests, of having “no “introductory” work with eighteenand nineteenyearolds, and more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked talking withimpudence. one another about what and “New how they arealumni, teachout for his When sympathetic Light” ing. In effect, they have to unlearn what Burr they (father learned— or atfuture least including Jonathan Edwards and Aaron of the makepresident an effortand to connect with what learned— in the vice dueling itopponent of others Alexander Hamilton), university that trained them in their academic specialty. concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly continue foster thisatsort of collaboracold,Some they institutions gave their support to a to new college “PrinceTown”— tive teaching courses required ofitallhad underabout which through Burr wasintroductory later supposed to have said, “if not graduates. Totreatment cite one impressive Ursinus College does been for the received byexample, Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, 2 so with its “Common Intellectual Experience” seminars, even New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secthough it hasofno students to serve led as teaching ular version thegraduate same schismatic process Thomasassistants. Jefferson, My own university— mainly because of pressure from adamant early in the nineteenth century, to found the University of Viralumni, with graduate studentsand andinefficiency” postdocs increasingly ginia as aand corrective to the “languor into which 3 core curriculum carrying the load— still requires a demanding his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. of all students, least some atfaculty it Bycollege the 1820s, the paceand wasataccelerating whichwho new teach colleges discover that theagain, gain in collegiality and by self-disgruntled education is worth were forming— some instances, refugees the reduction of time for their scholarly pursuits. Keeping such from older ones, as when Oberlin (founded in 1833) opened its courses— indeed, any courses— small comes at significant cost, doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological

88 68

From From College College to University to University

so it is encouraging when a major institution moves away from Seminary, who had become enraged at the Lane administration the cost-efficient big-lecture modelBytonow smaller classes, States as, forhad infor suppressing debate over slavery. the United stance, the physics department at MIT has recently done, with some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their 39 the rising falling rates.stutotalconsequence enrollment of was stillattendance tiny—fewerand than fourfailure thousand Alternatively, an expanded college committed to some dents out of thirteen million people. Some were shortlived,form othof caneminent herd students into large lectures delivered erscore wereeducation to become and enduring, and most remained by willing faculty members on subjects that other faculty memclosely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one bers have agreed should be taught— though not by themselves. Yale graduate complained in 1852, that “you go sixteen times a 4 Learning from aorgreat still be an exhilarating experiweek to chapel, woelecturer to you.”can ence. This was thewere premise of themeager, Harvard “Red revenue Book” ofdepen1945, Endowments generally tuition which created a “General Education” program of basic courses in dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numscience, humanities, and social science taught by a few from powerful bered between thirty and a hundred), and support the lecturers who wanted to teach A vestige of that Richard curriculocal denomination variable. Inthem. the words of historian lum survives most today colleges in the form of such classes aslittle Michael Sandel’s Hofstadter, were “precarious institutions, famous course, “Justice, ” which regularly attracts something on denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges the order eight hundred students and serves them well. But at all, but of glorified high schools or academies that presumed to 5 Sandel, as the social scientists would an outlier. In a lively recent book,say, theiswriter Anya Kamenetz offer degrees.” problems of scale colleges today. Behind putsThese it more pungently: “any beset collegemany that trumpets its ‘centuries6 explosion of spethem lies the more fundamental problem of the long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” cialized Already mid-nineteenth century, the Such,knowledge. at least, was once by thethe standard account of so-called hugely expanded what wasWar— knownthat about the world, parhigher educationscope beforeofthe Civil it amounted to a ticularly theofnatural world, hadofturned the to oncerespectable assmattering weak institutions little use young men enterpiration to master the main points of human knowledge (in the ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not way, say, that Thomas Jeffersonwho strove to educate his hard to find contemporaries buttress this himself view. Inover Mobylifetime) intowhen an absurdity. As Eliot out inPequod his debate with Dick (1851), the owner of thepointed whale ship wants to McCosh, ofIshmael the twothat hundred courses ofout instruction which convey to “out young he is shipping under a strange stand on the list of Harvard University this year it would be (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahabdiffi“has cult to select twenty which could have been given at the beginning been in colleges as well as among the cannibals,” as if only a very of this century the illustrations, and of methods peculiar personwith would venture intomaterials, the vicinity either.now Fu40 considered the educational the courses.” ture senatoressential Charlesto Sumner (Harvard,quality class ofof1830) remarked Two “not hundred was already higher number of courses that one single thing isa staggeringly well taught to the Undergraduates of 89 69

Three Three

than had been on offer just a few yearsobtaining earlier. Today, at every mamissionary school for Indians, before its college charter jor university, are thousands. and moving tothere its present location in Hanover, New Hampshire.1 Both McCosh andcolleges Eliot recognized all the similar foregoing facts In some cases, new arose for reasons to those of modern academic life.ofMcCosh wanted resist them. that drove proliferation the churches: onetofaction, out ofEliot diswanted towith embrace them. Both knew there a price to pay affection its brethren, or because of thewas inconvenience or for the twin expansions of student numbers and of the subjects expense of travel, broke away and formed a new congregation in a and methods they could choose to study. Both expansions hapnew neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotpened very rapidly. McCosh thoughtgoverning the price board, was toobecame high and ton Mather, a member of Harvard’s so that paying it would coherent education impossible. unhappy with the fallmake froma orthodoxy in Cambridge that heEliot enthought itthe was the priceofofa progress anda had to bemiles paid.south, They couraged formation new college hundred were both right. at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. Yale, in turn, provided impetus for a new institution yet further5south when a hotly pious student, David Brainerd, accused Of tutor the two forces— growth in studentofnumbers growth“no in his during the Great Awakening the 1740sand of having knowledge— that have driven what the philosopher Alasdair more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked MacIntyre the “divisive and fragmenting partitioning which out for his calls impudence. When sympathetic “New Light” alumni, contemporary academia imposes, ” the Burr former mayofbetheslowed, including Jonathan Edwards and Aaron (father future but the latter isand never likelyopponent to be arrested much less reversed. vice president dueling of Alexander Hamilton), MacIntyre, who calls himself an “Augustinian Thomist, ” writes concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly eloquently of the ideal university as “a community of Town”— enquiry” cold, they gave their support to a new college at “Princemade up of aBurr faculty interests but whose about which waswith laterdiverse supposed to have said, “if itmembers had not 41 Butby forMr. today’s faculty, apart from agree for on the ultimate values. been treatment received Brainerd at Yale College, 2 inquiry of academic freedom— the freedom, that is, to pursue an New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secone’sversion own choice to have the result assessed by one’s peers— it ular of theand same schismatic process led Thomas Jefferson, is hardintothe know what those valuestomight early nineteenth century, foundbe. the University of Virat any large theand faculty is likely tointo cooperate giniaInasfact, a corrective to university, the “languor inefficiency” which 3in significant numacross disciplinary lines— or even to show up his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. bersByforthea 1820s, generalthefaculty meeting— only atif which academic pace was accelerating newfreedom colleges appears to be atagain, risk orinasome budget crunch by threatens the hiring of were forming— instances, disgruntled refugees more older facultyones, in one’s homeOberlin department. Serious collaboration in from as when (founded in 1833) opened its the work of educating undergraduates is rare. The recent failure doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 90 68

From From College College to University to University

at Harvardwho to enact meaningful reform of its college curriculum Seminary, had become enraged at the Lane administration is most visible case over in point. After of effort, theStates co-chair forthe suppressing debate slavery. Byyears now the United had of the committee charged with shaping the reform commented some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their drily: “We are justwas notstill accustomed to thinking about education total enrollment tiny—fewer than four thousand stu42 in general terms. It’s not our specialty.” dents out of thirteen million people. Some were short-lived, othAt Columbia, the twenty years sinceand themost dissolution of ers were to becomeineminent and enduring, remained the college faculty as a distinct entity within the larger faculty of closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one arts sciences—which encompasses includ-a Yale and graduate complainednow in 1852, that “yousix goschools, sixteen times 4 ing graduate schools of to theyou.” arts, and of international and public week to chapel, or woe affairs— I am aware of generally only one faculty where substanEndowments were meager,meeting tuition revenue depentive discussion of undergraduate education took place. Led by a dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numgroup distinguished scientists who made case the for bered of between thirty and a hundred), anda persuasive support from alocal newdenomination introductory science be added to the core curvariable.course In thetowords of historian Richard riculum, it was an colleges exciting occasion. Unfortunately, however, a Hofstadter, most were “precarious little institutions, meeting such as the one I described in the preface to this book— denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges where faculty discussed financial aid program the college at all, but glorified high the schools or academies thatofpresumed to 5 in andegrees.” informedIn and engaged way— would be extremely difficult a lively recent book, the writer Anya Kamenetz offer to replicate And faculty disengagement (at Columbia, the puts it moretoday. pungently: “any college that trumpets its ‘centuries6 financial aid no faculty committee on college admissions and long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” 43 longer exists) is bywas no means peculiar to certain Such, at least, once the standard accountinstitutions. of so-called It is a natural, if not inevitable, consequence the bureaucrahigher education before the Civil War—that of it amounted to a tization andofwhat sometimes of called the smattering weakisinstitutions littlethe use“balkanization”— to young men entersplintering of the faculty into mutually wary interest groups— of ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not modern life. hard to academic find contemporaries who buttress this view. In Mobyfragmented an ideal DickAgainst (1851), this when the ownerreality, of the MacIntyre whale shipimagines Pequod wants to university that looks a good deal Newman’s. convey to young Ishmael that helike is shipping outCertain under a churchstrange affiliated universities such as Notre Dame, where MacIntyre (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has teaches, or, in their almost total commitment scientific been in colleges as well as among the cannibals,to” as if only ainvesvery tigation, such institutions as the California Institute Technolpeculiar person would venture into the vicinity ofofeither. Fuogy or Rockefeller University (which hasclass no undergraduate stuture senator Charles Sumner (Harvard, of 1830) remarked dents), do still aspire to such an ideal. But as a significant reality that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 91 69

Three Three

in the contemporary of higher education, the univermissionary school for landscape Indians, before obtaining its college charter sity as community barely exists. and moving to its present location in Hanover, New Hampshire.1 It hasn’t for a long In an oftenRobIn some cases, new time. colleges arose for quoted reasons comment, similar to those ert Maynard Hutchins described the University of Chicago (of that drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of diswhich he with was president, thenorchancellor, 1929 to 1951) asora affection its brethren, because offrom the inconvenience miscellany of schools departments by a cenexpense of travel, brokeand away and formed“held a newtogether congregation in a tral heating system.” A couple of decades later, Clark Kerr revised new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because CotHutchins’s fromofaHarvard’s Californian’s point board, of viewbecame when he ton Mather,remark a member governing so describedwith the Berkeley faculty as a “series of individual . . . entreunhappy the fall from orthodoxy in Cambridge that he enpreneurs held together by common over parking.” couraged the formation of aa new collegegrievance a hundred miles south, The point is that the dominant force in the modern university at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. has Yale, been in centrifugal force—impetus and it only more so asyet thefurreturn, provided for became a new institution search university the late nineteenth gave way accused to what ther south when of a hotly pious student, century David Brainerd, Kerr, in the mid-the twentieth century, called the1740s “multiversity.” his tutor during Great Awakening of the of having “no As early as 1922, in his novel Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis demore grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked scribed a vast institutionWhen whosesympathetic name sounds like aLight” blend alumni, of Wisout for his impudence. “New consin, Minnesota, and Michigan: including Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr (father of the future vice president and dueling opponent of Alexander Hamilton), The University of Winnemac . . . has a baseball field concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly under glass; its buildings are measured by the mile; it cold, they gave their support to a new college at “Prince-Town”— hires hundreds of young Doctors of Philosophy to give about which Burr was later supposed to have said, “if it had not rapid instruction in Sanskrit, navigation, accountancy, been for the treatment received by Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, spectacle-fitting, Sanitary engineering, Provençal poetry, New Jersey College would never have been erected.”2 A more sectariff schedules, Rutabaga-growing, motor-car designing, ular version of the same schismatic process led Thomas Jefferson, the history of Voronezh, the style of Matthew Arnold, early in the nineteenth century, to found the University of Virthe diagnosis of Myohypertrophia kymoparalytica, and ginia as a corrective to the “languor and inefficiency” into which department-store advertising. his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen.3 ThisByis the democratic education a grand scale, the apotheosis of 1820s, the pace wason accelerating at which new colleges Ezra Cornell’s institution any person can were forming—dream again,ofin“an some instances,inbywhich disgruntled refugees find instruction study.” It is also Kerr’s in multiversity before from older ones,inasany when Oberlin (founded 1833) opened its the fact— a prophetic instance of American gargantuanism, soon doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 92 68

From From College College to University to University

to be expressed in the supermarket shopping mall, later in Seminary, who had become enragedand at the Lane administration such unforeseeable inventions as Google which for suppressing debate over slavery. By nowand theWikipedia, United States had are capable of yielding infinite information but incapable of maksome fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their ing value. totaldistinctions enrollmentofwas still tiny—fewer than four thousand stuWhen Lewis was writing century ago,shorthis description dents out of thirteen million nearly people.a Some were lived, othof university verged on parody, but today it seems perfectly ersthe were to become eminent and enduring, and most remained plausible except that some of the “softer” subjects— “Provençal closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one poetry, ” “the history of Voronezh”— cuta Yale graduate complained in 1852, thathave “youprobably go sixteenbeen times 4 from thechapel, curriculum. week to or woeIn to our you.”own time, the multiversity is fast becoming what the current president of tuition Arizonarevenue State UniverEndowments were generally meager, depensity, Michael Crow, calls the “Comprehensive Knowledge dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically Enternumprise” (CKE)— by which he means an international network of bered between thirty and a hundred), and support from the academic institutions, governments, aerospace, pharmaceutilocal denomination variable. In the words of historian Richard cal, and biotech (among others) that collaborate on Hofstadter, mostcompanies colleges were “precarious little institutions, projects of common interest, often with the potential of large denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges financial at all, butgain. glorified high schools or academies that presumed to these 5iterations of thebook, modern university— from the In a lively recent the writer Anya Kamenetz offerAll degrees.” Germanstylepungently: research institution ofthat Eliottrumpets to the global abstracputs it more “any college its ‘centuries6 tion of Michael Crow— have been driven overwhelmingly, if not long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” exclusively, science. early 1876, theaccount inaugural Such, atbyleast, was As once theasstandard of president so-called of Johnseducation Hopkins,before Danielthe Coit Gilman (formerly a professortoofa higher Civil War— that it amounted geography),ofexpressed what was of happening he defined not smattering weak institutions little use when to young men enterjust the research mission but the teaching purpose of the new ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not university as showing studentswho “how to extend, hard to find contemporaries buttress this even view.by Inminute Mobyaccretions, realm knowledge.” Eliot, aship chemist, concurred: Dick (1851),the when theofowner of the whale Pequod wants to “One oftothe mostIshmael important of universities, ” he wrote, convey young thatfunctions he is shipping out under a strange is “to store up the accumulated knowledge of the race” so that (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has “eachinsuccessive generation of youth shall start” with all the adbeen colleges as well as among the cannibals, as if only a very vantages which predecessors havethe won.” On this view, allFuof peculiar persontheir would venture into vicinity of either. human history becomes a sort(Harvard, of relay race in which noremarked runner is ture senator Charles Sumner class of 1830) 44 required to travel trodden ground. that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 93 69

Three Three

The efficacy offor thisIndians, principle is confirmed simple fact missionary school before obtainingby itsthe college charter that,moving even before getlocation to college, well-prepared and to its they present in Hanover, New undergraduHampshire.1 atesIntoday have already mastered at reasons least thesimilar first stages of somewill cases, new colleges arose for to those calculus— despite itsofhaving taken several millennia ofdisrethat drove this proliferation the churches: one faction, out of corded history before two seventeenthcentury geniuses (Newaffection with its brethren, or because of the inconvenience or ton and of Leibniz) invented the calculus place. For in thea expense travel, broke away and formedina the newfirst congregation same reason, we expect a fourthyear medical student to know new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotmore, at, say,aage twentyabout the genetic basis ofbecame disease or ton Mather, member ofsix, Harvard’s governing board, so the management organ than physicians knew unhappy with theoffall fromtransplantation orthodoxy in Cambridge that he entwenty orthe even ten yearsofago. Thiscollege progressive power of science couraged formation a new a hundred miles south, is one of the astonishing achievements of human civilization. It at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. doesYale, not in mean that a brightimpetus young person withinstitution good schooling is turn, provided for a new yet furmoresouth giftedwhen than those ofpious the past, but it David is a stunning vindication ther a hotly student, Brainerd, accused of the premise forms of knowledge areofincremental his tutor duringthat the certain Great Awakening of the 1740s having “no and accretive— that once a new truth is discovered it does not more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked havefor to his be rediscovered but cansympathetic be passed on to those capable of out impudence. When “New Light” alumni, grasping and extending it. and Aaron Burr (father of the future including Jonathan Edwards this reason, among others, science has an enormous adviceFor president and dueling opponent of Alexander Hamilton), vantage in the competition for university resources. It has the concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly abilitythey to demonstrate progress— an ability value cold, gave their support to a new collegeof at inestimable “Prince-Town”— in a culture been more forwardabout which that Burr has was always later supposed to have said, looking “if it hadthan not retrospective. The idea received of progress articulated ninebeen for the treatment by Mr. Brainerdinatthe Yalelate College, 2 teenth century by Gilman and Eliot was the academic equivaNew Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more seclent of what of Frederick Taylor— influential book ular version the sameWinslow schismatic processwhose led Thomas Jefferson, Principles Scientific Management (1911) the called for the rational early in theof nineteenth century, to found University of Virdistribution of specialized labor as and essential for efficient ginia as a corrective to the “languor inefficiency” into induswhich 3 trial production— meant when he said that progress depends on his alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. making “real additions to was the world’s knowledge instead of reinBy the 1820s, the pace accelerating at which new colleges 45 way of therefugees worth venting things that areinold.” were forming— again, some This instances, byevaluating disgruntled of knowledge is consonant with how science works, it poses from older ones, as when Oberlin (founded in 1833)and opened its adoors severetochallenge to the humanities— at least to the extent that students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 94 68

From From College College to University to University

humanists remain with preserving truth by rearticuSeminary, who hadconcerned become enraged at the Lane administration lating it rather than advancing truth discarding theStates old inhad fafor suppressing debate over slavery. Byby now the United vor of the new. some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their also has many good totalScience enrollment wasthe stillrelated tiny—advantage— fewer than though four thousand stuscientists to this way of asserting value of lived, what they dents out object of thirteen million people. Somethe were shortothdo— thattoit become has led to innumerable technological advances visers were eminent and enduring, and most remained ible to and appreciated by the public. Not only does it possess closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as onea means— the experimental by which claims times can bea Yale graduate complained method— in 1852, that “you goitssixteen 4 tested,tobut it has week chapel, oran woeobvious to you.”impact (not always benign, to be sure)Endowments on the lives of virtually everyone living andrevenue yet to bedepenborn. were generally meager, tuition Transistors, computers, diagnostic machines, medical therapies, dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numalternative sources of energy hope)—and the list goes on andthe on bered between thirty and a(we hundred), support from of what constitutes, from one In point view, of thehistorian “return” Richard on publocal denomination variable. theofwords lic and private investment higher education.little institutions, Hofstadter, most collegesinwere “precarious Such lists, although they may nod toward or not thatcolleges historidenomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . inthis fact calall, or philosophical “breakthrough, are invariably at but glorified high schools or”academies thatdominated presumed by to 5 scientific achievements, in a book, recentthe book entitled The Great In a livelyas recent writer Anya Kamenetz offer degrees.” American Research University, whosethat listtrumpets begins with the laser puts it more pungently: “any college its ‘centuries6 Viagra.46 If we and magnetic resonance imaging and ends with long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” include the sameaccount rubric, then Such,theat social least, sciences was onceunder the standard of so-science called might also be credited with rational for legal higher education before thedevising Civil War— thatprinciples it amounted to a and financial (though theoflatter beenmen called into smattering ofsystems weak institutions littlehas uselately to young enterquestion since very few academic economists foresaw the recent ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not financial collapse), managing the transport and hard to find contemporaries whoinfrastructure buttress thisofview. In Mobycommerce, promoting public health. short, the university Dick (1851),and when the owner of the whaleInship Pequod wants to is the key institution thatthat nurtures, exemplifies, promotes convey to young Ishmael he is shipping out and under a strangea fundamental idea of modern culture: the idea of progress. (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has century, ” Charles W. the Eliot said with been“Every in colleges as well as among cannibals, ” as characteristic if only a very confidence, “has would probably witnessed advance peculiar person venture into an theunprecedented vicinity of either. Fuin civilization simply because process class is cumulative”— but beture senator Charles Sumner the (Harvard, of 1830) remarked fore concluding his sentence he added a short qualifying clause, that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 95 69

Three Three

“if no catastrophes arrest it.” Itbefore was anobtaining important Elmissionary school for Indians, itsaddendum. college charter iot had livedtothrough thelocation abolitioninof slavery, New witnessed the ad-1 and moving its present Hanover, Hampshire. ventInofsome the telegraph, radio, airplane, andtoarrived cases, newtelephone, colleges arose forand reasons similar those at the public celebration of his ninetieth birthday by automothat drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of disbile. He also long enough to witness theinconvenience First World War affection withlived its brethren, or because of the or in which,ofastravel, Scottbroke Fitzgerald 1917) put it, one expense away (Princeton, and formed class a newofcongregation in a empire walked forward “very slowly, dying in front and pushing new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotforward behind” while “another empire walkedboard, very slowly backton Mather, a member of Harvard’s governing became so ward a few inches a day, leaving the dead like a million unhappy with the fall from orthodoxy in Cambridge thatbloody he enrugs.” Within fifteen years Eliot’s deatha in 1926, amiles largely succouraged the formation of of a new college hundred south, cessful attempt was under way to exterminate the Jews of Europe at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. using modern organizational techniques and institution carried outyet by furthe Yale, in turn, provided impetus for a new nation whose universities were student, arguablyDavid the world’s best. accused ther south when a hotly pious Brainerd, his tutor during the Great Awakening of the 1740s of having “no 6 grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked more Howfor hashisthe modern university taken account of Light” such realities? out impudence. When sympathetic “New alumni, ScienceJonathan is no help here. and Its principle of(father progress doesfuture not, including Edwards Aaron Burr of the as thepresident phrase goes, well” intoofthe study of culture and vice and “translate dueling opponent Alexander Hamilton), historical experience. Yet, as Julie Reuben recounts in a valuconcluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly able book, Thetheir Making of the University: Intellectual cold, they gave support to aModern new college at “PrinceTown”— Transformation and thelater Marginalization of Morality, became about which Burr was supposed to have said, “if it had not “the primary aim” throughout university “toattrain been for the treatment received the by Mr. Brainerd Yale students College, 47 2 The power of the scientific paradigm to think “scientifically.” New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more sechas been so of great liberalledstudies, which have ular version thethat samehumanistic schismatic or process Thomas Jefferson, alwaysinproperly includedcentury, science,tohave tried adapt it for early the nineteenth found thetoUniversity oftheir Virown purposes. ginia as a corrective to the “languor and inefficiency” into which This whatWilliam MacIntyre “a mimicking his alma is mater, andcalls Mary, had fallen.3of the technical in 48 in the history of areasBywhere it hasthe in fact application.” the 1820s, paceno was accelerating Early at which new colleges the modern university, mimicked scientists by trying were forming— again, inhumanists some instances, by disgruntled refugees to describe language as if Oberlin it could (founded be studiedinin1833) much the way from older ones, as when opened its their scientific colleagues studied the properties of gas or light in doors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 96 68

From From College College to University to University

the lab nextwho door. The discipline of philology yielded some good Seminary, had become enraged at the Lane administration results for understanding structure ofthe language affinifor suppressing debate overthe slavery. By now Unitedand States had ties among languages. Carefully researched biographical studies some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their proved useful for was illuminating thefewer lives than of historical figures, and total enrollment still tiny— four thousand stuthe sum was increased by shortthe painstaking dents outofofhuman thirteenknowledge million people. Some were lived, othtranscription of unpublished documents andand themost establishment ers were to become eminent and enduring, remained of reliable texts by collation with variant versions. This the closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so,was as one era, of “scientific” history— the that idea that investigaYaletoo, graduate complained in 1852, “youempirical go sixteen times a 4 tion establish laws weekcould to chapel, or woe tothat you.”govern human behavior over time withEndowments no less consistency and predictability than, revenue say, the laws of were generally meager, tuition depenphysics. dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numButbetween scientiststhirty rarelyand tooka these flattering very the sebered hundred), and imitations support from riously, and humanists had their The Richard literary local denomination variable. In theprivate words doubts. of historian scholar Alvinmost Kernan tells were a delicious story little aboutinstitutions, his experiHofstadter, colleges “precarious ence at Oxford, where he studied English soon after the Second denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges World War.glorified Kernan’shigh tutor, watching his nervous American tutee at all, but schools or academies that presumed to 5 struggle with the of “linguistic science, took pity In atechnicalities lively recent book, the writer Anya”Kamenetz offer degrees.” on him and offered this “any advice: “When hit a word in a text puts it more pungently: college thatyou trumpets its ‘centuries6 that you cannot identify, simply correlate it with some modern long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” word that at it sounds likeonce and then invent a bridge between them. Such, least, was the standard account of so-called Most ofeducation the examiners suspicious, but itmay consider,tosoa higher beforewill thebe Civil War—that amounted imprecise isoflinguistic science, your littleuse word history an enterintersmattering weak institutions of little to young men esting possibility.” As for “scientific” history, it led to more confuing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not sion than resolution, as when awho respected historian of World War hard to find contemporaries buttress this view. In MobyI, writing in when the 1920s, expressed dismay howPequod he andwants a fellow Dick (1851), the owner of the whaleatship to scholar to could haveIshmael arrivedthat at opposite conclusions from athe same convey young he is shipping out under strange evidence: “This has always troubled me. We had both taken ad(to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has vanced universities. . . . We used samea docbeen indegrees collegesataseminent well as among the cannibals, ” asthe if only very uments and read would the same biographies andvicinity memoirsofineither. preparing peculiar person venture into the Fuour respective books— and came up with quite different interture senator Charles Sumner (Harvard, class of 1830) remarked 49 pretations. . . . Is there something wrong with our methods?” that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 97 69

Three Three

By the school later twentieth century, those daysitsof chasing the missionary for Indians, before obtaining college charter phantom of to objectivity been in leftHanover, behind. New If humanists had1 and moving its presenthad location Hampshire. onceIntried scientists, they repudiated someemulating cases, newthe colleges arosenow for reasons similar to them. those They denied the very idea of truth by asserting, with varying dethat drove proliferation of the churches: one faction, out of disgrees of “postmodern” irony,orthat all putative are continaffection with its brethren, because of the truths inconvenience or gent andofalltravel, values relative. resulta was same: the in hu-a expense broke awayYet andthe formed newthe congregation manities continued to marginalize themselves in the universities new neighborhood. Thus Yale was founded in part because Cotand Mather, therefore, by the “trickledown” governing effect, in the colleges. ton a member of Harvard’s board, became so Today,with thethe pendulum to bein swinging back unhappy fall from seems orthodoxy Cambridge thattoward he enscientism— instance what MacIntyre calls miles the “change couraged thea vivid formation of aofnew college a hundred south, of fashion rather than progress” that characterizes the academic at New Haven, that would cleave more closely to the faith. humanities. At Stanford’s Studyinstitution of the Novel, for Yale, in turn, providedCenter impetusforforthe a new yet furexample, a “literature lab” where of graduate ther souththere whenis anow hotly pious student, David teams Brainerd, accused students searches of digitizedof texts patterns his tutor perform during the Great Awakening thelooking 1740s offor having “no of recurrent words that signal shifts in theme or style over the more grace than the chair I am leaning on” and got himself kicked longfor history of prose fiction. The procedure is known as “disout his impudence. When sympathetic “New Light” alumni, tant reading”— reading, thatand is, by machines that canofscan much including Jonathan Edwards Aaron Burr (father the future largerpresident databasesand (numbers of novels) ofthan any human reader vice dueling opponent Alexander Hamilton), could possibly handle. The ultimate goal is for scholars to “stop concluded that Yale, no less than Harvard, had gone hopelessly reading books and start counting, graphing and mapping them cold, they gave their support to a new college at “PrinceTown”— 50 This kind of later worksupposed may, in time, yieldsaid, useful results for instead.” about which Burr was to have “if it had not cultural but received one can by only imagine where it will leave been for historians, the treatment Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, 2 in reading undergraduates who have even an incipient interest New Jersey College would never have been erected.” A more secthe old way. of the same schismatic process led Thomas Jefferson, ular version college students, thetopoint college has never had earlyFor in most the nineteenth century, foundofthe University of Virmuchastoado with what on in theand university world into of research ginia corrective to goes the “languor inefficiency” which 3 or professional controversy— proscience or antiscience or othhis alma mater, William and Mary, had fallen. erwise. Nor1820s, doesthe thepace principle of scientificatprogress havecolleges much By the was accelerating which new to offer the humanities— except, perhaps, an episoderefugees in the were forming— again, in some instances, byas disgruntled history of ideas a challenge for(founded thinking in about of from older ones,and as when Oberlin 1833)questions opened its value. We cannot say that Defoe’s Journal of a Plague Year, pubdoors to students and faculty from nearby Lane Theological 98 68

From From College College to University to University

lished in 1722, Camus’s Peste, inat1947, tells administration us more about Seminary, whoor had becomeLaenraged the Lane the social consequences pestilence than Thucydides in for suppressing debate overofslavery. By now thedid United States had his fifthcentury BCE commentary on the plague at Athens. Or some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their that Ulysses, at the outset of four the twentieth total Joyce’s enrollment waswritten still tiny— fewer than thousand censtutury, more complete of experience than didothThe dentsgives out ofa thirteen million account people. Some were shortlived, Odyssey, composed than two and amost half millennia ers were probably to become eminent more and enduring, remained earlier. closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, as one tellsin us 1852, nothing to shape a lifea YaleScience, graduatemoreover, complained thatabout “you how go sixteen times 4 or how face or death, the meaning of love, or the scope week to to chapel, woe about to you.” of responsibility. It notgenerally only fails to answer such questions; it Endowments were meager, tuition revenue depencannot ask them. Some people believe that someday it will do dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numboth—between that in some future of “consilience, neuroscience bered thirty andage a hundred), and ”support from will the definedenomination and ensure happiness prove or disprove the Richard insights local variable. and In the words of historian of religion into thecolleges nature ofwere sin and salvation;little biochemistry will Hofstadter, most “precarious institutions, distinguish truth from falsity among what today are mere opindenomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges ions sex and gender; indeedorallacademies human choices will become at all,about but glorified high schools that presumed to 5 susceptible to experimental testing andthe rational Maybe it In a lively recent book, writersorting. Anya Kamenetz offer degrees.” will happen, but none of“any us will be around when it its does, and it’s puts it more pungently: college that trumpets ‘centuries6 not clear that we would want to be. long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” Meanwhile, literature, history, philosophy, and of thesoarts are Such, at least, was once the standard account called 51 is a great to lossa becoming the stepchildren our colleges. higher education before theofCivil War—thatThis it amounted because they theinstitutions legatees ofofreligion sensemen thatenterthey smattering of are weak little useintothe young provide a vocabulary for formulating ultimate questions of the ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not sort that havecontemporaries always had special In hard to find whourgency buttressfor thisyoung view. people. In Mobyfact, the humanities haveofthe to offer to students who Dick (1851), when themay owner themost whale ship Pequod wants to do not to know that they need them— whichout is one reason it is convey young Ishmael that he is shipping under a strange scandalous to withhold them. One of the ironies of contempo(to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahab “has rary academic lifeasiswell thataseven as thethe humanities marginal been in colleges among cannibals,become ” as if only a very in our colleges, are venture establishing medical, peculiar personthey would into themselves the vicinityinof either. law, Fuand business schools,Sumner where interest is growing in theremarked study of ture senator Charles (Harvard, class of 1830) literature and the arts as a way to encourage selfcritical reflecthat “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 99 69

Three Three

tion amongschool futureforphysicians, attorneys, and its entrepreneurs. It missionary Indians, before obtaining college charter is ironic, too,tothat amid rising concern over America’s competi-1 and moving its present location in Hanover, New Hampshire. tiveIn position in thenew global “knowledge ” we hear more some cases, colleges arose foreconomy, reasons similar to those and more the needoffor training, and less less that droveabout proliferation thetechnical churches: one faction, outand of disabout thewith valueitsofbrethren, liberal education at home, even as the latter affection or because of the inconvenience or 52 gains adherents expense of travel,among broke our awaycompetitors and formedabroad. a new congregation in a will always be hard state value of education newItneighborhood. Thus to Yale wasthe founded insuch part an because Cotin a succinct or summary way. Yet many people, if given half ton Mather, a member of Harvard’s governing board, became soa chance, discover forfrom themselves. For one thing, great works of unhappy with theitfall orthodoxy in Cambridge that he enart can bethe antidotes to loneliness. A moving expression this couraged formation of a new college a hundred miles of south, truth is Haven, a recentthat book by the poetmore Rachel Hadas, about her husat New would cleave closely to the faith. band’s descent into dementia, in which she recalls how literature Yale, in turn, provided impetus for a new institution yet furprovided with companions more attuned to her torment ther southher when a hotly pious student, David Brainerd, accused his the Great Awakening the 1740s of having “no thantutor evenduring her closest friends— as whenof she read a poem by Philip more the chair am leaninglying on” and gotthe himself kicked Larkingrace thatthan captured her Iexperience beside diminished out hiswhom impudence. manfor with she hadWhen once sympathetic laughed and “New loved:Light” alumni, including Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr (father of the future Talking in bed ought to be easiest, vice president and dueling opponent of Alexander Hamilton), Lying together goesthan backHarvard, so far, had gone hopelessly concluded that Yale,there no less emblem of two people cold,An they gave their support to being a new honest. college at “Prince-Town”— about which Burr was later supposed to have said, “if it had not Yet more and more time passes silently. been for the treatment received by Mr. Brainerd at Yale College, Outside, the wind’s incomplete unrest New Jersey College would never have been erected.”2 A more secBuilds and disperses clouds about the sky. ular version of the same schismatic process led Thomas Jefferson, earlyAnd in the nineteenth century, the University of Virdark towns heap up on to thefound horizon. giniaNone as a corrective to the “languor andshows inefficiency” of this cares for us. Nothing why into which 3 his alma mater, William and from Mary,isolation had fallen. At this unique distance By the 1820s, the pace was accelerating at which new colleges becomes still more difficult to findby disgruntled refugees wereItforming— again, in some instances, once and kind (founded in 1833) opened its fromWords older at ones, astrue when Oberlin 53 untrue and not unkind. doorsOrtonot students faculty from nearby Lane Theological 100 68

From From College College to University to University

Literature power,enraged too, toatcontract and time. Seminary, whohas hadthe become the Lanespace administration When I first read The Iliad with a group ofthe Columbia freshmen, for suppressing debate over slavery. By now United States had there came a moment after all our discussion of Homeric similes some fifty colleges, though relative to the whole population their and formulaicwas structure of oral poetry andfour the thousand mythic origin totalthe enrollment still tiny— fewer than stuof national when wepeople. suddenly felt as ifshortwe were dents out ofidentity, thirteen million Some were lived,readothing abouttoourselves— or at least, we were male— our childhood ers were become eminent andif enduring, and most remained selves. It happened when we arrived at the image with closely allied with this or that denomination—so much so, which as one Homer describes (in Richmond Lattimore’s translation) howa Yale graduate complained in 1852, that “you go sixteen times 4 Trojan overran week tosoldiers chapel, or woe totheir you.”Greek enemies: “They streamed over / in massed formation withmeager, Apollo tuition in frontrevenue of themdepenholdEndowments were generally ing  / the tremendous aegis, and wrecked the bastions of the dent on unpredictable enrollments (students typically numAchaians easily, thirty as whenand a little boy piles and sand support by the seashore / bered between a hundred), from the when in his innocentvariable. play he makes to amuse him / local denomination In the sand wordstowers of historian Richard and then, stillmost playing, with hands feet ruinslittle theminstitutions, and wrecks Hofstadter, colleges were and “precarious them.” Apparently, little boys on the shores of the Aegean three denomination-ridden, poverty-stricken  .  .  . in fact not colleges thousand ago did same thing that littlethat boyspresumed do today to at at all, but years glorified highthe schools or academies 5 Jones Beach or In thea Hamptons. lively recent book, the writer Anya Kamenetz offer degrees.” the explanation for such transhistorical cerputsWhatever it more pungently: “any college that trumpets itstruths, ‘centuries6a subversive whistain books— old and not so old— speak to us in long tradition of academic excellence’ is lying.” per Such, that makes us wonder whether the idea account of progress be at least, was once the standard of might so-called ahigher sham.education They tell us that the we face the shadow before thequestions Civil War— that under it amounted to a of death areofnot new,institutions and that noofnew technology will men help enterus ansmattering weak little use to young swer them. As much as the questions posed by science, these are ing the labor market or the still-small managerial class. It is not hard and serious questions, and should be part every to find contemporaries who buttress this of view. In college Mobyeducation. concept honor in Pequod The Iliad retain Dick (1851),Does whenAchilles’ the owner of theof whale ship wants to any force us today? What it mean truly to livea accordconvey tofor young Ishmael thatwould he is shipping out under strange ing to Thoreau’s ethic of minimal exploitation of nature, by (to put it mildly) captain, he tells the boy that Captain Ahabor“has Kant’s Is there a basis in for been incategorical colleges as imperative? well as among the cannibals, ” asexperience if only a very the Augustinian idea of venture original into sin? Such questions not Fuadpeculiar person would the vicinity of do either. mit verifiable or replicable because the1830) experiment to ture of senator Charles Sumner answers (Harvard, class of remarked which we must subject them is the experiment of our own lives. that “not one single thing is well taught to the Undergraduates of 101 69

FOUR WHO WENT? WHO GOES? WHO PAYS? The modern university was an entirely new entity—in part an educational institution focused on graduate and professional training, but in larger part a research enterprise driven by science. Where, in this house of many mansions, was the college? Did it—does it—still exist as a place of guided self-discovery for young people in search of themselves? One way of coming at this question was suggested around a century ago by Max Weber, who, not long before Sinclair Lewis invented “Winnemac,” proposed a distinction between two “polar opposites of types of education.” The types he had in mind correspond closely to the terms “college” and “university” as I have been using them. The first, associated with religion, is “to aid the novice to acquire a ‘new soul’ . . . and hence, to be reborn.” The second, associated with the bureaucratic structures of modern life, is to impart the kind of “specialized expert training” required for “administrative purposes—in the organization of public authorities, business offices, workshops, scientific or industrial 102

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays? 1 Many otherfor servicelaboratories, ” as well “disciplined armies.” had made a pact withasthe country club crowd: in return your able terms couldby beyour substituted forbequests, Weber’s— loyalty, attested gifts and weknowledge will admitversus your skill; inspiration versus discipline; insight versus information; sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t learning its own sakeTwain, versus who learning the eye sakefor ofthe utility— quite up for to snuff. Mark had for a keen tribal but whatever weelite, prefer, good educationalWilson institution practices of theterms eastern tellsa us in Pudd’nhead that strives for both.Missouri “The twoboy types do goes not stand ” as Weber the pampered who up toopposed, Yale arrives there put it, “with no connections or transitions between them.” They “handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, coexist— at least they in a dynamic that is, onorcondition thatshould— he will eventually passrelation. examinations in 5 Beginning rise of at theschool. research university and consubjects he has with failedthe to master tinuing Americanpass higher struggled to Thisever sort since, of provisional was education part of “a has policy of vigormaintain this dialectic. For good or ill, the oldest and richest ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian has institutions have not been looked within to as models, soofit privilege matteredsupfor called it, though everyone the circle 6 more than Harvard when the president who succeeded Eliot, Charles W. Eliot was known to ported the policy unreservedly. Abbott Lawrence decided thatstupid the college rail against makingLowell, allowances for “the sons ofwas the being rich,” overwhelmed by the centrifugal force of the university, and that and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual stansomething haduniversity to be done about it. dards of the undermined— or overcame, depending In thepoint earlyof1920s, with helpvalues of a $13 million gift7 (at At least on one’s view— thethe social of the college. $150 million in today’s dollars) from the status Harkness Lowin Twain’s fictional world, trading family for afamily, Yale degree ell oversaw the creation of undergraduate “houses, ” each was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is with sent resident faculty, dining hall, common rooms, and library. Yale inihome with “manners much improved” but “as indolent as ever.” tiallyThe declined from the same source the same processa gift of raising standards, as weforwould call purpose, it today, but soon reversed itselfregardless and builtofasocial comparable of what, meant taking in talent origin. cluster But opening up with more explicit deference to the Oxbridge originals, it called college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of “colleges.” More a decade earlier, Princeton, ebb and flow, andthan academic leaders haveatbeen divided Woodrow within, as Wilson, president from 1901 to 1910, attempted well as among, themselves about how had far or fast to go.something When it similar, he failed in part becauseNicholas Princeton students hadpresilong came tobut admitting undergraduates, Murray Butler, organized themselves into “eating clubs” that provided, according dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth to traditionminded alumni, sufficient social coherence. In boys fact, century, favored a Jewish quota; but he also pressured the old by sorting students according to class and caste, the clubs reflected of the English Department to grant tenure to a brilliant young Cowhat enterprising reporter the Harvard Crimson, after a lumbiaone College graduate, Lionelfor Trilling, whom they had written

off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew.8 103 105

Four Four

field trip to Princeton, called its “frank institutionalization of ar2 bitrary and unreflective prejudices.”2 Wilson failed to dislodge these prejudices, some of which he doubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, scores of new tutors or “preceptors” with the aim of bringing students into a “mind and mind” relation with their teachers as well as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows in lecture halls.33 To this day, the size of “precepts” at Princeton— the discussion sections attached to lecture courses—is capped at fourteen. At relatively less wealthy institutions (compared with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, resistance to the fragmenting pull of the university took the form of core curricula in which undergraduates were expected to anchor their education. A main goal of all these reforms was to preserve what I have called lateral learning. Long before the creation of the Yale residential colleges, that quintessential—if fictional—Yalie, Dink Stover, remarked that the point of college was “to educate ourselves by knowing opposite lives.”44 Looking back at Stover’s era, we tend to dismiss his conception of “opposite” as absurdly narrow—a version of what Freud famously called “the narcissism of minor differences.” We imagine young men in V-necks and plaid slacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee (Yale ’27) and who all hail from the same social set, where “opposite” means the difference between growing up in an uptown brownstone as opposed to a downtown duplex, or summering in Newport instead of on the Cape. The inbreeding was never actually as extreme as the caricature suggests (Vallee was the child of immigrants—a French Canadian father and an Irish mother), but, in effect, by the early twentieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

had made a pact with the country club crowd: in return for your loyalty, attested by your gifts and bequests, we will admit your sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t quite up to snuff. Mark Twain, who had a keen eye for the tribal practices of the eastern elite, tells us in Pudd’nhead Wilson that the pampered Missouri boy who goes up to Yale arrives there “handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, that is, on condition that he will eventually pass examinations in 5 subjects he has failed to master at school.5 This sort of provisional pass was part of “a policy of vigorous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian has called it, though not everyone within the circle of privilege sup6 ported the policy unreservedly.6 Charles W. Eliot was known to rail against making allowances for “the stupid sons of the rich,” and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual standards of the university undermined—or overcame, depending 7 on one’s point of view—the social values of the college.7 At least in Twain’s fictional world, trading family status for a Yale degree was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is sent home with “manners much improved” but “as indolent as ever.” The process of raising standards, as we would call it today, meant taking in talent regardless of social origin. But opening up college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of ebb and flow, and academic leaders have been divided within, as well as among, themselves about how far or fast to go. When it came to admitting undergraduates, Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth century, favored a Jewish quota; but he also pressured the old boys of the English Department to grant tenure to a brilliant young Columbia College graduate, Lionel Trilling, whom they had written off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew.88 105

Four Four

Harvard, mindful of its the“frank “Jewish invasion” that ruined fieldAttrip to Princeton, called institutionalization of ar2 Columbia the eyes prejudices.” of its blue-blood alumni, Lowell, too, bitrary and in unreflective clamped down on admitting Jewish students,some suspecting they Wilson failed to dislodge these prejudices, of which he were long on brains but short on “character.” He also favored doubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, excluding Harvard’s few black students itsoffreshmen scores of new tutors or “preceptors” with from the aim bringingresistudenceinto halls,a and, inand his role as public restrictive dents “mind mind” relationfigure, with supported their teachers as well immigration laws. Yet Lowell’s motive in creating the house sysas with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows tem was tohalls. close3 To thethis divide wealthy and needy students. day,between the size of “precepts” at Princeton— in lecture He appalled to see attached rich boysto segregating themselves in “gold the was discussion sections lecture courses— is capped at coast” apartments whileless those with institutions less money were relegated to fourteen. At relatively wealthy (compared with rooming houses where they paid the rent by working a (usually) Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, menial campus “Snobbishpull separation . . . on lines ofthe wealth, resistance to thejob. fragmenting of the university took form” he felt, threatened destroy the chief value of the College of core curricula in“to which undergraduates were expected to as an-a 9 place for the training of character.” chor their education. Lowell’s innovation hardly put an of course, to IcliquA main goal of all these reforms wasend, to preserve what have ishness or class stratification. One lightly fictionalized memoir called lateral learning. Long before the creation of the Yale resifrom 1930s reports “how similar the always looked in dentialthecolleges, that quintessential— if faces fictional— Yalie, Dink the Varsity picture, except whereof there was an or a ourJew, Stover, remarked that the point college wasIrishman “to educate 4 and even then they seemed somehow anglicized down toward selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, alikeness.” lesthis some “anglicized” Irishman or contamiwe tend to And dismiss conception of “opposite” as Jew absurdly narnate the race byofmeans an unwary Beacon one enrow— a version what of Freud famously calledHill “thebelle, narcissism of terprising college bureaucrat ranyoung a briskmen business sellingand “the adminor differences.” We imagine in V-necks plaid dresses of selected AngloSaxon sophomores to the mothers of slacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee 10 the outbreak the set, Second World Boston debutantes.” (Yale ’27) and who all Until hail from the same of social where “opWar, such fictions the plausibility of fact. Through posite” means the had difference between growing up in an midcenuptown tury, accommodations Harvard duplex, houses or were of variable brownstone as opposed in to the a downtown summering in price, depending on size and location, and the few commuting Newport instead of on the Cape. students (often Jewswas from Roxbury were known The inbreeding never actuallyorasDorchester) extreme as the caricature 11 the 1970s, one of the ajobs performed as “meatballs.” suggests (Vallee As waslate theaschild of immigrants— French Canaby Harvard students in mother), return forbut, financial aidby was the dian father and an Irish in effect, thecleaning early twenbathrooms of classmates, for which, when such a student arrived tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 106 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

with mopaand expect be rewarded had made pactpail, withhe thecould country club to crowd: in returnby forbeing your called hisbyback— even his face—we “toilet loyalty,behind attested your or gifts andtobequests, will man.” admit your In short, over roughly the first twothirds of the sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if thetwentieth boy isn’t century, there persisted at elite colleges a strong current of social quite up to snuff. Mark Twain, who had a keen eye for the tribal snobbery as well as an undercurrent intellectualism— not practices of the eastern elite, tells usofinantiPudd’nhead Wilson that to outright racism antiSemitism. But arrives the flowthere was themention pampered Missouri boyand who goes up to Yale tidal. It did not go always and only in one direction, and when “handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, the was coming that in athe one institution, might be going out thattide is, on condition will eventuallyitpass examinations in 5 at another. By failed 1953, upon the retirement subjects he has to master at school. of Lowell’s successor, James Bryant Conant, nearlypass a third Harvard freshmen were This sort of provisional was of part of “a policy of vigoron scholarship— around twice the fraction that typically would ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian has have received financial aid a hundred years earlier. By 1957,supuncalled it, though not everyone within the circle of privilege 6 der thethe newpolicy president, Nathan Charles Marsh Pusey, thewas fraction W. Eliot knownhad to ported unreservedly. declined to barely In the for midst the Second World War,” rail against makinga fifth. allowances “theofstupid sons of the rich, nearly twothirds of Princeton undergraduates opposed the and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual stanadmission of university black students. (The firstorblack studentdepending to earn a dards of the undermined— overcame, Princeton BA of wasview— in thethe class of 1947.) thecollege. end of7the war, At least on one’s point social values By of the at Yale, roughly 90 world, percenttrading favored a drive to raise in Twain’s fictional family status for a scholarship Yale degree funds on behalf of black students. At Columbia, as late isassent the was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and late security guards routinely checked the IDs as ofever.” black home1960s, with “manners much improved” but “as indolent students while allowing whites— students not—call to come and The process of raising standards, as weorwould it today, 12 go around campus as they pleased. meant taking in talent regardless of social origin. But opening up college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of ebb2and flow, and academic leaders have been divided within, as We to look back at this exclusionary a comwell tend as among, themselves about how far orhistory fast to with go. When it bination of incredulity and indignation, andMurray to praise the presiprescame to admitting undergraduates, Nicholas Butler, ent at the expense of the past. There are good grounds to do so. dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth Admissions procedures as ways tothe screen out century, favored a Jewish originally quota; butdevised he also pressured old boys Jews— personal essays, letters of recommendation, interviews— of the English Department to grant tenure to a brilliant young Coare touted todaygraduate, as ways toLionel identify qualities thatthey mayhad not written be caplumbia College Trilling, whom 8 as blacks tured by grades or tests. Formerly excluded groups such off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 107 105

Four Four

or Hispanics, once virtually from many institutions, field trip to Princeton, called barred its “frank institutionalization of are ar2 now beneficiaries of “raceconscious” admissions policies. Colbitrary and unreflective prejudices.” lege,Wilson we say,failed used to be about uniformity, butwhich todayhe it to dislodge preserving these prejudices, some of is about achieving diversity. doubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, How we got from to the other a stirring story. It stuhas scores of new tutors or one “preceptors” withisthe aim of bringing many into chapters, of which the democratizing of elite institutions dents a “mind and mind” relation with their teachers as well is only one— and, as a matter of scale, a minor one. At the turn as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows of lecture the century, Stover wassize prepping for Yale, than a To this day, the of “precepts” at fewer Princeton— in halls.3when quartermillionsections Americans, or around 2 percent of the populathe discussion attached to lecture courses— is capped at tion between eighteen and twenty-four, attended(compared college. Bywith the fourteen. At relatively less wealthy institutions end of World War II, that figure had risen to over two million. In Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, 1975, it stood at nearly ten million, onethird oftook young resistance to the fragmenting pull oforthe university theadults. form Today, those students whom we were call “nontraditional, of core including curricula in which undergraduates expected to an-” the has almost doubled. chornumber their education. This enormous collegewas attendance waswhat the sum of A main goal of advance all these in reforms to preserve I have many advances: the founding of women’s colleges called incremental lateral learning. Long before the creation of the Yale resiand “Negro” colleges the late nineteenth century;Yalie, the expandential colleges, that inquintessential— if fictional— Dink sion of remarked land-grantthat colleges into aofconstellation universiStover, the point college was of “tostate educate our4 the adoption in the 1950s of ties on the scale of “Winnemac”; selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, Clark Kerr’s California “master plan, with its threetiered system we tend to dismiss his conception of” “opposite” as absurdly narof community state colleges, research universities row— a version colleges, of what Freud famouslyand called “the narcissism of aimed at providingWe virtually universal higher education an minor differences.” imagine young men in Vnecks andfor plaid exploding population; the breakdown of racial barriers, first by slacks who speak with crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee voluntary, thenwho compulsory, integration, later what“ophas (Yale ’27) and all hail from the sameand social set,bywhere come be known as affirmative action; and theuprise posite”tomeans the difference between growing inof ancoeducauptown tion in formerly all-maletoprivate institutions. Allorthese advances brownstone as opposed a downtown duplex, summering in promoted the development of what is now conventionally called Newport instead of on the Cape. “human capital” and, to many economists, deserve a The inbreeding wasaccording never actually as extreme as the caricature good deal(Vallee of credit America’s in the twentieth century to suggests wasforthe child ofrise immigrants— a French Cana13 Some peoplebut, believe that the nextearly chapter is world dominance. dian father and an Irish mother), in effect, by the twenbeing written by purveyors of “distance learning” via the Internet tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 108 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

and, despite abuses lately come to light, by entreprehad made a pact withthat thehave country club crowd: in return for your neurs education profit. loyalty,ofattested by for your gifts and bequests, we will admit your In fact, the story is older any of these elements. It goes sons, and we’ll do so, at least than conditionally, even if the boy isn’t back to churchsponsored scholarships for promising schoolquite up to snuff. Mark Twain, who had a keen eye for the tribal boys in the seventeenth and tells eighteenth centuries. Recognizing practices of the eastern elite, us in Pudd’nhead Wilson that God’s freedom Missouri to favor the poor and damn rich, arrives seventeenththe pampered boy who goes up the to Yale there century Puritans assumed no reliable alignment between the con“handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, dition person’s soul and rankpass intoexaminations which he or she that is,of ona condition that hethe willworldly eventually in 5 was born.heIn eighteenth century, writers of democratic sensubjects hasthe failed to master at school. timent “maids, shoemakers, and cooks” had “more naThisheld sortthat of provisional pass was part of “a policy of vigor14 tive intelligence than the upper classes allowed them to express.” ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian has In other haseveryone long been recognized thatofhuman capital called it, words, thoughitnot within the circle privilege sup6 is widelythedistributed among social classesW. andEliot doeswas notknown correlate Charles to ported policy unreservedly. with conditions of birth or with status. sons “Many a Rittenrail against making allowances forsocial “the stupid of the rich,” house, ” one Yale graduate declared in 1781, is to be found “among and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual stanour Mechanick genii,” and “an AmericanorCincinnatus every dards of the university undermined— overcame, upon depending 15 7 hundred yearsthe later, Harvard’s vowed that farm.” At least on one’s A point of view— social values ofpresident the college. “no good student ever stay away from Cambridge leave in Twain’s fictionalneed world, trading family status for a Yaleordegree college simply because he is poor, ” while the president of the was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is Unisent versity of North Dakota (founded in 1883) provided interestfree home with “manners much improved” but “as indolent as ever.” 16 loans to needy from his personal bank account. The processstudents of raising standards, as we would call it today, Buttaking it has always been easier toofproclaim theseBut principles than meant in talent regardless social origin. opening up to put them into practice. Still, by the second third of the twenticollege to previously excluded groups has always been a process of eth it was longer possible to speak “the college bred” ebbcentury and flow, andno academic leaders have beenofdivided within, as as if they were race horses orabout show how dogs— not 1944, well as among, themselves farcertainly or fast to go.after When it when Congress passed the GI Bill (officially, the Servicemen’s Recame to admitting undergraduates, Nicholas Murray Butler, presiadjustment Act) with the intent of avoiding a repetition of the dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth social unrest thata followed World I, when veterans century, favored Jewish quota; butWar he also pressured thereturned old boys to a labor market that couldtonot absorb them. GI Bill brought of the English Department grant tenure to aThe brilliant young Coonto throughout theTrilling, nation— including thewritten most lumbiacampuses College graduate, Lionel whom they had 8 elite— students whose fathers would have once set foot there only off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 109 105

Four Four

as janitors kitchen help. It made “reasonable the pursuit of cafield trip toorPrinceton, called its “frank institutionalization ar2 reers that, the war, were unrealistic even if perceived, and bitrary andbefore unreflective prejudices.” huge differthatWilson older siblings simply never aspired to.”17 It made failed to dislodge these prejudices, someaof which he ence in the tone of college life (nearly threequarters of students doubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, entering in or 1946 had servedwith in the and, instuthe scores of Harvard new tutors “preceptors” themilitary), aim of bringing larger into population, to turn whatwith hadtheir beenteachers a class as divide dents a “mind helped and mind” relation well 18 As one character— an almost elderly into a generational divide. as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows 3 businessman— mildthe resentment in Arthur Miller’s play To with this day, size of “precepts” at Princeton— in lecture halls.says All My Sons (1947), nowadays can “stand on a streetcorner the discussion sections attachedyou to lecture courses— is capped at and spit, and liable hit a college man.” (compared with fourteen. At you’re relatively lesstowealthy institutions The most important force in democratizing higher Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as ChicagoAmerican and Columbia, education to was explosive pull postwar of what once resistance thethe fragmenting of thegrowth university tookhad the form been as in junior colleges— two-yearwere institutions of coreknown curricula which undergraduates expected whose to anorigins were in the “normal schools” that had been founded in chor their education. the A nineteenth and flourished early the twentieth, and main goalcentury of all these reforms was to in preserve what I have whose lateral primary focus had been on training schoolteachers. For called learning. Long before the creation of the Yale resisome students, servedif asfictional— conduits Yalie, to a nearby dential colleges,these thatinstitutions quintessential— Dink or affiliated university where a twoyear college Stover, remarked that the pointgraduates of collegeofwas “to educate our4 could go on to earn the bachelor’s degree. By the 1950s, the junior selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, colleges were evolving into a national system ofaswhat are now we tend to dismiss his conception of “opposite” absurdly narknowna as community which today more than row— version of whatcolleges, Freud famously callednumber “the narcissism of twelve differences.” hundred, with an enrollment exceeding six million— minor We imagine young men in V-necks and plaid roughly a third of all undergraduates in the United States. In slacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee California, under master community colleges (Yale ’27) and whoKerr’s all hail from plan, the same social set, where were “opdesignedmeans as entry intobetween a systemgrowing of higher that posite” the points difference upeducation in an uptown provided students with the if they or didsummering well in their brownstone as opposed to aopportunity, downtown duplex, in first two years, to advance to one of the fouryear state colleges or Newport instead of on the Cape. evenThe to ainbreeding research university. was never actually as extreme as the caricature Meanwhile, selective public institutions made insuggests (Valleeprivate was theand child of immigrants— a French Canacreasing useand of standardized testsbut, for in theeffect, purpose of identifying dian father an Irish mother), by the early twentalented students outside their usual “feeder” schools. Also“HYP, in the” tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, 110 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

1950s, the Ivies the principle of “needhad made a pactestablished with the country club crowd: inbased” returnfinancial for your 19 This was anby effort replace scattershot philanthropy of aid. loyalty, attested yourtogifts andthe bequests, we will admit your the past, by which scholarships had been awarded on somebody’s sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t hunchupabout whoMark deserved what, disquite to snuff. Twain, whowith hadaarational keen eyesystem for theoftribal count pricing based on careful evaluation of what a family practices of the eastern elite, tells us in Pudd’nhead Wilsoncould that afford. It was a Missouri push for distributive justice— some mightthere say, the pampered boy who goes up toor,Yale arrives a“handsomely dose of socialism (“each according to his need”)— in a world equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, otherwise run according of the market. that is, on condition thatto hethe willrules eventually pass examinations in 5 At the institutions, need-based aid was followed subjects he wealthiest has failed to master at school. by aThis policy that to be known as “needadmissions”— sort ofcame provisional pass was part blind of “a policy of vigor-a combination still limited today to some fifty colleges with ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historiansubhas stantial endowments. In theory, at least, this means that a “firecalled it, though not everyone within the circle of privilege sup6 wall” goes between the admissions andwas theknown financial Charlesoffice W. Eliot to ported the up policy unreservedly. aid office. the former, candidates are stupid assessedsons without rail againstInmaking allowances for “the of theregard rich,” to economic means. In the latter, once the admissions office has and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual standecided students undermined— to admit, the amount is calculated that dards of which the university or overcame, depending 7 eachone’s successful afford to pay based on financial At least on point ofcandidate view—thecan social values of the college. disclosure by the family, an family aid “package” loans, in Twain’s fictional world, and trading status for(grants, a Yale degree campus job) is offered to make up the difference between the was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is sent cost ofwith attendance andmuch whatimproved” the familybut can“as contribute— home “manners indolent asthough ever.” not The everyprocess collegeofwith “needblind” or based” is raising standards, as “needwe would callpolicies it today, equallytaking scrupulous in regardless meeting the full need of all students meant in talent of social origin. Butthe opening up it admits. Especially if a college makes a serious effort to recruit college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of students of modest means, these two policies in tandem can be ebb and flow, and academic leaders have been divided within, as extremely expensive to implement. accident they well as among, themselves about howIt’s far no or fast to go.that When it emerged in the postwar years whenNicholas the economy booming, came to admitting undergraduates, Murraywas Butler, presidemands for social justice rising, and the struggle against socialdent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth ism in itsfavored Sovieta form to require that colleges nurture century, Jewishseemed quota; but he also pressured the old boys talent wherever they couldtofind it. tenure to a brilliant young Coof the English Department grant Progress in graduate, the publicLionel universities even more lumbia College Trilling,was whom they hadremarkwritten 8and firstable, both in expanding opportunity for lowincome off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 111 105

Four Four

generation students, supporting first-class teaching field trip tocollege Princeton, calledand its in “frank institutionalization of ar2 and research across all fields. Over the first half of the twentieth bitrary and unreflective prejudices.” century, Brooklyn College and theprejudices, City College York Wilson failed to dislodge these someofofNew which he established themselves among the most intellectually vibrant indoubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, stitutions in the world. At midcentury, thethe University of Califorscores of new tutors or “preceptors” with aim of bringing stunia at into Berkeley challenged andrelation in somewith respects exceededasHYP dents a “mind and mind” their teachers well in both accessibility and quality, while the flagship branches of as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows 3 other statehalls. universities Michigan, Wisconsin, IndiTo thissuch day, as theOhio, size of “precepts” at Princeton— in lecture ana, Illinois, and, more attached recently, Texas, North Carolina, Oregon, the discussion sections to lecture courses— is capped at Washington, and Florida, into the ranks of (compared the world’s leadfourteen. At relatively lessrose wealthy institutions with ing institutions. And in many cases, these huge institutions have Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, sought to provide a true residential for undergraduate resistance to the fragmenting pull ofexperience the university took the form students. The America thatundergraduates Alexis de Tocqueville had described of core curricula in which were expected to anin thetheir earlyeducation. nineteenth century as a nation where “primary educhor cation is within reach everyone” “higher education is A main goal the of all theseofreforms wasbut to preserve what I have within the reach of virtually no one”the seemed to be called lateral learning. Long before creation of turning the Yaleitself resi20 upside dential down. colleges, that quintessential—if fictional—Yalie, Dink Stover, remarked that the point of college was “to educate our3 by knowing opposite lives.”4 Looking back at Stover’s era, selves The foregoing storyhis is usually told as triumphantasone. But there we tend to dismiss conception ofa“opposite” absurdly narare a number with it. For one“the thing, it fits too row— a versionofofthings what wrong Freud famously called narcissism of neatly the progressive we likemen to in tellV-about minor differences.” We narrative imagine young necks ourselves. and plaid Needblind admissions, for instance, is an admirable ideal, but it slacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee can littleand more than feel-from goodthe slogan college (Yalebe’27) who all ahail sameif asocial set,concentrates where “opits recruiting like Scarsdale Riyadh, won’t posite” meansintheplaces difference between or growing upwhere in an it uptown encounter with need. As one college president brownstonecandidates as opposed to amuch downtown duplex, or summering in told me when I first tried to understand these policies, “If you Newport instead of on the Cape. really to practice need-blind admissions, the zip Thewant inbreeding was never actually as extremecover as theup caricature codes when the applications in.” Campus ainterviews may suggests (Vallee was the childcome of immigrants— French Canaseem to be about, themother), phrase goes, getting the whole dian father and an as Irish but, in effect,tobyknow the early twenperson, but since they are often conducted by alumni volunteers tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 112 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

or with input into the ultimate hadstudent made a interns pact with thelittle country club crowd: in returndecision, for your they tend to be, asbythe Stanford sociologist calls loyalty, attested your gifts and bequests,Mitchell we willStevens admit your them in a book entitled Creating a Class, “heavily symbolic”— sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t designed “assnuff. muchMark to affirm the who college’s personquite up to Twain, had commitment a keen eye fortothe tribal 21 alized evaluation as to learn applicants.” Wilson that practices of the eastern elite,more tells about us in Pudd’nhead is it clear that racial ethnic is entirely the Nor pampered Missouri boy or who goesdiscrimination up to Yale arrives there behind us. In The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class “handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, Buys Itson Way into Elite Colleges— and Who Gets Left Outside the that is, condition that he will eventually pass examinations in 5 Gates, argued that today’s “new Jews” are subjectsDaniel he has Golden failed tohas master at school. Asian Americans, whom, judging by grades tests alone, one This sort of provisional pass was part ofand “a policy of vigorshould expect to find in greater numbers at some of the most seous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian has lective private colleges. Even allowing and called it, though not everyone withinfor theregional circle ofdifferences privilege sup6 group inclination toward this or Charles that institution, is a strikW. Eliotthere was known to ported the policy unreservedly. ing between, say, the Asian rail discrepancy against making allowances forpercentage “the stupidofsons ofAmerican the rich,” students at Berkeley (almost 50 percent), where scores and and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectualgrades stancount overwhelmingly, and Princeton (under 20 percent) where dards of the university undermined—or overcame, depending 22 7 would “personal qualities” figure the mix. Atseem least on one’s point of view— theinsocial valuesSomething of the college. to wrongfictional with this picture— although bothfor Berkeley, which in be Twain’s world, trading familyat status a Yale degree draws its undergraduates mainly from Cali fornia (whose was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is resisent dents are roughly 13 percent of Asian background) and Princehome with “manners much improved” but “as indolent as ever.” ton,The which drawsofmore broadly on the nation process raising standards, as whole we would call(in it which today, the corresponding figure is around 5 percent), Americans meant taking in talent regardless of social origin.Asian But opening up are being admitted at a rate roughly three times their proportion college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of to relevant baseacademic population. If conscious does ebbthe and flow, and leaders have beendiscrimination divided within, as still the historical experience of Jews, other well exist, as among, themselves about how far orCatholics, fast to go.and When it oncedreaded minorities suggests that it willMurray abate over time. came to admitting undergraduates, Nicholas Butler, presiLess likely to be resolved anytime soon are the pervasive dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth problems that lowincome students face only inthe gaining adcentury, favored a Jewish quota; but he alsonot pressured old boys mission to elite colleges but in getting through college of the English Department to grant tenuretotoand a brilliant young Coat all. One leading authority, of Pennsylvania lumbia College graduate, LionelDonald Trilling, Heller whom they had written State University, asserts that “collegegoing rates of the off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew.8 highest113 105

Four Four

socioeconomicstatus students theinstitutionalization lowest achievementoflevfield trip to Princeton, called itswith “frank ar2 els are the as the poorest students with the highest achievebitrary andsame unreflective prejudices.” 23 This sobering statement doesn’t tell us much about ment levels.” Wilson failed to dislodge these prejudices, some of which he the advantages or obstacles (adequate or inadequate financial redoubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, sources; or broken families; strong or aim weak scores of stable new tutors or “preceptors” with the of schools) bringing that stuhelp hurt a student’s chances of getting to college; and it is dentsor into a “mind and mind” relation with their teachers as well striking that children growing up in economically deprived ciras with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows 3 attend good high schools do much better than cumstances who To this day, the size of “precepts” at Princeton— in lecture halls. those in poor sections schools— although stillcourses— lag significantly the discussion attached tothey lecture is cappedbeat 24 But however one slices the data, it hind theirAt wealthier fourteen. relativelypeers. less wealthy institutions (compared with is clear that the progressive story of expanding opportunity has Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, slowed or to stalled, and there ispull reason doubt that thethe United resistance the fragmenting of thetouniversity took form States truly beindescribed today as a nation ofexpected equal opportuof corecan curricula which undergraduates were to annity talent and effort trump poverty and prejudice. chorwhere their education. One reason forallthe slowdown can tobepreserve traced what to theI have late A main goal of these reforms was 1970s, when California’s Proposition (1978) initiated a series called lateral learning. Long before the13creation of the Yale resiof populist tax revolts that became chronic tax resistance, and dential colleges, that quintessential— if fictional— Yalie, Dink eventually led, state by the state,point to “massive disinvestment” in higher Stover, remarked that of college was “to educate our25 4 The University of Virginia, for example, founded by education. selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, Thomas Jefferson public welfare, has recently beennardewe tend to dismissfor his the conception of “opposite” as absurdly scribeda as “a public university name only” since now receives row— version of what Freudinfamously called “theit narcissism of a mere differences.” 8 percent of We its funding state of necks Virginia, minor imagine from youngthe men in Vanddown plaid 26 At the University from nearly 30 percent a quarter century ago. slacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee of Wisconsin, in a state with a long progressive tradition, (Yale ’27) and who all hail from the same social set, where only “opabout 19means percent from public growing funds—up alsoindown from posite” the comes difference between an uptown around 30 percent just atodecade ago. Toduplex, make uporfor the decline brownstone as opposed a downtown summering in in public money, tuition rates at public universities have been Newport instead of on the Cape. climbing even fasterwas than at private a trend likely The inbreeding never actuallyinstitutions— as extreme as the caricature to accelerate, while are also recruiting increasing suggests (Vallee wasstate theuniversities child of immigrants— a French Cananumbers out-of-state students,but, who pay higher than dian fatherofand an Irish mother), in effect, by thetuition early twenin-state residents. To make matters worse over the past couple of” tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP, 114 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

decades, aid to students administered the had madefinancial a pact with theindividual country club crowd: in return forbyyour states been allocated on the so-called loyalty,hasattested by your more gifts and more bequests, webasis will of admit your merit rather than need. (Between 1999 and 2009, merit aid grew sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t by more 150 Mark percent, whilewho needbased aid eye rosefor bythe lesstribal than quite up than to snuff. Twain, had a keen 27 means that scholarships have been goingthat in100 percent.) practices of theThis eastern elite, tells us in Pudd’nhead Wilson creasingly to highachieving disproportionthe pampered Missouri boy students who goeswho up come to Yale arrives there ately from highincome families, leaving deserving students from “handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, low-income families without the eventually means to pay college. that is, on condition that he will passfor examinations in 5 The same of support more needy to less needy stusubjects he hasshift failed to masterfrom at school. dents hassort beenofevident at thepass federal the maximum This provisional waslevel. partInof1976, “a policy of vigorfederal Pell grant for a lowincome student covered nearly 90 ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian has percentit,ofthough the average cost of attending four-year public insticalled not everyone within thea circle of privilege sup6 tution, the andpolicy almostunreservedly. 40 percent atCharles a private By 2004, W.university. Eliot was known to ported Pell grants covered 25 percent of stupid the costsons at aofpublic col-” rail against making under allowances for “the the rich, lege, and less than 10 percent at a private institution. And while and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual stanfunding for lowincome students has failed to keep up dards of ofthegrants university undermined— or overcame, depending 7 with the point risingofcost of college, there has of been in At least on one’s view— the social values therobust college.growth the amountfictional of unsubsidized federalfamily loansstatus that go to stuin Twain’s world, trading formainly a Yale degree 28 Before the election of dents from middleincome families. was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is2010, sent President Obama and the Democratic Congress were trying home with “manners much improved” but “as indolent as ever.”to reverse trendofbyraising enhancing Pell grants and turning into Thethis process standards, as we would callthem it today, an entitlement would with inflation. meant taking inwhose talent value regardless of keep socialpace origin. But openingBut up with tax revenues falling and tuitions continuing to rise, and now college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of with the flow, government in a deficitmood, such initiatives ebb and and academic leaderscutting have been divided within, as seem to bethemselves rolled back— (August well aslikely among, aboutalthough how faratorthis fastwriting to go. When it 2011), Pell grant program has been spared in theButler, first deficitcame tothe admitting undergraduates, Nicholas Murray presireduction deal. dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth As for privatea institutions, least the rise ofthe needcentury, favored Jewish quota;atbut hesince also pressured oldbased boys aid in English the middle years of to thegrant last tenure century, prevailing finanof the Department to the a brilliant young Cocial model has been a “Robin system lumbia College graduate, LionelHood” Trilling, whomwhereby they hadrelatively written 8 needier affluent students pay a larger share of college costs than off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 115 105

Four Four

students— objectionable. “Why field trip tosomething Princeton, some called parents its “frankfind institutionalization of ar2 should and I pay full freightprejudices.” when Johnny’s roommate is getting a bitrary unreflective freeWilson ride?” isfailed a question familiar to financial aidsome officers. It is usuto dislodge these prejudices, of which he ally asked in ignorance of the fact that even families paying full doubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, “stickerofprice” (now over $50,000 at with the most expensive colleges) scores new tutors or “preceptors” the aim of bringing stuare meeting far less and thanmind” the full cost ofwith theirtheir child’s education— dents into a “mind relation teachers as well calculated as a proportional fraction of faculty and staff salaries, as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows dining, library, services, as well as overhead To thisand day, athletic the size of “precepts” at Princeton— in lecture halls.3health, costs such as keeping theattached lights on,tothe heat flowing, and the buildthe discussion sections lecture courses— is capped at ings in good In other words, all students, rich and poor, in fourteen. At repair. relatively less wealthy institutions (compared with America’s private colleges— except at those run for profit— are Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, 29 this means forform the subsidized onefragmenting extent or another. resistance totothe pull of theWhat university took the college that it must makeundergraduates up the difference between operating of core iscurricula in which were expected to ancosts and tuition revenue with other sources of income such as chor their education. endowment return, government grants, private donations. A main goal of all these reforms wasand to preserve what I have Since the crash of 2008, this has become much harder do.resiEncalled lateral learning. Long before the creation of the to Yale dowments, government support, and theifamount of giving all dential colleges, that quintessential— fictional— Yalie,have Dink fallen are rising more slowly, while pressurewas on financial aid budStover,orremarked that the point of college “to educate our4 a pretty symmetry, and it puts gets has sharply increased. This is not selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, 30 financial aiddismiss offices his under heavy strain to keep upaswith demand. we tend to conception of “opposite” absurdly narEven parents who have notfamously lost theircalled jobs have seen row—those a version of what Freud “theprobably narcissism of their assets the value ofVtheir homes minorretirement differences.” Wedwindle imagineand young men in necks and drop, plaid leaving them ineligible for home equity or other loans that were slacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee once their options forfrom financing theirsocial children’s (Yaleamong ’27) and who all hail the same set, education. where “opAt the samethe time, the colleges themselves alsoupfeel posite” means difference between growing in squeezed— an uptown and not just financially. are under constant by trustbrownstone as opposedThey to a downtown duplex, scrutiny or summering in ees, alumni, and the general public, all of whom keep a keen eye Newport instead of on the Cape. on the rankings, of which those published in U.S. News Thecollege inbreeding was never actually as extreme as the caricature & World(Vallee Report was are the watched. Those whoCanacomsuggests the most childclosely of immigrants— a French pile claimmother), to base them oneffect, salientbymeasures as dianthese fatherrankings and an Irish but, in the earlysuch twengraduation and retention rates, “selectivity” (the percentage of aptieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 116 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

plicants toawhom offers admission made),infaculty had made pact with theofcountry clubarecrowd: returncompenfor your sation, peer assessment, amongweothers— but what loyalty,alumni attestedgiving, by your gifts and bequests, will admit your they really express is the cumulative impression summed up by the sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t word “prestige.” Veblen noted ago quite up to snuff.Thorstein Mark Twain, who had long a keen eyethat for American the tribal higher education has much common with “a circus, theatrical practices of the eastern elite,intells us in Pudd’nhead Wilson that or enterprise” ticketgoes salesup depend onarrives the fame of theoperatic pampered Missouriwhose boy who to Yale there the acrobats or the leading man or leading lady— of which the aca“handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, 31 demic arethat the faculty, athletes, and president.in that is,equivalents on condition he will student eventually pass examinations So the for to prestige subjects he quest has failed masterisatnothing school.5 new, but it has lately reached frantic intensitypass thatwas it ispart having negative This such sort of provisional of “aseriously policy of vigoreffects on the educational mission of many institutions. For ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian one has thing, it means that at some colleges, the quality of the educacalled it, though not everyone within the circle of privilege sup6 tional experience confused with how many applicants it turns Charles W. Eliot was known to ported the policy isunreservedly. away. And since a lower acceptance ratestupid meanssons higher prestige, rail against making allowances for “the of the rich,” the quest for more and more applicants becomes relentless— not and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual stanprimarily for university the purpose of finding “better” students (at the dards of the undermined— or overcame, depending 7 most selective great many valedictorians with At perfect least on one’s point schools, of view—a the social values of the college. GPAs and fictional SATs areworld, already turned down) but for in order balin Twain’s trading family status a Yale to degree lyhoo how hard it is to get in. Colleges are less eager, however, was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is sent to put with out the news that some applicants it harder than home “manners much improved” butwill “asfind indolent as ever.” others. alumni children, faculty The Recruited process of athletes, raising standards, as we would call children, it today, members of historically underrepresented minority meant taking in talent regardless of social origin. Butgroups, openingand up “development cases” (children of generous donors) have an adcollege to previously excluded groups has always been a process of vantage, and by time they havehave all been for, the ebb and flow, andthe academic leaders beenaccounted divided within, as number of slots themselves remaining can be extremely compared with well as among, about how far orsmall fast to go. When it the evergrowing applicant pool. InNicholas short, theMurray admissions came to admitting undergraduates, Butler,culture presiof selective colleges today is characterized by a rising degree of dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth 32 deception and—ano doubt, unintended— century, favored Jewish quota; but he alsocruelty. pressured the old boys Another or,torather, part oftothe problem— the of the Englishproblem— Department grant tenure a brilliant youngis Coobsessive concern with test scores, which whom have limited predictive lumbia College graduate, Lionel Trilling, they had written 8 value for what individual students will learn in, or contribute to, off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 117 105

Four Four

college, a lot to docalled with its reducing access for students of from field tripbut to Princeton, “frank institutionalization ar2 low-income families. Moreover, bitrary and unreflective prejudices.”as the psychologist Robert  J. Sternberg has written, tests these and grades signify little about he “a Wilson failed to dislodge prejudices, some of which student’s overall make ainpositive in the doubtless shared;potential but he didtosucceed hiring, difference at great expense, world.”ofItnew is also well that SAT scores closely scores tutors or known “preceptors” with the aimcorrelate of bringing stuwith socioeconomic Thetheir totalteachers averageasSAT dents into a “mind andfamily mind”standing. relation with well score of students from families earning more than $100,000 per as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows 3 year is over a hundred points than for students in the To this day, the higher size of “precepts” at Princeton— in lecture halls. 33 Theoretically, a corincome range of $50,000 to $60,000. the discussion sections attached to lecture courses—issuch capped at relation mean that (whatever(compared that is) closely fourteen.could At relatively lessintelligence wealthy institutions with tracks how much money one’s parents make. But that inference Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, should seem doubtful even to theofmost confirmed Social Darresistance to the fragmenting pull the university took the form winist. likely, means that parents with havetoways of core More curricula in it which undergraduates weremoney expected anto inflate children’s scores—by living in an affluent neighchor theirtheir education. borhood, for example, with reforms good public or preserve private schools. A main goal of all these was to what I have Such parents also have the option of providing SAT called lateral learning. Long before the creation of the prep Yale help resifor theircolleges, childrenthat and quintessential— buying the services of privateYalie, college addential if fictional— Dink visors, low-income onlywas lack“toaccess to such Stover, while remarked that the students point of not college educate our4 advantages, but typically attend high schools that offer little or selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, no them, the incurredasby submitting we college tend tocounseling. dismiss his For conception of fees “opposite” absurdly narmultiple applications orFreud even the cost ofcalled visiting college away row—a version of what famously “thea narcissism of from can be prohibitive. without compunction, minorhome differences.” We imagine And youngyet, men in V-necks and plaid one Ivy League alumni magazine recently carried an ad for “inslacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy an Vallee tensive 4-day . . . college application a former (Yale ’27) and who all hail from theboot samecamp” social run set, by where “opadmissions officer, at a price of $14,000. Another service called posite” means the difference between growing up in an uptown “IvyWise, ” known for its of summering tutoring and brownstone as opposed to a“platinum downtownpackage” duplex, or in 34 counseling, charged $30,000— and that was a few years ago. Newport instead of on the Cape. The inbreeding was never actually as extreme as the caricature 4 (Vallee was the child of immigrants—a French Canasuggests Ticking off and suchaninequities is easybut, to do, and creates dian father Irish mother), in effect, by the opportuniearly twenties for righteously condemning individual and institutional be-” tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP, 118 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

havior. Yetaall these practices raise club difficult ethical questions— of had made pact with the country crowd: in return for your 35 just the attested sort, in fact, that gifts should bebequests, part of a college loyalty, by your and we will education. admit your How many of us means to help would sons, and we’ll do with so, atthe least conditionally, even iflook the our boy own isn’t son or daughter in the eye and say, “I will put you at a disadvanquite up to snuff. Mark Twain, who had a keen eye for the tribal tage by refusing spendelite, our family’s helping you prepthat for practices of the to eastern tells us money in Pudd’nhead Wilson the test”? And Missouri while it’s boy natural feel up resentment when other pampered whotogoes to Yale arrives there people’s children enjoy advantages denied to our own, for centu“handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, ries people objected to what amounted affirmative acthatvery is, onfew condition that he will eventually passto examinations in 5 tion for whites. Mostto ofmaster the beneficiaries subjects he has failed at school. took their preferential standing for granted, while pass mostwas of the wereofremarkThis sort of provisional partexcluded of “a policy vigorably gracious about their exclusion. Today, however, a lot of ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historianpeohas ple object to affirmative action for minorities, which as Anthony called it, though not everyone within the circle of privilege sup6 Kronman entails “a contest of W. right against right—toa Charles Eliot was known ported the puts policyit,unreservedly. conflict between theallowances defensiblefor claim minority to” rail against making “theofstupid sonsapplicants of the rich, aand form of special treatment and the equally defensible claim of under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual stannonapplicantsundermined— to be judged by individual qualidardsminority of the university or their overcame, depending 7 fications alone.” is the affirmative action At least on one’s point of Nor view— social values of for the alumni college. children (though is rarely called that name) simplefor matter right in Twain’sit fictional world,by trading familyastatus a Yaleofdegree or wrong. Not many colleges can afford to alienate loyal alumni, was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is sent on whose theyimproved” depend forbut educating all students— home withbenefactions “manners much “as indolent as ever.” including low-income students— by turning away call theirit (qualiThe process of raising standards, as we would today, 36 fied) intalent largerregardless numbers than theyorigin. alreadyBut do.opening up meantchildren taking in of social The more one delves into the intricacies of selective college to previously excluded groups has always been acollege processadof missions, the more such questions force themselves into view. Is it ebb and flow, and academic leaders have been divided within, as legitimate to offer lower aidabout to students who likely accept well as among, themselves how far orseem fast to go. to When it an offer admission (alumni children, for example, candidates came to of admitting undergraduates, Nicholas Murrayor Butler, presiwho have proven their zeal by traveling a long way to campus for dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth an interview), and thereby conserve thealso budget for students who century, favored a Jewish quota; but he pressured the old boys might need toDepartment be “incentivized” to enroll? Should a wealthy of the English to grant tenure to a brilliant younginstiCotution grants insteadLionel of loans to all students whom deems lumbiaoffer College graduate, Trilling, whom they haditwritten 8 deterred eligible for any amount of financial aid, so they won’t be off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 119 105

Four Four

by debt pursuing relatively paying careers in, say, teaching field tripfrom to Princeton, called itslow“frank institutionalization of ar2 or public service? Or, given the market value of its prestigious debitrary and unreflective prejudices.” gree,Wilson shouldfailed such an institution reserve grants for the of more needy to dislodge these prejudices, some which he students and stick with loans for the less needy, who probably won’t doubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, have much trouble back whatever haveof borrowed? Is it scores of new tutorspaying or “preceptors” withthey the aim bringing stua fair use to mind” providerelation extraordinary aid to familiesasmakdents intoofaresources “mind and with their teachers well ing as much as $200,000 per year (as Harvard and Yale announced as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows they would do 3before of 2008) in view atofPrinceton— the ensuing To thisthe day,crash the size of “precepts” in lecture halls. pressure on lesssections wealthyattached collegestotolecture followcourses— suit, thereby leaving the discussion is capped at themselves unable to offer support to needier students? fourteen. At relatively lessadequate wealthy institutions (compared with One former Harvard dean, Theda Skocpol, put this dilemma in Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, the form oftoa stinging question:pull Why America’s leading uniresistance the fragmenting of should the university took the form versities make “theinannual for families up to the 95th income of core curricula whichcost undergraduates were expected to anpercentile than half the cost of purchasing a new luxury car”?37 chor their less education. And what about that offer, for submitA main goal of allprograms these reforms was in to exchange preserve what I have ting an early application and a promise to attend if admitted, betcalled lateral learning. Long before the creation of the Yalearesiter chance of getting One argument in of such programs, dential colleges, thatin?quintessential— if favor fictional— Yalie, Dink which increaingly thatcollege they bring to campus Stover,are remarked thatpopular, the pointis of was “to educateevery our4 part of students happy to be fall a freshman class made up in large selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, at choice his college. Anotheroffavorable argument, though wetheir tendfirstto dismiss conception “opposite” as absurdly narrarely in Freud public,famously is that locking in half the class row—aacknowledged version of what called “the narcissism of early are announced allowsand theplaid colminor(decisions differences.” We imaginebefore youngChristmas) men in V-necks lege to be more selective in choosing among candidates who apslacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee ply later, its the ranking U.S. set, News & World (Yale ’27)and andthereby who allimprove hail from sameinsocial where “opReport. A counterargument— which Harvard at posite” means the difference between growing and up inPrinceton an uptown first dismissed, then endorsed when theyduplex, briefly ended their early brownstone as opposed to a downtown or summering in admissions programs, and now, having resumed them, reject once Newport instead of on the Cape. again— that such was programs “advantage the already advantaged” The isinbreeding never actually as extreme as the caricature who are wellprepped for the admissions process and whose Canafinansuggests (Vallee was the child of immigrants— a French cial allow themmother), to zero inbut, on ain single college without waitdianresources father and an Irish effect, by the early twen38 ing to see if its financial aid offer will make it possible to attend. tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 120 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

these questions— andclub there are in many more— has hadNone made aofpact with the country crowd: return for your an ethically simple answer. beyond we dispute is thatyour the loyalty, attested by your giftsWhat’s and bequests, will admit practices they bring into view are heavily weighted in favor of sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t students families means. the economic debacle quite up from to snuff. Markwith Twain, whoBefore had a keen eye for the tribal of 2008, aofnational discussion seemed be gettingWilson under that way practices the eastern elite, tells us in to Pudd’nhead about ways to respond thiswho inequity, which was clearly the pampered Missouritoboy goes up to Yale arrives growthere ing. Between the mid1970s and mid1990s, in a sample of eleven “handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, prestigious colleges, the of students families in that is, on condition thatpercentage he will eventually pass from examinations 5 the bottom quartile family income remained roughly subjects he has failedoftonational master at school. steady— 10 percent. During same theof percentThis around sort of provisional pass wasthepart of period “a policy vigorage of students from the top quartile rose sharply, from a ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historianlittle has more than onethird to fully half. And if the sample is broadened called it, though not everyone within the circle of privilege supto include topunreservedly. 150 colleges 6asCharles designated by the Chronicle of W. Eliot was known to ported the the policy Higher Education, percentage students thethe bottom rail against makingthe allowances for of “the stupid from sons of rich,” 39 quartile drops to around 3 percent. and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the intellectual stanThere are university many reasons for dismay or at overcame, this situation, one of dards of the undermined— depending 7 which was stated former president William At Bowen, least on one’s point of by view— thePrinceton social values of the college. who wrotefictional in 2005world, that “the sensefamily of democratic is in Twain’s trading status for alegitimacy Yale degree undermined if people believe that the rich are admitted to sewas not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is sent lective colleges and universities regardless ofindolent merit while able home with “manners much improved” but “as as ever.” andThe deserving moreasmodest backgrounds are processcandidates of raising from standards, we would call it today, 40 a step towardofrestoring someBut sense of legititurned away.”in As meant taking talent regardless social origin. opening up macy, Bowen proposed that academically promising students college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of from low-flow, income getleaders “a thumb the scale”— an advanebb and andfamilies academic haveonbeen divided within, as tage to what alumni athletes, well comparable as among, themselves aboutchildren, how far or fast toand go. minority When it candidates alreadyundergraduates, get. If they haveNicholas lower testMurray scores Butler, or fewer AP came to admitting presiclasses of the sort that high schools in the inner city or in rural dent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth areas rarely offer,a Jewish these deficiencies should be considered the century, favored quota; but he also pressured the oldinboys context of limited opportunities, evidence of success in overof the English Department to grantand tenure to a brilliant young Cocoming obstaclesgraduate, should also be taken into account. of lumbia College Lionel Trilling, whom theyProposals had written 8 selective this sort were responses to the fact that at most private off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 121 105

Four Four

colleges, thePrinceton, already-small of low-income students field trip to calledenrollment its “frank institutionalization of ar2 was getting smaller evenprejudices.” before the financial crash, when endowbitrary and unreflective ments were soaring. But they these have been put into practice at only Wilson failed to dislodge prejudices, some of which he adoubtless very fewshared; elite institutions, notably Harvard and also Amherst, but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, which,ofduring the presidency of Anthony 2011), scores new tutors or “preceptors” with the Marx aim of (2003– bringing sturecruited in low-relation incomewith communities andastook dents into aggressively a “mind and mind” their teachers well an increasing number of Pelleligible students as transfers from as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows 3 community colleges— apparent negativeateffect on the To thiswithout day, the size of “precepts” Princeton— in lecture halls. 41 academic strength of itsattached student body. the discussion sections to lecture courses—is capped at If we step back from particulars, what(compared kind of general fourteen. At relatively lessthese wealthy institutions with picture emerges? The stark truth is that America’s colleges— Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, with such to notable exceptions pull as community colleges, historically resistance the fragmenting of the university took the form black suchwere as Berea College in of corecolleges, curriculadistinctive in which institutions undergraduates expected to anKentucky charges no tuition and requires campus work chor their (which education. from its students, whom are first in preserve their families atA main goal of all all of these reforms was to what Itohave tend along with a very fewthe elite institutions calledcollege), lateral learning. Long before creation of thewith Yalelarge resiendowments— been reinforcing more thanYalie, amelioratdential colleges,have thatlately quintessential— if fictional— Dink ing the disparity wealth and opportunity in American society. Stover, remarkedofthat the point of college was “to educate our4 leading colleges “propaganda One writer goes so far as to call our selves by knowing opposite lives.” Looking back at Stover’s era, machines might well have of been designedastoabsurdly ensure narthat we tend tothat dismiss hisasconception “opposite” 42 the class structure American society remains unchallenged.” row— a version of of what Freud famously called “the narcissism of Even if admissions tomen change fundamentally at minor differences.” We policies imaginewere young in Vnecks and plaid selective colleges, there will never be room for more than a fracslacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee tion theand students worthy of going them. Some these“opcol(Yaleof’27) who all hail from the to same social set,ofwhere leges aremeans expanding, but mostly with growing an eye toward admitting posite” the difference between up in an uptown more students from abroad, who are often theorchildren of the brownstone as opposed to a downtown duplex, summering in globetrotting business and political elite. Moreover, too many Newport instead of on the Cape. worthy in was today’s America their The students inbreeding never actuallyare as unable extremetoascontinue the caricature education beyond high and of those who do, too suggests (Vallee was theschool child at of all— immigrants— a French Canamany find themselves colleges that areeffect, underfunded andtwenoverdian father and an Irishinmother), but, in by the early crowded. “Over the last forty years, ” as one community college tieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 122 104

Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays?

president “enrollment in club community hasyour exhad made awrites, pact with the country crowd: incolleges return for panded at a rate by four times greater than in fouryear admit publicyour and loyalty, attested your gifts and bequests, we will private universities, yet they are able to expend only one third as sons, and we’ll do so, at least conditionally, even if the boy isn’t much pertofulltime student as their betterfinanced private and quite up snuff. Mark Twain, who had a keen eye for the tribal 43 the very students public counterparts.” practices of the eastern This elite, means tells usthat in Pudd’nhead Wilson who that mostpampered urgently Missouri need mentoring firstgeneration the boy whoand goessupport— up to Yale arrives there college students, often minorities— are the ones who find re“handsomely equipped with ‘conditions’. ” He has been accepted, duced in the library in advising, that is, hours on condition that heand willlaboratory, eventually cutbacks pass examinations in 5 remedialhe tutoring, andtochild care, who are likely to be taught subjects has failed master at and school. by underpaid, to cobble toThis sort ofoverworked provisionalpartpasstime wasfaculty part oftrying “a policy of vigorgether a living by teaching at two or three campuses at the same ous affirmative action for the privileged,” as one historian has time. Itit,isthough hardly not surprising thatwithin evidence substantial learning called everyone the of circle of privilege sup6 is scantthe andpolicy that rates of graduation among many Charles W. Eliot wascollege knownstuto ported unreservedly. 44 dents are low— especially in public institutions. rail against making allowances for “the stupid sons of the rich,” One might expect this situation to elicit theintellectual kind of outrage and under his leadership, slowly but surely, the stanwe are quick to feel about the prejudices and privileges of the dards of the university undermined—or overcame, depending 7 past. If anything, the obstacles thatvalues brightoflowAt least on one’s point of view— the social the income college. students face today fictional are moreworld, insidious thanfamily the frank pracin Twain’s trading statusexclusionary for a Yale degree tices that once prevailed. On her application for a course that was not quite a done deal: the dull boy flunks out and is senta colleague I teach on thisimproved” subject, one junior wrote home withand “manners much butColumbia “as indolent as ever.” about friendsofwho attended NewasYork Theher process raising standards, we City wouldpublic call itschools today, (she to in a Catholic high school in the South with meantwent taking talent regardless of social origin. But Bronx opening up good college counseling), that they “did not know when to apply college to previously excluded groups has always been a process of for what theyleaders had tohave fill out how towithin, fill them ebb college, and flow, andforms academic beenordivided as out, alone thethemselves name of aabout collegehow outside CUNY well let as among, far orthe fast to go. system.” When it And yet there undergraduates, seems to be much less indignation about the came to admitting Nicholas Murray Butler, presipresent than about the past, in part, perhaps, because as our sodent of Columbia for virtually the whole first half of the twentieth ciety divides more and more those with “advantages” century, favored a Jewish quota;between but he also pressured the old boys (our for money) and those the two camps of theeuphemism English Department to grant tenurewithout, to a brilliant young Coknow and less about Lionel each other. It’s hard tothey know whom or lumbialess College graduate, Trilling, whom had written 8academic what to hold accountable. Should we blame political or off as a Marxist, a Freudian, and, most damningly, a Jew. 123 105

Four Four

leaders, taxpayers— convenient abstractionofthat field tripor to maybe Princeton, called itsthat “frank institutionalization ar2 includesand ourselves? If we sat in the legislature, are we sure we’d bitrary unreflective prejudices.” castWilson the right vote when forced to allocate scarce funds between, failed to dislodge these prejudices, some of which he 45 The hard fact is that in the say, Medicaid and higher education? doubtless shared; but he did succeed in hiring, at great expense, absenceofof fundamental change in our and politiscores new tutors or “preceptors” withtax thestructure aim of bringing stucal priorities, the days “both . . . and”with are their over, teachers and the days of dents into a “mind andofmind” relation as well “either . . . or” have arrived. as with each other rather than leaving them to sit in silent rows in lecture halls.3 To this day, the size of “precepts” at Princeton— the discussion sections attached to lecture courses—is capped at fourteen. At relatively less wealthy institutions (compared with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton), such as Chicago and Columbia, resistance to the fragmenting pull of the university took the form of core curricula in which undergraduates were expected to anchor their education. A main goal of all these reforms was to preserve what I have called lateral learning. Long before the creation of the Yale residential colleges, that quintessential—if fictional—Yalie, Dink Stover, remarked that the point of college was “to educate ourselves by knowing opposite lives.”4 Looking back at Stover’s era, we tend to dismiss his conception of “opposite” as absurdly narrow—a version of what Freud famously called “the narcissism of minor differences.” We imagine young men in V-necks and plaid slacks who speak with the crooning intonation of Rudy Vallee (Yale ’27) and who all hail from the same social set, where “opposite” means the difference between growing up in an uptown brownstone as opposed to a downtown duplex, or summering in Newport instead of on the Cape. The inbreeding was never actually as extreme as the caricature suggests (Vallee was the child of immigrants—a French Canadian father and an Irish mother), but, in effect, by the early twentieth century the Big Three, or, as they are known today, “HYP,” 124 104

FIVE BRAVE NEW WORLD

Despite the unpalatable facts that I’ve just reviewed, the word often used today to describe people who succeed in getting into and through college, especially our most selective and prestigious colleges, is “meritocracy”—a name for those who get to the top because they are intelligent, hardworking, and ambitious. It’s a word with an interesting genealogy. It sounds as if it were derived from the ancient Greek along with such words as “aristocracy” or “oligarchy,” but in fact it is little more than fifty years old, coined in 1958 by an English social critic named Michael Young, who meant it not as an approving name for outstanding people but as a description of a nightmare social order that he feared was becoming reality. Young’s book, The Rise of the Meritocracy, was not a work of history. It was a futuristic fiction that imagined, from the vantage point of the year 2033, a gruesomely competitive society based on the formula “I + E = M” (intelligence plus effort equals merit), in which, by means of standardized testing starting early in child125

Five Five

hood, the population is sorted into two main tracks: one, via elite educational institutions, toward wealth and power; the other, via apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and subservience. At the time, Young’s fanciful future struck readers as outlandish (who would think of testing three-year-olds?!), but in fact his book belongs to the dark genre of prophetic fiction that includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystopian vision of drug-induced pleasures, and Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1955), about the mix of idealism, innocence, and arrogance that draws the United States into unwinnable wars. With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome Karabel has summed up the history of selective college admissions as “a history of recurrent struggles over the meaning of 1 ‘merit.’ ”1 In this struggle, the winning faction always imposes its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, in 1900, merit implied the haleness and heartiness of the “clubbable” man. Such a man didn’t talk, or even think, much about money—in large part because he didn’t have to. He drank, but not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called (in a variation on the title of Max Weber’s famous book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism) the “Protestant aesthetic.” In the face of travail, he could be counted on to remain “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be.22 Women, of course, did not have this kind of merit. Catholics and Jews and blacks did not have it either. But there was something else for which this meritorious man, in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities and prejudices and blinkered view of the world, he was expected to have a concept of duty that extended beyond his own caste. Here is Charles W. Eliot’s aspirational account of the “aristocracy” to which 126

Brave Brave New New World World

the sons of Harvard have belonged, and, let us hope, will ever aspire to belong—the aristocracy which excels in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the learned professions, and bears itself with distinction in all fields of intellectual labor and combat; the aristocracy which in peace stands firmest for the public honor and renown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.33 This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more often stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, in which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who gave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert Gould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to lead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtu4 ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner.4 In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the other. En route, they must walk past white, ranged tablets, each of which, in its proud, sad clearness, is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. The effect of the place is singularly noble and solemn, and it is impossible to feel it without a lifting of the heart. It stands there for duty and honour, it speaks of sacrifice and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 127

Five Five

generosity. Most ofis them all were inone, theirvia elite hood, the population sortedwere intoyoung, two main tracks: 5 prime, and all of themtoward had fallen . . . educational institutions, wealth and power; the other, via apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and It is not easy today to make out the names carved in the rows subservience. At the time, Young’s fanciful future struck readers as of white stone, which are mounted high on the wall and dimly outlandish (who would think of testing three-year-olds?!), but in lit, but it is impossible to see them, however indistinctly, withfact his book belongs to the dark genre of prophetic fiction that out feeling how remote we are from the young men whom they includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystomemorialize. The closest to war that most of their counterparts pian vision of drug-induced pleasures, and Graham Greene’s The come today is through stories of sit-ins and walk-outs that Quiet American (1955), about the mix of idealism, innocence, and they’ve heard from their baby-boomer parents (now the senior arrogance that draws the United States into unwinnable wars. faculty), whose war reminiscences begin and end, like mine, with With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome how they avoided going to Vietnam. At leading American colKarabel has summed up the history of selective college admisleges outside the South, very few people—except for support sions as “a history of recurrent struggles over the meaning of and maintenance staff, who are much more likely to have fam‘merit.’ ”1 In this struggle, the winning faction always imposes ily or friends in the line of fire—have experienced war. Perhaps its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, the deepest divide in our country today runs between those for in 1900, merit implied the haleness and heartiness of the “clubwhom war is a relentless threat and those for whom it’s an occabable” man. Such a man didn’t talk, or even think, much about sional television At our most prestigious the formoney— in largeshow. part because he didn’t have to.colleges, He drank, but mer is now the most underrepresented minority group. not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called one, of course, held Weber’s accountable for when to (in No a variation on theshould title ofbeMax famous bookorThe whom theyEthic are born, andSpirit manyofacademics would be quick toaesdeProtestant and the Capitalism) the “Protestant clare that if not most, of haveon been acts of thetic.” Insome, the face of travail, heAmerica’s could be wars counted to remain jingoism or indifferent, travesties ofasmisguided and that 2 Women, “outwardly all Anglo-idealism, Saxons” should be.honorable military service is an imperfect measure of merit. But apart of course, did not have this kind of merit. Catholics and Jewsfrom and the testdid of war, which history subjects some generations and not blacks not to have it either. others, is fair to ask about thewhich condition of that moreman, genButsurely there it was something else for this meritorious eralthe sentiment callcould civic duty. What ison. theDespite record his of the “meriin ideal, atwe least, be counted asperities tocracy” in this and regard? and prejudices blinkered view of the world, he was expected Therea is a case to made that for much of the twentieth cento have concept ofbe duty that extended beyond his own caste. tury it was pretty good. What Henry James (who avoided the Civil Here is Charles W. Eliot’s aspirational account of the “aristocWar because of a “back injury”) called “duty and honor” were high racy” to which 128 126

Brave Brave New New World World

among that college was meantand, to encourage. They were, the the sonsvirtues of Harvard have belonged, let us hope, for will instance, the themes of thatthe bestselling novel Stover ever aspire to belong— aristocracy which excelsat Yale, which Scott Fitzgerald called “the textbook for my generation.” A in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the book more cited today than is usually dismissed asina childlearned professions, and read, bearsititself with distinction ish story about of the rich “punching” for the clubs at Old Eli, all fields of sons intellectual labor and combat; aristocracy but which in fact in it ispeace an account a privileged to “are-critistands of firmest for theinsider public coming honor and 6 3 The Yale we meet in Stover cal analysis of his own good fortune.” nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets. is a place still tinged with its founders’ belief that God dispenses This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofgrace by his inscrutable whim, and that those who find themselves ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have smiled upon by God must live, when confronted by the suffering some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, of others, with the humbling knowledge that “there but for the in which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built grace of God go I.” as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, Yale exerts a force on Stover like that of a guilty dream. From at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who its “misty walls and the elm-tops confounded in the night, a mongave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much strous hand seemed to stretch down, impending over him” until to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were the windows were “transformed into myriad eyes, set on him in wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert inquisition.” The eyes of Yale follow him everywhere, demandGould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to ing that he subordinate himself to an “idea of sacrifice and selflead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” abnegation.”7 No doubt many, if not most, of Stover’s classmates on an island offthis the coast of South Carolina, where”he and virtuflunked out of idealized “school for character, and saw the 4 ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner. world instead as Yale’s well-known turn-of-the-century professor, In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description the Social Darwinist William Graham Sumner, saw it—as a dogof Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still eat-dog contest in which the fit prevail and the weak can go to hell. pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the Sumner’s best-known book bore the implicitly interrogative title other. En route, they must walk past What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, to which the implied answerwhite, was: not a damn thing. ranged tablets, each of which, in its proud, sad Yet even if Sumner’s was thethe realname Yale, and a myth, clearness, is inscribed with of a Stover’s student-Yale soldier. it was a good it helped to produce Oneand of the The effectmyth, of theand place is singularly noblegood andmen. solemn, striking paradoxes in of elite colleges is that it was it is impossible tothe feelhistory it without a lifting of the heart. It the sonsstands of thethere old tribe who and opened up their tribal of institutions— for duty honour, it speaks sacrifice not onlyand colleges, but also corporations and clubs— to the larger world. example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 129 127

Five Five

At Harvard, though there wereinto periods regression, the transforhood, the population is sorted twoof main tracks: one, via elite mation advanced fairly steadily. At Princeton, which educational institutions, toward wealth and power; theWoodrow other, via Wilson envisioned as a “school of duty, ” it was much slower— as apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and was Wilson himself on matters of fanciful what today westruck wouldreaders call race subservience. At the time, Young’s future as and class, not to mention gender. At Yale, theyearchange tookbut place outlandish (who would think of testing threeolds?!), in rather under the presidency of Kingman Brewster fact hissuddenly book belongs to the dark genre of prophetic fiction(Maythat flower descendant, Yale ’41, president from 1963 to 1977), when includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystothe numbers blackinduced studentspleasures, rose substantially and Greene’s women were pian vision ofofdrugand Graham The admitted for the(1955), first time. spirit was and carQuiet American aboutThe the same mix ofprogressive idealism, innocence, ried beyond New Haven by a number of Brewster’s fellow arrogance that draws the United States into unwinnable wars.patricians, notably the industrialist and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome (Yale, ’31), racial integration in theadmisbusiKarabel hasa pioneer summedinuppromoting the history of selective college ness world, PaulofMoore (Yale,struggles ’41), Episcopal bishop of New sions as “a and history recurrent over the meaning of 1 York, who turned Cathedral of St. Johnfaction the Divine from a high this the struggle, the winning always imposes ‘merit.’ ” In WASP enclave in upper Manhattan into an ecumenical institution its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, serving community in 1900,the merit implied of theHarlem. haleness and heartiness of the “clubThese men— neartalk, contemporaries as Cyrus bable” man. Suchalong a manwith didn’t or even think,such much about Vance (’39), Sargent (’38), John Lindsay 44),drank, and Wilmoney— in large partShriver because he didn’t have to.(’He but liam Sloane Coffin (’ 4 9)— recognized their own privilege as blind not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called luckaatvariation best or injustice at worst. Narrow old Yale was book destroyed (in on the title of Max Weber’s famous The by large-minded old Yalies. And elite institution has hadaesits Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of every Capitalism) the “Protestant own version the of loyal opposition, though it has been thetic.” In theofface travail, he could be counted on tostronger remain 8 2 Clark Kerr, who created the world’s most at some than at others. “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, open system public higher education, went to a and smallJews private of course, didof not have this kind of merit. Catholics and college,did Swarthmore, blacks not have itcertainly either. among the most elite (as measured by its intellectual the United States. man, But there wasstandards) somethingcolleges else for in which this meritorious in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities and2prejudices and blinkered view of the world, he was expected Dropping in on the of the old meritocracy canown be acaste. useto have a concept ofworld duty that extended beyond his ful exercise for gaining perspective on what college worthiness Here is Charles W. Eliot’s aspirational account of the “aristocmeans today. Perhaps the most vivid representative of the old racy” to which 130 126

Brave Brave New New World World

order halffictional figure namedand, Frank thewas sonsa of Harvard have belonged, let Prescott, us hope, the title character of The Rector of Justinthe (1964), Louis Auchincloss’s will ever aspire to belong— aristocracy which excels novel about a prepschool headmaster loosely modeled Endicott in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes on of the Peabody, theprofessions, renowned and headmaster of Groton School from learned bears itself with distinction in 1884 till 1940— the fictional is lessthe religious than was all fieldsthough of intellectual laborPrescott and combat; aristocracy the which actual in Peabody. PrescottPeabody up honor at a time peace stands firmest for thegrew public andwhen re- a gentleman would not offer a lady a chair in which someone nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 had recently been sitting, since there is “nothing more horrid than a This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofwarm seat.”9 Today, we can hardly believe such people existed. ten stated in istheory than he observed practice,and butholds it doesanhave But Prescott no prude; detestsinsnobbery, unsome historical Harvard Memorial sentimental viewwarrant. of war, The while insistingbuilding, that those who areHall, first in which ninetieth birthday had been in line forEliot’s peacetime privilege mustwas alsocelebrated, be first to step up in built waras a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, time. Above all, he thinks that the point of education is to inspire at a time college numbered around five hundred, who people towhen publicthe service. gaveTo their including many whotodid thislives end,in hethe hasCivil a viewWar, of what teaching ought be.much “The to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred older I get,” he tells a younger member of the school faculty,were “the wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert more I realize that the only thing a teacher has to go on is that Gould Shaw 1860), leftyou college early and went rare spark in a(class boy’sofeye. Andwho when see that . . . you’re anon assto if lead worry a regiment ofitblack volunteers into “theit’s murderous you where comes from. Whether an ode ofthickets” Horace, on an an island off the coast of South Carolina, virtuor Icelandic Saga, or something that goeswhere bangheinand a labora4 ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner. tory.”10 These are examples of what William James called “invaIn The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description sive experiences” capable of “abruptly upsetting the equilibrium of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still of the primary consciousness”—and whether such an experience pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the comes via the study of nature (the bang in the lab), or music, or other. En route, they must walk past art, or mathematics, or the involuntary selflessness to which one is lifted byranged examples of virtue white, tablets, eachin of literature which, in or itshistory proud, or sadlife, it is asinine to worry where it comes from. The only thing that matclearness, is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. tersThe is what to—or what James, paraphrasing Paul, effectitofleads the place is singularly noble and solemn,St.and called “fruits forto life.” it isitsimpossible feel it without a lifting of the heart. It Measured byfor thisduty standard, a gooditmany members of the old stands there and honour, speaks of sacrifice “meritocracy” lived their lives well. Franklin Roosevelt (Groton, and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 131 127

Five Five

class ofthe1900, Harvard ’04), who revered wasviabyelite no hood, population is sorted into two mainPeabody, tracks: one, means a brilliant student, but because of school he educational institutions, toward wealth and power;and the family other, via was assured of going to Harvard whether he spent his summers apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and playing polo or a campfanciful counselor for poor chilsubservience. Atworking the time,asYoung’s future struckurban readers as dren. (He did both, andthink this was before threethe age of olds?!), paddingbut resuoutlandish (who would of testing yearin més his with evidence of to altruism.) meeting fiction Roosevelt, fact book belongs the darkUpon genre first of prophetic that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (Harvard, class of 1861, thriceincludes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystowounded Warinduced veteran)pleasures, remarked that the new president pian visionCivil of drugand Graham Greene’s The seemed a man with a “second ratemix mind a first-innocence, class temperaQuiet American (1955), about the of but idealism, and ment.” At that mostdraws elite-the college admissions offices today such an asarrogance United States into unwinnable wars. sessment would cut no ice— probably not even if the candidate is With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome backed oldsummed money. up the history of selective college admisKarabelbyhas Is there challenge in this alien past to our criteria of sions as “a ahistory of recurrent struggles overpresent the meaning 1 membership in thestruggle, “meritocracy”? Whatfaction should always we make of the the winning imposes ‘merit.’ ” In this fact that Roosevelt and his team of Ivy advisors— old boys, alits self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, most to amerit man— did more mostand people with advantages do in 1900, implied thethan haleness heartiness of the “clubto foster hope for the disadvantaged? Social Security got bable” man. Such a man didn’t talk, orWhen even think, much about through Peabody wrote to his former to praise money—Congress, in large part because he didn’t have to.student He drank, but him for acting on the conviction “that there should be throughnot too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called out land a great emphasis laid upon the duty of the book citizenThe to (in the a variation on the title of Max Weber’s famous the community and the thisSpirit evenofamong those the who“Protestant were formerly Protestant Ethic and Capitalism) aes11 How do today’s and considering only own interests.” thetic.” In the facetheir of travail, he could be counted on tobest remain 2 brightest stack up? “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, It is, ofdid course, a loaded question— unfair, by of course, not have this kind of merit.utterly Catholics andtainted Jews and the sortdid of not “Greatest nostalgia in which Americans blacks have itGeneration” either. haveBut lately indulged, and based dubious premise thatman, one there was something elseon forthe which this meritorious can generalize usefully about any generation, however we choose in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities to define that vague term. Such a question is nothe susceptible to a and prejudices and blinkered view of the world, was expected verifiable people in part, products of their to have a answer, conceptsince of duty thatare, extended beyond his own times caste. and, except in some fantasy, can’t be lifted of hisHere is Charles W. timeEliot’stravel aspirational account of theout “aristoctory and dropped into some other time. But when it was asked of racy” to which 132 126

Brave Brave New New World World

me some fifteen years ago, it provoked think about college the sons of Harvard have belonged,me and,tolet us hope, in awill wayever I hadaspire not thought of before. to belong— the aristocracy which excels It came in the form of a rhetorical in manly sports, carries off the honorsquestion, and prizesatofthe theRittenhouse Hotelprofessions, in Philadelphia, where had the good fortune of learned and bears itselfI with distinction in meeting overofbreakfast with E.and Digby Baltzell, the man often all fields intellectual labor combat; the aristocracy credited popularizing the term “The Establishment.” Born whichwith in peace stands firmest for the public honor and reto an uppercrust Philadelphia family, Baltzell stayed home nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 for college at Penn rather than going off to Harvard because his famThis sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofily had fallen on hard times. After college, he served as a navy ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have pilot in World War II, took a PhD at Columbia under Robert some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, Merton (the child of Jewish immigrants, born, also in Philadelin which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built phia, under the name Meyer Schkolnik), then went on to write as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, extensively about the American social elite in such works as his at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who well-known book The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and gave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much Caste in America (1964). to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were He was the very picture of the old boy. He wore a herringwounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert bone jacket slightly on the loud side, a rosy shirt with a touch of Gould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to starch, his hair brushed back in the windswept style of a sailing lead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” man. After we sat down, he leaned back and, without pausing on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtufor preliminary niceties, asked, “So where did you go to college?” ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner.4 “Harvard,” I said, with no idea where this was going. And then In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description came the challenging question: “Do you think you deserved to of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still go there?” This was a stumper. I hemmed and hawed—not sure pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the whether to prevaricate with something like, not really, there were other. En route, they must walk past brighter kids in my high school who could have made more of the white, opportunity. should I say what he I wassad thinking: rangedOr tablets, each of which, inknew its proud, yes, clearness, why not, isI worked hard, got good grades, have done nicely inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. in my since? He didn’t waitand for solemn, an answer. Thechosen effect work of theever place is singularly noble and“Of course do!” he said, followedawith this it isyou impossible to feeland it without lifting of indictment: the heart. It “You andstands your whole generation the smuggest, self-satisfied there for duty andare honour, it speaksmost of sacrifice in the history of the republic. You figured you had earned what and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 133 127

Five Five

you got, whenis Jack Kennedy Harvard, hood, thewhereas population sorted into twowent maintotracks: one,he viaknew elite he was thereinstitutions, because of toward his daddy’s money— and the when he got educational wealth and power; other, via out, he felt he ought to give something back!” It was all said with apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and a smile, but also a hint of anger. subservience. At with the time, Young’s fanciful future struck readers as This was doubtless romanticized view of theolds?!), youngbut JFK, outlandish (who would athink of testing threeyearin but the largerbelongs point was a forceful one.ofAs I later understood fact his book to the dark genre prophetic fiction that when I came to read The Rise of the Meritocracy, it was, includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) withinitsessence, dystoMichael Young’s point. What Young and Baltzell were talking pian vision of drug-induced pleasures, Graham Greene’s The about American was the (1955), Anglo-about American version of noblesse oblige— Quiet the mix of idealism, innocence, anda conceptionthat that seems attenuated now that “merit has bearrogance draws themuch United States into unwinnable wars. 12 In our era of social sortcome progressively more measurable.” With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome ing by academic prowess, which Young placed incollege an imaginary Karabel has summed up the history of selective admisfuture firsthand, the “new classes are sions asbut “a which historyweofknow recurrent struggles over upper the meaning of 1 no longer weakened by self-the doubt and selfcriticism, ” and,imposes all too this struggle, winning faction always ‘merit.’ ” In often, subscribe to “the axiom of modern thought . . . that people its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, are unequal, and . . . thatthe they shouldand be accorded a station in life in 1900, merit implied haleness heartiness of the “club13 related to their capacities.” bable” man. Such a man didn’t talk, or even think, much about It is hard not to be because fortifiedhe in didn’t this view oneHe goes through money— in large part haveasto. drank, but today’s college admissions process, which effectively begins in not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called preschool (with,onyes, testing of threeyear-famous olds), accelerates (in a variation thethetitle of Max Weber’s book The through of adolescence, and comes Protestantchildhood, Ethic and consumes the Spirit ofmuch Capitalism) the “Protestant aesto a climax on face the cusp of adulthood. series ofon trials rethetic.” In the of travail, he couldThis be counted to and remain 2 deserve wards is well designed to convince the winners that they “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, their winnings— conviction new freshmen are and enof course, did not ahave this kindinof which merit. Catholics and Jews couraged the it college blacks didwhen not have either.president welcomes them with some version of thewas standard accolade: arethis themeritorious most extraordiBut there something else for“You which man, nary class ever to walk through our gates.” When Young spoke in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities of being “weakened . . . by selfcriticism, he spoke ironically, of and prejudices and blinkered view of the”world, he was expected course, he counted doubt and selfcriticism the to have since a concept of dutyselfthat extended beyond his among own caste. virtuesis of a genuinely educated person— though he certainly Here Charles W. Eliot’s aspirational account of the “aristocdid not think that such virtues are limited to people with eduracy” to which 134 126

Brave Brave New New World World

cational credentials. “Today, as he putand, it with irony, “the the sons of Harvard have ”belonged, let ustart hope, eminent know thattosuccess is just for their capacity, will ever aspire belong— the reward aristocracy whichown excels for their own efforts, and for their own undeniable achievement, ” in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the andlearned “become so impressed professions, andwith bearstheir itselfown withimportance distinction as in to lose 14 sympathy with the people whom they govern.” all fields of intellectual labor and combat; the aristocracy The Rise the Meritocracy was astute descripwhich in of peace stands firmest forantheamazingly public honor and retionnown, of what we have become— a society “dedicated to the and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 one overriding purpose of economic expansion,” in which “people are This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofjudged according to the single test of how much they increase ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have production.” In such a society, “the scientist whose invention some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, does the work of ten thousand, or the administrator who orgain which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built nizes clutches of technicians” is counted “among the great,” and as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, intelligence is defined as “the ability to raise production, directly at a time when15 It’s the acollege numbered around fivedicey hundred, who definition that makes things for those or indirectly.” gave their lives with in thedevilish Civil War, including did much whom Young, delight, calledmany “IQ who berserkers, ” by to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were which he meant those “with an I.Q. of 140 at some times and 90 wounded. Perhaps best known among the breakfast.” dead was Among Robert at others, and not only when in love or before Gould (classprophecies of 1860), who college early andbywent on to Young’sShaw accurate wasleft that “a beneficent product lead a regimentselection, of black volunteers “the murderous thickets” of educational ” would beinto therapies by which the mind on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where 16he and virtucould be focused and mood swings smoothed out. 4 ally The all his troops died in thewriter assaultWalter on Fort Wagner. bracingly polemical Benn Michaels has carIn The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description ried Young’s analysis of the putatively meritocratic society into of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still the context of contemporary America. Our leading colleges, he pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the says, “have become our primary mechanism for convincing ourother. En route, they must walk past selves that poor people deserve their poverty,” and that if you’re 17 Few people rich,white, you got that way “because you’re better.” ranged tablets, each of which, in its proud, sad inside or outside academia would say such a thing openly, at least not clearness, is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. without softening it with of humility, but theand fact is The effect of the placeprotestations is singularly noble and solemn, 18 thatitmany people secretly— or not soasecretly— believe it. It is impossible to feel it without lifting of the heart. The new meritocracy, of honour, course, has gone global. The rankstands there for duty and it speaks of sacrifice list mania seems even more manic in Asia, where Shanghai and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood,Uni135 127

Five Five

versitythe now sponsorsisa sorted widelyinto followed academic that hood, population two main tracks:ranking one, via elite calculates institutional the basis of suchthe measures as educational institutions,quality towardon wealth and power; other, via numbers of Nobel prizes and Fields medals (a prestigious interapprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and national award mathematics) by the faculty, as well as the subservience. Atinthe time, Young’swon fanciful future struck readers as number of (who faculty publications in suchthreejournals Science outlandish would think of testing year-as olds?!), butand in Nature. Therebelongs are no measures pertinent the liberalfiction education fact his book to the dark genre oftoprophetic that of undergraduates. It is hard to know how there could be. includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystodon’tinduced stand high on these are indignant. pianThose visionwho of drugpleasures, andlists Graham Greene’s The The director of the École supérieure— the premiere postsecQuiet American (1955),normale about the mix of idealism, innocence, and ondary institution France— unhappy about how the arrogance that drawsinthe UnitedisStates into unwinnable wars.École fared (it came in twentyeighth out of two hundred world uniWith Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome versities in Times (of Higher Education rankings Karabel hasthe summed up London) the history of selective college admis-a coupleasof“ayears ago,of and seventy-third in the Shanghai contest). sions history recurrent struggles over the meaning of 1 She protests it takes faction for students to imposes get into thisexplaining struggle, what the winning always ‘merit.’ ” In by the École: “the competition between students is such that one its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, who succeeds the endthe of haleness classes préparatoires would have“clubtypiin 1900, meritby implied and heartiness of the cally studied for twelve sixteen a day without bable” man. Such a manto didn’t talk,hours or even think, muchholiday about 19 In India, is nothave unusual fordrank, ambitious for two orinthree money— largeyears.” part because he itdidn’t to. He but high school students to leave home to live in “coaching centers” not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called where they workon all the day every dayMax at improving their examtaking (in a variation title of Weber’s famous book The skills sinceEthic everything their performance on theaesInProtestant and thedepends Spirit ofon Capitalism) the “Protestant dian Institutes of Technology Joint Entrance Examon (IITJEE).20 thetic.” In the face of travail, he could be counted to remain In China, roughly ten million high school students an exam “outwardly indifferent, as all AngloSaxons” should take be.2 Women, hoping todid snare ofthis the kind roughly six million places college. of course, notone have of merit. Catholics andinJews and Are these theitpeople blacks did really not have either.we want running the world? Sleepdeprived, ruthlessly competitive, type AAAthis personalities, But there was something else for which meritoriousdriven man, to the edge of endurance? in ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities Of course and it isblinkered one thing to ofrecoil from he thewas present or and prejudices view the world, expected worry the future, another to glorify the caste. past, to haveabout a concept of dutyand thatquite extended beyond his own whichiswon’t stand to too much scrutiny has Here Charles W. up Eliot’s aspirational accounteither. of theThere “aristocnever been any shortage of hypocrisy, fakery, posturing, and racy” to which 136 126

Brave Brave New New World World

downright in America’s colleges, including— the sonssilliness of Harvard have belonged, and, let us hope, perhaps especially— leading colleges. A few months will ever the aspire to belong— the aristocracy whichafter excelsRobert Gould Shaw died in the assault on Fort Wagner, Julian in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the Hawthorne (Harvard, class of off his freshman learned professions, and1868) bearscapped itself with distinction inyear of “rodomontade and horseplay” spending in a coffin all fields of intellectual laborby and combat;the thenight aristocracy as part of aindrunken hazing ritual— which peace stands firmest for the same publicnight, honorgrotesquely and re21 3 in (Late enough, that his father, Nathaniel Hawthorne, died. nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets. life, Julian Hawthorne spent a year in federal prison on a mail This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more offraud charge.) Perhaps most college men, to use William Perry’s ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have formulation, have always been “schoolboys.” It may be ridicusome historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, lous to idealize and universalize, say, the “tall, blonde, lean, and in which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built wasp-waisted” William Francis Bartlett (Harvard, class of 1862), as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, who, unlike Shaw, survived the war and came back, one-legged, at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who to be celebrated in poetry by Herman Melville as having “lived gave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much a thousand years / Compressed in battle’s pains and prayers.”22 to into a war against slavery. Another hundred were Butturn it’s it not ridiculous to note that such mentwo had— or made— wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert opportunities to discover for themselves certain principles that Gould Shaw (class of 1860), early andcourage went onand to too many elite colleges nowwho seemleft to college discount: that lead a regiment of black volunteers into “thevirtues murderous thickets”I selflessness are democratically distributed (something, on an island thepeople coast oflearn South he and virtubelieve, that off many in Carolina, war), andwhere that with privilege 4 ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner. comes responsibility. In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description If it’s easy to romanticize the past, it is harder to make the of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still case that these principles are alive and well in the “best” colleges pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the of the present. In the context of the story I have tried to tell, another. En route, they must walk past other way to put the matter is to say that some of these colleges havewhite, now arrived a conception themselves that is sad the reverse rangedat tablets, each of of which, in its proud, of where they began. Notably, in an age when bipartisan clearness, is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier.consensus hard of to the come by, isthis is a point on which left andand right Theiseffect place singularly noble and solemn, cordially agree. Fortothe liberal Walter it is impossible feelleftit without a liftingBenn of theMichaels, heart. It elite colleges arethere in the building up theofselflove of their stands forbusiness duty andofhonour, it speaks sacrifice students by “legitimizing their sense of their individual merit.” and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 137 127

Five Five

For Ross a conservative who tracks: has since become hood, theDouthat, population is sorted intowriter two main one, via elitea New York Times columnist, educational institutions, toward wealth and power; the other, via apprenticeship orhave vocational penury ruling classes alwaystraining, believedtoward in theirrelative own right to and subservience. the was time,understood— Young’s fanciful future rule, but itAtonce at least bystruck anyonereaders who as outlandish (who would think of testing threeyearolds?!), cared to think seriously about the matter—that their but in factplace his book belongs to thewas darkarbitrary, genre ofan prophetic that in the social order accidentfiction of includes Huxley’srather Bravethan Newa World withjustice. its dystobirthAldous and breeding, matter(1932) of cosmic pianIdeals visionofofnoblesse drug-induced pleasures, Greene’s oblige grew fromand justGraham this sense: the The Quiet American (1955), about the mix of idealism, innocence, knowledge that God (or blind chance) had given the eliteand arrogance that was draws thenecessarily United States into unwinnable wars. much that not deserved. With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome Today, Karabelhowever, has summed up the history of selective college admissions as “a history has of recurrent struggles over the meaning that knowledge been wiped away. The modern elite’s of 1 In this struggle, the winning faction always imposes ‘merit.’ rule”is regarded not as arbitrary but as just and right and its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, true, at least if one follows the logic of meritocracy to its in 1900, merit implied the haleness and heartiness of the “clubunspoken conclusion . . . [today’s elite] belong exactly bable” man. Such a man didn’t talk, or even think, much about where they are—the standardized tests and the college money—in large part because he didn’t have to. He drank,23 but admissions officers have spoken, and their word is final. not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called shared point thatMax ourWeber’s oldest colleges (in The a variation on thehere titleis of famoushave bookabanThe doned theEthic cardinal the religionthe out“Protestant of which they Protestant andprinciple the Spirit of of Capitalism) aesarose: principle nohehuman deserves thetic.”the In the face of that travail, could being be counted on toanything remain 2 perhaps, based on his or her merit. In that view— too harsh, “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, for anyonedid except a saint liveofby— when God announced to of course, not have thisto kind merit. Catholics and Jews and Abraham he had chosen him for an exalted role in history, blacks did that not have it either. he did “without any respect any goodness in Abraham, Butsothere was something elseunto for which this meritorious man,” but rather “freely of his grace . . . for it is nothing God seeth in in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities Abraham, for which he dothview reveal his world, justification him.”24 and prejudices and blinkered of the he wastoexpected Such a God was not impressed by any demonstration of merito have a concept of duty that extended beyond his own caste. torious in Eliot’s any human being. account To the extent huHere is behavior Charles W. aspirational of the that “aristocman beings are capable of worthy actions, they are unmerited racy” to which 138 126

Brave Brave New New World World

giftsthe from God, and should be occasions for humility sonsa merciful of Harvard have belonged, and, let us hope, rather willthan everpride. aspire to belong—the aristocracy which excels So it was appropriate Jerome Karabel gave aoftitle in manly sports, carriesthat off the honors and prizes the with a biblical ring,professions, The Chosen, his history of how the eastern learned andtobears itself with distinction in elite lostall itsfields grip of onintellectual their beloved Harvard, Yale, the andaristocracy Princeton. He labor and combat; tellswhich in thatinbook story of progress, andpublic rightly points out peaceastands firmest for the honor and re-that fewnown, peopleand would deny that “the quasimeritocratic admissions in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 system of today is a major improvement over the more overtly This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofdiscriminatory and hereditary system of the past.” And yet he ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have concludes with a call “to heed Young’s final warning”—that “we some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, neglect the dark side of our meritocracy at our collective peril.”25 in which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built as a3memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, at a time when the college numbered fiveofhundred, who A number of writers have lately taken usaround on a tour the dark side. gave their in theis Civil War, including who did hilarimuch Among thelives liveliest Walter Kirn, who, inmany an alternately to into a warmemoir, against Lost slavery. Another two hundred were ousturn anditharrowing in the Meritocracy : The Edu ca­ wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert tion of an Overachiever (2009), sums up his Princeton classmates Gould (class of who college and went on to (he wasShaw graduated in1860), 1983) in theleft figure of early “the mental contorlead a regiment of black volunteers “the murderous thickets” tionist, able to rise to almost everyinto challenge placed before him on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtuat school or work except, perhaps, to the challenge of real self4 ally all his troops in to thewrite assault Fortand Wagner. 26 It isdied hard thisonway stay on the right knowledge.” In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description side of decency, since any such report on one’s peers begins as of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still an act of espionage under the cover of friendship, and there is pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the a certain pettiness in blaming youth culture on the young. Colother. En route, they must walk past lege students have always run the full range from seekers to fakers, white, and while every college teacher encounters students ranged tablets, each of which, in its proud, sadwho are crassclearness, and grasping, he or she also knows others who are ingenuis inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. ous,The curious, wonderfully free of selfdelight. a mixed effectand of the place is singularly noble and It’s solemn, andpicture,itasis any honest portrait individuals or institutions impossible to feel itofwithout a lifting of the heart.must It be. Yet stands Kirn isthere right for to ask if our institutions couldn’t be duty and educational honour, it speaks of sacrifice doing more today to save us from ourselves. I use the inclusive and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 139 127

Five Five

“us” because we were is allsorted younginto once, and because theone, young will hood, the population two main tracks: via elite soon be old.institutions, toward wealth and power; the other, via educational A quick survey of what might be called ethicalpenury landscape apprenticeship or vocational training, towardthe relative and of today’s colleges may give an idea of how much work remains subservience. At the time, Young’s fanciful future struck readers to as be done—starting at thethink top. For one thing, many espeoutlandish (who would of testing threeyear-colleges, olds?!), but in ciallyhis those high in theto pecking order, have much too close fact book belongs the dark genre of gotten prophetic fiction that to the world of money. Nineteenthcentury Harvard impressed includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystoCharles Dickens as ainduced place where “the almighty dollar sinks into pian vision of drugpleasures, and Graham Greene’s The something comparatively insignificant, a whole Pantheon Quiet American (1955), about the mix ofamidst idealism, innocence, and of better gods.” Today is common of topwars. colleges arrogance that draws theitUnited Statesfor intoleaders unwinnable to garnish their presidential pay (seven figures are no longer unWith Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome heard ofhas ) bysummed sitting on remunerative corporate Karabel up highly the history of selective college boards. admisThe president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute sits on the sions as “a history of recurrent struggles over the meaning of 1 boards ”of Fedex, Oil,winning and IBMfaction (amongalways others), handIn this Marathon struggle, the imposes ‘merit.’ somely supplementing her annual salary of nearly $2 million— its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, though should be noted that these pale the in 1900,itmerit implied the haleness andnumbers heartiness of beside the “clubearnings of forprofit “university” CEOs, suchthink, as the much president of bable” man. Such a man didn’t talk, or even about Strayer University, whobecause took home $43 million Meanmoney— in large part he didn’t have to.last Heyear. drank, but while, the leaders of Stanford and Princeton catch up with each not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called other at board meetings of of Google, and the famous chancellor of The the (in a variation on the title Max Weber’s book UniversityEthic of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sits “Protestant on the boardaesof Protestant and the Spirit of Capitalism) the Nike, a contract with thebe university supplying thetic.”which In theholds face of travail, he could counted for on to remain 2 this sort athletic shirts adorned with the Nike swoosh. At worst, “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, of course, thing isdid a conflict ofthis interest; at merit. best itCatholics is unseemly. in not have kind of andWhen, Jews and the wake thehave financial contraction of 2008–2009, Tufts presiblacks didofnot it either. dentBut Lawrence Bacow declined bewhich paid asthis much as the trustees there was something elsetofor meritorious man, proposed to pay him, he was setting an alltoorare example of in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities a leader who takes seriously “the importance of presiand prejudices and blinkered viewsymbolic of the world, he was expected 27 dent’s ” especially times of retrenchment. to havesalaries, a concept of dutyinthat extended beyond his own caste. What about W. the Eliot’s faculty? Outside the elite reaches of acaHere is Charles aspirational account of the “aristocdemia, many college teachers are underpaid and overworked, racy” to which 140 126

Brave Brave New New World World

devoted to their students at cost to themselves. But they tend to the sons of Harvard have belonged, and, let us hope, be obscured in the to public eye by more visible will ever aspire belong— thetheir aristocracy whichcounterparts: excels mediastar professors who jet around the globe from Aspen to in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the Davos, chatter on TV, and bears provide more thanintime to learned professions, itself withprestige distinction theirallhome his dean’s report to Harvard facfields institutions. of intellectualInlabor and combat; thethe aristocracy ultywhich twentyinyears Henry Rosovsky it had peaceago, stands firmest for thewrote publicthat honor andbecome re“a society largely without rules, or to put it slightly differently, nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 the tenured members of the faculty—frequently as individuals— This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofmake their own rules” with regard to teaching loads, outside ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have business ventures, consulting time versus teaching time, and so some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, on. A me-first ethos, Rosovsky said, was destroying what was left in which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built of an older civic attitude according to which “a professor’s prias a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, mary obligation is to the institution—essentially students and at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who colleagues—and that all else is secondary.” Five years later, in a gave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much book entitled Academic Duty (1997), Donald Kennedy, former to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were president of Stanford, made a laudable effort to clarify the rewounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert sponsibilities that ought to go hand in hand with academic freeGould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to dom. Unfortunately, this sort of critique, accurate and salutary as lead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” it may be, can also give aid and comfort to those who charge the on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtuwhole professoriate with selfishness and self-indulgence. ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner.4 One reason for public suspicion is that moneymaking opporIn The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description tunities for well-placed academics (particularly, but by no means of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still only, in the sciences), as well as for the institutions where they pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the work, have jumped because of growth in “technology-transfer” other. En route, they must walk past partnerships with corporate investors and government agencies. Thiswhite, has been especially 1980,inwhen Congress ranged tablets,true eachsince of which, its proud, sad passed the clearness, Bayh-Dole Act permitting institutions and individuals is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. to share profits from inventions or therapies with Theineffect of the place is singularly noble anddeveloped solemn, and public And iftothe “applied” it isfunds. impossible feelboundary it withoutbetween a lifting“pure” of the and heart. It research no longer much line between standsis there for duty andobserved, honour, neither it speaksisofthe sacrifice consultation and collaboration. Many leading academic econoand example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 141 127

Five Five

mists who have held public office to investment or hood, the population is sorted intohave twoclose mainties tracks: one, via elite insurance firms that are subject the regulatory andthe taxother, policies educational institutions, towardto wealth and power; via these same economists help to formulate. And it’s not just the apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and Washington–At Wall highwayfanciful that’s clogged with readers commutsubservience. theStreet time, Young’s future struck as ing professors. the runup to in Libya, it became outlandish (whoInwould think of war testing three-yearolds?!),known but in that his a group prominent scientists, sociologists, and fact book of belongs to thepolitical dark genre of prophetic fiction that professors of business was collecting hundreds of thousands of includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystodollars per of month thepleasures, Qaddafi government return The for pian vision drug-from induced and Graham in Greene’s “consulting” services. themix beneficiaries favorable Quiet American (1955), One aboutofthe of idealism,wrote innocence, and op-ed articles Colonel Qaddafi’s sincere commitment arrogance that about draws the United States into unwinnable wars. to democratization— without bothering to disclose his financial reWith Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome 28 lation to has the summed Libyan regime. Karabel up the history of selective college admisAnd what aboutofthe students? Most don’t leadmeaning pampered sions as “a history recurrent struggles over the of 1 lives of”selfit—but, as with faculty, the In indulgence— this struggle,far thefrom winning faction always imposes ‘merit.’ gap is widening between the majority and the select few. Nearly its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, 150 yearsmerit ago, implied when Charles W. Eliot remarked of that in 1900, the haleness and heartiness the“luxury “cluband learning are illa bed the phrase a commonplace bable” man. Such manfellows, didn’t”talk, or evenwas think, much about expressing consensus across ahe broad range money—ina large part because didn’t haveofto.institutions. He drank, Tobut day, top colleges vie for students by offering amenities superior not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called to of the on competition— stocked famous coffee bars in The the (inthose a variation the title of betterMax Weber’s book library, betterfitness centers in the “Protestant dorms, andaesso Protestant Ethicequipped and the Spirit of Capitalism) on. At In some the campus tour resembles a prothetic.” the colleges, face of travail, he could be now counted on to remain 2 motional tour of a luxury resort. In 1900, one observer of col“outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, lege life remarked thatthis “it kind makes greatCatholics difference” a young of course, did not have of amerit. andif Jews and person spends the years between eighteen and twenty-two “in a blacks did not have it either. counting house, the clocks nothing but interest, But there waswhere something else formeasure which this meritorious man, and where . . . he [must] master this grim and terrible religion in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities of or whether these years spent he amid andmoney, prejudices and blinkered viewshall of thebeworld, wassurroundexpected ings thatamay awaken the youth to a noblebeyond ambition.” Today, the to have concept of duty that extended his own caste. tone be gleaned by glancing at some representaHereofiscollege CharleslifeW.can Eliot’s aspirational account of the “aristoctive titles of recent books: Saving Higher Education in the Age of racy” to which 142 126

Brave Brave New New World World

Money; Universities in the TheletCommercialization the sons of Harvard haveMarketplace: belonged, and, us hope, of Higher Education; Shakespeare, andwhich the Bottom will ever aspire to belong— the Einstein aristocracy excels Line: Thein Marketing of Higher Education; University, Inc.: manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes ofThe theCorpo­ ratelearned Corruption of Higher to name just a few. professions, andEducation— bears itself with distinction in One Ivy League recently declared that universities should simply all fieldsdean of intellectual labor and combat; the aristocracy givewhich up theinfantasy holding to academic valueshonor that stand apart peace of stands firmest for the public and re29 from the culture of “universal commodification.” nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 This attitude, somewhere between realism and cynicism, surThis sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofrenders much of what has been most valuable in the history of ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have our colleges and universities: their deliberate distance from the some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, world of getting and spending in which young people are desin which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built tined to spend so much of their lives. Before the crash of 2008, as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, with the money chase totally out of control, a few academic at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who leaders did try to point out the cost—moral, psychological, sogave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much cial—of giving in to the commodification of everything. Soon to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were after taking office as Harvard’s president in the winter of 2007, wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert Drew Faust challenged the first graduating class to which she Gould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to spoke at commencement to reflect on why nearly 60 percent of lead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” men in the previous year’s class and over 40 percent of women on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtutook jobs in what is euphemistically called “financial services.” ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner.4 Five years later, the illusions of those days, when young people In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description fresh out of top colleges lived “in the cheerful expectation that of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still sooner or later a bolt of pecuniary fire would jump out of the pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the atmosphere and knock you flat,” may be scarcer and weaker.30 But other. route, they mustagain, walk and pastthose colleges where it burns the fireEn is starting to burn the white, brightest are attablets, least aseach much ofits privilege they ever ranged ofbastions which, in proud,as sad wereclearness, in the age of the old “meritocracy.” In fact, for reasons is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. discussed the last chapter, are probably so. Theineffect of the place they is singularly noblemore and solemn, and Today’s collegestoalso some obvious withItintegit is impossible feelhave it without a liftingproblems of the heart. ritystands and civility. At duty Tomand Wolfe’s fictional “Dupont University” there for honour, it speaks of sacrifice (apparently based on Duke), students like to greet each other and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 143 127

Five Five

with salutations like is “fucking ape-two faced dickhead.” Thisviaimage hood, the population sorted into main tracks: one, elite of the profane and promiscuous student, that the of the jet-set educational institutions, toward wealth andlike power; other, via professor, is a caricature— indeed, a slander— of the great many apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and students who,At under unrelenting as well as struck academic stress, subservience. the time, Young’ssocial fanciful future readers as take college(who seriously try oftotesting make threethe best ofolds?!), their opporoutlandish wouldand think yearbut in tunities. Manybelongs opt outtoofthethe hypersexualized atmosphere fact his book dark genre of prophetic fiction that prevails on some campuses. Many work diligently, and honestly, includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystowith an appetite for learning as well as for success. Still, like pian vision of drug-induced pleasures, and Graham Greene’s any The caricature, Wolfe’s version ofthe college lifeidealism, as a frantic chase after Quiet American (1955), about mix of innocence, and pleasure and notUnited without an element of truth. wars. arrogance thatpower drawsisthe States into unwinnable For one thing, cheating, especially in the form of plagiarism, With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome is rampant— not just at “Dupont” but everywhere. A few years Karabel has summed up the history of selective college admisago, the New York Times reported that “students fuzzy on sions as “a history of recurrent struggles over theare meaning of 1 what’s cheating what’s not, while people outside theimposes universtruggle, the”winning faction always ‘merit.’ ” In thisand sities looking to cash in on the putative confusion are not the its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, least bit merit fuzzy implied about how do so. and Among the many websites in 1900, the to haleness heartiness of the “cluboffering termSuch papers for sale, onetalk, has the winningly name bable” man. a man didn’t or even think,candid much about CheatHouse.com. I know twohefaculty a prestigious money—in large part because didn’t friends have to.atHe drank, but college who entertain themselves each spring at the commencenot too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called ment by going through theWeber’s printed program checking (in a ceremony variation on the title of Max famous book The off names of seniors they to havethe submitted at least Protestant Ethic and whom the Spirit of know Capitalism) “Protestant aesone plagiarized paper. It’s notheuncommon for theseonstudents to thetic.” In the face of travail, could be counted to remain 2 be graduating with honors. “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, None did of this, of course, is new. Former Columbia College of course, not have this kind of merit. Catholics and Jews and dean a biologist, tells the story of the organic blacksRobert did notPollack, have it either. chemistry labwas in which he was asthis an undergraduate in But there something elseenrolled for which meritorious man, 1961. Hoping to get an A on the assignment to synthesize acein the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities tylsalicylic acid,and premeds “in aview hurry” bought some aspirin at the and prejudices blinkered of the world, he was expected local drugstore, ground it up, submitted a pure powto have a concept of duty thatand extended beyond hiswhite own caste. der test tubes that compared favorably else’s Hereinistheir Charles W. Eliot’s aspirational accounttoofeveryone the “aristocbrown sludge. Unaware that the TAs had spiked the starting maracy” to which 144 126

Brave Brave New New World World

terial marker, all theand, cheaters thewith sonsaofradioactive Harvard have belonged, let uswere hope,caught by a simple Geigercounter test. So dishonesty has always will ever aspire to belong— theacademic aristocracy which excels beeninamanly problem— but it’s squeamish to pretend that things sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the have 31 not learned gotten worse. professions, and bears itself with distinction in Some people believe that a main the sorry state all fields of intellectual labor andcontributor combat; thetoaristocracy of academic especially to the money, what which in ethics, peace stands firmest forcontagion the publicof honor andisre3 Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, in their recent book Higher nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets. Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofKids—and What We Can Do About It, call the “athletic incubus.” ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have This charge has some basis in a national context where football some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, coaches, sometimes paid in the millions, collude with administrain which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built tors to provide fake credits for courses never taken, and strippers as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, and prostitutes are hired to show a good time to recruits who, at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who once they’ve arrived on campus, sign up for courses on “Coaching gave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much Principles and Strategies of Basketball,” with exam questions such to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were as “How Many Halves are in a Basketball Game?” It all sounds wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert straight out of MAD magazine, but such practices are well docuGould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to mented. Like academic dishonesty, corruption in college athletlead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” ics is hardly new. In 1951, at City College—renowned for its high on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtustandards—four basketball players were charged with shaving ally all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner.4 points in collusion with local gamblers. “You bribed them to play In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description for you,” one journalist wrote about the college. “The gamblers of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still paid them not to play too well. What’s the difference?”32 passTo today intosuch a dining side and lecture hallthat on forthe be sure, abuseshall areon lessone egregious at ainstitutions other. En route, they must walk past bid athletic scholarships in the sense of funds targeted for desired recruits regardless need,each and where revenues ticket white, ranged of tablets, of which, in itsfrom proud, sad sales, licensing, and television contracts pale by comparison to those where clearness, is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. sports bigofbusiness. Theare effect the placeProblems—exploiting is singularly noble andstudent-athletes, solemn, and thenit discarding them if their on-field performance disappoints; is impossible to feel it without a lifting of the heart. It not stands to mention the duty mind-boggling sexual abuseofscandal there for and honour, it speaks sacrificeat Penn State—tend to be worst in highstakes programs. Yet it should be and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 145 127

Five Five

noted the thatpopulation athletes account forinto a higher percentage students in hood, is sorted two main tracks:ofone, via elite the Ivy League than in thetoward Big Ten, and are a main reason that even educational institutions, wealth and power; the other, via after they had putatively abandoned early admission programs, apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and Harvard and Princeton continued to send out hundreds of “likely subservience. At the time, Young’s fanciful future struck readers as admit” letters to varsity monthsthreebefore most otherbut applioutlandish (who wouldprospects think of testing yearolds?!), in cantshis knew their fate. Intothe fact book belongs theIvies, darkfinancial genre ofincentives propheticbeyond fictiondemthat onstrated need are not permitted for recruiting any applicant— includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystoathletic or otherwise— but a significant number (typically around pian vision of drug-induced pleasures, and Graham Greene’s The 20 percent) of places the class are, to intentsinnocence, and purposes, Quiet American (1955),inabout the mix of all idealism, and reserved for recruits to fill the team rosters. Other highly arrogance that drawsneeded the United States into unwinnable wars. selective institutions, too, make academic compromises to meet With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historian Jerome athletic imperatives. where are Karabel has summedAtupStanford, the history of athletic selectivescholarships college admispermitted, “Courses Interest” struggles list—including “Beginning sions as “a ahistory of ofrecurrent over the meaningImof 1 provising” and “Social Dances North America”— was provided this struggle, theofwinning faction always imposes ‘merit.’ ” In to athletes until the Chronicle of Higher Education broke the story its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, 33 and the university, embarrassed, discontinued the list.of the “clubin 1900, merit implied the haleness and heartiness Theman. fact Such is thata man at virtually everyorresidential bable” didn’t talk, even think,college much today, about competitive athletic opposed to physical fitness) facilities money—in large part(as because he didn’t have to. He drank, but rank high on the list of fundraising priorities, and no president not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called would be caughtonsaying, as one said in the early days book of varsity (in a variation the title of Max Weber’s famous The sports, “I will notand permit thirtyofmen to travel the four“Protestant hundred miles Protestant Ethic the Spirit Capitalism) aesmerely of wind”— by which he meant thetic.” to Inagitate the facea bag of travail, he could be counted on atofootball, remain 2academic not a professor. Deploying statistics that show inferior “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, performance at all Catholics types of colleges, of course, did by notrecruited have this athletes kind of merit. and JewsWiland liam Bowen hashave longit argued blacks did not either. that “college sports in their current formBut represent distinct threat to academic and educathere wasa something else for which thisvalues meritorious man, tional excellence.” Former Harvard College dean Harry Lewis, in the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities however, celebrates college athletes prodigies living and prejudices and blinkered view ofasthe world, he wasalongside expected their classmates in “a parallel universe . . . from to have a concept of glorious duty that extended beyond detached his own caste. 34 There is truth in both views. Anythe banality of ordinary life.”aspirational Here is Charles W. Eliot’s account of the “aristocone who has taught in any college has encountered some studentracy” to which 146 126

Brave Brave New New World World

athletes who,ofunprepared forbelonged, college work, areusbewildered and the sons Harvard have and, let hope, exploited, others are disciplined students, grateful will everwhile aspire to belong— the aristocracy which excelsfor the opportunity their physical gifts have helped them to earn, and in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the eager, as theprofessions, phrase goes, tobears “give itself back.”with Thisdistinction doesn’t stop learned and in many on campus, and faculty alike,combat; from deriding “jocks” with all fieldsstudents of intellectual labor and the aristocracy a contempt would be for tolerated if aimed anyreother which inthat peace standsnever firmest the public honoratand group. nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 Today, as always, generalizing about college students is a risky This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofbusiness. A few years ago, I was invited to participate in a disten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have cussion on “Religion in a Pluralist Society,” to be convened at some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, Columbia by a student group called the “Veritas Forum,” with in which Eliot’s ninetieth birthday was celebrated, had been built which I was unfamiliar. Upon learning that this organization deas a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, fines its mission as engaging “students and faculty in discussions at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who about life’s hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ gave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much to all of life,” I was, as a (nonobservant) Jew, a little puzzled, and to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were expected a sparse turnout on a campus not exactly known for its wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert evangelical fervor. In fact, the largest lecture hall in the university Gould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to was packed, and those present impressed me with their combinalead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” tion of high moral seriousness and intellectual curiosity. We tend on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtuto think of universities, especially elite ones, as bastions of skeptially all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner.4 cism toward all things religious, but this is a partial view at best. In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description In the prevailing typology of the contemporary academy, many of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still of the students in the room that evening would have been categopass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the rized as “Asian American”—although, as the event proceeded, it other. En route, they must walk past became clear that they were more likely to think of themselves in the white, first instance Christians. rangedastablets, each of which, in its proud, sad In short, a truthful tour today’s would leave the clearness, is inscribed withofthe namecolleges of a studentsoldier. openminded tourist withisfew preconceptions It and would The effect of the place singularly noble andintact. solemn, be aittrip neither totothe side nor to a world bright is impossible feeldark it without a lifting of theof heart. It ideals. stands Why would it be? Colleges are noitmore independent there for duty and honour, speaks of sacrifice of the larger culture than any other institution; they multiand example, seems a kind of temple to youth,“contain manhood, 147 127

Five Five

tudes,”the as Walt Whitman said into of himself, from honor to perfidy, hood, population is sorted two main tracks: one, via elite from vulgarity to refinement, andwealth everything in between. For eveducational institutions, toward and power; the other, via ery student squandering time, others are making the best of their apprenticeship or vocational training, toward relative penury and college years not only in academic work but, onestruck way orreaders another, subservience. At the time, Young’s fanciful future as in service to(who theirwould community. outlandish think of testing three-year-olds?!), but in one generalization, think, across fiction the board: factYet his book belongs to the Idark genreapplies of prophetic that there is a sense of drift. Before the financial crash, students were includes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) with its dystofleeing fromof“useless” subjects such as and literature or the arts, and pian vision drug-induced pleasures, Graham Greene’s The flocking to “marketable” subjects suchofasidealism, economics. Now, inand the Quiet American (1955), about the mix innocence, lingering aftermath globalStates financial crisis, the flight arrogance that drawsof thethe United into unwinnable wars.continues; many students are also wondering what, in fact, useful With Young’s prescient book in mind, the historianisJerome for what.has Even at eliteupinstitutions, feels more than admisa hint Karabel summed the historyone of selective college of panic about postcollege life. Young people that timesions as “a history of recurrent struggles over know the meaning of 1 tested assumptions about the route to this oralways that vocation, thebest winning faction imposes ‘merit.’ ” In this struggle, about how to find a mate and satisfying work, how to prosper its self-endorsing definition of merit on the losers. So naturally, and1900, save,merit how implied to balance with in short, to in theneeds haleness andwants— heartiness of thehow “clubmake a man. life—Such are being called into radical doubt. bable” a man didn’t talk, or even think, much about Unfortunately, by failing their to but the money— in large part becausetohereconnect didn’t have to.students He drank, idea that good fortune confers a responsibility to live generously not too much. He cultivated a personal style that’s been called toward the less on fortunate, colleges famous are doing too The lit(in a variation the titletoo of many Max Weber’s book tle to helpEthic students withofthis siege of uncertainty. Oneaesof Protestant and cope the Spirit Capitalism) the “Protestant the insights at face the core of thehecollege indeed idea thetic.” In the of travail, could idea— be counted onoftothe remain 2 of community itself— has always been that to serve others is to “outwardly indifferent, as all Anglo-Saxons” should be. Women, serve oneself a sense of purpose, thereby counterof course, did by notproviding have this kind of merit. Catholics and Jews and ing thedid loneliness and by which all people, young and blacks not have it aimlessness either. old,But canthere be afflicted. Yet, as Christopher Jencks and David Rieswas something else for which this meritorious man, man pointed out more than forty years ago, in the professionalin the ideal, at least, could be counted on. Despite his asperities ized prejudices academy, “moral and political that be reand and blinkered view ofquestions the world, he cannot was expected solved research of andduty do not to cooperative investigation to havebya concept thatyield extended beyond his own caste. 35 the last are almost by definition outside the academic orbit.” Here is Charles W. Eliot’s aspirational account of theIn“aristocfew decades we have seen the rise of compensatory institutions racy” to which 148 126

Brave Brave New New World World

within such belonged, as the Center the the sonsinstitutions, of Harvard have and,for let Human us hope, Values at Princeton, the Institute for the Ethics at Duke.which But what will everoraspire to belong— aristocracy excelsdoes it mean that thinking about ethics has become an extracurricular in manly sports, carries off the honors and prizes of the activity? learned professions, and bears itself with distinction in In afields bookofaptly titled Universities in the Marketplace (2003), all intellectual labor and combat; the aristocracy former Harvard Derek more honor or lessand repeated which in peacepresident stands firmest forBok the public reJencks and Riesman’s observation when he wrote that “faculties nown, and in war rides first into the murderous thickets.3 currently display scant interest in preparing undergraduates to be This sounds like brazen self-praise, and no doubt was more ofdemocratic citizens, a task once regarded as the principal purpose ten stated in theory than observed in practice, but it does have of a liberal education and one urgently needed at this moment some historical warrant. The Harvard building, Memorial Hall, in the United States.”36 Perhaps it’s because it was such old news in which Eliot’s birthday was celebrated, had been built that he put it in ninetieth a footnote. as a memorial to the nearly one hundred students and alumni, at a time when the college numbered around five hundred, who gave their lives in the Civil War, including many who did much to turn it into a war against slavery. Another two hundred were wounded. Perhaps best known among the dead was Robert Gould Shaw (class of 1860), who left college early and went on to lead a regiment of black volunteers into “the murderous thickets” on an island off the coast of South Carolina, where he and virtually all his troops died in the assault on Fort Wagner.4 In The Bostonians (1886), Henry James gives a description of Memorial Hall, through the vestibule of which students still pass today into a dining hall on one side and a lecture hall on the other. En route, they must walk past white, ranged tablets, each of which, in its proud, sad clearness, is inscribed with the name of a student-soldier. The effect of the place is singularly noble and solemn, and it is impossible to feel it without a lifting of the heart. It stands there for duty and honour, it speaks of sacrifice and example, seems a kind of temple to youth, manhood, 149 127

SIX WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

I have tried in this book to tell a story of ideas and institutions while keeping people—students, teachers, academic leaders—at the forefront of the tale. I did not want to stick to any one of the genres to which such a story usually conforms—jeremiad (invoking the past to shame the present), elegy (gone are the greats of yesteryear), call to arms (do this or that and we will be saved)—so the result, no doubt, is a messy mixture of them all. In fact, if there is one form to which most recent writing about college belongs, it is none of the above, but, rather, the funeral dirge. Here’s an example that appeared in the Washington Post soon after the economic meltdown whose consequences we are still trying to fathom: Students starting school this year [2009–10] may be part of the last generation for which “going to college” means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a 150

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

radical Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn Perhaps, as reordering. this skit reminds us, our brains are programmed to edit by new ways of sharing information enabled by the out apart the failures and disappointments— the botched exams, missed internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult 1 cannot survive. timecolleges for young people struggling to grow up. most students no longer like the “traditional” OneIfbenefit of looking into thehave pastanything is to be reminded that apoccollege the people In some 1975, alyptic experience, prophecies neither are moredooften wrongwho thanteach right.them. But in nearly 60this percent of college respects one has alreadyprofessors come true.were full-time faculty with tenure onIthe “tenure Today I’ve that fraction hascollege declined By or this mean thattrack.” the theme stressed— as to around 35 percent, which means that most students are being a community of learning—is, for many students, already an taught by part-time or contingent who limited anachronism. If we count as liberalemployees arts colleges thehave roughly six 6 Some highly regarded stake in the institution where they work. hundred institutions that make up the Council of Independent colleges play a game of what Berkeley professor David Kirp calls Colleges (an organization that does not include colleges within “bait and switch” by luring students with big-name faculty and research universities), their total enrollment represents around 7 then assigning them to classes taught by overworked part-timers. one in fourteen of the nation’s undergraduate students.2 A These often people to cobble together coupleteachers— of summers ago,excellent in one of thoseforced reflective editorials that aseeks subsistence wage by working in one college for part of the week, to capture the mood of the season, the New York Times then in (or across others)the for country, the rest ofpoignantly the week—overstuffed have no asreportedanother that “all surance will be teaching nexthighway year at all. authorthat of a vehiclesthat willthey be heading down the to The campuses grimly entitled book,autumnal.” The Last Professors, plausibly describes this 3 What the Times failed to menwill soon be turning “dismantling of every the American professoriate” as “partcars, andthere parcelare of tion is that for one of those college-bound the casualization of labor” that is under way throughout American scores of families whose children will be staying home to attend along withschool the risewithout of outsourcing andresembling the decline traditional of unions.8 alife, commuter anything This vision of the imminent future remains a long way from college life.4 realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have at Moreover, millions of collegeage Americans never getbeen to colthe center of this book. In fact, their appeal seems likely to grow lege in the first place. For young people in our country whose precisely because haveincome the wealth and “market share” to refamilies are in thethey bottom quartile, the chance of going tain a stable teaching what like,ofastwentythey like. at to college is faculty about one in five. By they the age six, But fewer many other colleges, it is uncomfortably close tohave a description of than twothirds of white high school graduates enrolled in how things already are. The professor shaping a course around college, while for minorities the figure is significantly lower— his interests (nowand, known as the “independentslightly moreand thansensibility half for blacks for Hispanics, slightly less. 9 operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor151 153

Six Six

Among all students who do manage to enroll, roughly half finish at a different college from where they began, fewer than 60 percent finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.55 Yet college myths and memories have long been an important part of America’s sense of what young adulthood is all about. Consider The Big Chill, or even that dubious classic Animal House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treasured LP of Ohio State school songs, “Goodbye, Columbus,” in Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative from the Broadway show Avenue Q: KATE MONSTER: I wish I could go back to college. Life was so simple back then. NICKY: What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again! PRINCETON: I wish I could go back to college. In college you know who you are. You sit in the quad, and think, “Oh my God! I am totally gonna go far!” . . . I wanna go back to my room and find a message in dryerase pen on the door! Ohhh . . . I wish I could just drop a class . . . NICKY: Or get into a play . . . KATE MONSTER: Or change my major . . . PRINCETON: Or fuck my T.A. . . . NICKY: But if I were to go back to college, Think what a loser I’d be— I’d walk through the quad, And think “Oh my God . . . ” ALL: “These kids are so much younger than me.” 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

Perhaps, as this skit reminds us, our brains are programmed to edit out the failures and disappointments—the botched exams, missed free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult time for young people struggling to grow up. If most students no longer have anything like the “traditional” college experience, neither do the people who teach them. In 1975, nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with tenure or on the “tenure track.” Today that fraction has declined to around 35 percent, which means that most students are being taught by part-time or contingent employees who have limited stake in the institution where they work.66 Some highly regarded colleges play a game of what Berkeley professor David Kirp calls “bait and switch” by luring students with big-name faculty and 7 then assigning them to classes taught by overworked part-timers.7 These teachers—often excellent people forced to cobble together a subsistence wage by working in one college for part of the week, then in another (or others) for the rest of the week—have no assurance that they will be teaching next year at all. The author of a grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this “dismantling of the American professoriate” as “part and parcel of the casualization of labor” that is under way throughout American 8 life, along with the rise of outsourcing and the decline of unions.8 This vision of the imminent future remains a long way from realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at the center of this book. In fact, their appeal seems likely to grow precisely because they have the wealth and “market share” to retain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at many other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of how things already are. The professor shaping a course around his interests and sensibility (now known as the “independentoperator professor”)99 is becoming a relic, while the instructor153

Six Six

for-hire,all whose job iswho to monitor standardized some Among students do manage to enroll, content roughly over half finish “delivery system, ” is from becoming norm. If than she doesn’t like at a different college wherethe theynew began, fewer 60 percent the template of the course for which she has been hired, the finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.5institution will have no trouble hiring somebody rules Yet college myths and memories have longelse. beenByanthe imporof the efficiency, effectiveness, for a tant partmarketplace— of America’s sense of whatcost young adulthood isand, all about. growing number institutions, profitability— it all makes sense. Consider The Bigof Chill, or even that dubious classic Animal By the measures of educational value as I have defined it in this House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treabook, LP it makes no sense all. songs, “Goodbye, Columbus,” in sured of Ohio State at school Even the novella wealthiest private now Philip Roth’s of the samecolleges name, or thisfind littlethemselves recitative straining for the resources they need (or think they need), while from the Broadway show Avenue Q: public institutions are reeling from the loss of tax revenues on KATE I wish I could gocolleges back toare college. which theyMONSTER: still depend. Independent raising tuition Life was so simple back then. to prohibitive levels and cutting back, sometimes without pubNICKY: What would give to go back and live in acolleges— dorm lic acknowledgment, on Ifinancial aid. Community a meal planforagain! portals ofwith opportunity students from low-income and imPRINCETON: I wish60 I could go back to college. migrant families (some percent of Hispanic college students In college you know who you are. attend a community college)—are overwhelmed not only by stuYou sit in the quad,age and think, “Oh my God! dents of traditional college but also by adults hoping to learn gonna go employment far!” . . . skills thatI am willtotally help them find in a dire job market. I wanna back to my room that and find message in high dryMeanwhile, somego private institutions lack athe allure of erasefinding pen onitthe door! prestige are hard to meet their enrollment targets as Ohhh . . . prospective students choose a more affordable four-year public or wish I couldcollege just drop a class . . . two-yearIcommunity instead. As for the fastest-growing sector in higher the for-profit institutions—they NICKY: Or geteducation— into a play . . . provide, atMONSTER: best, narrowOr training vocational KATE changeinmy major . . .subjects such as accounting or information PRINCETON: Or fucktechnology. my T.A. . . .At worst, they take money in exchange credentials. NICKY: for Butworthless if I were to go back to10 college, In this newwhat context, andI’dinbe— the face of disturbing evidence Think a loser of poor I’d student achievement— according to one recent study, walk through the quad, roughly aAnd quarter of college think “Oh mygraduates God . . . ”cannot comprehend a moderately sophisticated magazine article, or estimate if there’s enough ALL: “These kids are so much younger than me.” 154 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

gas in theascar reach the next national movement Perhaps, thistoskit reminds us, gas ourstation— brains areaprogrammed to edit has the beenfailures forming devise credible ways assess what out andtodisappointments— theto botched exams,students missed are actually learning and to improve their prospects of learning free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult Our current method of assessing more.for time young people struggling to growcollege up. teachers—mainly surveying how have muchanything they likelike or dislike them—is If moststudents studentsabout no longer the “traditional” atomistic, impressionistic, generally worthless. “I1975, have college experience, neitherand do the peopleclose who to teach them. In seen students fill a lecture room for the mere sake of entertainnearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with ment, oneonprofessor wrote nearly twothat hundred years “betenure” or the “tenure track.” Today fraction hasago, declined cause the Professor interspersed his lecture (by students no meansare thebeing best to around 35 percent, which means that most 11 At have a timelimited when of the university) with anecdotes.”who taught by part-time or entertaining contingent employees 6 least partly on student faculty retention and promotion depend at stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded evaluations, risk ofofthis sort of thingprofessor is higher David than ever. colleges playthe a game what Berkeley Kirp calls for evaluating students themselves, grade inflation “baitAsand switch” bythe luring students with bigname faculty(also and encouraged bythem student surveys, sincebyfew students partappreciate then assigning to classes taught overworked timers.a7 low has atoften leastexcellent kept pacepeople with, forced if not to exceeded, the epiThesegrade) teachers— cobble together demic of cheating. Except in the hardcollege sciences, grades less a subsistence wage by working in one for part of mean the week, and especially elite colleges, of students thenless, in another (orinothers) for thewhere rest ofthe thenumbers week—have no asgraduating with GPAs over 4.0 (the A+ is no lonsurance thatwith theyhonors will beand teaching next year at all. The author of a ger uncommon) have become outlandish. What exactly a college grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this degree signifies now so variable across institutions, and,parcel for that “dismantling of isthe American professoriate” as “part and of matter, within theofsame institution, thatway having the degree doesn’t the casualization labor” that is under throughout American mean much either— leaving it at risk ofand becoming whatof one writer8 life, along with the rise of outsourcing the decline unions. 12 longThis ago vision called aof“merely formal and unmeaning the imminent future remains certificate.” a long way from Meanwhile, academic colleges leaders, that long have accustomed realization at theAmerican old and prestigious been at to assuming their institutions without peer abroad, are the center of that this book. In fact, theirare appeal seems likely to grow looking nervously overhave theirthe collective at the risingtouniprecisely because they wealth shoulder and “market share” reversities abroad, especially in China, as well as at “the Bologna tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, they like. But at process”— movement in Europe to make degree requirements many otherthe colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of sufficiently national borders foraround examhow thingscompatible already are.across The professor shapingsoa that, course ple, interests a baccalaureate in chemistry earned in a as French university will his and sensibility (now known the “independent9 qualifying the holder for further study or be a portable credential operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor155 153

Six Six

skilled employment, in, say, some roughly countries, notably Among all students who do Belgium. manage toInenroll, half finish China and Germany, national civilbegan, servicefewer examinations were at a different college from where they than 60 percent 5 once used to assess what university students had learned— a finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.past practice that may yet prove a model forhave the long future. Yet college myths and memories been an important part of America’s sense of what young adulthood is all about. 2 Consider The Big Chill, or even that dubious classic Animal There isThink no American counterpart to these traditions. Inhis thetrealate House. of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to nineteenth when Jamessongs, McCosh argued Columbus, for a relatively sured LP ofcentury, Ohio State school “Goodbye, ” in uniform undergraduate curriculum against Charles W. Eliot’s Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative proposal of free electives and relaxed from the Broadway show Avenue Q: attendance requirements, he made his case partly by comparing what America lacked with MONSTER: whatKATE Europe possessed:I wish I could go back to college. Life was so simple back then. INICKY: know that in Germany theytoproduce What would I give go backscholars and live without in a dorm requiring a rigid attendance, and I rather think that in with a meal plan again! a few American colleges, they are aping this German PRINCETON: I wish I could go back to college. method, thinking to produce equally diligent students. In college you know who you are. They forget that the Germans have one powerful safeYou sit in the quad, and think, “Oh my God! guard which we have not in America. For all offices in I am totally gonna go far!” . . . Church and State there is an examination by high scholI wanna go back to my room and find a message in dryars following the college course. A young man cannot get erase pen on the door! an office as clergyman, as teacher, as postmaster, till he Ohhh . . . is passed by that terrible examining bureau, and if he is I wish I could just drop a class . . . turned down by them his prospects in life are blasted. Let NICKY: Or get into a play . . . the State of Massachusetts pass a law like the Prussian, KATE MONSTER: Or change my major . . . and Harvard may then relax attendance, and the State PRINCETON: Or fuck my T.A. . . . will do what the colleges have neglected to do.13 NICKY: But if I were to go back to college, McCosh’sThink pointwhat was athat colleges loserifI’d be— don’t keep their houses in order, theI’dstate will— or should— do it for them. walk through the quad, SinceAnd then,think at the“Oh secondary school my God . . . ” level, Americans have becomeALL: used“These to a testing regime that is administered privately (the kids are so much younger than me.” 156 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

SAT, theas ACT) or publicly example, New York State RePerhaps, this skit reminds (for us, our brains the are programmed to edit gents President Georgethe W.botched Bush, the “Nomissed Child out theexam). failuresUnder and disappointments— exams, Left Behind” law attempted to strengthen that regime and hold free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult schools teachers theup. test scores of their stutime for and young peopleaccountable struggling tofor grow dents. But there is mounting that the had little If most students no longerevidence have anything likelaw thehas “traditional” positiveexperience, effect, andneither some say haspeople a negative effectthem. by encouragcollege doitthe who teach In 1975, ing states to “dumb down” the tests, and by driving “soft” subjects nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with such arton and to the margins, outfraction of the curriculum altenureasor themusic “tenure track.” Todayorthat has declined 14 Forpercent, most educators, the specter of government together. to around 35 which means that most students are intrubeing sion only blunter instruments thanlimited those taught by threatens part-timetoorintroduce contingent employees who have 6 learn. we already use for measuring what students stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded It seems such a regime will extend our calls colcolleges play unlikely a game ofthat what Berkeley professor DavidtoKirp leges anytime soon,bybut as a prod to action colleges “bait and switch” luring students withby bigname themselves, faculty and the prospect actually be salutary. distinctive aspect of7 then assigningmay them to classes taught byOne overworked parttimers. American higheroften education haspeople always beentoits decentralizaThese teachers— excellent forced cobble together tion: except for submitting to periodic accreditation reviews, a subsistence wage by working in one college for part of the week, colleges and universities enjoy virtually freedom then in another (or others) for the rest ofuntrammeled the week—have no asto conduct they seenext fit. year On the other surance that education they will beasteaching at all. The hand, authorvery of a few colleges can be said to be strictly private in the sense of being grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this accountable themselves. Ever sinceasthe “dismantling only of theto American professoriate” “partMassachusetts and parcel of General Court granted from way a public conveyance (the the casualization of labor”income that is under throughout American Charlestown to of Harvard College paid itsofpresident life, along withferry) the rise outsourcing andand the decline unions.8 directly public treasury, higher education America This from visionthe of the imminent future remains a longinway from has been a hybrid of private and public; and over the centuries realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at 15 between thefact, twotheir has grown the distinction center of this book. In appeal increasingly seems likely blurry. to grow In early America, public subsidyand of “market private share” institutions precisely because they have the wealth to reamounted to a sort of matching challenge, since individuals were tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at expected to follow the lead of the magistrates and make donamany other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of tions things of theiralready own. This private partnership persistsaround today how are.publicThe professor shaping a course in the form ofand tax sensibility exemption(now for private colleges tax deducthis interests known as theand “independent9 ibility for their donors, as well as in the form of direct governoperator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor157 153

Six Six

ment grants that carry compliance pertaining to Among all students who do manage toconditions enroll, roughly half finish hiring procedures, and the like.than As 60 forpercent public at a different collegelaboratory from wheresafety, they began, fewer 5 universities, they have gone deep into the business of raising finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.privateYet endowments, while for-profit institutions zealcollege myths andprivate memories have long been anare imporouslypart exploiting the availability of public funds for lowtant of America’s sense of what young adulthood is allincome about. 16 students, thereby as well. classic Animal Consider The Bigjoining Chill, the or partnership even that dubious From timeof tothe time, the federal has delivered shocks House. Think fictional Rongovernment Patimkin swooning to his treato this mixed system in the form of appropriations, regulations, sured LP of Ohio State school songs, “Goodbye, Columbus,” or in changes in the tax code. In the midnineteenth century, the MorPhilip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative rill Act the landinstitutions. In the mid-twentieth from thecreated Broadway showgrant Avenue Q: century, the GI Bill opened college to previously excluded groups. MONSTER: I wish science I could initiative, go back toled college. AfterKATE World War II, a major by presidential Life was so simple back then. advisor Vannevar Bush, created the now-familiar system of basic NICKY: Whatcompetitive would I give to go back and live in a dorm by research through funding awarded to universities with a meal plan again! such government agencies as the National Science Foundation PRINCETON: I wish I could go back to college. and the National Institutes of Health. In 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act In college you know who you are. opened up moneymaking prospects for both faculty and (mainly) You sit in theand quad, and think, “Ohacted my God! research universities, in 1986, Congress to end mandaI am totally gonna far!” . . . tory retirement, passing a lawgothat made faculties older and probgo back to mypositions room and find a message in dryably madeI wanna entry-level teaching scarcer— though colleges erase pen ongranted the door! and universities were an exemption till 1994. Ohhh . . . A few years ago, under President George W. Bush, another I wish I could just dropseemed a class . . . intervention from Washington in the making. Convened by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, a federal commisNICKY: Or get into a play . . . sion KATE took note of risingOr costs, low graduation rates, and the weakMONSTER: change my major . . . ness PRINCETON: of many college basic verbal and numerical skills. Orgraduates fuck my in T.A. . . . In response, someif Icolleges, more vulnerable ones, NICKY: But were to especially go back tothe college, evinced aThink new urgency make what a to loser I’d serious be— attempts at self-assessment before government stepped while the Ivies and other wellI’d walk through thein, quad, endowedAnd institutions responded mainly think “Oh my God . . . ” by increasing subsidies to theirALL: relatively wealthy students. With lessthan wealthy “These kids are so much younger me.”colleges and 158 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

students as inthis mind, commentators argue that intoorder Perhaps, skitsome reminds us, our brainsnow are programmed edit to spare students families from crippling debt,exams, the standard out the failures andand disappointments— the botched missed duration of study for a bachelor’s degree should be reduced from free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult 17 fact, however, with four years to three. time for young peopleInstruggling to grow up.the contraction of the job Ifmarket, the opposite has have beenanything happening: the “traditional” MA degree most students no longer like the (master’s programsneither in everything from statistics to museum college experience, do the people who teach them. In stud1975, ies have been burgeoning) is becoming a de facto fifth college nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with year— only, course,track.” for those whothat can fraction afford tohas paydeclined another tenure but or on theof“tenure Today year’s tuition for another credential. It’s most another instance the to around 35 percent, which means that students areof being more getting less the lessemployees needy getwho more.have limited taughtneedy by part-time or while contingent 6 called the Collegiate Meanwhile, a privately developed test stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded Learning Assessment (CLA), designed to measure student colleges play a game of what Berkeley professor David Kirp calls progress the by firstluring to the fourth with year, bighas name been adopted by “bait andfrom switch” students faculty and a growing number and many now participate in the7 then assigning themoftocolleges, classes taught by overworked part-timers. National Survey often of Student Engagement (NSSE), which seeks These teachers— excellent people forced to cobble together to measure how actively involved students their edua subsistence wage by working in one collegeare forinpart of own the week, cation. A consortium of colleges, foundations, andhave lobbying then in another (or others) for the rest of the week— no asgroups theall.New surance has thatformed they willanbeorganization teaching nextcalled year at The Leadership author of a Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, which this has grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes proposed a certificate, modeled on the Leadership inparcel Energy “dismantling of the American professoriate” as “part and of and Environmental Design program to be awarded to the casualization of labor” that is under(LEED), way throughout American colleges standards. And life, alongthat withraise the academic rise of outsourcing and the boards declineof of trustees, unions.8 which mostly themselves to fiduciary oversight Thishave vision of theconfined imminent future remains a long way from since the academicfreedom struggles of the early twentieth cenrealization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at tury,center are beginning to take a more active roleseems in monitoring the the of this book. In fact, their appeal likely to grow 18 So educational performance institutions they share” govern.to precisely because they haveofthethe wealth and “market refar, it’s too early to tell what good or harm will come of all this. tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at What’s is that the college for more many otherclear colleges, it iskeeping uncomfortably closeidea to aalive description of than the privileged a huge challenge. With acosts relentlessly how things alreadyfew are.isThe professor shaping course around rising, pressure the known idea of as college as a capacious his interests andis increasing sensibility on (now the “independent9 community with socioeconomic and ethnic diversity as well as operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor159 153

Six Six

intellectual range. Colleges the same city or roughly region are increasAmong all students who doinmanage to enroll, half finish ingly temptedcollege to consolidate academic departments— say, at a different from where they began, fewer thanso 60that, percent certain languages will be taught on one campus and others finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.5on another. Some subjects andmemories disciplines maylong be eliminated altoYet college myths and have been an imporgether, orof provided through online shared by multiple tant part America’s sense of whatinstruction young adulthood is all about. institutions. cutting strategies are, of course, to Consider TheSuch Big costChill, or even that dubious classic likely Animal take hold in less wealthy and prestigious institutions first, since House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treaone component of State prestige is thesongs, breadth of the course offerings. sured LP of Ohio school “Goodbye, Columbus, ” in In the meantime there are things, in theory at least, that govPhilip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative ernment do toshow help Avenue studentsQ:from less affluent families get from the could Broadway into, and stay in, college. As Christopher Jencks has said with KATE MONSTER: I could go back college. admirable succinctness,I wish “Making college a lottomore affordable is Life was so simple back then. a challenge governments know how to meet, while making stuwould I give to we go back and live in aknow dormhow dentsNICKY: learn a What lot more is a challenge do not currently with a meal again! to meet. Under thoseplan circumstances, starting with affordability is 19 PRINCETON: wish IThis could go back to college. would require making additional probably the best Ibet.” In college you know who you are. expenditures for existing programs that serve low-income stuYouassitPell in the quad, think,loans, “Oh my dents, such grants andand Perkins andGod! crediting some I am totallytuition gonna go portion of college as far!” . . . a tax deduction. The economist I wanna gohas back to my room and findand a message in dryRonald Ehrenberg suggested that private public colleges erase pen onwith the door! should be rewarded federal and state funds for each Pell Ohhh . . . grant recipient who is graduated from their institution. Donald I wish could justsweeping drop a class . . . Heller has madeI the more suggestion that all grants for college students— as well as governmental—should NICKY: Or getinstitutional into a play . . . be awarded on the basis a needsmy analysis similar to that which KATE MONSTER: Orofchange major . . . 20 The obvious probcurrently governs Or Pellfuck grant PRINCETON: myexpenditures. T.A. . . . lem with such proposals, sensible as to they are, is that, unless they NICKY: But if I were to go back college, are funded by shifting Think what a support loser I’d from be— middle-class to needier students, they requirethe large new investments—two options I’d would walk through quad, that seemAnd politically impossible in the” current context of anxiety think “Oh my God . . . about government deficits. ALL: “These kids are so much younger than me.” 160 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

Still, as public discussion continues to Perhaps, this skit remindsabout us, ourhigher brains education are programmed to edit focus onfailures issues of cost and access, including the alwaysglamorous out the and disappointments— the botched exams, missed question of who gets to go to the most prestigious colleges. One free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult problem with this focus is that to getting time for young people struggling grow in up.is by no means good enough. A great many income students who manage to start If most students nolowlonger have anything like the “traditional” college experience, never finish. A common response toteach this situation is to neither do the people who them. In 1975, say that the real problem is our K– 12 schools, and that, in fact, nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with too many students go ontrack.” to college than toohas few— but I tenure or on the “tenure Todayrather that fraction declined have known one which parentmeans who includes a child of his in to around 35 only percent, that most students areown being this assessment, which always seems to apply who to other taught by part-time or contingent employees have people’s limited 21 6 Primary and secondary education doubtless need rechildren. stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded form, and need it badly. But it would be folly forDavid our colleges to colleges play a game of what Berkeley professor Kirp calls wait. As college president put itwith a century and faculty a half ago, “bait andone switch” by luring students big-name and “whatever elementary theby schools fail to give, the col-7 then assigning them toinstruction classes taught overworked part-timers. 22 lege must supply.”often excellent people forced to cobble together These teachers— Not onlywage should colleges indoone better at for providing remedial a subsistence by working college part of the week, help to another students(or who needfor it, the butrest they recognize then in others) of should the week— have nothat astheir obligations begin prospective surance that they will be with teaching next year students. at all. TheMore authorpartof a nerships are needed between fouryear colleges and community grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this colleges, as well collaborations linkingascolleges with local “dismantling of theasAmerican professoriate” “part and parcel of high schools andof community that work American with high the casualization labor” thatorganizations is under way throughout school students hoping, against thedecline odds,oftounions. attend8 life, along with thewho rise are of outsourcing and the 23 Low-of income families future also need helpainlong understandcollege. This vision the imminent remains way from ing the rationale for paying for education with future realization at the old and prestigious colleges that havedollars— been at something be In frightening those wholikely associate all the center ofthat thiscan book. fact, their to appeal seems to grow forms of because debt with exploitative lenders and the specter precisely they have the wealth and “market share”of to dere24 As for improving graduation rates, one striking finding fault. tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at from aother recent study of institutions is that from many colleges, it ispublic uncomfortably close to a children description of low-income familiesare. are more likely to graduate provided with how things already The professor shaping aif course around “settings . . . that sensibility encourage (now close known contact as among students and his interests and the “independent9 faculty members.”25 In short, what I have between students and operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor161 153

Six Six

described this book collegetoidea stillroughly has thehalf power to Among allin students whoasdothemanage enroll, finish motivate young adults than other form of 60 education at a different college frommore where theyany began, fewer than percent we know. finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.5 Yet college myths and memories have long been an impor3 tant part of America’s sense of what young adulthood is all about. So the problems big, or buteven despite demands acaConsider The BigareChill, thatrecent dubious classicthat Animal demia reform itself down to its foundations, big solutions— House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treawhether from school withinsongs, or from without— are unlikely. sured LP initiated of Ohio State “Goodbye, Columbus, ” in Such demands are numerous and, often, shrill. One example is a Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative recentthe book entitledshow CrisisAvenue on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reformfrom Broadway Q: ing Our Colleges and Universities, based on an apocalyptic op-ed MONSTER: wish I couldasgo to college. pieceKATE entitled “End theI University Weback Know It,” that calls for Life was so simple back then. the abolition of (among other things) tenure, academic departNICKY: What would dissertation I give to go back and livethanin aworthless dorm ments, and the scholarly as a worse26 with a meal plan Theagain! premise here is that colleges and uniexercise in pedantry. PRINCETON: I wish I could go back toand college. versities have become hopelessly sclerotic removed from the In college you know who you are. real world. It’s an old complaint. Emerson remarked a long time Youare sit shut in theupquad, think, “Oh myrooms . . . God! & come ago that “we in . . .and college recitation am totally gonna go far!” . . . out at lastI with a bellyful of words & do not know a thing. . . . We I wanna backroot to my and find in drydo not know an go edible inroom the woods. Wea message cannot tell our 27 pen on course byerase the stars northe thedoor! hour of the day by the sun.” Ohhh . . . Perhaps we really are more lost than ever. It is certainly true, I wishcollege I couldpresident just drop aputs class . . . as one former it, that most academic institutions areOr “organized NICKY: get into aanarchies, play . . . ” in which faculty “wander in and KATE out ofMONSTER: the decisiondepending on circumOrmaking change process my major . . . 28 Yet T.A. . . . it is also true that much can be stance and inclination.” PRINCETON: Or fuck my achieved— bytocrying crisis— when faculty and adNICKY:more But ifthan I were go back to college, ministrators work in aa loser collaborative Think what I’d be— spirit on behalf of their students. There are plenty of examples I’d walk through the quad, of replicable “best practices” that haveAnd not think been sufficiently replicated. One striking instance “Oh my God . . . ” is theALL: University of Maryland at Baltimore, “These kids are so much younger thanwhere, me.” under the 162 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

leadership of President Freeman Hrabowski, graduationtorates Perhaps, as this skit reminds us, our brains are programmed edit have markedly improved through a the combination of mentorout the failures and disappointments— botched exams, missed ing, encouragement of structured group study, and apprenticefree throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult ships to young research faculty— with particularly time for people struggling to grow up. impressive progress among minority students majoring in “STEM” (Science, TechIf most students no longer have anything like the “traditional” nology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. At Carnegie Melcollege experience, neither do the people who teach them. In 1975, lon University, the “open learning initiative” is drawing widenearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with spread attention for its free online courses which has students get tenure or on the “tenure track.” Today thatin fraction declined frequent on how they are doing, and students presentations and to aroundfeedback 35 percent, which means that most are being exercises continually revised in employees response towho evidence of how taught byare part-time or contingent have limited 29 6 much students are learning. stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded Evenplay people who of arewhat skeptical, as I am, aboutDavid the digital colleges a game Berkeley professor Kirprevocalls lutionand as aswitch” great advance forstudents learning with mustbigrecognize the poten“bait by luring name faculty and tial ofassigning the Internet gap between the haves and have-7 then themtotoreduce classesthe taught by overworked parttimers. nots. today, access to archives out-ofbooks is no TheseAlready teachers— often excellent peopleorforced toprint cobble together longer restricted toby students with a “stack pass” some unia subsistence wage working in one college foratpart of great the week, versity longfor tripthe to rest consult a periodical or no a rare then inlibrary, anotherand (or the others) of the week—have asnewspaper now in annext instant JSTOR, surance thatcan they willbebemade teaching yearthrough at all. The authorLexof a isNexis, and the like. Some educators see a bright future for colgrimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this lege as a hybrid form of in-person and distance learning whereby “dismantling of the American professoriate” as “part and parcel of students anywhere can “attend” lectures a world-renowned the casualization of labor” that is under wayby throughout American lecturer thethe web, follow up in a discussion with8 life, alongviawith risethen of outsourcing and the declinegroup of unions. peers ledvision by a local faculty member. Andremains some believe This of the imminent future a longthat way“menfrom tal attendance” is bound to be higher when such a student signs realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at on atcenter a timeofofthis hisbook. or herIn choosing rather thanseems dozing in the back the fact, their appeal likely to grow 30 of a darkened lecture that and matter, staying in bed. precisely because theyhall— have or, thefor wealth “market share” to reexuberant vision of the future recently tainAn a stable faculty teaching what theyhas like, as theybeen like.offered But at by Duke professor Cathy Davidson, who believes that, for young many other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of people accustomed rapidswitching from texting toaround surfing how things alreadytoare. Thefire professor shaping a course to blogging, is not a cause of dishis interests etc., and multitasking sensibility (now known as or thesymptom “independent9 mode” of learning. In this vision, the classtraction but an “ideal operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor163 153

Six Six

room becomes a fluid and indeed hardly place Among all students who doporous manageplace— to enroll, roughly halfa finish at aall— in which authority for grading, and fewer even for the at different college from where they began, thandefining 60 percent subject of study, is shared by teacher and students, on the “crowdfinish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.5 31 In sourcing” modelmyths of such entities Wikipedia. Yet college andcollaborative memories have longasbeen an imporsomepart respects, this version college ofadulthood the future isis aallvindicatant of America’s senseofofthe what young about. tion of theThe college the past— in whichclassic students learn Consider Big of Chill, or evena place that dubious Animal from their peers. What Davidson calls “collaboration by differHouse. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treaence” is, theState old idea of lateral under a new name: sured LPinoffact, Ohio school songs,learning “Goodbye, Columbus, ” in the idea that multiple perspectives contributed by students with Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative different gifts and interests are not from the Broadway show Avenue Q: only desirable but essential. Her dynamic, improvisational college-to-come stands in bright KATEtoMONSTER: I wish Ione could go back college. contrast the dark refrain hears fromtomany commentaLife was so simple back then. tors who see higher education in decline. But in the end, utopian NICKY:seem What I give to go than backprophecies and live in of a dorm prophecies nowould more convincing doom. mealthe plan again! Whilewith we aawait hightech college of the future, whatever PRINCETON: wish I couldbegogood backtotopay college. it will turn out to Ibe, it would attention to cases In college you know who you are. where recalcitrant problems are yielding to low-tech solutions in YouIsit in thethat quad, and think, “Oh my God! the present. suspect multiyear contracts with (transparent, I amreview totallyprocedures gonna go far!” . . . one hopes) will gradually overtake both lifeI wanna go back to myasroom and find anorm; message time tenure and casual hiring the academic butinindrythe erase pen onwithout the door! meantime, stability sclerosis is the best condition for Ohhh . . . any college faculty. Denison University for one, has found that I wish I could just drop aschedules, class . . . it can shift from hirby carefully calibrating sabbatical ing temporary adding tenure-track professors even in NICKY: Oradjuncts get intoto a play . . . smallKATE departments, so Or thatchange students count on faculty adviMONSTER: my may major . . . sors who don’t come from year to year. Beginning in 2010, PRINCETON: Orand fuckgomy T.A. . . . Valparaiso has to been half-day workshops twice NICKY:University But if I were go holding back to college, each academic under theI’d rubric Thinkyear what a loser be—“How the University Works,” at which I’d faculty withthe administrators in every sector of uniwalkmeet through quad, versity governance And thinkfrom “Ohadmissions my God . . .to” finance. The idea is to dispel the mystery and reduce misunderstanding that can underALL: “These kids are sothe much younger than me.” 164 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

mine trust faculty and administrators, and to encourage Perhaps, as between this skit reminds us, our brains are programmed to edit informed debate of disappointments— policy and practice.the Good ideasexams, are alsomissed emaout the failures and botched nating from study groups that span a range of institutions. The free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult California Commission on General Education for the Twentytime for young people struggling to grow up. firstIfCentury has proposed that at every research university, “one most students no longer have anything like the “traditional” person, commanding a staffdo and budget,who should bethem. in the In cabinet college experience, neither thea people teach 1975, of the president or chancellor with his or her primary responsibilnearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with ity to undergraduate education, attention features tenure or on the “tenure track.” with Todayspecial that fraction hastodeclined of undergraduate education that transcend interests the to around 35 percent, which means that mostthe students areofbeing 32 It’s a or good proposal,employees since undergraduates rarely departments.” taught by part-time contingent who have limited 6 have a strong advocate in the president’s inner circle. stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded Smallplay changes, too, classroom haveDavid been Kirp shown to colleges a game of in what Berkeleypractice professor calls yield large results— onlystudents for students the particular “bait and switch” bynot luring with in bigname facultyclass, and but, now that them websites and blogs social networks then assigning to classes taughtand by overworked part-make timers.it7 easy get the word out, for students in forced other classes andtogether colleges Thesetoteachers— often excellent people to cobble as well. Harvard physics professor Eric Mazur, a subsistence wage by working in one college forhaving part ofdiscovered the week, that students(orwere doing memorizing thanhave thinking, then his in another others) formore the rest of the week— no asshifted the hourlecturenext to shorter periods of exposisurancefrom that they will belong teaching year at all. The author of a tion alternated with tenminute periods during which student grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this breakout groups work collaboratively on an “dismantling of the American professoriate” as assigned “part andproblem. parcel of Students then report theirthat results through electronicAmerican feedback the casualization of labor” is under wayan throughout system, which the of professor how and wellthe theydecline have grasped the8 life, along withtells the rise outsourcing of unions. point hevision has just If a future significant number unThis of explained. the imminent remains a longhaven’t way from derstood it,athethe returns to itprestigious for furthercolleges discussion realization old and thatbefore have moving been at on. center It’s a way of restoring dialogic dimension, large the of this book. In afact, their appeal seemseven likelyintoa grow 33 class, to the monologic lecture. precisely because they have the wealth and “market share” to retain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at 4 other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of many Nonethings of these innovations as the phrase goes,a rocket how already are. Theis,professor shaping course science. around Theyinterests are commonsense responses to the plain that underhis and sensibility (now known as thefact “independent9 graduates easily get lost— which often starts with getting bored— operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor165 153

Six Six

especially institutions and specialized Among all in students who dodevoted manageto to research enroll, roughly half finish instruction. these experiments infewer common at a different All college from where theyhave began, than something 60 percent simple: they come from faculty who care. If good things are5 to finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all. happen to students, must care, notlong onlybeen because this is Yet college mythsfaculty and memories have an importhe basic precondition of good teaching, because,iswith a few tant part of America’s sense of what youngbut adulthood all about. minor exceptions as or teaching awards or, occasionally, supConsider The Bigsuch Chill, even that dubious classic Animal plementary pay for teaching certain required courses, the profHouse. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treafered rewards of academic life—songs, promotions, raises,Columbus, leaves—have sured LP of Ohio State school “Goodbye, ” in nothing to do with demonstrated concern for students. In many Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative academic institutions, teaching is Q: its own reward. from the Broadway show Avenue Therefore, one obvious thing to do is to try to produce more KATEwho MONSTER: I wish I couldThis go back to college. teachers care about teaching. elementary but essential Life was so simple back then. point has been made in one way or another by many recent critWhatAnthony would I give to go back andMenand, live in a dorm ics ofNICKY: academia— Kronman, Louis Andrew withClaudia a meal Dreifus, plan again! Hacker, and to cite just a few. For all of them, the PRINCETON: I wishinI could go back to college. bogeyman is research— the sense of narrowly focused inquiry In college you know who you are. into matters of marginal interest to young people in need of a genYou sit34inI am the obviously quad, andsympathetic think, “Oh my God!view, which to this eral education. I am totally gonna takes seriously the fact that go thefar!” . . . talents of the research scholar or I wanna go back tothose my room and find a message in dryscientist are not necessarily of the teacher. If the same perpen on door! son giveserase evidence of the both, it’s a fortuitous convergence. Nearly Ohhh . . . a century ago, Max Weber noted that “one can be a preeminent I wish I could a class . . . poor teacher,” and if scholar and at the samejust timedrop an abominably we goNICKY: back further find Emerson making the mischievous Or getstill, intowe a play . . . suggestion that “a college should be elected by setting all KATE MONSTER: Orprofessor change my major . . . the candidates loose a miscellaneous PRINCETON: Oronfuck my T.A. . . . gang of young men taken at large fromBut the ifstreet. could the ear of these youths NICKY: I wereHetowho go back toget college, after a certain hours . . . should be the professor.”35 Thinknumber what a of loser I’d be— WhatI’dallwalk thesethrough critics have in common is the awareness that the quad, a gift forAnd teaching certified thinkcannot “Oh mybeGod . . . ” by any advanced degree, and ALL: that “These zeal forkids teaching can be drained awayme.” by the profesare so much younger than 166 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

sional training allows one a college teacherto inedit the Perhaps, as this that skit reminds us, to ourbecome brains are programmed first place. It doesn’t have to be that way. No oneexams, shouldmissed want out the failures and disappointments— the botched America’s universities to surrender their commitment to training free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult researchers of the highest imagination and time for young people struggling to grow up.ambition, whether or not Ifthese areno well suited to anything teaching.like Thethe problem is not mostpeople students longer have “traditional” that universities centers butteach rather it’s the way college experience,are neither doof theresearch, people who them. In 1975, they use college teaching to subsidize the training of researchers. nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with Our universities graduate students onfraction the basishas of scholarly tenure or on the admit “tenure track.” Today that declined promise, assign them, exchange stipendiary support, to aroundthen 35 percent, whichinmeans that for most students are being and often minimal preparation,employees to teach undergraduate distaught by with part-time or contingent who have limited 6or sections of introduccussion classes in, say, English or history, stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded tory science mathofcourses. “My graduate work, ” recalls colleges play or a game what Berkeley professor David KirpCarol calls Gearyand Schneider, holdsstudents a PhD inwith history and isfaculty now presi“bait switch” who by luring big-name and dent assigning of the Association of American and Universities, then them to classes taught byColleges overworked part-timers.7 “had not includedoften evenexcellent an hour’speople worthforced of timetooncobble the realworld These teachers— together I might in my classroom, muchfor lesspart on of thethe mysteriastudents subsistence wagefind by working in one college week, 36 Fewthe graduate programs much ous subject of ‘learning.’ ” for then in another (or others) rest of the week—make have no aseffort distinguish those qualified to doofre-a surancetothat they willbetween be teaching nextwho yearare at all. The author search in the library or lab and those who show promise for this the grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes classroom— fewer make any systematic as effort “dismantlingand of the American professoriate” “part(this andwould parcel be of even better) to mitigate distinction by helping goodAmerican scholars the casualization of labor”the that is under way throughout and scientists teachers. and Mosttheapplicants a PhD8 life, along withbecome the rise good of outsourcing decline oftounions. program are never formally interviewed by teaching faculty, and This vision of the imminent future remains a long way from once they arrive graduate school, they are encouraged think realization at theinold and prestigious colleges that haveto been at of an onerous anlikely opportunity. theteaching center ofasthis book. Inobligation fact, their rather appealthan seems to grow That because this situation is taken for granted has been inadverprecisely they have the wealth and “market share” to retently confirmed by an exhaustively researched study whose tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. Butreat sults were recently published under the title Educating Scholars: many other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of Doctoral Education Humanities a densely stahow things already in are.theThe professor (2010). shapingIt’s a course around tistical book showing rates of(now attrition, yearspatterns his interests and sensibility known as tothedegree, “independent9 of postdoctoral employment, and so on; but it includes only a operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor167 153

Six Six

single brief mentionwho of what the authors call roughly “relevanthalf preparaAmong all students do manage to enroll, finish tion for latercollege teaching careers.” The began, mention comes conat a different from where they fewer thanin60the percent text of a discussion of whether or not graduate teaching assistantfinish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.5 ships progress the degree. theanNational Yetretard college mythstoward and memories haveSimilarly, long been imporResearch Council bases its closely watched ranking of doctoral tant part of America’s sense of what young adulthood is all about. programs on that have nothing do withclassic what doctoral Consider Thecriteria Big Chill, or even thattodubious Animal programs do— or don’t do— to prepare their graduates fortreacolHouse. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his 37 These failures consider teachingColumbus, as an integral lege teaching. sured LP of Ohio State schooltosongs, “Goodbye, ” in part of graduate education strike me as astonishing, but in most Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative academic circles theyshow don’tAvenue seem to from the Broadway Q:raise an eyebrow. What we have here is a situation analogous to what it would MONSTER: college. meanKATE if medical schoolsI wish were Itocould grantgo theback MDtodegree to students Life was so simple back then. who had never completed any clinical rotations. This might conNICKY: What I give to go backto and live in“bench a dorm sciceivably make sensewould for those determined become with again! entists” or to agomeal intoplan certain technical fields such as radiology, PRINCETON: I wish I could go human back to contact college. with patients although even in such cases, a little In college you know who you are. wouldn’t hurt—and sometimes a young person with expectaYoucontrary sit in thediscovers quad, and think, “Oh with my God! tions to the that working patients is suram totallyBut gonna far!” . . . prisinglyIsatisfying. the go notion of sending a young physician I wanna go back to myserious room and find a message dryto a patient’s bedside without apprenticeship andinmenerase on the door! toring is— as itpen should be— out of the question. Ohhh . . . Moreover, unlike in graduate schools of arts and sciences, no I couldto just a class . . . candidateI wish is admitted androp American medical school without a personal interview which his or her fitness for the profession NICKY: Or get in into a play . . . is (no doubt, imperfectly) assessed. In strictly financial terms, KATE MONSTER: Or change my major . . . thosePRINCETON: who go intoOr specialties certain research fields are more fuck myor T.A. . . . amply rewarded those who become primary care or famNICKY: But ifthan I were to go back to college, ily physicians— roughly analogous Think what a loser I’d be— to becoming college teachers. But, I’d without damage the to the training of the former, medical walk through quad, schools have recognized Andincreasingly think “Oh my God . . . the ” dignity and importance of the latter. By introducing opportunities for students ALL: “These kids are so much younger than me.” to work 168 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

in underserved communities, theybrains have are made progress toward Perhaps, as this skit reminds us, our programmed to edit closing “schism between medicine as and medicine as out the the failures and disappointments— thescience botched exams, missed service.” Many physicians now speak of “patientcentered” medifree throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult 38 we in academia are to cine main people goal ofstruggling the profession. time as forayoung to growIfup. break whatstudents Robert no Maynard Hutchins longlike agothe called “the viIf most longer have anything “traditional” cious in which thedoproducts of who a badteach system grow to collegecircle . . . experience, neither the people them. Inup 1975, be the operators and perpetuators of it, ” it is high time that PhD nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with programs take their obligation provide tenure or on theseriously “tenure track.” Today that to fraction has“studentdeclined centered” education— in the sense of preparing scholars to around doctoral 35 percent, which means that most students are being 39 to be teachers too. or contingent employees who have limited taught by part-time 6 It shouldn’t be all that hard. The distinction— or conflict— Some highly regarded stake in the institution where they work. between research and teaching tends to be overstated, as calls one colleges play a game of what Berkeley professor David Kirp Britishand writer nicely out some years in response to “bait switch” by pointed luring students with big-ago name faculty and a survey that asked how they by allotted their time then assigning themfaculty to classes taught overworked part-between timers.7 the two. That question, he said, is like asking sheep “how much These teachers— often excellent people forceda to cobble together its time is wage devoted to growing wool and for howpart much to week, turnaofsubsistence by working in one college of the 40 There is not— at week— least ought to ing itself into mutton.” then in another (or others) for the rest oforthe have not no asbe— a clear and if it’s a cliché say, “my teaching surance thatdividing they willline, be teaching next year attoall. The author of a enhances my scholarship” or “my scholarship makes me a better grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this teacher, ” that’sofbecause both statements are often true. Passion “dismantling the American professoriate” as “part and parcelfor of learning lies at the scholarly investigation, the casualization ofheart labor”ofthat is underand wayscientific throughout American and great practitioners have what one and scientist called “radium life, along with the rise of outsourcing the decline of unions.of8 the This soul”vision by which students are inspired pushway further, of thetheir imminent future remains atolong from to revise or reject or extend the mentor’s work. In a wonderful realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at essaycenter entitled “Research ” the Cornell the of this book. InStrategy: fact, theirTeach, appeal seems likely chemist to grow Roald Hoffmann describes his wealth creativeand process of discovery as precisely because they have the “market share” to reinseparable from the act of explanation— explaining not only to tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at himself but colleges, to multiple including undergraduates as many other it isaudiences, uncomfortably close to a description of well as professional “The more I shaping taught beginning classes, how things already peers. are. The professor a course around the interests more important it became to me to explain, he writes, and his and sensibility (now known as the” “independent9that “the gleam of truth, or of a connection” the more he realized operator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor169 153

Six Six

is most likely to strike thedo mind “not in but inhalf discourse Among all students who manage to isolation, enroll, roughly finish 41 theirthey best,began, in other words, is a with anothercollege person.” at a different fromAtwhere fewer thanresearch 60 percent 5 form of teaching, and teaching is a form of research. finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all. Yet seldom asked graduate school to Yet future collegeprofessors myths andarememories have in long been an imporarticulate “why” ofsense whatofthey to learn to convey sigtant part ofthe America’s whatdo, young adulthood is all its about. nificance to express for classic themselves the Consider Thea lay Big audience, Chill, or even even to that dubious Animal fascination they feel for it. In my own field of literary studies, for House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treaexample, make school eminent sense“Goodbye, to includeColumbus, on every docsured LP itofwould Ohio State songs, ” in toral oral examination an opportunity for the candidate to make Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitativea case for a given author might interest a college student. What from thewhy Broadway show Avenue Q: makes him or her alive in the present moment? Why should this MONSTER: wish I could go back to college. novelKATE or poem or playIwritten a hundred years ago still matter? Life was so simple back then. In other words, how would you teach this subject? These quesWhat would I give to go back andbut liveininfact a dorm tionsNICKY: may seem theoretically unsophisticated, they are with a meal again! hard questions— and,plan sooner or later, if one wants to be an effecPRINCETON: I wish I could go backIftofuture college. tive teacher, they have to be confronted. teachers are not In college you know who you are. pressed to ask them from the start of their graduate training, the sit inevading the quad, and think, “Oh God! grows.42 likelihoodYou of their them— for now or my forever— I amistotally gonnateaching go far!” . . . The fact that college is a delicate and difficult art. I wanna go back to my find aputting messagestudents in dryIt requires both confidence androom tact. and It means erase pen onitthe under pressure, but candoor! degenerate into badgering or bullyOhhh . . . ing. It requires making clear explanations of complex ideas. But I wish I couldwaiting just drop a class . . . sometimes it requires out the silence after posing a difficultNICKY: question— or,into as Donald Finkel, a renowned teacher at EvOr get a play . . . ergreen State College,Or once put it, KATE MONSTER: change my“teaching major . . . with your mouth 43 In trainingOr future we give far too little thought shut.”PRINCETON: fuckscholars, my T.A. . . . to these challenges, of them will face. NICKY: But if I which, were toasgoteachers, back to all college, Think what a loser I’d be— 5 I’d walk through the quad, I have tried inthink this book a story”with a beginning, a middle And “Ohto mytell God . . . (in relation to where we are today), but nothan end.me.” It cannot be alALL: “These kids are so much younger 170 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

lowed toashave The American college faces a greattomany Perhaps, this an skitend. reminds us, our brains are programmed edit serious challenges— from the fiscal tothe thebotched ethicalexams, and even, it out the failures and disappointments— missed might be said, the existential— but itcan is too precious institufree throws, unrequited loves—that make collegean a difficult tion to be permitted to give up on its own ideals. time for young people struggling to grow up. If most students no tried longertohave anything like the “traditional” It began, as I have show, in a spirit poised between collegeand experience, neither do the people who teach them. In of 1975, hubris humility. My view of the continuing pertinence its nearly 60 origins percentmay of college werethe fulltime facultyofwith religious seem professors at odds with intolerance the tenure who or onfounded the “tenure track.” has of declined clerics it. They hadToday no usethat forfraction rival forms Christo around 35 percent, which means that most students are being tianity, not to mention “heathens” such as Muslims and Jews, or taught by part-time or contingent employees who have limited the polytheistic “savages” amidst whom they found themselves regarded stake in except the institution wherefor they work.6 Some living— as candidates conversion. Theyhighly had their own colleges a game selfof what Berkeley professor Kirp they calls kinds ofplay blindness, deception, and cruelty.David Yet when “bait and switch” by luring students with bigname faculty and were true to their convictions (are we sure that we are more so?), then assigning themtheir to classes taught by overworked timers.7 they tried to honor cardinal belief that God in parthis omnipoThese excellent people forced tothe cobble tence, teachers— not man inoften his presumption, determines fate together of every a subsistence wage by working in one college for part of the week, human being, and therefore that no outward mark—wealth or then in another (or others) for the rest of the week—have no aspoverty, high or low social position, credentials or lack thereof— surance that they will be teaching next year at all. The author of a tells anything about the inward condition of the soul. grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this Even in our secular world, anyone concerned with Amer“dismantling of the American professoriate” as “part and parcel of ica’s colleges must still come to terms with the implications the casualization of labor” that is under way throughout American of these principles—including the linked truths that educa-8 life, along with the rise of outsourcing and the decline of unions. tion is a mysterious process and that we should be slow to asThis vision of the imminent future remains a long way from sume that any student is beyond its saving power. Perhaps the realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at mostcenter daunting thoseappeal of usseems who believe the the of thischallenge book. Infacing fact, their likely toingrow universal because value ofthey liberal is and the challenge of conveyprecisely haveeducation the wealth “market share” to reing its value to anyone— policymakers, public officials, and even tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at many academics— who has not personally experienced it. In this many other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of respect, too, already we would wellprofessor to recall shaping the Puritan view that the how things are.doThe a course around transformative power of a true education is “such a mystery as his interests and sensibility (now known as the “independent44 9 that know it.” none can professor”) read but they is becoming a relic, while the instructoroperator 171 153

Six Six

If anall old, and in who manydorespects religionhalf seems an Among students manageoutmoded, to enroll, roughly finish improbable thinking about fewer education perat a differenttouchstone college fromfor where they began, than today, 60 percent haps a more plausible one is democracy. Surely it is an offense finish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all.5 against to presume that education should Yet democracy college myths and memories have long beenbe anreserved imporfor the wellborn and the welloff. As Emerson put it in his great tant part of America’s sense of what young adulthood is all about. Phi Beta Kappa oration 1837, “colleges can only classic highly serve us Consider The Big Chill,in or even that dubious Animal when . . . they gather from far every ray of various genius to their House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treahospitable by school the concentrated fires, setColumbus, the hearts” of sured LP ofhalls, Ohioand State songs, “Goodbye, in their youth on flame. . . . Forget this, and our American colleges Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative will recede in their show publicAvenue importance, whilst they grow richer from the Broadway Q: every year.”45 He did not mean the word “genius” in our sense of KATE MONSTER: I wish I could go back to college. extraordinary talent, but in the democratic sense that each inLife was so simple back then. dividual possesses an irreplicable spirit. He meant that colleges NICKY: wouldand I give to go live in aand dorm should reachWhat far, wide, deep forback theirand students allow meal plan again! them, bywith theira convergence, to ignite in one another a sense of PRINCETON: wish I could go back to college. the possibilities ofIdemocratic community. In college you know who are. No doubt, students with good you preparation obtained in good You sit in the quad, and think, “Oh my high schools bring huge advantages with them God! to college. And I am totally gonna far!” . . . since affluent applicants aregooverwhelmingly likely to have the wanna go back to always my room find afor message in drystronger Icredentials, it will beand difficult selective colerase pen their on thetwin door! leges to reconcile principles of equity and excellence Ohhh . . . when they admit their new class every year. Yet it is often stuI wishmeans I could dropcollege a class . . . dents of lesser forjust whom means the most—not just in the measurable improving their economic competiNICKY: Or getsense into aofplay . . . tiveness, in the intellectual KATEbut MONSTER: Or changeand my imaginative major . . . enlargement it makes possible. Or fuck my T.A. . . . PRINCETON: My own But life ifinI academia been a privileged and insular NICKY: were to gohas back to college, one, and,Think to some emphasis in this book on a few whatreaders, a loser my I’d be— selective I’d colleges seemthe to vitiate walk will through quad, the general pertinence of the story I have tell.my ButGod . . . having”observed and participated Andtried thinkto“Oh in classes at a wide range of colleges withthan students ALL: “These kids are so much younger me.” at all levels 172 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

of preparation andreminds sophistication, it’s been my experience Perhaps, as this skit us, our brains are programmed to that edit whether they are studying accounting the or philosophy, hotelmissed manout the failures and disappointments— botched exams, agement or history, the vast majority of college students are cafree throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult pable of young engaging the kinds of bigtoquestions— time for people struggling grow up. questions of truth, responsibility, justice, others— that once asIf most students nobeauty, longer among have anything like thewere “traditional” sumed be at the neither center of education. college to experience, docollege the people who teach them. In 1975, A number of leading educators have putfaculty this premnearly 60 percent of college professors werelately full-time with ise to the test. I’d like to mention here just two examples, one tenure or on the “tenure track.” Today that fraction has declined from each 35 coast. At Stanford, a professor of philosophy, to around percent, which means that most students areDebra being Satz, a colleague political science, Robwho Reich, taughtwith by part-time orincontingent employees havestarted limiteda 6faculty, assisted by unprogram called “Hope House, ” in which stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded dergraduate discuss classic professor philosophical and literary colleges playvolunteers, a game of what Berkeley David Kirp calls texts with female addicts ex-convicts in afaculty residential “bait and switch” by luringand students with living big-name and treatment center. Atto Bard College, New York, faculty7 then assigning them classes taughtinbyupstate overworked part-timers. teach literature, history, philosophy totogether inmates These teachers—mathematics, often excellent peopleand forced to cobble the Eastern New Correctional Facility. In of each aatsubsistence wage byYork working in one college for part thecase, week,a wordinthat figures(orfrequently inthe descriptions the experience is then another others) for rest of theofweek— have no asthe wordthat “joy.” surance they will be teaching next year at all. The author of a In the Bard eachProfessors, year’s commencement (the term grimly entitled program, book, TheatLast plausibly describes this may sound ironic, since many of the graduates have only a remote “dismantling of the American professoriate” as “part and parcel of chance for parole), students according to Bard American president the casualization of labor” thatspeak, is under way throughout Leon Botstein, of “the liberation of the and joy8 life, along with the rise of outsourcing andmind . . . the decline of their unions. in the intense of texts, working outway of probThisclose, vision of thereading imminent futurethe remains a long from lem sets in mathematics, and the struggle they encountered realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been in at learning and likely facile to notions the centertoofreconsider this book.deeply In fact,held theirprejudices appeal seems grow based on because ignorance.” Stanford, the students “experienced precisely theyAt have the wealth and “market share” to joy reand selfconfidence by participating in a democratic community tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at of inquiry” into deepit questions raised by writers ranging from many other colleges, is uncomfortably close to a description of Immanuel to Adrienne Rich on such issuesa as civil disobehow thingsKant already are. The professor shaping course around dience or theand defensibility lying on behalfasofthe others or oneself. his interests sensibilityof (now known “independent9 To bring such questions alive for their regular Stanford underoperator professor”) is becoming a relic, while the instructor173 153

Six Six

graduates, and who Reich they strain for half historical Among all Satz students doreport managethat to enroll, roughly finish examples such as lying the Gestapo for fewer the sake a fugitive at a different college fromtowhere they began, thanof60 percent Jew— while the women in the “Hope House” program finish within six years, and more than a third never finish atfeel all.5no disconnection lifememories and text, have speaking eloYet college between myths and long readily been anand impor46 quently the cauldron ofwhat theiryoung own experiences.” tant part“from of America’s sense of adulthood is all about. It is easy to Big dismiss such the workclassic of do-gooders Consider The Chill, orprograms even thatasdubious Animal making consciencesalving gestures; but anyone who witnesses or House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treaparticipates thisState kind school of teaching likely to be Columbus, chastened and sured LP of in Ohio songs,is “Goodbye, ” in moved. It is a reminder, as Botstein puts it, of “the connection Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitative between and show learning, ” which from the ethics Broadway Avenue Q: can be harder to establish among students “for whom the privilege of moving seamlessly wish I is could gofor back to college. fromKATE high MONSTER: school into Icollege taken granted.” In general, I Life was so simple back then. think, we are too quick to assume that students with lesser prepaNICKY: What I give goenlarging back andsense. live in a dorm ration are unfit for would education into this withto a meal plan Quickest assume soagain! are today’s entrepreneurs of for-profit PRINCETON: wish I could go back education, such as Ithe former director of to thecollege. University of PhoeIn college you know who you are. nix (now by far America’s largest college, with five times as many in thepublic quad, and think, “Oh God!who tells us students You as thesitlargest university, Ohiomy State), am totally go far!” . . . that “I’mI happy that gonna there are places in the world where people wanna go We backneed to my room find a message in drysit down Iand think. that. Butand that’s very expensive. And erase pen door! not everybody canon dothe that. So for the vast majority of folks who Ohhh . . . don’t get that privilege, then I think it’s a business.”47 The putaI wish I could tive realism of this pointjust of drop view aisclass . . . a surrender of America’s democratic promise. At my university we have an undergraduate NICKY: Or get intoown a play . . . division that admits students whomy may have started years ago at KATE MONSTER: Or change major . . . another college, then gonemytoT.A. . . . work, or to war, before resumPRINCETON: Or fuck ing their studies. frequently admitted into the same NICKY: But if They I wereare to go back to college, courses with highly students of traditional college Think what credentialed a loser I’d be— age, where, turns out, those with the most searching minds are I’d itwalk through the quad, sometimes military veterans who have And think “Oh my God . . . ” arrived in the classroom ALL: “These kids are so much younger than me.” 174 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

via someasunheralded community andprogrammed a tour in thetoarmy Perhaps, this skit reminds us, ourcollege brains are edit on athe battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq.the botched exams, missed out failures and disappointments— Perhaps the brightest spot in the can contemporary landscape of free throws, unrequited loves—that make college a difficult American higher education is thetoresurgence time for young people struggling grow up. of interest in engaging If students in civicno lifelonger beyond “Community service” most students havecampus. anything like the “traditional” organizations haveneither long been a feature most colleges, but excollege experience, do the peopleof who teach them. In 1975, plicit connection of coursework with service work is relatively nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with new, and growing. In courses suchthat subjects as immigration, tenure or on the “tenure track.”on Today fraction has declined thearound environment, public health, and education, among to 35 percent, which means that most students areothers, being studentsbyintegrate reading and writing who assignments with taught part-timetheir or contingent employees have limited 6 cope with public buvolunteer work helping immigrant families stake in the institution where they work. Some highly regarded reaucracies, research forBerkeley an environmental advocacy group, colleges playdoing a game of what professor David Kirp calls tutoring risk children, assisting thebigelderly— sometimes “bait andatswitch” by luringorstudents with name faculty and through partnerships formally link a college with a com-7 then assigning them to that classes taught by overworked part-timers. munityteachers— organization. of the impetus fortosuch work comes These oftenMuch excellent people forced cobble together the students haveweek, said afrom subsistence wagethemselves, by working who, in onedespite collegeeverything for part ofIthe aboutinthe problems and pathologies contemporary then another (or others) for the rest of of the week—havecollege no asculture, that are often with ideals and energy andauthor hope, and surance they brimming will be teaching next year at all. The of a have a craving for meaningful work. grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this There is also a growing movement promoting “dismantling of the American professoriate” as “parteducation and parcelfor of citizenship by engaging students on issues constitutional interthe casualization of labor” that is under wayofthroughout American pretation by debate over current issues such as mar-8 life, along provoked with the rise of outsourcing and the decline of gay unions. riage, gunvision control, or civil liberties in wartime. organization This of the imminent future remainsOne a long way from called Project Pericles sponsors an annual national conference, realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at “Debating forthis Democracy, in which students fromlikely sometothirty the center of book. In ”fact, their appeal seems grow participating colleges together debate precisely because they come have the wealthfor andpublic “market share”and to receive critiques from leading public figures on the quality of their tain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at 48 research and their arguments. many other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of initiatives withshaping the best atraditions of the howSuch things alreadyare are.continuous The professor course around American college as an institution devotedasnot to personal his interests and sensibility (now known theonly “independentoperator professor”)9 is becoming a relic, while the instructor175 153

Six Six

advancement but towho the do public good. our leading colAmong all students manage to Some enroll,of roughly half finish leges are showing leadership in taking this tradition seriously— as at a different college from where they began, fewer than 60 percent 5 in Amherst’s commitment to providing students in nearby comfinish within six years, and more than a third never finish at all. munity collegesmyths with and mentoring support and, been for strong stuYet college memories have long an impordents, an of opportunity to transfer Amherst itself; or Yale’s entant part America’s sense of whattoyoung adulthood is all about. gagement with the Chill, city ofor New Haven forming partnerships Consider The Big even that by dubious classic Animal with local schools and generally accepting its responsibility to House. Think of the fictional Ron Patimkin swooning to his treamitigate “towngown” tension elite institutions sured LP the of Ohio State school songs,that “Goodbye, Columbus,have ” in often inflamed. On a recent visit to The University of Tulsa, Philip Roth’s novella of the same name, or this little recitativeI learned the university provides from thethat Broadway show Avenue Q:up to eight hours per month of paid leave for staff who wish to devote that time to community KATE MONSTER: I wish I acould go back that to college. service. Such actions bespeak recognition in any genuine Life was so simple back then. community—an aspiration fundamental to the original concepWhat would I give go back and live a dorm tion NICKY: of college— selfinterest andtopublic interest areinnot at odds, with a meal but are two names forplan the again! same thing. PRINCETON: I wish I could go back to college. In college youexplored know who you book are. is a very old one. Yet The institution I have in this You sit in theofquad, and think, God!its renewal one of the pleasures the teaching life“Oh is tomy witness I am totally class. gonnaMuch go far!” . . . with every incoming of what has been true of students I wanna goAback to myand room andyears find ago, a message in drywill always be true. hundred forty the president eraseof pen onleisure the door! of Yale wrote “the and curiosity of this morning of life,” Ohhh . . . and of “the zest with which its novel experiences . . . are enjoyed.” I wish just drop a class . . . In our own dayIacould former president of Amherst writes of a young manNICKY: experiencing college the “stirring and shaping, perhaps Or getininto a play . . . for the firstMONSTER: time in hisOr life,change [of ] actual convictions—not just gut KATE my major . . . feelings— among his and, more important, further down, PRINCETON: Orfriends fuck my T.A. . . . in hisNICKY: own soul.” But 49if I were to go back to college, College should much Think whatbe a loser I’dmore be— than a place that winnows the “best” rest. the It should I’dfrom walk the through quad, be a transit point for those whom Lionel Trilling called And think “Oh my “midway God . . . ”people,” whose “movement fromALL: social group to social group . . . makes than for the uncertainty of “These kids are so much younger me.” 176 152

What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done?

their moral codes, confusion, their indecision”— thattois,edit for Perhaps, as this skittheir reminds us, our brains are programmed young more than their counterparts other out theAmericans, failures and who, disappointments— the botched exams,inmissed nations, have all and always been “midway people” in Trilling’s free throws, unrequited loves—that can make college a difficult 50 college should not betoa grow havenup.from worldly contensense. time forA young people struggling tion,Ifbut a place where fight outlike among and within most students no young longerpeople have anything the “traditional” themselves contending ideas of the meaningful andInwhere college experience, neither do the people who teachlife, them. 1975, they discover that selfinterest need not be at odds with concern nearly 60 percent of college professors were full-time faculty with for oneoranother. We owetrack.” it to posterity to fraction preserve has anddeclined protect tenure on the “tenure Today that this institution. Democracy on it. to around 35 percent, which depends means that most students are being taught by part-time or contingent employees who have limited stake in the institution where they work.6 Some highly regarded colleges play a game of what Berkeley professor David Kirp calls “bait and switch” by luring students with big-name faculty and then assigning them to classes taught by overworked part-timers.7 These teachers—often excellent people forced to cobble together a subsistence wage by working in one college for part of the week, then in another (or others) for the rest of the week—have no assurance that they will be teaching next year at all. The author of a grimly entitled book, The Last Professors, plausibly describes this “dismantling of the American professoriate” as “part and parcel of the casualization of labor” that is under way throughout American life, along with the rise of outsourcing and the decline of unions.8 This vision of the imminent future remains a long way from realization at the old and prestigious colleges that have been at the center of this book. In fact, their appeal seems likely to grow precisely because they have the wealth and “market share” to retain a stable faculty teaching what they like, as they like. But at many other colleges, it is uncomfortably close to a description of how things already are. The professor shaping a course around his interests and sensibility (now known as the “independentoperator professor”)9 is becoming a relic, while the instructor177 153

SEVEN ­AFTER THE PANDEMIC

Over the de­cade since the first edition of this book was published, the pace of change in the norms and practices of many American institutions has defied one’s capacity to keep track. Colleges are no exception. Bribery and rankings scandals broke out. Claims of intol­ erance on campus and the content of curricula became hot-­button issues in state and national politics. Prominent presidents, provosts, coaches, and faculty w ­ ere fired over accusations of sexual harass­ ment or assault. Prestigious universities issued apologies for their complicity with slavery and announced efforts to make amends.1 Lawsuits challenging affirmative action made their way through the courts, with passionate advocates on both sides awaiting a U.S. Su­ preme Court ruling on ­whether the consideration of race in college 1. In an essay published last year, “Endowed by Slavery” (https://­www​ .­nybooks​ .­c om​ /­a rticles​ /­2022​ /­0 6​ /­23​ /­endowed​-­by​-­slavery​-­american​ -­universities​-­delbanco), I tried briefly to describe this long-­elided history and its belated recognition. I have made no effort to revise the pre­sent book in order to disguise the fact that I participated in the elision.

178

After the Pandemic

admissions is constitutional. Among all the headline events, the most disruptive was, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. One writer predicted it. In January 2020, a few days before the first case of the disease was identified in the United States, Bryan Alexander, a Georgetown University scholar known as a “futurist,” published a book titled Academia Next: The F ­ utures of Higher Education. He made no claim to clairvoyance, only to “trend analy­sis and scenario creation,” but one of his scenarios showed startling foresight: Imagine a ­future acad­emy ­after a major pandemic has struck the world. . . . ​Would distance learning grow rapidly as p­ eople fear face-­to-­face learning ­because of perceived contagion risk? . . . ​How would we take conferences and other forms of professional development online? . . . ​ Would athletes refrain from practice and play for fear of contagion, or would both institutions and the general public demand more college sports as an inspirational sign of bodily vigor in the context of sickness and death?1 By the spring of 2020, ­these questions ­were no longer hy­po­thet­i­ cal. Classrooms emptied and “distance learning” became almost universal. Conferences moved online. Some athletic programs canceled competition, while o­ thers kept up normal play and travel (and partying) despite the risk. At this writing (June 2022), the pandemic is not yet over, but the business of predicting what universities ­will look like ­after it’s gone is in high gear. As early as the fall of 2020, months before the first vaccines rolled out, the Chronicle of Higher Education pub­ lished a booklet of essays titled The Post-­Pandemic College, followed by (virtual) conferences on “The Post-­pandemic Campus” and “Higher Education and the Post-­pandemic Employer.” Thanks to 179

Seven

vaccine reluctance, the Delta and Omicron strains of the virus, and the specter of new variants, ­we’re still a long way from “post”—­but while we wait, any effort to envision the ­future ­ought to begin with some facts about the recent past and the pre­sent. ­Here are a few: •  Among U.S. colleges and universities, 95 ­percent have an endowment equivalent to less than 1 ­percent of Harvard’s. •  Some elite institutions spend more than $100,000 a year per student, which means that even students who pay the full “sticker price” (around $75,000 in the Ivies) are subsidized, while most community colleges can spend only $10,000 to $15,000 per student. •  Among students enrolled in a community college—­ around 7 million, the majority from low-­income, mi­ nority, or immigrant families—80 ­percent hope to earn a bachelor’s degree, but fewer than 15 ­percent succeed in ­doing so within six years.2 •  Low-­income students with high grades and test scores in high school are nearly 20 ­percent less likely to enroll in college than affluent students with low grades and scores.3 •  Students from families in the top 1 ­percent income bracket are almost eighty times more likely to attend an Ivy League or other highly selective college than ­those from families in the bottom 20 ­percent.4 •  Between 2008 and 2015, average state appropriations per full-­time student at public universities fell by more than 15 ­percent (adjusted for inflation); meanwhile, tuition and fees ­rose even faster, feeding the growth of personal debt that falls disproportionately on low-­and middle-­income families. ­These are snapshots of an education system that has become profoundly and increasingly stratified. If higher education once

180

After the Pandemic

helped to reduce inequities in American life, it now seems too often to sustain and fortify them. Like our health-­care system, it delivers concierge ser­vices to the affluent while consigning low-­ and modest-­income Americans to overcrowded or underfunded facilities. And the disparities are getting worse. In  a book pub­ lished in 2017, Unequal Colleges in the Age of Disparity, the Duke University public policy professor Charles Clotfelter documented this “re-­sorting of customers” upward and downward. At elite private colleges, he wrote, the average f­ amily income of students has “surged ahead of the national mean,” while students at colleges with fewer resources lag ever farther b­ ehind.5 In other words, Amer­i­ca’s top-­ranked universities position their mostly affluent students to accrue yet more wealth, influence, and power, while far too many who attend institutions that stand lower in the hier­ archy of prestige are burdened by debt and strug­gle to gradu­ate. In the public sector, regional universities are in trou­ble. One study from 2019 classifies a growing number of ­these institutions as “vulnerable,” meaning they could be headed for contraction or even closure. Institutions such as Central Michigan Univer­ sity, where a few years ago I met impressive students from high-­ poverty cities like Flint, face the dual challenge of declining public subsidies (in Michigan over the past twenty years, state funding per student has fallen by 40  ­percent) and a projected decline in enrollment.6 By contrast, the flagship University of Michigan at Ann Arbor raises large sums for its endowment and current use (over $5 billion in its most recent campaign) and at­ tracts international as well as out-­of-­state students at higher tui­ tion rates than ­those charged to Michigan residents. At private nonprofit colleges, which are often accused of charging exorbitant prices, fewer than one in six students actually

181

Seven

pay the published amount.7 Net tuition and fees—­the amount of revenue received a­ fter discounts in the form of full or partial scholarships—­have therefore been virtually flat for de­cades, even while costs ­were rising.8 Over the coming de­cade, many small colleges with modest reputations w ­ ill likely face enrollment shortfalls owing to regional population shifts as well as the broad decline in birth rates that followed the ­Great Recession of 2008.9 In short, except for the most prominent institutions, many pri­ vate and public colleges are in a ­battle to stay solvent. ­There is a racial dimension to this story as well. In a valu­ able book published in 2021, Broke: The Racial Consequences of Underfunding Public Universities, Laura T. Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen point out that “for most of the twentieth ­century, fami­ lies of color, as part of the tax base, ­were paying for wealthy white students to attend universities where their own offspring ­were not welcome.” But over the past four de­cades, as the numbers of African American, Latinx, and students of Asian origin ­were rising, higher education funding was falling. It’s a suspicious symmetry. ­Under the old funding model, “affluent whites would need to help pay for the postsecondary education of Black and Brown youth, as well as the white working class. This did not happen.”10 In California between 1970 and 2014, the share of the state bud­get devoted to higher education fell by nearly a third, while the share for prisons more than doubled. The effect—if not necessarily the intent—­has been to place a heavy burden on stu­ dents with comparatively l­imited income and assets, of whom a disproportionate number are students of color.

2 All of ­these inequities have been made worse by the pandemic.11 At wealthy institutions like the Ivies the prob­lems w ­ ere real, but 182

After the Pandemic

temporary. Rather than start out their college days on Zoom in the fall of 2020, some newly admitted students took a “gap year,” while ­others already enrolled went on a leave of absence, and foreign students found themselves unable to obtain visas. ­These institutions took hits as well on the expense side of the ledger, in the form of unanticipated costs such as administering COVID tests and enhancing digital technology to facilitate remote teach­ ing. But the costs w ­ ere manageable, enrollments bounced back, and before the market downturn of 2022, large endowments gen­ erated spectacular returns, in some cases growing by billions of dollars. Below the elites, the damage is likely to be much more se­ vere and lasting: deficits in preparation caused by the prolonged closure of some high schools; the frustration of trying to learn online in solitude; the surge of anxiety, depression, and disen­ gagement that comes of social isolation. Th ­ ese prob­lems afflict students in all sectors of higher education, but they hit students without strong resources and ­family supports especially hard.12 The number of 2021 high school gradu­ates filling out the ­Free Application for Federal Student Aid dropped by 5 ­percent, which corresponds to roughly one hundred thousand low-­income stu­ dents who might have planned to attend college but have given up, at least for now. As for ­those already in college, Georgia State Uni­ versity, which serves a large population of Black, Latinx, and low-­ income students, is both a hopeful and a cautionary example. A national leader in using digital data to identify students who need timely academic help, financial assistance, or counseling, Georgia State made remarkable gains over the past de­cade in academic per­ for­mance and graduation rates; but during the first pandemic year, the number of dropped courses exceeded ­those of the previous aca­ demic year by more than 30  ­percent. This means a longer road 183

Seven

to graduation—­a road from which many first-­generation, low-­ income, and minority students are at risk of being blocked. In community colleges across the nation the pandemic drove down enrollments by more than 10 ­percent. At the ten community colleges in the City University of New York system, thousands of students—­many of whom (or their f­ amily members) lost jobs when the restaurant and retail sectors imploded at the start of the pandemic—­had no access to an adequate Internet device or a Wi-­Fi connection. The po­liti­cal scientist Corey Robin, who teaches at CUNY’s Brooklyn College, wrote a pungent response to the president of Brown University, who had recommended that colleges control COVID outbreaks by deploying tracing technology and quarantining sick students in ­hotels. Brooklyn College, Robin pointed out, c­ an’t afford contact tracers or h ­ otel rooms; it ­doesn’t even have bathrooms where the ­water runs re­ liably hot. The typical student ­doesn’t live in a dorm, and if she falls sick, she “­will, in all likelihood, end her day where it began: at home with her f­ amily.”13 COVID turned the gap between in­ stitutions serving mainly privileged students and t­hose serving mainly needy ones into a chasm. Some of the most acute prob­lems—­student anxiety, faculty fatigue—­don’t appear as numbers on any balance sheet. But even for prob­lems that can be quantified, most colleges have few and poor tools for addressing them. Except for the elite privates and flagship publics, most colleges c­ an’t simply open the spigot to increase the inflow of tuition-­paying students. They c­ an’t boast about how many applicants they turn away, as the Ivies love to do. Instead, they strug­gle to attract enough students to cover op­ erating costs. They often have no choice but to provide incentives for relatively affluent candidates by offering discounts (“merit aid”), while pulling back from recruiting t­ hose who could attend 184

After the Pandemic

only if offered bigger discounts or a total waiver (“need-­based aid”). Long before COVID, the diversion of financial aid from needy to less needy students was already a national trend, and ­there’s ­every reason to expect it to accelerate—­with the result, as Martin Kurzweil and Josh Wyner put it, that “rich kids are eating up the financial aid pot.”14 Other revenue-­raising and cost-­cutting strategies are being tested. In the hope of attracting students by lowering the pub­ lished tuition price, some colleges have abandoned the high-­ tuition/high-­discount financial model altogether. O ­ thers are trying to reduce duplicative hiring, for example, by sharing lan­ guage instruction with nearby colleges. In order to conserve fel­ lowship funds, some research universities temporarily suspended gradu­ate student admissions in the humanities and social sciences. A few institutions—­Mills College and Northeastern Univer­ sity; Marlboro College and Emerson College—­formally merged. Name-­brand colleges are cashing in on the college admissions frenzy by offering high-­priced summer “immersion” programs to affluent high school students seeking advantage in the scram­ ble. (Before the pandemic, my own university, Columbia, was charging more than $10,000 for three weeks.) Still ­others are en­ ticing older customers into master’s degree programs that charge scores of thousands of dollars for a credential of dubious worth.15

3 The most effective strategy for balancing the books, however, is one that threatens to destroy the institutions it is meant to save: namely, making deep cuts in the instructional bud­get. For many Americans, the word “professor” conjures up the image of celeb­ rity scholars shuttling between Aspen and Davos while a squad of teaching assistants does the scut work with students back home. 185

Seven

This is a grotesque distortion. In fact, roughly two-­thirds of col­ lege professors work t­ oday as adjuncts on contingent contracts— at community colleges, the figure is at least 70 ­percent. Some are attorneys, civil servants, or entrepreneurs who enjoy sharing their expertise with students. ­Others are retirees or ­people with young families who choose to teach part-­time. But most have devoted many years to academic study and now find themselves blocked from secure employment. Not a few teach five or more courses per semester, sometimes at more than one institution, in the hope of cobbling together a living wage. For many, the workload is overwhelming, the pay is meager, the benefits are minimal, and tenure is a pipe dream. In a darkly prescient book, The Last Professors, published more than a de­cade ago, Ohio State En­glish professor Frank Donoghue noted that “the dismantling of the American professoriate is part and parcel of the casualization of l­ abor in general.”16 In the national context of weakened ­unions, outsourcing, and layoffs as means to protect shareholder profits, making the case that academics deserve singular job security is a tough sell. When the case is made, it’s usu­ ally in behalf of academic freedom, which has been the chief ratio­ nale for tenure since the outbreak more than a ­century ago of what the historian Walter Metzger called “ideological conflict between academic social scientists and trustees of wealth.”17 The incendiary event occurred in 1900 in the person of Edward Ross, a Stanford University sociologist who favored public owner­ ship of utilities, regulation of railroads (from which Stanford de­ rived its wealth), and a ban on Asian immigration as a source of cheap ­labor. When the university president came ­under pressure from Mrs. Stanford to get rid of him, Ross resigned, followed by colleagues who left in protest, including the ­great intellectual his­ torian Arthur O. Lovejoy, who ­later helped found the American 186

After the Pandemic

Association of University Professors (AAUP) on two princi­ples still pertinent ­today: that tenure is necessary to protect “freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities” and is also a way to provide “a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and ­women of ability.” In our own era—­when some pundits and opportunistic poli­ ticians on the right are trying to dictate what can be taught, while some students and feckless faculty on the left are trying to police what can be said—­the first rationale is more compelling than ever. As for the second, the distinguished chemist Holden Thorp—­ formerly chancellor of the University of North Carolina at ­Chapel Hill and provost of Washington University; now the editor of Science magazine—­has a sharp retort for opponents of tenure who “lament the job security that they feel is exploited or not earned. . . . ​ Ask them if they can think of any other jobs that pay what an ­entry assistant professor in the humanities pays with 10 years of postbac­ calaureate training and hundreds of applicants for ­every slot? And the so-­called exploitation? For ­every se­nior faculty member phon­ ing it in, 10 are serving on ­every committee, teaching extra courses, and still ­doing research. It’s [tenure, that is] a bargain.”18 But ­because the job market for recent PhDs is saturated, espe­ cially in the humanities and social sciences, universities are often able to avoid the tenure system and hire contingent faculty at even lower pay. ­Under t­ hese conditions, tenure is a bargain to which more and more institutions are saying no. In some fields the market for stable, decently paid teaching positions has all but collapsed—­one consequence of which is the growing push for u­ nionization among gradu­ate students who have scant hope of an academic c­ areer ­after putting in years of advanced study and “apprentice” teaching. Meanwhile, for the shrinking fraction of young faculty who do manage to obtain tenure-­track jobs—­jobs, that is, leading to an 187

Seven

“up or out” moment when their contract is ­either terminated or in­def­initely extended—­the criteria for promotion and retention typically have ­little to do with how well they are serving students. The idea of tenure is an artifact of the early twentieth-­century re­ search university, where, in some cases (Johns Hopkins, Clark), the number of undergraduates was between negligible and zero. In 1900, in the entire United States, ­there ­were approximately two hundred thousand college students. ­Today ­there are around 16 million. Yet u­ nder the tenure system inherited from a c­ entury ago, college faculty—­most of whom, as the economist Noah Smith has written, “have been essentially hired to be teachers”—­are still com­ pelled to “prove their suitability for the job by d­ oing research.”19 As a result, many good teachers who do ­little research are denied tenure, while weak teachers who do lots of research achieve it. Such an outcome may be justifiable at institutions whose pri­ mary function is the production of new knowledge. More broadly, however, it is not only unjustifiable but unjust. As the University of Wisconsin philosophy professor Harry Brig­house points out, “Instructional quality is the most neglected—­and perhaps the most serious—­equity issue in higher education. Good instruc­ tion benefits every­one, but it benefits students who attended lower-­quality high schools, whose parents cannot pay for com­ pensatory tutors, who lack the time to use tutors ­because they have to work, and who are less comfortable seeking help more than it benefits other students.”20 ­There is some reason to hope that tenure, or at least renew­ able extended contracts, may become less strictly tied to research productivity. For example, in 2021, Worcester Polytechnic Insti­ tute announced the creation of forty-­five tenure lines for faculty who “specialize in teaching.” And following a number of “j’accuse” books published over the past fifteen years, including Derek Bok’s 188

After the Pandemic

Our Underachieving Colleges and Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s Academically Adrift: ­Limited Learning on College Campuses, ­there has been a growing effort to assess and improve college teaching, even at institutions whose core mission is research. More teach­ ers in the burgeoning fields of STEM (science, technology, engi­ neering, and mathe­matics) are discarding hour-­long lectures in ­favor of shorter segments on discrete topics, breakout groups, fre­ quent quizzes, and digital feedback systems that tell the instructor ­whether students have grasped the material or need it repeated or presented in a dif­fer­ent way. The Stanford physicist Carl Wieman believes that “university teaching is in the early stages of a historic transition, changing from an individual folk art to a field with es­ tablished expertise, much as medicine did 150 years ago.”21 It is heartening that the STEM fields—­which attract many first-­generation college students but then tend to discourage them—­may be shifting their teaching culture from weed-­them-­ out to help-­them-­learn. But it’s not clear that the recent explo­ sion of work in the neuroscience of cognition—­lucidly reviewed in Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn by Sanjay Sarma and Luke Yoquinto—­has done much to modify the basic insight shared by all good teachers since Socrates: that to teach well is to ask questions or pose prob­lems that prompt students to reflect and respond with words, numbers, or other expressive symbols, including the nondiscursive languages of the arts. A good teacher ­will meet each response with more questions, hop­ ing to inspire students with the excitement of discovering that the chain of questions has no end.

4 The sociologist Steven Brint has proposed some steps that would help provide this experience to as many young ­people 189

Seven

as pos­si­ble. ­These include restoring robust funding for regional public institutions; doubling the maximum award amount of the federal Pell Grant for low-­income students, which once covered three-­quarters of the average tuition at public universities but now covers only 30 ­percent; making repayment of student loans contingent on postcollege income; and extending eligibility for tenure to adjunct faculty based on the quality of their teaching. For its part, the AAUP is calling for “A New Deal for Higher Edu­ cation,” which would provide federal tuition subsidies, student loan forgiveness, and support for staff and campus infrastructure. ­There have also been calls to restrict eligibility for federal funds to institutions that award tenure to some mandated percentage of their faculty. But given the mood of the Republican Party, the divisions within the Demo­cratic Party, and the battered reputa­ tion of higher education among large sectors of the public, ­these proposals face daunting odds. In fact, well before the pandemic hit, serious commentators—­ including some academic leaders—­were predicting that colleges and universities as ­we’ve known them are destined for oblivion, and that any effort to stabilize or reform them is a proverbial case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. An early version of this view was set forth in the mid-1990s by the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, who advanced a theory of “disruptive innovation” in which new enterprises tar­ get customers who have ­limited resources and bring “to market a product or ser­vice that is not as good as the best traditional offerings but is more affordable and easier to use.”22 Gradually, this low-­end ser­vice improves in quality and appeal u­ ntil higher-­ end providers embrace and adapt it. For higher education, that disruptive innovation was online instruction, deployed by for-­ profit “universities” like the University of Phoenix and initially 190

After the Pandemic

sneered at in established institutions as a tacky product not to be taken seriously. Over the ensuing twenty-­ five years, “distance learning,” as it came to be known, made significant inroads into higher education—­even before COVID, 40  ­percent of students had taken at least one online course—at first almost entirely through the private for-­profits. Lightly regulated during the Clinton and Bush administrations despite their predatory recruitment prac­ tices, ­these for-­profit “universities” played a disproportionate role in driving up student debt. As Tressie McMillan Cottom reports in her aptly titled book Lower Ed, by 2008 more low-­ income Black and Latinx ­women ­were attending for-­profits than ­were enrolled in four-­year private and public nonprofit institu­ tions combined. By the late 1990s, established universities ­were also taking tentative steps into online teaching. Columbia led a failed at­ tempt to market online courses through an entity called Fathom​ .­com, which folded in 2003. By 2012, two for-­profit start-­ups—­ Coursera and Udacity—­had been launched by entrepreneurs at Stanford and Google, followed shortly by a nonprofit compet­ itor, edX, a partnership between Harvard and MIT. ­Suddenly star professors ­were signing up as in­de­pen­dent contractors to teach every­thing from astrophysics to lyric poetry through so-­called massive open online courses, or MOOCs. ­There was high-­minded talk about how this new disruptive form would help de­moc­ra­tize education by reaching anyone anywhere on the globe with an Internet connection and an appetite to learn. Stanford president John Hennessy predicted a “tsunami” of tech­ nological innovation that would sweep away all but a few super-­ wealthy colleges and universities. But online education has not brought about a new era of 191

Seven

demo­cratic higher education—at least not yet. Most consum­ ers of MOOCs turned out to be not young ­people looking for a substitute for traditional college but professionals looking for  ­career advancement. Coursera is increasingly a global ser­ vice for businesses, governments, and credentialed individuals, though it continues to provide a platform through which universi­ ties offer courses and programs. It has raised hundreds of millions in venture capital from investors betting that “­these new alterna­ tive education models are the ­future of how ­people ­will be trained up for the ­labor market.”23 In the summer of 2021, Harvard and MIT sold edX to the for-­profit com­pany 2U for $800 million (a tidy return on their initial $30 million investment), promising to use the proceeds for “transforming educational outcomes” and “tackling learning inequities”—­whatever exactly that means.24 Though the MOOCs have so far failed to shake up universi­ ties to anything like the extent predicted, online instruction in other forms is growing. The audaciously inventive president of Arizona State University, Michael Crow, speaks of a “fifth wave” of American higher education (the first four ­were colonial col­ leges, state universities founded in the early republic, land-­grant institutions following the Civil War, and research universities in the twentieth ­century) that ­will “redress the inequities associated with the hierarchical differentiation of sectors, or vertical insti­ tutional segmentation,” and “catalyze innovative knowledge pro­ duction as well as its dissemination to an increasing proportion of citizens.” Buried in this technocratic prose is the news that pre­ viously excluded or underserved students ­will be reached ­mainly through “technologically enabled massive-­scale delivery”—­a ­euphemism for online instruction.25 Paul LeBlanc, the president of Southern New Hampshire University, speaks more plainly but with comparable ambition 192

After the Pandemic

to extend the reach of higher education. Southern New Hamp­ shire offers a curriculum taught almost entirely online, mainly by part-­time faculty, to 135,000 students, many of whom are older than traditional college age, have l­imited resources, and whose work and ­family responsibilities ­don’t fit the constraints of con­ ventional campus life, such as daytime in-­person classes. Most traditional institutions continued to ignore or conde­ scend to ­these alternative forms of college ­until mid-­March 2020, when the pandemic sent students and faculty rushing almost overnight into distance learning—or, as some prefer to call it, “emergency remote instruction.” ­People like me, for whom “Zoom” used to mean the sound of a motorcycle or a car with a punctured muffler, suddenly found ourselves, like it or not, teaching online. ­After a two-­week hiatus between the shutdown of classes and their resumption on the Internet, my students and I felt like friends who had been scattered by a storm and re­united in a shelter. ­After a variety of mask and vaccine mandates ­were put in place, most colleges ner­vously resumed in-­person teaching, but even as the masks come off, a full return to the status quo ante seems unlikely. The Zoom experiment showed that even where physical space is scarce, it’s pos­si­ble to find breakout rooms for small group discussions and to accommodate students with long commutes or mild illness who might other­wise be absent. Zoom made it easier to include guest speakers in class and harder for shy students to hide in the back of the room, b­ ecause in a Zoom room ­there’s no front or back. On the other hand, the screen is just that: a filter or barrier that screens both teacher and student from the serendipitous effects of gesture, body language, and eye contact, making the relation less immediate and more impersonal. Though it’s hard to distinguish from the many forms of exhaustion in­ duced by the pandemic, “Zoom fatigue” feels very real. 193

Seven

One of the unfulfilled hopes of online instruction has been its promise to slow the rise in college costs and thereby make higher education more accessible to students with few resources. But with specialized exceptions like the online master’s degree in computer science offered by Georgia Tech, the prospect of matching affordability with quality remains elusive. At the outset of the pandemic, ­after the shift to online classes, a few mega-­rich institutions announced temporary tuition discounts (15 ­percent at Williams, 10  ­percent at Prince­ton). But prestigious institu­ tions w ­ ill also look for ways to use online technology to generate more revenue—­perhaps by rotating cohorts within an expanded undergraduate class through cycles of on-­campus and off-­campus enrollment (this semester ­you’re living in a dorm; next semester you’ll be Zooming off-­campus), thereby forgoing investment in new physical facilities while collecting more tuition dollars. The economists Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson suggest that some institutions may be able to “charge as much or more for an on-­line course, with lower overhead at an increased scale, as for the on-­campus equivalent.”26

5 In the not-­yet-­aftermath of the pandemic, trying to predict the ­future of higher education is, even more than usual, a dicey business. Contingencies include ­future birth rates, regional ­population shifts driven by climate change, economic expansion or contraction, the needs and wants of students, the capabilities of ­future technologies, public opinion, the priorities of private philanthropy, and, most impor­tant, the scale and focus of state and federal government funding. Bryan Alexander, whose imag­ ination caught an early glimpse of the pandemic, leads a group called the ­Future of Education Observatory—­but despite the 194

After the Pandemic

astronomical meta­phor, predicting what ­will happen to our col­ leges and universities is less like tracking a planet than playing with a Ouija board. For now, as we wait and speculate, the question at hand is ­whether we are witnessing resourceful adaptations to an excep­ tional event, or the beginnings of deep change of which COVID is giving us a preview. In a book written at the height of the pan­ demic, The ­Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Pre­sent, and Uncertain ­Future, Arthur Levine, former president of Teachers College and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and Scott Van Pelt, who teaches at the Wharton School, argue that awarding credentials based on “seat time” spent in classes in hour-­long segments crammed into a fraction of each day is a relic of the industrial era. Years before the pandemic, the formidable jour­ nalist Kevin Carey wrote a book, The End of College, in which he predicted that traditional colleges and universities ­will even­ tually give way to what he called the “University of Everywhere.” This ­will not be a fixed institution with certifying authority but rather an array of entities in the Cloud that issue certificates or “badges” based on competency tests to prove the mastery of certain skills—­credentials much more reliable than t­oday’s diplomas. Students ­will benefit from what Jeffrey Selingo, an education writer now serving as the special advisor for innova­ tion at Arizona State, calls “adaptive learning technologies” that “adjust to the speed at which an individual student learns.” In this ­imagined ­future, equity ­will be served, in Carey’s words, by “increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence [that] ­will di­ agnose the strengths and weaknesses of each individual learner and customize his or her education accordingly, constantly chal­ lenging and motivating ­people to work harder and better with­ out breaching the threshold of frustration and failure.” Liberated 195

Seven

from the burdens of time and cost imposed by ossified institu­ tions, p­ eople ­will become more capable, better informed, and even—­because of diminished frustration—­happier. On the question of who the certifying authorities w ­ ill be, Levine and Van Pelt bring us down to earth. “The awarding organ­ization,” they write, “does not need to be a college: it could be an industry leader, such as Google or Microsoft, whose en­ dorsement would mean more than that of most colleges.” In fact, the lines between for-­profit businesses and nonprofit institu­ tions have been blurring for some time as students seek “the same kind of relationship with their colleges that they have with their banks, supermarkets, and internet providers. They ask the same four ­things of each: (1) con­ve­nience, (2) ser­vice, (3) a quality product, and (4) low cost.” For faculty, this brave new world w ­ on’t be a hospitable place. During the initial excitement over MOOCs, Stanford’s John Hennessy predicted that faculties would shrink as technologies grow. As artificial intelligence takes over more and more ­human functions, a lot of college professors—­much like radiologists or truck ­drivers—­will be collateral damage. No doubt some tradi­ tional institutions w ­ ill survive, with students in residence and faculty in classrooms on what Bryan Alexander calls the “Retro Campus”—­a place “like a vinyl rec­ord store,” where eccentric customers go to indulge in remembrance of times past.

6 For anyone who cares about equity, or about education as some­ thing more than the transmission of marketable skills, this sci-fi vision of the ­future has at least three big prob­lems. First, ­there is no reason to believe that technology ­will broaden opportunities

196

After the Pandemic

and improve learning for unconfident students, many of whom are low-­income, nonwhite, and from families with no previous college experience. As Thomas Bailey, the president of Teach­ ers College, has written with his colleagues at the Community College Research Center, “online instruction . . . ​tends to rein­ force . . . ​disconnectedness and isolation, while undermining many students’ success.”27 Baum and McPherson report that “moving coursework fully online increases gaps in success” and that “students who take online classes do worse in subsequent courses and are more likely to drop out of school. Males, students with lower prior GPAs, and Black students have par­tic­u­lar diffi­ culty adjusting to online learning. The per­for­mance gaps that ex­ ist for t­ hese subgroups in face-­to-­face courses become even more pronounced in online courses.”28 None of this should be surprising. Students need ­human—­and humane—­teachers and mentors. They need recognition from adults alert to their capacities, aware of their limitations, with concern and time enough to counsel and guide them. Among the ­bitter realities of Amer­i­ca’s current higher education system is the fact that the students who most need t­ hese supports are the least likely to get them. A second prob­lem with the entrepreneurial, global, and in­ creasingly virtual university is that it offers too l­ittle to the lo­ cal communities in which it is rooted. This is especially true of wealthy private institutions, which enjoy a nonprofit status that spares them from taxation on their real property and invest­ ment returns and confers tax deductibility on gifts from their donors—­all of which represents revenue withheld from the pub­ lic trea­sury. When pressed on what they are ­doing to meet their public responsibilities, most presidents and trustees ­will point to

197

Seven

advances in medicine (if the institution has a medical school), or to technologies derived from research conducted on campus, or to the fact that their institution is a local employer. ­These claims have merit. But private institutions, especially ­those with significant resources, should be ­doing more, as indeed some are. Many of t­ hese institutions, as the urbanist scholar Da­ varian L. Baldwin shows in grim detail in his book In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower, are islands of privilege in or near areas of high poverty and poor public schools—­a real­ity made painfully apparent by the disparate effects of the pandemic. They should be partnering with public libraries on literacy and civic programs; providing ­legal and other ser­vices to the needy; pledging, as Yale has done, larger payments in lieu of taxes (or PILOTS) to their municipality; subsidizing rents or other­wise supporting locally owned businesses; and making direct investments in ­community improvements. They should be opening their doors wider to qualified transfer students from local community colleges. They should be serving veterans, incarcerated ­people, and local public school students, whose prospects to attend college can be mark­ edly improved by after-­school tutoring and other “wrap-­around” ser­vices of the kind that affluent families take for granted. ­There are some encouraging examples of such efforts that could be replicated or adapted by many more institutions: the Clemente Course in the Humanities,29 a nationwide course for indigent adults taught by local academics and accredited by Bard College; the Warrior-­Scholar Proj­ect,30 which brings veterans to study at eminent universities; the Netter Center for Com­ munity Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania31 and the Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships at Drexel,32 which connect undergraduates with schools and social ser­vices in West Philadelphia; Mount Tamalpais College,33 a liberal arts 198

After the Pandemic

institution for students incarcerated at San Quentin, staffed by volunteer teachers from around the Bay Area; the Double Dis­ covery Center at Columbia,34 which more than fifty years ago furnished the model for the federal Upward Bound program that helps ­middle and high school students prepare for college; and the Knowledge for Freedom network (full disclosure: funded in part by the Tea­gle Foundation, where I am currently president),35 which brings low-­income high school students onto college cam­ puses for a “­Great Books” seminar. Public institutions, too, should be ramping up efforts to serve students beyond their campus gates, as exemplified by the New­ ark City of Learning Collaborative,36 led by the Newark branch of Rutgers University ­under the leadership of its farsighted chan­ cellor, Nancy Cantor. As the prospect grows that the Supreme Court w ­ ill disallow race-­conscious admissions policies, such pro­ grams become all the more impor­tant for widening the pipeline for talented Black and Latinx students mired in poor schools. What all of ­these programs have in common is that they are re­ ciprocal learning experiences: they can be life-­changing for the teachers as well as for the taught. Fi­nally, ­there is a third—­and perhaps the deepest—­prob­lem with the futuristic vision of education advanced by “techno­ logically enabled delivery”: the debilitating fact that it rests on a narrow, positivistic conception of knowledge. In this view, all teaching is training, and all learning is a quest for competence: the mastery of some field whose prac­ti­tion­ers can expect compen­ sation for their proficiency or expertise. No one should dispute that colleges have a vital responsibility to prepare students for the world of work—to provide them with what the po­liti­cal sci­ entist Benjamin Ginsberg calls “more or less sophisticated forms of vocational training to meet the needs of other established 199

Seven

institutions in the public and private sectors.” In fact, prepara­ tion for economic productivity has been the main aim of univer­ sities since the decline of prescribed curricula in the nineteenth ­century, when the introduction of electives and ­later, majors, aligned what students chose to study in college with the work they planned to do a­ fter. Over the past fifty years, as students from eco­nom­ically insecure families entered college in growing numbers, this alignment has only become tighter, including at elite institutions that serve predominantly affluent students. “It is a shame,” Ginsberg writes, “when that is all that the university offers.”37 “All” is an exaggeration, but at more and more institu­ tions it’s a fair approximation. What’s increasingly rare in higher education, and almost entirely missing from writings about its f­uture, is a more than nominal commitment to the value of learning undertaken in the hope of expanding the sympathetic imagination by opening the mind to contesting ideas about nature and history, the power of lit­er­a­ture and art, and the value of dialectic in the pursuit of truth. ­These aspirations, traditionally gathered u­ nder the term “liberal education”—­the subject of this book—­are in desperate need of revival. To advance them requires teachers and institu­ tions committed to a more capacious vision of education than the prevailing idea of workforce training and economic self-­ advancement. Dare we hope that the shock of the pandemic w ­ ill confirm the urgency of this need? The kinds of questions the virus has forced upon us are not, ­after all, ultimately technical or empirical ones. They are po­liti­cal, ethical, and historical questions: How do we reconcile individual liberties with the public good? How do we account for savage inequities in health care and the quality of life? What should national sovereignty mean in a world where 200

After the Pandemic

pathogens go from local to global in a flash? To debate such ques­ tions with rigor and candor requires habits of the heart and mind that are, to put it mildly, sorely lacking in our viciously polarized po­liti­cal culture. If our colleges and universities, along with the legislatures, philanthropies, and private donors that support them, do not recommit in act as well as word to the princi­ples of pluralist democracy—­equity, opportunity, tolerance, rationality—­our re­ public ­doesn’t stand much of a chance. Certain habits of mind—­ distinguishing between arguments and opinions, admitting self-­doubt, rethinking assumptions—­are imperative for collec­ tive life. If ­these habits are not nurtured in the college classroom, where ­else ­will they be found?

201

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

forty years teacher, I have accumuAfter more than thirty years as as a college teacher, lated so many debts to students, colleagues, and friends that I must confine myself here to acknowledging those who have had a direct effect on the writing of this book. First, thanks are due to the Committee on Public Lectures at Princeton University for the invitation to deliver the Stafford Little Lectures, of which this book is an expansion and elaboration. I am grateful to Peter Dougherty, Hanne Winarsky, and Kathleen Cioffi at Princeton University Press, who waited patiently while I developed the lectures into a book, as well as to the two readers who made invaluable suggestions in response to the manuscript. Joan Gieseke improved the book with her careful copyediting, as did Julie Shawvan, who created the thorough index. The largest influences on my own classroom practice have been the memorable teachers I encountered as a student, and those from whom I have learned since. I think especially of Phil Schwartz, whom I assisted in an Upward Bound program when I 203 187

Acknowledgments Acknowledgments

was still in high school; of Sara Bershtel, who, when I was in college, showed me how exciting a place a classroom could be; and of the lateShenton, James Shenton, televised lectures American his­ hisJames whosewhose televised lectures ononAmerican years later, welcomed me tory enthralled enthralledme melong longago, ago,and andwho, who, years later, welcomed me a colleague. The enduring example of my mentor, as a as colleague. The enduring example of my mentor, the late Alan Heimert, Heimert, is in my mind every time I give a lecture, lecture, lead a discus­ discussion, or meet with a student. I’ve had the privilege of teaching a dauntingstandard, standard, college seminar seminar with Steven Marcus, who set a daunting and, more recently, an undergraduate course on equity and ac­ undergraduate course access in higher education, with Roger Lehecka, whose devotion to students and knowledge students knowledge of the subject are without parallel in my experience, and who provided incisive readings of the themanuscript manuscript experience, at several stages of revision. The students in that course have been inspiring in their passionate commitment to educational equity as well as excellence. excellence. owe aagreat greatdeal dealto to Epstein and to Sil­ I owe theBarbara late Barbara Epstein, andRobert to Robert vers forfor inviting memetototrytryout essay-­ Silvers, inviting outmy my thoughts thoughts in in several essayreviews for the New York Review of Books, parts of which appear in for the New York Review of Books, parts of which appear thisthis book in different form. Many yearsyears ago, when I had Ijust in book in different form. Many ago, when hadstart­ just ed thinking about about a subject for an earlier book, Barbara asked me a started thinking a subject for an earlier book, Barbara question—“How will you“How make it a story?”—that to chal­ asked me a question— will you make itcontinues a story?”— that lenge me whenever I set out to write anything. As everyone knows continues to challenge me whenever I set out to write anything. whoeveryone worked with Bob, writing for himwith was an education As knows who has worked Bob, writing in foritself. him is I am also ingrateful an education itself. to Paul Baumann at Commonweal, Lewis Lapham at Lapham’s and Alexat Star at the NewLewis York I am also grateful Quarterly, to Paul Baumann Commonweal, Times Magazine, who commissioned and essays helped Lapham at Lapham’s Quarterly, andreviews Alex Star at thethat New York my thinking and have partially incorporated this book. Times Magazine, who been commissioned reviews andin essays that Thanksmy are due, too, to David literary incorporated editor of The Nation, helped thinking and haveMarcus, been partially in this for commissioning the essay on which chapter seven is based. book. Some of the ideas and formulations in the foregoing pages were tried out before audiences who engaged me in spirited dis204 188

Acknowledgments

cussion and particularly of the anddebate. debate.I think I think particularly of members the members of a of a seminar organized by Ellen Lagemann and supported by SuebyAnne seminar organized by Ellen Lagemann and supported Sue Weinberg, and of and the graduate studentsstudents who enrolled in a colloAnne Weinberg, of the graduate who enrolled in quium on higher that I have over the a colloquium on education higher education thatoffered I have regularly offered regularly past decade atinitially Columbia, initially in collaboration with my colat Columbia, in collaboration with my colleague Casey league Blake. Forthat Blake. Casey For supporting colloquium, thanks are due to the supporting that colloquium, thanks are due to theW.Andrew Mellon Foundation, where Joseph Meisel, Andrew MellonW. Foundation, where Joseph Meisel was espe­ now of Brown University, was especially helpful. ciallyDeputy helpful.Provost I am grateful, too, to the Spencer Foundation for Ia am grateful, too, to the grant that allowed me Spencer an uninterrupted of reading Foundationsummer for a grant that allowed me an uninterrupted summer of reading and writing. and writing. For invitations to speak to, and with, educators concerned with the needs of college students, I wish to thank President John DeGioia and Provost James O’Donnell at Georgetown University; Provost Mark Schwehn and Assistant Provost David Owens at Valparaiso University; President David Levinson and Professor Steven Berizzi at Norwalk Community College; President Nathan Hatch of Wake Forest University; Professor Carl Eby and colleagues at the University of South Carolina at Beaufort; Aine Donovan and her colleagues at the Center for Ethics at Dartmouth College, especially James Murphy of the Daniel Webster Program, who made helpful suggestions in response to my talk; Dave Guthrie at Geneva College; Simon Head and Jane Tylus at New York University; Debra Satz, Dean of Humanities at Stanford; Pat McPherson and Judith Shapiro at the American Philosophical Society; Richard Ekman of the Council of Independent Colleges; Jerry Lucido of the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice at the University of Southern California; Lloyd Thacker of the Education Conservancy; Denise Dutton at The University of Tulsa; Thomas Hibbs at Baylor University; Craig Warren and his colleagues in the College English Association; Kathleen Little at the College Board; Charles Eisendrath 205 189

Acknowledgments Acknowledgments

and still the in 2010– KnightWallace the University of was high2011 school; of Sara BershFellows tel, who,atwhen I was in colMichigan; Ted of theaConsortium on Financing lege, showed meBracken how exciting place a classroom could be;Higher and of Education; Carolyn De La Pena at the University of California, the late James Shenton, whose televised lectures on American hisDavis; Joseph Luzzi at Bard past presitory enthralled me long ago,College; and who,Linda years Halpern, later, welcomed me dent of the American Council of Academic Deans;the Dean John as a colleague. The enduring example of my mentor, late Alan Harrington at my Fordham University; Morrilllead anda Donna Heimert, is in mind every time I Richard give a lecture, discusHeiland of the Teagle Foundation, for their thoughtful readings sion, or meet with a student. I’ve had the privilege of teaching a of the manuscript; W. Robert president of college seminar withand Steven Marcus,Connor, who set aformer daunting standard, the Teagle who invited mecourse to participate several and, more Foundation, recently, an undergraduate on equityinand ac“listenings” oneducation, the futurewith of higher All thedevotion gatherings cess in higher Rogereducation. Lehecka, whose to listed above included educators of high integrity who helped me students and knowledge of the subject are without parallel in my to sharpen my and to take my thoughts in new directions. experience, andthinking who provided incisive readings of the manuscript My thanks well to The the creators Q, Robert Loat several stagesgo ofas revision. studentsofinAvenue that course have been pez and Jeff Marx, and theircommitment publisher, Alfred Music Publishing, inspiring in their passionate to educational equity as for permission to quote the lyrics to “I Wish I Could Go to Colwell as excellence. lege.” Copyright 2003 Only forBarbara Now, Inc. and Fantasies Come I owe a great © deal to the late Epstein, and to Robert True, Inc. rights on Only Now, Inc. administered Silvers, forAll inviting meBehalf to tryofout myfor thoughts in several essayby Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. Allparts rightsofreserved. Used reviews for the New York Review of Books, which appear by permission. Philip Larkin’s poem, “Talking in Bed, ” from in this book in different form. Many years ago, when I hadColjust lected Poems by Philip Larkin is reprinted by permission of Farrar, started thinking about a subject for an earlier book, Barbara Straus me andaGiroux, LLC, Faberwill andyou Faber, Ltd., the Society asked question— “How make it aand story?”— that of Authors,toLiterary Representative Philip Larkin. continues challenge me wheneverofIthe setEstate out toofwrite anything. Copyright © 1988, 2003 by the Estate of Philip Larkin. As everyone knows who has worked with Bob, writing for him is In my ownincollege an education itself. years, many good things happened to me. By far thealso bestgrateful was meeting myBaumann wife, Dawn. Over the years Lewis since, I am to Paul at Commonweal, her devotion to her students— undergraduates the gradLapham at Lapham’s Quarterly, and Alex Starasatwell theasNew York uate students whom she has mentored as they strive to become Times Magazine, who commissioned reviews and essays that teachersmy themselves— hashave beenbeen a chastening She continhelped thinking and partiallyexample. incorporated in this ues to be my most demanding reader, but that is only one among book. countless why she my gratitudeinbeyond measure.pages Some reasons of the ideas andhas formulations the foregoing were tried out before audiences who engaged me in spirited dis206 190 188

NOTES

Introduction 1. Malcolm Gladwell, “The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tell Us,” New Yorker, February 14 and 21, 2011, p. 72. 2. Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University, 5th ed. (1963; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 49. 3. Jaimes Amber, “Neouniversitas,” Harvard Crimson, October 12, 2010. 4. Abigail Adams to John Adams, August 14, 1776, in The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762–1784, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, and Mary-Jo Kline (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), p. 152; David Starr Jordan, quoted in Julie A. Reuben, The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 253. 5. Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun Microsystems, quoted in Anan Giridharadas, “Virtual Classrooms Could Create a Marketplace of Knowledge,” New York Times, November 6, 2009. 6. Bowen, commencement address at the graduate school of Indiana University, May 6, 2011. Alison Wolf, Does Education Matter? Myths about Education and Economic Growth (London: Penguin Books, 2002), p. 247.

207 191

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 6–12 6–12 7. Earnest Earnest, quoted quoted in in Jerome Jerome Karabel, Karabel, The The Chosen Chosen (Boston: (Boston: 7. Earnest Earnest, Houghton-Mifflin, Mifflin, 2005), 2005), p. p. 19. 19. Houghton8. 8. Anya Anya Kamenetz, Kamenetz, DIYU: DIYU: Edupunks, Edupunks, Edupreneurs, Edupreneurs, and and the the Coming Coming Transformation of Higher Education (White River Junction, Transformation of Higher Education (White River Junction, VT: VT: Chelsea Green, Green, 2010), 2010), p. p. 34. 34. Chelsea 9. For For aa detailed detailed analysis analysis of of the the growing growing gap gap between between wellwell-funded funded 9. and poorly funded colleges, see the report Trends in and poorly funded colleges, see the report Trends in College College Spending: Spending: 1999– 1999–2009 2009 (September (September 2011), 2011), by by the the Delta Delta Cost Cost ProjProject and and the the Lumina Lumina Foundation, Foundation, http://www.deltacostproject http://www.deltacostproject ect .org/resources/pdf/Trends2011_Final_090711.pdf. .org/resources/pdf/Trends2011_Final_090711.pdf.

Chapter One. One. What What Is Is College College For? For? Chapter 1. This This experience experience pertains pertains mainly mainly to to colleges colleges where where most most students students are are 1. of “traditional” “traditional” age. age. The The number number of of “nontraditional” “nontraditional” students, students, i.e., i.e., of those those who who have have come come to to college college at at aa later later stage stage of of life, life, has has been been rapidly rapidly growing. growing. 2. Shulman, Shulman, quoted quoted in in Donald Donald N. N. Levine, Levine, Powers Powers of of the the Mind: Mind: The The ReinRein2. vention of of Liberal Liberal Learning Learning in in America America (Chicago: (Chicago: University University of of ChiChivention cago Press, 2006), p. 130. cago Press, 2006), p. 130. 3. 3. Recent Recent studies studies of of student student evaluations evaluations have have found found that that students students tend tend to give give good good reviews reviews “to “to instructors instructors who who are are easy easy graders graders or or who who are are to good looking, looking,”” and and lesser lesser reviews reviews to to women women and and instructors instructors born born good outside outside the the United United States. States. The The largest largest such such study, study, at at Ohio Ohio State State UniUniversity, finds “no correlation between professor evaluations versity, finds “no correlation between professor evaluations and and the the learning that that is is actually actually taking taking place.” place.” See See InsideHigherEd.com, InsideHigherEd.com, JanuJanulearning ary 29, 29, 2007. 2007. ary 4. New England’s 4. New England’s First First Fruits Fruits (1643), (1643), in in Samuel Samuel Eliot Eliot Morison, Morison, The The Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge: Harvard University Founding of Harvard College (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Press, 1935), p. p. 432. 432. 1935), 5. Wallace Wallace Stegner, Stegner, Crossing Crossing to to Safety Safety (New (New York: York: Penguin Penguin Books, Books, 1988), 1988), 5. p. 31. p. 31. 6. 6. Michael Michael S. S. McPherson McPherson and and Morton Morton Owen Owen Schapiro, Schapiro, “The “The Future Future Economic Challenges Challenges for for the the Liberal Liberal Arts Arts Colleges, Colleges,”” in in Distinctively Distinctively Economic American: The The Residential Residential Liberal Liberal Arts Arts Colleges, Colleges, ed. ed. Steven Steven Koblik Koblik and and American: Stephen R. Graubard (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2000), p. Stephen R. Graubard (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2000), p. 50. 50.

208 192

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 12–18 12–18 7. For statistical portrait portrait of of undergraduate undergraduate education, education, see see the the annual annual 7. For aa statistical “Almanac of of Higher Higher Education, Education,”” published published most most recently recently by by the the “Almanac Chronicle of Higher Education, August 26, 2011. Chronicle of Higher Education, August 26, 2011. 8. 8. Mark Mark Lilla’s Lilla’s lecture, lecture, “The “The Soldier, Soldier, The The Sage, Sage, The The Saint, Saint, and and the the CitiCitizen” (delivered (delivered on on April April 23, 23, 2010), 2010), is is posted posted on on the the Columbia Columbia UniUnizen” versity website: website: http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/lectures/ http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/lectures/ versity spring2010-0. spring2010-0. 9. 9. See See Suniya Suniya S. S. Luthar Luthar and and Shawn Shawn J.J. Latendresse, Latendresse, “Children “Children of of the the AfAffluent: Challenges Challenges to to WellWell-Being, Being,”” Current Current Directions Directions in in Psychological Psychological fluent: Science 14, 14, no. no. 11 (February (February 2005): 2005): 49– 49–53. 53. Science 10. As early as 1869, Charles W. Eliot, Harvard’s 10. As early as 1869, Charles W. Eliot, Harvard’s first first president president without without aa clerical background, dismissed “the notion that education clerical background, dismissed “the notion that education consists consists in the the authoritative authoritative inculcation inculcation of of what what the the teacher teacher deems deems true, true,”” and and in declared “the “the very very word word ‘education’ ‘education’ ”” to to be be “a “a standing standing protest protest against against declared dogmatic dogmatic teaching” teaching” (Eliot, (Eliot, inaugural inaugural address address as as president president of of HarHarvard [1869], in American Higher Education: A Documentary vard [1869], in American Higher Education: A Documentary History, History, 2  vols., vols., ed. ed. Richard Richard Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Wilson Wilson Smith Smith [Chicago: [Chicago: UniUni2  versity of of Chicago Chicago Press, Press, 1961], 1961], 2:606). 2:606). There There are, are, alas, alas, still still dogmatic dogmatic versity teachers, teachers, although although their their numbers numbers are are exaggerated exaggerated and and their their dogma dogma is is more likely today to be political than theological. more likely today to be political than theological. 11. Laurence Laurence R. R. Veysey, Veysey, The The Emergence Emergence of of the the American American University University (Chi(Chi11. cago: University University of of Chicago Chicago Press, Press, 1965), 1965), p. p. 271. 271. cago: 12. 12. Charles Charles Franklin Franklin Thwing, Thwing, The The American American College: College: What What It It Is Is and and What What It May Become (New York: Platt and Peck, 1914), p. 97. I am It May Become (New York: Platt and Peck, 1914), p. 97. I am grateful grateful to Steven Steven Wheatley Wheatley of of the the American American Council Council of of Learned Learned Societies Societies for for to drawing my my attention attention to to this this book. book. The The English English professor professor was was Fred Fred drawing Lewis Lewis Pattee, Pattee, quoted quoted in in Gerald Gerald Graff, Graff, Professing Professing Literature: Literature: An An InstiInstitutional History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), tutional History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. p. 107. 107. 13. Trilling, Trilling, “The “The Uncertain Uncertain Future Future of of the the Humanistic Humanistic Educational Educational 13. Ideal” (1974), (1974), in in The The Last Last Decade: Decade: Essays Essays and and Reviews, Reviews, 1965– 1965–75 75 (New (New Ideal” York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1979), pp. 160– 76. York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1979), pp. 160–76. 14. 14. Sam Sam Lipsyte, Lipsyte, The The Ask Ask (New (New York: York: Farrar, Farrar, Straus, Straus, and and Giroux, Giroux, 2010), 2010), p. 51. p. 51. 15. Spencer Spencer Foreman, Foreman, MD MD in in First First Person: Person: An An Oral Oral History History (Chicago: (Chicago: 15. American Hospital Association Center for Hospital Administration American Hospital Association Center for Hospital Administration

209 193

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 18–21 18–21

16. 16.

17. 17. 18. 18.

19. 19. 20. 20.

and Health Health Care Care Administration Administration History History and and Health Health Research Research and and and Educational Trust, Trust, 2008), 2008), p. p. 6. 6. Educational Burton Burton J.J. Bledstein, Bledstein, The The Culture Culture of of Professionalism: Professionalism: The The Middle Middle Class Class and the Development of Higher Education in America and the Development of Higher Education in America (New (New York: York: W. W. Norton, Norton, 1978), 1978), p. p. 227; 227; Veysey, Veysey, Emergence Emergence of of the the University, University, p. p. 269. 269. W. W. Morison, Founding Founding of of Harvard, Harvard, p. p. 229. 229. Morison, Roth, Roth, Indignation Indignation (New (New York: York: Vintage Vintage Books, Books, 2009), 2009), p. p. 49. 49. “Tufts “Tufts U. Bans Student Sex When Roommates Are Present, ” Chronicle U. Bans Student Sex When Roommates Are Present,” Chronicle of of Higher Education, Education, September September 28, 28, 2009. 2009. For For an an account account of of social social life life Higher on the the same same campus, campus, see see “Lady “Lady Power, Power,”” by by Nancy Nancy Bauer, Bauer, chair chair of of the the on Philosophy Department at Tufts: “Visit an American college camPhilosophy Department at Tufts: “Visit an American college campus pus on on aa Monday Monday morning morning and and you’ll you’ll find find any any number number of of amazingly amazingly ambitious and and talented talented young young women women wielding wielding their their brain brain power, power, ambitious determined not not to to let let anything— anything—including including aa relationship relationship with with some some determined needy, dependent man— get in their way. Come back on a party needy, dependent man—get in their way. Come back on a party night, night, and and you’ll you’ll find find many many of of these these same same girls girls (they (they stopped stopped calling calling themselves ‘women’ ‘women’ years years ago) ago) wielding wielding their their sexual sexual power, power, dressed dressed as as themselves provocatively as as they they dare, dare, matching matching the the guys guys drink drink for for drink— drink—and and provocatively then then hookhook-up up for for hookhook-up. . . . up. . . . When When they’re they’re on on their their knees knees in in front front of a workedup guy they just met at a party, they genuinely of a worked-up guy they just met at a party, they genuinely do do feel feel powerful—sadistic, sadistic, even. even. After After all, all, though though they they don’t don’t stand stand up up and and powerful— walk away, away, they they in in principle principle could. could. But But the the morning morning after, after, students students walk routinely tell me, they are vulnerable to what I’ve come to routinely tell me, they are vulnerable to what I’ve come to call call the the ‘hookup hangover.’ They’ll see the guy in the quad and cringe. ‘hook-up hangover.’ They’ll see the guy in the quad and cringe. Or Or they’ll find find themselves themselves wishing wishing in in vain vain for for more— more—if if not not for for aa prince prince they’ll (or aa vampire, vampire, maybe) maybe) to to sweep sweep them them off off their their feet, feet, at at least least for for the the guy guy (or actually to have programmed their number into his cell phone actually to have programmed their number into his cell phone the the night night before. before. When When the the text text doesn’t doesn’t come, come, it’s it’s off off to to the the next next party.” party.” Opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com, June June 20, 20, 2010. 2010. Opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com, Thorstein Veblen, Veblen, The The Higher Higher Learning Learning in in America America (1918: (1918: repr. repr. New New Thorstein York: Hill and Wang, 1957), pp. 101, 99. York: Hill and Wang, 1957), pp. 101, 99. Romano, Romano, “Will “Will the the Book Book Survive Survive Generation Generation Text?” Text?” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Education, Education, August August 29, 29, 2010; 2010; Kevin Kevin Kiley, Kiley, “Long “Long Reads, Reads,”” Higher InsideHigherEd.com, May May 12, 12, 2011; 2011; Clydesdale, Clydesdale, “Wake “Wake up up and and Smell Smell InsideHigherEd.com, the New Epistemology, ” Chronicle of Higher Education, January, the New Epistemology,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January, 23, 23,

210 194

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 21–25 21–25 2009; The Marketplace Marketplace of of Ideas: Ideas: Reform Reform and and Resistance Resistance in in the the 2009; Menand, Menand, The American University University (New (New York: York: W. W. W. W. Norton, Norton, 2010), 2010), p. p. 19. 19. American 21. 21. Bowen, Bowen, preface preface to to Jefferson Jefferson and and Education, Education, ed. ed. Jennings Jennings L. L. Wagoner Wagoner Jr. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, Jr. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 2004), pp. pp. 11–12. 12. 11– 22. Richard Richard Vedder, Vedder, Going Going Broke Broke by by Degree: Degree: Why Why College College Costs Costs Too Too Much Much 22. (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute, 2004), p. (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute, 2004), p. 52; 52; Brody, Brody, quoted quoted in in Dale Dale Keiger, Keiger, “Measuring “Measuring the the Unmeasurable, Unmeasurable,”” Johns Johns Hopkins Magazine, Magazine, November, November, 2008, 2008, p. p. 29. 29. Hopkins 23. The The incidence incidence of of cheating cheating is is hard hard to to measure, measure, but but one one authority authority on on the the 23. subject, Donald McCabe of Rutgers University, finds that the number subject, Donald McCabe of Rutgers University, finds that the number of of students students reporting reporting “cut “cut and and paste” paste” plagiarism plagiarism using using Internet Internet sources sources quadrupled between between 1999 1999 and and 2001. 2001. McCabe McCabe also also describes describes aa sharp sharp quadrupled rise over over the the last last four four decades decades in in the the number number of of students students reporting reporting “un“unrise permitted collaboration” (academicintegrity.org/cai_research.asp). permitted collaboration” (academicintegrity.org/cai_research.asp). Drawing Drawing on on McCabe’s McCabe’s research, research, David David Callahan, Callahan, The The Cheating Cheating Culture: Culture: Why More More Americans Americans Are Are Doing Doing Wrong Wrong to to Get Get Ahead Ahead (New (New York: York: HarHarWhy court, 2004), 2004), p. p. 217, 217, estimates estimates that that serious serious cheating cheating in in college college increased increased court, by by 30 30 to to 35 35 percent percent during during the the 1990s. 1990s. As As for for drinking, drinking, many many studies studies confirm the high incidence of binge drinking and substance confirm the high incidence of binge drinking and substance abuse abuse among college college students. students. See, See, for for example, example, “Wasting “Wasting the the Best Best and and the the among Brightest: Substance Substance Abuse Abuse at at America’s America’s Colleges Colleges and and Universities, Universities,”” Brightest: report report from from the the National National Center Center on on Addiction Addiction and and Substance Substance Abuse Abuse at Columbia University, March, 2007, available at Columbia University, March, 2007, available at at http://www http://www .casacolumbia.org/templates/Publications_Reports.aspx#r11, which which .casacolumbia.org/templates/Publications_Reports.aspx#r11, estimates that that roughly roughly half half of of all all full-time full-time college college students students binge binge drink drink estimates or abuse drugs at least once a month. or abuse drugs at least once a month. 24. 24. Harriet Harriet Beecher Beecher Stowe, Stowe, My My Wife Wife and and II (New (New York, York, 1871), 1871), pp. pp. 76– 76–77. 77. 25. Harry Harry Lewis, Lewis, Excellence Excellence without without aa Soul: Soul: How How aa Great Great University University ForFor25. got Education Education (New (New York: York: Public Public Affairs, Affairs, 2006), 2006), p. p. 17. 17. The The phrase phrase got “servicestation conception” comes from Robert Maynard Hutchins, “service-station conception” comes from Robert Maynard Hutchins, The The Higher Higher Learning Learning in in America America (New (New Haven, Haven, CT: CT: Yale Yale University University Press, 1936), 1936), p. p. 6. 6. Press, 26. Riley, Riley, quoted quoted in in Mildred Mildred Garcia, Garcia, “A “A New New Model Model of of Liberal Liberal Learning Learning 26. for the 21st Century, ” DailyBreeze.com, November 23, 2009. for the 21st Century,” DailyBreeze.com, November 23, 2009. Garcia, Garcia, aa

211 195

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 25–26 25–26

27. 27.

28. 28.

29. 29.

staunch defender defender of of liberal liberal education, education, is is president president of of California California State State staunch University at at Dominguez Dominguez Hills, Hills, aa community community college college serving serving aa large large University minority population. President Obama, quoted in Politico, February minority population. President Obama, quoted in Politico, February 24, 24, 2009. 2009. Alison Wolf, Wolf, Does Does Education Education Matter? Matter? Myths Myths about about Education Education and and EcoEcoAlison nomic Growth Growth (London: (London: Penguin, Penguin, 2002), 2002), p. p. 18: 18: “The “The more more educated educated nomic you you are, are, the the more more likely likely you you are are to to be be in in work, work, to to stay stay in in work, work, and and to to enjoy stable, longterm employment on a permanent contract.” enjoy stable, long-term employment on a permanent contract.” There There is also also evidence evidence that that an an associate’s associate’s degree degree from from aa twotwo-year year college, college, or or is completing even even aa year year or or two two at at aa fourfour-year year college, college, has has measurable measurable completing economic economic value. value. Relative Relative to to their their starting starting point, point, students students who who gain gain the the most in economic terms seem to be those from poor families, most in economic terms seem to be those from poor families, or or from from families where where no no one one has has previously previously attended attended college, college, or or from from minorminorfamilies ity groups groups with with lower lower collegecollege-going going rates. rates. See See David David Glenn, Glenn, “Disadvan“Disadvanity taged taged Students Students May May Benefit Benefit Most Most from from Attending Attending College, College,”” Chronicle Chronicle of Higher Education, April 1, 2010. Recent data are available of Higher Education, April 1, 2010. Recent data are available in in “The “The ColCollege Payoff: Payoff: Education, Education, Occupation, Occupation, Lifetime Lifetime Earnings, Earnings,”” http://cew http://cew lege .georgetown.edu/collegepayoff/, released released on on August August 5, 5, 2011, 2011, by by the the .georgetown.edu/collegepayoff/, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Work force, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, in in partnership partnership with with the the Lumina Lumina Foundation. Foundation. See Clifford Clifford Adelman, Adelman, The The Spaces Spaces Between Between Numbers: Numbers: Getting Getting InternaInternaSee tional Data Data on on Higher Higher Education Education Straight Straight (Washington (Washington DC: DC: Institute Institute tional for for Higher Higher Education Education Policy, Policy, 2009), 2009), and and Jane Jane V. V. Wellman, Wellman, Apples Apples and and Oranges in the Flat World: A Layperson’s Guide to International Oranges in the Flat World: A Layperson’s Guide to International ComComparisons of of Postsecondary Postsecondary Education Education (Washington (Washington DC: DC: American American parisons Council on on Education, Education, 2007). 2007). Council Brian Brian K. K. Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald, “Missed “Missed Opportunities: Opportunities: Has Has College College OpportuOpportunity Fallen Victim to Policy Drift?” Change 36, no. 4 nity Fallen Victim to Policy Drift?” Change 36, no. 4 (( July– July–August August 2004): 14. 14. The The estimates estimates of of chances chances to to attend attend college college are are cited, cited, with with 2004): permission, from from aa talk talk given given on on March March 5, 5, 2010, 2010, by by Eugene Eugene Tobin, Tobin, permission, former former president president of of Hamilton Hamilton College, College, currently currently program program officer officer on higher education at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. on higher education at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Tobin Tobin was drawing drawing on on Ross Ross Douthat, Douthat, “Does “Does Meritocracy Meritocracy Work?” Work?” Atlantic Atlantic was Monthly, November November 2005, 2005, p. p. 120; 120; and and William William G. G. Bowen, Bowen, Martin Martin Monthly, A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin, Equity and Excellence in A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin, Equity and Excellence in AmeriAmeri-

212 196

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 26–34 26–34 can Education (Charlottesville: (Charlottesville: University University of of Virginia Virginia Press, Press, can Higher Higher Education 2005), pp. pp. 77– 77–94. 94. 2005), 30. 30. Danette Danette Gerald Gerald and and Kati Kati Haycock, Haycock, “Engines “Engines of of Inequality: Inequality: DiminDiminishing Equity in the Nation’s Premier Public Universities” ishing Equity in the Nation’s Premier Public Universities” (Washing(Washington DC: DC: Education Education Trust, Trust, 2006). 2006). ton 31. See, See, for for example, example, Charles Charles Murray, Murray, “Are “Are Too Too Many Many People People Going Going to to 31. College?” The American ( Journal of the American Enterprise InstiCollege?” The American ( Journal of the American Enterprise Institute) tute) 2, 2, no. no. 55 (September– (September–October October 2008): 2008): 40– 40–49. 49. 32. Ann Ann Larson, Larson, “Higher “Higher Education’s Education’s Big Big Lie, Lie,”” InsideHigherEd.com, InsideHigherEd.com, June June 32. 3, 2010; 2010; and and Jacques Jacques Steinberg, Steinberg, “Plan “Plan B: B: Skip Skip College, College,”” New New York York 3, Times, May 14, 2010. Times, May 14, 2010. 33. 33. Jan Jan J.J. Barendregt Barendregt et et al., al., “The “The Health Health Care Care Costs Costs of of Smoking, Smoking,”” New New EnEngland Journal Journal of of Medicine Medicine 337 337 (October (October 9, 9, 1997): 1997): 1052– 1052–57. 57. gland 34. In In Lester Lester J.J. Cappon, Cappon, ed., ed., The The AdamsAdams-Jefferson Jefferson Letters: Letters: The The Complete Complete 34. Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John John AdAdams (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971), p. 480. ams (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971), p. 480. 35. Smith Smith made made this this statement statement at at Oxford Oxford in in 1914. 1914. 35. 36. In In aa talk talk delivered delivered at at the the National National Convention Convention for for Teachers Teachers of of EnEn36. glish, published in Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner, Teachglish, published in Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner, Teaching ing as as aa Subversive Subversive Activity Activity (New (New York: York: Delacorte, Delacorte, 1969), 1969), Postman Postman credited the the phrase phrase “crap “crap detector” detector” to to Ernest Ernest Hemingway Hemingway as as aa term term credited describing the the one one thing thing necessary necessary for for good good writing. writing. describing 37. 37. Anthony Anthony Kronman, Kronman, Education’s Education’s End: End: Why Why Our Our Colleges Colleges and and UniverUniversities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life (New Haven, sities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life (New Haven, CT: CT: Yale Yale University Press, Press, 2007), 2007), pp. pp. 172– 172–73. 73. University 38. Victor Victor E. E. Ferrall Ferrall Jr., Jr., Liberal Liberal Arts Arts on on the the Brink Brink (Cambridge: (Cambridge: Harvard Harvard 38. University Press, 2011), p. 8. University Press, 2011), p. 8. 39. 39. Bruce Bruce Kimball, Kimball, Orators Orators and and Philosophers: Philosophers: A A History History of of the the Idea Idea of of Liberal Education Education (1986), (1986), quoted quoted in in Francis Francis Oakley, Oakley, Community Community of of Liberal Learning: The The American American College College and and the the Liberal Liberal Arts Arts Tradition Tradition (New (New Learning: York: York: Oxford Oxford University University Press, Press, 1992), 1992), p. p. 51. 51. 40. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy (1869), 40. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy (1869), ed. ed. Samuel Samuel Lipman Lipman (New (New HaHaven, CT: CT: Yale Yale University University Press, Press, 1994), 1994), p. p. 5. 5. ven, 41. John John Henry Henry Newman, Newman, The The Idea Idea of of aa University University (1852), (1852), ed. ed. Frank Frank M. M. 41. Turner (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 81. Turner (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 81.

213 197

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 34–38 34–38 42. My My impression impression is is at at odds odds with with that that of of Richard Richard Arum Arum and and Josipa Josipa Roksa, Roksa, 42. Academically Adrift: Adrift: Limited Limited Learning Learning on on College College Campuses Campuses (Chi(ChiAcademically cago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), who estimate that today’s cago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), who estimate that today’s college college students, students, on on average, average, spend spend only only twelve twelve hours hours per per week week studystudying (p. (p. 69). 69). Arum Arum and and Roksa Roksa suggest suggest that that students students at at highly highly selective selective ing colleges spend spend somewhat somewhat more— more—around around fifteen fifteen hours. hours. Other Other studies, studies, colleges such as that of Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks, summarized such as that of Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks, summarized in in LeiLeisure College USA: The Decline in Student Study Time (Washington sure College USA: The Decline in Student Study Time (Washington DC: American American Enterprise Enterprise Institute, Institute, 2010), 2010), conclude conclude that that study study time time DC: has declined declined by by roughly roughly 50 50 percent percent over over the the half half century century since since 1961. 1961. has For For aa more more nuanced nuanced view, view, see see Alexander Alexander C. C. McCormick, McCormick, “It’s “It’s About About Time: What to Make of Reported Declines in How Much Time: What to Make of Reported Declines in How Much College College Students Study, Study,”” Liberal Liberal Education Education 97, 97, no. no. 11 (Winter (Winter 2011): 2011): 30– 30–39 39 Students (published by by the the Association Association of of American American Colleges Colleges and and UniversiUniversi(published ties). ties). McCormick McCormick calls calls attention attention to to such such factors factors as as “efficiency “efficiency gains gains due to new technologies” (by which he means word processing due to new technologies” (by which he means word processing versus versus the longhand longhand writing writing or or mechanical mechanical typewriting typewriting of of fifty fifty years years ago), ago), as as the well as as to to the the different different meanings meanings of of “week” “week” that that students students have have in in mind mind well (some (some mean mean five five days, days, others others seven) seven) in in responding responding to to survey survey questions questions about their study habits. about their study habits. 43. Owen Owen Johnson, Johnson, Stover Stover at at Yale Yale (1912; (1912; Boston: Boston: Little, Little, Brown, Brown, 1926), 1926), p. p. 43. 234. 234.

Chapter Two. Two. Origins Origins Chapter 1. Aristotle, Aristotle, Politics, Politics, Book Book 7; 7; H. H. I. I. Marrou, Marrou, A A History History of of Education Education in in 1. Antiquity (New (New York: York: New New American American Library, Library, 1964), 1964), p. p. 402; 402; Oakley, Oakley, Antiquity Community Community of of Learning, Learning, p. p. 18. 18. 2. Morison, Founding of Harvard, 2. Morison, Founding of Harvard, p. p. 37. 37. 3. Thomas Thomas Wentworth Wentworth Higginson, Higginson, The The Life Life of of Francis Francis Higginson Higginson (New (New 3. York, 1891), 1891), pp. pp. 11– 11–12. 12. York, 4. 4. Morison, Morison, Founding Founding of of Harvard, Harvard, pp. pp. 80– 80–81. 81. 5. Frederick Rudolph, The American College 5. Frederick Rudolph, The American College and and University: University: A A History History (1962) (Athens: (Athens: University University of of Georgia Georgia Press, Press, 1990), 1990), p. p. 90, 90, suggests suggests (1962) that early early American American colleges colleges failed failed to to replicate replicate this this plan plan because because they they that could not afford the cost of such elaborate construction. could not afford the cost of such elaborate construction.

214 198

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 38–45 38–45 6. Morison, Founding of of Harvard, Harvard, p. p. 82. 82. 6. Morison, Founding 7. Alan “Let Us Us Now Now Praise Praise Famous Famous Men, Men,”” Cambridge Cambridge Review Review 7. Alan Heimert, Heimert, “Let 106 (November 1985): 177– 82. 106 (November 1985): 177–82. 8. 8. Jennifer Jennifer Tomase, Tomase, “Tale “Tale of of John John Harvard’s Harvard’s Surviving Surviving Book, Book,”” Harvard Harvard University Gazette, Gazette, November November 1, 1, 2007. 2007. University 9. Lawrence Lawrence Cremin, Cremin, American American Education: Education: The The Colonial Colonial Experience Experience 9. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), pp. 214, 221. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), pp. 214, 221. 10. 10. Morison, Morison, Founding Founding of of Harvard, Harvard, p. p. 249. 249. 11. Jonathan Jonathan Edwards, Edwards, Scientific Scientific and and Philosophical Philosophical Writings, Writings, ed. ed. Wallace Wallace E. E. 11. Anderson (New (New Haven, Haven, CT: CT: Yale Yale University University Press, Press, 1980), 1980), p. p. 306. 306. Anderson 12. 12. Newman, Newman, The The Idea Idea of of aa University, University, ed. ed. Turner, Turner, p. p. 76; 76; Edwards, Edwards, ScienScientific and Philosophical Writings, p. 344. Frederick Barnard, tific and Philosophical Writings, p. 344. Frederick Barnard, quoted quoted in Reuben, Reuben, Making Making of of the the Modern Modern University, University, p. 22. p. 22. in 13. Horatio Horatio Greenough, Greenough, Form Form and and Function: Function: Remarks Remarks on on Art, Art, Design, Design, 13. and Architecture, ed. Harold A. Small (Berkeley: University of and Architecture, ed. Harold A. Small (Berkeley: University of CaliCalifornia fornia Press, Press, 1947), 1947), p. p. 74. 74. The The essays essays constituting constituting this this volume volume were were originally published published in in 1853. 1853. originally 14. Morison, Morison, Founding Founding of of Harvard, Harvard, p. p. 252. 252. Daniel Daniel Coit Coit Gilman, Gilman, quoted quoted 14. in Veysey, Emergence of the University, p. 161. in Veysey, Emergence of the University, p. 161. 15. 15. Lewis, Lewis, quoted quoted by by Bowen Bowen in in his his commencement commencement address address at at Indiana Indiana University, May May 6, 6, 2011. 2011. University, 16. Jerome Jerome Karabel, Karabel, The The Chosen: Chosen: The The Hidden Hidden History History of of Admission Admission and and 16. Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (Boston: Houghton MifExclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, flin, 2005), 2005), p. p. 51. 51. 17. Quoted Quoted in in James James O. O. Freedman, Freedman, Liberal Liberal Education Education and and the the Public Public InIn17. terest (Iowa (Iowa City: City: University University of of Iowa Iowa Press, Press, 2003), 2003), p. p. 107. 107. terest 18. 18. Newman, Newman, Idea Idea of of aa University, University, ed. ed. Turner, Turner, p. p. 83. 83. 19. Oakley, Community of Learning, pp. 50– 51. 19. Oakley, Community of Learning, pp. 50–51. 20. Seneca, Seneca, Moral Moral Epistles, Epistles, no. no. 88 88 (“On (“On Liberal Liberal and and Vocational Vocational Studies”), Studies”), 20. vols., trans. trans. Richard Richard M. M. Gummere Gummere (Loeb (Loeb Classical Classical Library) Library) (Cam(Cam33 vols., bridge: Harvard University Press, 1917– 1925), 2:353– 55. bridge: Harvard University Press, 1917–1925), 2:353–55. 21. 21. Emerson, Emerson, journal journal entry, entry, April April 20, 20, 1834, 1834, in in Emerson Emerson in in His His Journals, Journals, ed. ed. Joel Porte Porte (Cambridge: (Cambridge: Harvard Harvard University University Press, Press, 1982), 1982), p. p. 123. 123. Joel 22. Ascham, Ascham, quoted quoted in in Morison, Morison, Founding Founding of of Harvard, Harvard, p. p. 61; 61; Bledstein, Bledstein, 22. The Culture of Professionalism, p. 243. This number may be somewhat The Culture of Professionalism, p. 243. This number may be somewhat

215 199

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 45–54 45–54 misleading, since since the the range range of of ages ages contributing contributing to to the the average average was was misleading, relatively wide. wide. See See James James Morgan Morgan Hart, Hart, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, relatively Higher Higher Education: Education: A A Documentary Documentary History, History, 2:579. 2:579. “Normal “Normal age” age” is is Charles W. Eliot’s phrase, in Hofstadter and Smith, eds., Higher Charles W. Eliot’s phrase, in Hofstadter and Smith, eds., Higher EduEducation, 2:705. 2:705. cation, 23. Cotton, Cotton, Christ Christ the the Fountaine Fountaine of of Life, Life, p. p. 98; 98; Emerson, Emerson, journal journal entry, entry, 23. September 13, 1831, in Porte, ed., Emerson in His Journals, p. 80. September 13, 1831, in Porte, ed., Emerson in His Journals, p. 80. 24. 24. William William G. G. Perry Perry Jr., Jr., Forms Forms of of Ethical Ethical and and Intellectual Intellectual Development Development in in the College College Years, Years, ed. ed. L. L. Lee Lee Knefelkamp Knefelkamp (1970; (1970; San San Francisco: Francisco: JosseyJosseythe Bass, 1999), 1999), pp. pp. xii, xii, 3. 3. Bass, 25. Cotton Mather, Magnalia 25. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Christi Americana, Americana, 22 vols. vols. (1702; (1702; HartHartford, CT, 1853), 1:273, 260. ford, CT, 1853), 1:273, 260. 26. Perry, Perry, Forms Forms of of Development, Development, p. p. 37. 37. 26. 27. John John Davenport, Davenport, The The Saint’s Saint’s AnchorAnchor-Hold Hold (London, (London, 1682), 1682), p. 132. p. 132. The The 27. concept of stereotype threat was introduced in 1995 by Claude concept of stereotype threat was introduced in 1995 by Claude M. M. Steele Steele and and Joshua Joshua Aronson Aronson in in their their article article “Stereotype “Stereotype Threat Threat and and the the Intellectual Test Test Performance Performance of of African African Americans, Americans,”” Journal Journal of of PerPerIntellectual sonality and and Social Social Psychology Psychology 69 69 (5): (5): 797– 797–811. 811. sonality 28. 28. Weber, Weber, “Science “Science as as aa Vocation” Vocation” (1918) (1918) in in From From Max Max Weber: Weber: Essays Essays in in Sociology, ed. Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Sociology, ed. Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford Oxford University Press, Press, 1958), 1958), p. p. 136; 136; Henry Henry Adams, Adams, The The Education Education of of Henry Henry University Adams (1918; (1918; Boston: Boston: Houghton Houghton Mifflin, Mifflin, 1973), 1973), pp. pp. 80– 80–81. 81. Adams 29. 29. William William James, James, Varieties Varieties of of Religious Religious Experience Experience (1902; (1902; New New York: York: Collier Books, 1973), p. 172. Collier Books, 1973), p. 172. 30. Nate Nate Kornell Kornell and and Janet Janet Metcalfe, Metcalfe, ““ ‘Blockers’ ‘Blockers’ Do Do Not Not Block Block Recall Recall 30. during TipTip-ofof-thethe-Tongue Tongue States, States,”” Metacognition Metacognition and and Learning Learning 11 during (2006): (2006): 248– 248–61. 61. 31. Janet Metcalfe, 31. Janet Metcalfe, “Improving “Improving Student Student Learning: Learning: Empirical Empirical Findings, Findings,”” PowerPoint presentation, presentation, Columbia Columbia University University Center Center for for TeachTeachPowerPoint ing and and Learning, Learning, January January 29, 29, 2009. 2009. “A “A mind mind must must work work to to grow” grow” is is ing from C. W. Eliot, in Hofstadter and Smith, eds., Higher Education, from C. W. Eliot, in Hofstadter and Smith, eds., Higher Education, 2:610. 2:610. “Passive “Passive absorption” absorption” is is quoted quoted from from John John Dewey, Dewey, in in Donald Donald Levine, Powers Powers of of the the Mind, Mind, p. p. 81. 81. Levine, 32. John John Cotton, Cotton, A A Treatise Treatise of of the the Covenant Covenant of of Grace Grace (London, (London, 1671), 1671), 32. p. 154. p. 154.

216 200

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 54–65 54–65 33. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Magnalia Christi Christi Americana Americana (1702), (1702), in in Hofstadter Hofstadter 33. Cotton Mather, and Smith, eds., Higher Education, 1:15. and Smith, eds., Higher Education, 1:15. 34. 34. Hawthorne, Hawthorne, The The Scarlet Scarlet Letter Letter (1850; (1850; New New York: York: Penguin Penguin Books, Books, 1986), p. p. 25; 25; Newman, Newman, Idea Idea of of aa University, University, ed. ed. Turner, Turner, p. p. 77; 77; Dewey, Dewey, 1986), in in The The Philosophy Philosophy of of John John Dewey, Dewey, 22 vols., vols., ed. ed. John John J.J. McDermott McDermott (New (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973), 2:447; Perry, Forms York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973), 2:447; Perry, Forms of of Development, Development, ed. Knefelkamp, Knefelkamp, pp. pp. xxxiii, xxxiii, 120. 120. Writing Writing in in this this tradition, tradition, Donald Donald ed. Levine, former dean of the college at the University of Chicago, Levine, former dean of the college at the University of Chicago, dedefines aa true true college college as as “a “a kindred kindred assemblage assemblage constituted constituted by by diversity diversity fines of opinion” opinion” (Powers (Powers of of the the Mind, Mind, p. p. 67). 67). of 35. Jarrell, Pictures from an Institution (1952; 35. Jarrell, Pictures from an Institution (1952; Chicago: Chicago: University University of of ChiChicago Press, Press, 1986), 1986), p. p. 82. 82. cago 36. John John S. S. Coolidge, Coolidge, The The Pauline Pauline Renaissance Renaissance in in England England (Oxford: (Oxford: 36. Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 49– 50; John Cotton, Christ Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 49–50; John Cotton, Christ the the Fountaine of of Life Life (London, (London, 1651), 1651), p. p. 156. 156. Fountaine 37. Interview Interview with with Yongfang Yongfang Chen Chen and and Li Li Wan, Wan, “A “A True True Liberal Liberal Arts Arts 37. Education, ” InsideHigherEd.com, October 16, 2009. Education,” InsideHigherEd.com, October 16, 2009. 38. DuBois, DuBois, Dusk Dusk of of Dawn: Dawn: An An Essay Essay Toward Toward an an Autobiography Autobiography of of aa Race Race 38. Concept (1940; (1940; New New York: York: Schocken, Schocken, 1968), 1968), pp. pp. 38, 38, 33. 33. Concept 39. 39. Cotton, Cotton, Christ Christ the the Fountaine Fountaine of of Life, Life, p. p. 200. 200. 40. Robert Robert Greene, Greene, quoted quoted in in Paul Paul Seaver, Seaver, The The Puritan Puritan Lectureships: Lectureships: The The 40. Politics of Religious Dissent, 1560– 1662 (Stanford: Stanford University Politics of Religious Dissent, 1560–1662 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, Press, 1970), 1970), p. p. 40. 40. 41. Harry Harry Stout, Stout, The The New New England England Soul: Soul: Preaching Preaching and and Religious Religious Culture Culture 41. in Colonial New England (New York: Oxford University Press, in Colonial New England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 1986), p. p. 4. 4. 42. Rogers, Rogers, in in The The Colleges Colleges and and the the Public, Public, 1787– 1787–1862, 1862, ed. ed. Theodore Theodore RawRaw42. son Crane (New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, son Crane (New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1963), 1963), p. p. 47. 47. For For aa searching searching treatment treatment of of Rogers’s Rogers’s thought thought and and career, career, see Philip Philip Alexander, Alexander, A A Widening Widening Sphere: Sphere: Evolving Evolving Cultures Cultures at at MIT MIT see (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011). (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011). 43. 43. Santayana, Santayana, Character Character and and Opinion Opinion in in the the United United States States (1920; (1920; New New York: W. W. W. W. Norton, Norton, 1967), 1967), p. p. 96. 96. York: 44. 44. Morison, Morison, Founding Founding of of Harvard, Harvard, p. p. 85. 85.

217 201

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 65–72 65–72 45. Franklin, Franklin, “Proposals “Proposals Relating Relating to to the the Education Education of of Youth Youth in in PennPenn45. sylvania” (1749) (1749) in in Benjamin Benjamin Franklin: Franklin: Representative Representative Selections, Selections, ed. ed. sylvania” Frank Luther Mott (New York: Hill and Wang, 1962), p. 206. Frank Luther Mott (New York: Hill and Wang, 1962), p. 206. 46. 46. William William G. G. Durden, Durden, “Reclaiming “Reclaiming the the Distinctiveness Distinctiveness of of American American Higher Education, Education,”” Liberal Liberal Education Education 93, 93, no. no. 22 (Spring (Spring 2007): 2007): 40. 40. Higher

Chapter Chapter Three. Three. From From College College to to University University 1. See See James James T. T. Axtell, Axtell, “Dr. “Dr. Wheelock’s Wheelock’s Little Little Red Red School, School,”” chap. chap. 4 4 in in 1. The European European and and the the Indian: Indian: Essays Essays in in the the Ethnohistory Ethnohistory of of Colonial Colonial The America (New (New York: York: Oxford Oxford University University Press, Press, 1981). 1981). America 2. Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, Princeton: 1746– 2. Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, Princeton: 1746–1896 1896 (Princeton, (Princeton, NJ: NJ: Princeton University Press, 1946), p. 18. Princeton University Press, 1946), p. 18. 3. Jefferson Jefferson to to Adams, Adams, in in Cappon, Cappon, ed., ed., AdamsAdams-Jefferson Jefferson Letters, Letters, p. p. 599. 599. 3. 4. Charles Charles A. A. Brixted, Brixted, Five Five Years Years in in an an English English University, University, 22 vols. vols. (New (New 4. York, 1852), 1:106. Thanks to James O’Donnell for alerting me to York, 1852), 1:106. Thanks to James O’Donnell for alerting me to this this book. book. For For the the growth growth of of colleges colleges in in the the 1820s, 1820s, see see David David B. B. Potts, Potts, LibLiberal Education Education for for aa Land Land of of Colleges: Colleges: Yale’s Yale’s Reports Reports of of 1828 1828 (New (New York: York: eral Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan, 2010), 2010), p. p. 9. 9. Palgrave 5. 5. Richard Richard Hofstadter, Hofstadter, Academic Academic Freedom Freedom in in the the Age Age of of the the College College (1955; (1955; repr. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1996), pp. 223– 24. repr. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1996), pp. 223–24. 6. Kamenetz, Kamenetz, DIYU, DIYU, p. p. 10. 10. 6. 7. Charles Charles Sumner, Sumner, quoted quoted in in David David Donald, Donald, Charles Charles Sumner Sumner and and the the 7. Coming of the Civil War (New York: Knopf, 1961), p. 14; Adams, EduComing of the Civil War (New York: Knopf, 1961), p. 14; Adams, Education, cation, pp. pp. 54– 54–55. 55. 8. Bledstein, Bledstein, Culture Culture of of Professionalism, Professionalism, p. p. 229. 229. Diary Diary of of Hugh Hugh Gwynn, Gwynn, 8. 1850–51; 51; coll. coll. 298, 298, folder folder 30 30 (manuscript (manuscript collections, collections, Wilson Wilson Library Library 1850– of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), p. 67. of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), p. 67. 9. 9. Reuben, Reuben, Making Making of of the the Modern Modern University University (1996), (1996), is is aa distinguished distinguished exception. exception. 10. See See Potts, Potts, Liberal Liberal Education Education for for aa Land Land of of Colleges, Colleges, pp. pp. 16– 16–19. 19. 10. 11. James McPherson, The Abolitionist Legacy (Princeton, NJ: 11. James McPherson, The Abolitionist Legacy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Princeton University University Press, Press, 1975), 1975), p. p. 7. 7. 12. Bowen Bowen et et al., al., Equity Equity and and Excellence, Excellence, p. p. 21. 21. 12. 13. Charles Charles Dickens, Dickens, American American Notes Notes for for General General Circulation Circulation (1842; (1842; LonLon13. don: Penguin Books, 1972), p. 77. don: Penguin Books, 1972), p. 77.

218 202

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 73–81 73–81 14. D. H. Meyer, Meyer, The The Instructed Instructed Conscience: Conscience: The The Shaping Shaping of of the the AmeriAmeri14. D. H. can National National Ethic Ethic (Philadelphia: (Philadelphia: University University of of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Press, Press, can 1972), pp. 68, 66. 1972), pp. 68, 66. 15. 15. James James McCosh, McCosh, The The Divine Divine Government, Government, Physical Physical and and Moral Moral (New (New York, 1852), 1852), p. p. 320. 320. York, 16. Noah Noah Porter, Porter, The The American American Colleges Colleges and and the the American American Public Public (1870), (1870), 16. in Education in the United States: A Documentary History, 5 vols., in Education in the United States: A Documentary History, 5 vols., ed. ed. Sol Sol Cohen Cohen (New (New York: York: Random Random House, House, 1974), 1974), 3:1474. 3:1474. 17. Carnegie, Carnegie, quoted quoted in in Frank Frank Donoghue, Donoghue, The The Last Last Professors: Professors: The The CorCor17. porate University University and and the the Fate Fate of of the the Humanities Humanities (New (New York: York: Fordham Fordham porate University University Press, Press, 2008), 2008), p. p. 4. 4. 18. Dunne, “Education of the 18. Dunne, “Education of the Young, Young,”” in in Mr. Mr. Dooley’s Dooley’s Philosophy Philosophy (New (New York: Harper Harper and and Brothers, Brothers, 1900), 1900), pp. pp. 248– 248–49. 49. York: 19. Lawrence Lawrence H. H. Fuchs, Fuchs, The The American American Kaleidoscope: Kaleidoscope: Race, Race, Ethnicity Ethnicity and and 19. the Civic Culture (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, the Civic Culture (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1990), 1990), p. p. 283. 283. 20. Emerson, Emerson, quoted quoted in in Rudolph, Rudolph, American American College College and and University, University, 20. p. 241. p. 241. 21. 21. According According to to Donald Donald Tewksbury, Tewksbury, The The Founding Founding of of American American Colleges Colleges Before the Civil War (1932) (cited by Hofstadter in his Before the Civil War (1932) (cited by Hofstadter in his 1955 1955 book book AcaAcademic Freedom Freedom in in the the Age Age of of the the College, College, p. 211), p. 211), more more than than five five hundred hundred demic colleges had had been been established established before before the the Civil Civil War, War, of of which which only only one one colleges hundred survived. More recent studies point out that many of these hundred survived. More recent studies point out that many of these soso-called called colleges colleges never never got got beyond beyond the the stage stage of of proposals proposals for for creating creating new institution. institution. See See Natalie Natalie A. A. Naylor, Naylor, “The “The Antebellum Antebellum College College aa new Movement,”” History History of of Education Education Quarterly Quarterly 13 13 (Fall (Fall 1973): 1973): 261– 261–74. 74. Movement, 22. George Ticknor, Remarks on Changes Lately Proposed or Adopted 22. George Ticknor, Remarks on Changes Lately Proposed or Adopted in in Harvard Harvard University University (Boston, (Boston, 1825), 1825), p. p. 40. 40. 23. Michael Michael Rosenthal, Rosenthal, Nicholas Nicholas Miraculous: Miraculous: The The Amazing Amazing Career Career of of the the 23. Redoubtable Dr. Dr. Nicholas Nicholas Murray Murray Butler Butler (New (New York: York: Farrar, Farrar, Straus, Straus, Redoubtable and and Giroux, Giroux, 2006), 2006), p. p. 75. 75. 24. White, History of the 24. White, History of the Warfare Warfare of of Science Science with with Technology Technology (New (New York: York: Appleton, 1896), 1896), 22 vols., vols., 1:vii. 1:vii. Appleton, 25. In In his his biography biography of of Butler Butler (Nicholas (Nicholas Miraculous), Miraculous), Michael Michael Rosenthal Rosenthal 25. points out (p. 346) that in several “firstrank urban universities” points out (p. 346) that in several “first-rank urban universities” during during

219 203

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 81–89 81–89 the first first quarter quarter of of the the twentieth twentieth century, century, there there was was serious serious discussion discussion the about consigning consigning undergraduates undergraduates to to “a “a series series of of satellite” satellite” colleges colleges that that about would be staffed by separate faculties and likely located out of town. would be staffed by separate faculties and likely located out of town. 26. 26. This This is is Thomas Thomas Goodspeed’s Goodspeed’s characterization characterization of of Harper’s Harper’s attitude, attitude, quoted in in Levine, Levine, Powers Powers of of the the Mind, Mind, p. p. 40, 40, n. n. 2. 2. quoted 27. Gerald Gerald Graff, Graff, Professing Professing Literature: Literature: An An Institutional Institutional History History (Chi(Chi27. cago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 40. cago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 40. 28. 28. Steven Steven Eisman, Eisman, quoted quoted in in Tamar Tamar Lewin, Lewin, “Senator “Senator Calls Calls for for New New Rules for for ForFor-Profit Profit Colleges, Colleges,”” New New York York Times, Times, June June 25, 25, 2010, 2010, p. p. A24. A24. Rules Between 1998 1998 and and 2008, 2008, enrollment enrollment in in postsecondary postsecondary institutions institutions ininBetween creased overall by just over 30 percent, while enrollment in forprofits creased overall by just over 30 percent, while enrollment in for-profits increased increased by by 225 225 percent. percent. And And while while forfor-profit profit institutions institutions account account for roughly roughly 10 10 percent percent of of college college enrollment, enrollment, their their students students receive receive for almost aa quarter quarter of of the the federal federal aid aid for for postsecondary postsecondary students— students—over over almost $4 billion in 2008– 2009, in the form of Pell grants, and nearly $4 billion in 2008–2009, in the form of Pell grants, and nearly $20 $20 billion billion in in federal federal loans. loans. Tamar Tamar Lewin, Lewin, New New York York Times, Times, July July 23, 23, 2010. 2010. 29. Alexander Alexander C. C. McCormick McCormick and and ChunChun-Mei Mei Zhao, Zhao, “Rethinking “Rethinking and and ReRe29. framing the the Carnegie Carnegie Classification, Classification,”” Change, Change, September– September–October October framing 2005. 2005. 30. 30. Rudolph, Rudolph, American American College College and and University, University, p. p. 133. 133. 31. Wertenbaker, Wertenbaker, Princeton: Princeton: 1746– 1746–1896, 1896, pp. pp. 304– 304–6; 6; McCosh, McCosh, in in HofHof31. stadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 2:720– 2:720–21. 21. stadter 32. 32. Eliot, Eliot, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 2:705. 2:705. 33. Eliot, in ibid., 2:711, 706. 33. Eliot, in ibid., 2:711, 706. 34. Bulletin Bulletin of of Ursinus Ursinus College, College, 2009– 2009–10, 10, p. p. 35. 35. 34. 35. Kerr, Kerr, Uses Uses of of the the University, University, p. p. 49. 49. 35. 36. 36. Eliot, Eliot, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 2:713. 2:713. 37. Karabel, The Chosen, pp. 442– 46, describes the 37. Karabel, The Chosen, pp. 442–46, describes the administrative administrative mamaneuvering at at Harvard Harvard to to ensure ensure that that admitting admitting female female students students would would neuvering result in in aa minimal minimal reduction reduction in in the the number number of of males males in in the the college. college. result 38. Ticknor, Remarks on Changes in Harvard University, p. 38. 38. Ticknor, Remarks on Changes in Harvard University, p. 38. 39. 39. For For aa recent recent and and representative representative argument argument calling calling for for cost cost savings savings through large large classes classes on on the the model model of of business business schools, schools, see see SchumSchumthrough peter, “How “How to to Make Make College College Cheaper, Cheaper,”” Economist, Economist, July July 9, 9, 2011, 2011, p. p. peter, 64. For the innovation at MIT, see Sara Rimer, “At MIT, Large Lec64. For the innovation at MIT, see Sara Rimer, “At MIT, Large Lec-

220 204

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 89–99 89–99 tures Are Are Going Going the the Way Way of of the the Blackboard, Blackboard,”” New New York York Times, Times, JanuJanutures ary 13, 13, 2009. 2009. ary 40. 40. Eliot, Eliot, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 2:711. 2:711. 41. MacIntyre, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: 41. MacIntyre, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopaedia, Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and and Tradition Tradition (Notre (Notre Dame, Dame, IN: IN: University University of of Notre Notre Genealogy, Dame Press, Press, 1990), 1990), p. p. 223. 223. A A similar similar critique critique has has been been made made by by Dame George Marsden, biographer of Jonathan Edwards and a colleague George Marsden, biographer of Jonathan Edwards and a colleague of of MacIntyre’s MacIntyre’s at at Notre Notre Dame, Dame, in in The The Soul Soul of of the the American American University: University: From Protestant Protestant Establishment Establishment to to Established Established NonNon-Belief Belief (New (New York: York: From Oxford University University Press, Press, 1994). 1994). Oxford 42. 42. Louis Louis Menand, Menand, quoted quoted in in Harvard Harvard Crimson, Crimson, September September 4, 4, 2009. 2009. 43. In the wake of recent resignations from the Columbia 43. In the wake of recent resignations from the Columbia administraadministration, there there is is some some talk talk of of reviving reviving the the committee. committee. For For an an account account tion, of the the decline decline of of faculty faculty governance governance in in American American higher higher education education of generally, generally, see see Benjamin Benjamin Ginsberg, Ginsberg, The The Fall Fall of of the the Faculty Faculty (New (New York: York: Oxford University Press, 2011). Oxford University Press, 2011). 44. Gilman Gilman and and Eliot, Eliot, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher EducaEduca44. tion, 2:646, 2:646, 711. 711. tion, 45. 45. Quoted Quoted in in Donoghue, Donoghue, Last Last Professors, Professors, p. p. 7. 7. 46. Jonathan Cole, The Great American Research 46. Jonathan Cole, The Great American Research University University (New (New York: York: Public Affairs, Affairs, 2009), 2009), p. p. 4. 4. Public 47. Reuben, Reuben, Making Making of of the the Modern Modern University, University, p. p. 207. 207. 47. 48. McIntyre, Three Rival Versions, p. 225. 48. McIntyre, Three Rival Versions, p. 225. 49. 49. Alvin Alvin Kernan, Kernan, In In Plato’s Plato’s Cave Cave (New (New Haven, Haven, CT: CT: Yale Yale University University Press, 1999), 1999), p. p. 55. 55. Bernadotte Bernadotte Schmidt Schmidt of of the the University University of of Chicago, Chicago, Press, quoted in in Peter Peter Novick, Novick, That That Noble Noble Dream: Dream: The The “Objectivity “Objectivity QuesQuesquoted tion” and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge tion” and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge University University Press, Press, 1988), 1988), pp. pp. 223– 223–24. 24. 50. Marc Marc Perry, Perry, “The “The Humanities Humanities Go Go Google, Google,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher EduEdu50. cation, May May 28, 28, 2010. 2010. The The quoted quoted comment comment “literature “literature scholars  scholars  . .  . .  .. cation, mapping mapping them them instead” instead” is is Emily Emily Eakin’s Eakin’s paraphrase paraphrase of of the the Stanford Stanford scholar Franco Moretti, in Eakin, “Studying Literature by scholar Franco Moretti, in Eakin, “Studying Literature by the the NumNumbers,”” New New York York Times, Times, January January 10, 10, 2004. 2004. bers, 51. According According to to the the “Humanities “Humanities Indicators” Indicators” (HI) (HI) project project (www (www 51. .humanitiesindicators.org) of the American Academy of Arts and .humanitiesindicators.org) of the American Academy of Arts and SciSci-

221 205

Note Note to to Page Page 99 99 ences, students students graduating graduating from from college college in in 2009 2009 with with aa major major in in the the huhuences, manities represented represented approximately approximately 12 12 percent percent of of all all BAs, BAs, aa fraction fraction that that manities has has remained remained steady steady over over the the past past twenty twenty years. years. This This figure figure is is based based on on data available through the Integrated Postsecondary Education data available through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Data System (IPEDS) (IPEDS) of of the the Department Department of of Education Education (http://webcaspar (http://webcaspar System .nsf.gov). Drawing Drawing on on the the same same data, data, the the National National Science Science FoundaFounda.nsf.gov). tion, however, estimates the percentage of 2009 BAs in the humanities tion, however, estimates the percentage of 2009 BAs in the humanities at at about about 88 percent, percent, also also roughly roughly steady steady since since 1989. 1989. The The discrepancy discrepancy rereflects different different assumptions assumptions about about which which fields fields constitute constitute the the humanihumaniflects ties. HI HI includes, includes, for for example, example, theatrical theatrical and and musical musical performance performance and and ties. newer fields such as women’s, ethnic, and film studies, while NSF does newer fields such as women’s, ethnic, and film studies, while NSF does not. not. By By the the NSF NSF count, count, the the number number of of humanities humanities degrees degrees rose rose over over the same same period period from from 82,000 82,000 to to 123,000, 123,000, while while the the more more comprehencomprehenthe sive HI HI estimate estimate shows shows aa rise rise from from 114,000 114,000 to to 186,000. 186,000. Over Over the the same same sive period, the number of all bachelor’s degrees in the United States period, the number of all bachelor’s degrees in the United States went went from from approximately approximately 11 million million in in 1990 1990 to to 1.6 1.6 million million in in 2009. 2009. MeanMeanwhile, at at elite elite institutions, institutions, both both the the numbers numbers and and percentage percentage of of huhuwhile, manities majors majors have have been been declining. declining. At At Stanford, Stanford, for for instance, instance, the the manities number of humanities majors dropped between 1990 and 2009 from number of humanities majors dropped between 1990 and 2009 from 345 345 to to 256, 256, while while the the percentage percentage fell fell from from 20.38 20.38 percent percent to to 15.4 15.4 percent. percent. At Brown, Brown, the the corresponding corresponding numbers numbers are are 521 521 to to 340, 340, and and 36.5 36.5 percent percent At to 23.56 23.56 percent; percent; at at Yale Yale they they are are 656 656 to to 429, 429, and and 49.58 49.58 percent percent to to 32.77 32.77 to percent. Peer institutions show similar trends, with the notable exceppercent. Peer institutions show similar trends, with the notable exception tion of of the the University University of of Chicago, Chicago, where where the the number number of of humanities humanities majors has has risen risen and and the the percentage percentage dropped dropped only only slightly—a slightly—a comcommajors bination due due to to significant significant expansion expansion of of the the size size of of the the student student body. body. bination These These data data may may somewhat somewhat overstate overstate the the decline decline of of the the humanities humanities not not only by excluding students who devote themselves to artistic only by excluding students who devote themselves to artistic practice practice or performance performance and and newer newer academic academic disciplines, disciplines, but but also also because because they they or do not not include include students students completing completing aa second second major major (roughly (roughly 55 percent percent do of of all all degree degree earners), earners), some some of of which which may may be be in in aa humanistic humanistic field. field. Nor Nor do the data track enrollments by nonmajors in humanities do the data track enrollments by nonmajors in humanities courses, courses, whether required required or or elective. elective. Despite Despite these these caveats, caveats, the the downward downward whether trend seems seems clear. clear. (Data (Data courtesy courtesy of of Russell Russell Berman, Berman, Stanford Stanford UniverUnivertrend sity, and David Laurence, MLA Office of Research.) sity, and David Laurence, MLA Office of Research.)

222 206

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 100–106 100–106 52. Mara Hvistendahl, “Less “Less Politics, Politics, More More Poetry: Poetry: China’s China’s Colleges Colleges Eye Eye 52. Mara Hvistendahl, the Liberal Arts, ” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 3, 2010. Dathe Liberal Arts,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 3, 2010. David vid Glenn, Glenn, “Business “Business Curricula Curricula Need Need aa Strong Strong Dose Dose of of the the Liberal Liberal Arts, Scholars Scholars Say, Say,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education, Education, January January 21, 21, 2011. 2011. Arts, For an interesting attempt in the 1950s to design a course of study For an interesting attempt in the 1950s to design a course of study for for business business executives, executives, see see Morse Morse Peckham, Peckham, Humanistic Humanistic Education Education for Business Business Executives: Executives: An An Essay Essay in in General General Education Education (Philadel(Philadelfor phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960). In medical schools, phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960). In medical schools, the the growing field field of of medical medical humanities humanities engages engages doctorsdoctors-inin-training training in in growing discussing works works of of literature literature and and art art as as part part of of aa curriculum curriculum designed designed discussing to to deepen deepen their their sensitivity sensitivity to to their their patients. patients. For For aa directory directory of of proprograms, see see http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/directory.html. http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/directory.html. grams, 53. Rachel Rachel Hadas, Hadas, Strange Strange Relation: Relation: A A Memoir Memoir of of Marriage, Marriage, Dementia, Dementia, 53. and Poetry (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2011), p. 41. and Poetry (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2011), p. 41.

Chapter Four. Four. Who Who Went? Went? Who Who Goes? Goes? Who Who Pays? Pays? Chapter 1. Weber, “The Chinese Literati” (1915), in Gerth 1. Weber, “The Chinese Literati” (1915), in Gerth and and Mills, Mills, ed., ed., From From Max Weber, Weber, p. p. 426. 426. Weber’s Weber’s analysis analysis was was anticipated anticipated in in some some respects respects Max by Immanuel Immanuel Kant, Kant, The The Conflict Conflict of of the the Faculties Faculties (1798). (1798). by 2. John McNees, “The Quest at Princeton for the 2. John McNees, “The Quest at Princeton for the Cocktail Cocktail Soul, Soul,”” HarHarvard Crimson, Crimson, February February 21, 21, 1958. 1958. vard 3. W. W. Barksdale Barksdale Maynard, Maynard, Woodrow Woodrow Wilson: Wilson: Princeton Princeton to to the the Presidency Presidency 3. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 96. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 96. 4. Johnson, Johnson, Stover Stover at at Yale, Yale, p. p. 265. 265. 4. 5. Today there is a vestige of 5. Today there is a vestige of the the practice practice of of conditional conditional acceptance acceptance in in cases where Ivy League colleges admit certain students cases where Ivy League colleges admit certain students on on the the condicondition that that they they take take aa “gap “gap year” year” before before matriculating. matriculating. tion 6. Karabel, The Chosen, p. 199. 6. Karabel, The Chosen, p. 199. 7. 7. Eliot, Eliot, quoted quoted in in Karabel, Karabel, The The Chosen, Chosen, p. p. 41. 41. 8. See See Rosenthal, Rosenthal, Nicholas Nicholas Miraculous, Miraculous, pp. pp. 332–52, 332–52, and and Diana Diana Trilling, Trilling, 8. The Beginning of the Journey (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1993), The Beginning of the Journey (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1993), p. p. 269. 269. 9. Lowell, quoted in Karabel, The Chosen, p. 51. 9. Lowell, quoted in Karabel, The Chosen, p. 51. 10. George George Anthony Anthony Weller, Weller, Not Not to to Eat, Eat, Not Not for for Love Love (New (New York: York: HarHar10. rison Smith and Robert Haas, 1933), pp. 16– 17, 37. rison Smith and Robert Haas, 1933), pp. 16–17, 37.

223 207

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 106–113 106–113 11. Theodore H. White, White, In In Search Search of of History: History: A A Personal Personal Adventure Adventure (New (New 11. Theodore H. York: Harper Harper Collins, Collins, 1978), 1978), pp. pp. 42– 42–43. 43. York: 12. 12. Karabel, Karabel, The The Chosen, Chosen, pp. pp. 259, 259, 213; 213; Archibald Archibald Cox Cox et et al., al., Crisis Crisis at at Columbia: Report of the FactFinding Commission Appointed Columbia: Report of the Fact-Finding Commission Appointed to to InvesInvestigate the the Disturbances Disturbances at at Columbia Columbia University University in in April April and and May, May, 1968 1968 tigate (New York: York: Vintage Vintage Books, Books, 1968), 1968), p. p. 16. 16. (New 13. 13. See See Claudia Claudia Goldin Goldin and and Lawrence Lawrence Katz, Katz, The The Race Race Between Between Education Education and Technology (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, and Technology (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008). 2008). 14. A A view view attributed attributed to to Diderot Diderot in in Richard Richard Sennett, Sennett, The The Craftsman Craftsman (New (New 14. Haven, CT: CT: Yale Yale University University Press, Press, 2008), 2008), p. p. 281. 281. Haven, 15. 15. Simeon Simeon Baldwin Baldwin to to James James Kent, Kent, quoted quoted in in Robert Robert Middlekauff, Middlekauff, AnAncients and Axioms: Secondary Education in 18th Century cients and Axioms: Secondary Education in 18th Century New New EnEngland (New (New Haven, Haven, CT: CT: Yale Yale University University Press, Press, 1963), 1963), p. 119. p. 119. gland 16. Eliot, Eliot, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 2:613; 2:613; 16. Rudolph, American College and University, p. 418. Rudolph, American College and University, p. 418. 17. 17. William William James, James, “The “The Social Social Value Value of of the the College College Bred, Bred,”” McClure’s McClure’s Magazine 30 30 (1908). (1908). Harold Harold Hyman, Hyman, American American Singularity: Singularity: The The 1787 1787 Magazine Northwest Ordinance, Ordinance, the the 1862 1862 Homestead Homestead and and Morrill Morrill Acts, Acts, and and the the Northwest 1944 G.I. Bill (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986), p. 70. 1944 G.I. Bill (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986), p. 70. 18. 18. Karabel, Karabel, The The Chosen, Chosen, p. p. 183. 183. 19. The The development development of of needneed-based based aid aid was was led led by by John John U. U. Monro, Monro, aa HarHar19. vard dean dean who who eventually eventually left left to to teach teach black black students students at at Miles Miles College College vard in in Alabama Alabama and and later later at at Tougaloo Tougaloo College College in in Mississippi. Mississippi. For For aa clear clear statement of the original principles of needbased aid, see statement of the original principles of need-based aid, see Monro, Monro, “Helping the the Student Student Help Help Himself, Himself,”” College College Board Board Review, Review, May May 1953. 1953. “Helping 20. Tocqueville, Tocqueville, Democracy Democracy in in America America (1835– (1835–40), 40), trans. trans. Arthur Arthur GoldGold20. hammer hammer (New (New York: York: Library Library of of America, America, 2004), 2004), p. p. 58. 58. 21. Mitchell L. Stevens, Creating a Class: College Admissions 21. Mitchell L. Stevens, Creating a Class: College Admissions and and the the EdEducation of of Elites Elites (Cambridge: (Cambridge: Harvard Harvard University University Press, Press, 2007), 2007), p. p. 93. 93. ucation 22. See See Thomas Thomas J.J. Espenshade Espenshade and and Alexandria Alexandria Walton Walton Radford, Radford, No No LonLon22. ger ger Separate, Separate, Not Not Yet Yet Equal: Equal: Race Race and and Class Class in in Elite Elite College College Admission Admission and Campus Life (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University and Campus Life (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Press, 2009), 2009), esp. pp. pp. 108, 108, 299, 299, who who state state that that “with “with the the information information at at hand, hand,”” they they esp. “are not not able able to to settle settle the the question question of of whether whether Asian Asian applicants applicants expeexpe“are rience rience discrimination discrimination in in elite elite college college admissions” admissions” (p. (p. 95). 95).

224 208

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 114–116 114–116 23. Heller, quoted in in Paul Paul Attewell Attewell and and David David E. E. Lavin, Lavin, Does Does Higher Higher 23. Heller, quoted Education for for the the Disadvantaged Disadvantaged Pay Pay Off Off across across the the Generations? Generations? (New (New Education York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007), p. 199; Brian K. Fitzgerald York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007), p. 199; Brian K. Fitzgerald and and Jennifer Jennifer A. A. Delaney, Delaney, “Educational “Educational Opportunity Opportunity in in America, America,”” in in Condition of of Access: Access: Higher Higher Education Education for for Lower Lower Income Income Students, Students, ed. ed. Condition Donald E. E. Heller Heller (Westport, (Westport, CT: CT: American American Council Council on on Education/ Education/ Donald Praeger, 2002). Praeger, 2002). 24. 24. See See Clifford Clifford Adelman, Adelman, The The Toolbox Toolbox Revisited: Revisited: Paths Paths to to Degree Degree CompleCompletion from from High High School School through through College College (Washington, (Washington, DC: DC: U.S. U.S. DeDetion partment of of Education, Education, 2006). 2006). partment 25. 25. Peter Peter Sacks, Sacks, Tearing Tearing Down Down the the Gates: Gates: Confronting Confronting the the Class Class Divide Divide in in American Education (Berkeley: University of California Press, American Education (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 2007), p. 167. 167. p. 26. Ibid., Ibid., p. p. 169. 169. 26. 27. Between 27. Between 2008– 2008–2009 2009 and and 2009– 2009–2010, 2010, needneed-based based aid aid grew grew faster faster (by (by 4.6 percent) than meritbased aid (1.2 percent)— but it is too 4.6 percent) than merit-based aid (1.2 percent)—but it is too soon soon to to tell if if this this marks marks aa reversal reversal of of the the longlong-term term trend. trend. “Mixed “Mixed News News on on tell State Aid, Aid,”” InsideHigherEd.com, InsideHigherEd.com, July July 11, 11, 2011. 2011. State 28. Sacks, Tearing Down the Gates, p. 178. 28. Sacks, Tearing Down the Gates, p. 178. 29. 29. This This is is true true as as well well at at public public institutions. institutions. For For California California residents, residents, for for example, qualifying qualifying for for statestate-subsidized subsidized tuition tuition at at UCLA UCLA or or Berkeley Berkeley example, does not not require require means means testing, testing, so so aa child child of of aa trust trust and and estate estate attorney attorney does in Marin County may pay roughly the same amount as the child in Marin County may pay roughly the same amount as the child of of aa municipal worker in Oakland. Since many students at these “flagship” municipal worker in Oakland. Since many students at these “flagship” campuses come come from from middlemiddle- and and upperupper-middlemiddle-class class families, families, some some campuses economists argue argue that that the the system system amounts amounts to to aa regressive regressive public public subsubeconomists sidy disproportionately benefiting the relatively affluent. See W. Lee sidy disproportionately benefiting the relatively affluent. See W. Lee Hansen Hansen and and Burton Burton A. A. Weisbrod, Weisbrod, “The “The Distribution Distribution of of Costs Costs and and Direct Benefits Benefits of of Public Public Higher Higher Education: Education: The The Case Case of of California, California,”” Direct Journal of of Human Human Resources Resources 4 4 (Spring (Spring 1969): 1969): 176– 176–91. 91. A A useful useful discusdiscusJournal sion of the pros and cons of their argument is Thomas J. Kane, sion of the pros and cons of their argument is Thomas J. Kane, The The Price Price of of Admission: Admission: Rethinking Rethinking how how Americans Americans Pay Pay for for College College (Wash(Washington DC: DC: Brookings Brookings Institution Institution Press, Press, 1999), 1999), pp. pp. 132– 132–33. 33. For For illusillusington trations of of comparative comparative subsidies subsidies enjoyed enjoyed by by students students from from different different trations socioeconomic socioeconomic strata, strata, see see Kane, Kane, Price Price of of Admission, Admission, Table Table 22-3, 3, p. p. 38. 38.

225 209

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 116–118 116–118 30. Ironically, following the the crash crash of of 2008 2008 the the strain strain was was especially especially sese30. Ironically, following vere at at some some wellwell-endowed endowed colleges, colleges, which which rely rely more more than than “tuition“tuitionvere dependent” dependent” institutions institutions on on investment investment returns returns for for balancing balancing their their budgets. For an illustration of the rising pressures on one budgets. For an illustration of the rising pressures on one institution, institution, Reed College, College, whose whose commitment commitment to to financial financial aid aid was was tested tested by by the the Reed drop in in its its endowment endowment between between 2008 2008 and and 2009 2009 (it (it fell fell from from roughly roughly drop $450 $450 million million to to $330 $330 million), million), see see Jonathan Jonathan D. D. Glater, Glater, “College “College in in Need Closes a Door to Needy Students, ” New York Times, Need Closes a Door to Needy Students,” New York Times, June June 9, 9, 2009. 2009. 31. Veblen, Veblen, Higher Higher Learning Learning in in America, America, p. p. 78. 78. 31. 32. Much of the increase in the number of 32. Much of the increase in the number of students students applying applying to to selective selective colleges is due to the wide adoption of the “Common Application, colleges is due to the wide adoption of the “Common Application,”” an an electronic form form that that makes makes it it easier easier for for candidates candidates (those (those who who can can afafelectronic ford multiple multiple application application fees) fees) to to apply apply to to many many institutions. institutions. Moreover, Moreover, ford colleges inflate their applicant numbers by directmarketing techniques colleges inflate their applicant numbers by direct-marketing techniques to to students students whose whose names names they they obtain obtain by by buying buying lists lists from from standardizedstandardizedtest providers— providers—although although they they know know that that many many of of the the applications applications test they solicit solicit are are from from unqualified unqualified candidates. candidates. Janet Janet Lorin, Lorin, “SAT “SAT Test Test they Owner to Face Query on Teen Privacy from Lawmakers, ” Bloomberg Owner to Face Query on Teen Privacy from Lawmakers,” Bloomberg Education Education Group, Group, May May 26, 26, 2011, 2011, www.bloombergeducationgroup@ www.bloombergeducationgroup@ bloomberg.com; Kevin Kevin Carey, Carey, “Real “Real College-Acceptance College-Acceptance Rates Rates Are Are bloomberg.com; Higher Than Than You You Think, Think,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education, Education, April April 19, 19, Higher 2010; Eric Hoover, “College Applications Continue to Increase: 2010; Eric Hoover, “College Applications Continue to Increase: When When Is Is Enough Enough Enough?” Enough?” New New York York Times, Times, November November 7, 7, 2010; 2010; and Jerome Jerome A. A. Lucido, Lucido, “Breaking “Breaking the the ‘Cruel ‘Cruel Cycle Cycle of of Selectivity’ Selectivity’ in in and Admissions,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education, Education, January January 16, 16, 2011. 2011. A A valuvaluAdmissions, able able report report on on the the state state of of selective selective college college admissions admissions is is The The Case Case for for Change in College Admissions: A Call for Individual and Collective Change in College Admissions: A Call for Individual and Collective Leadership, issued issued in in September September 2011, 2011, by by the the University University of of Southern Southern Leadership, California Center Center for for Enrollment Enrollment Research, Research, Policy, Policy, and and Practice Practice in in California partnership with the Education Conservancy. partnership with the Education Conservancy. 33. 33. Sternberg, Sternberg, College College Admissions Admissions for for the the 21st 21st Century Century (Cambridge: (Cambridge: HarHarvard University University Press, Press, 2010), 2010), p. p. x. x. Michaels, Michaels, The The Trouble Trouble with with DiverDivervard sity: How How We We Learned Learned to to Love Love Identity Identity and and Ignore Ignore Inequality Inequality (New (New sity: York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), p. 98. York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), p. 98.

226 210

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 118–120 118–120 34. The The ad ad was was in in Harvard Harvard Magazine, Magazine, July–August, July–August, 2011, 2011, p. p. 79. 79. See See www www 34. .applicationbootcamp.com and www.ivywise.com, and Jacques Stein.applicationbootcamp.com and www.ivywise.com, and Jacques Steinberg, berg, “Before “Before College, College, Costly Costly Advice Advice Just Just on on Getting Getting In, In,”” New New York York Times, July July 18, 18, 2009. 2009. Michaels, Michaels, Trouble Trouble with with Diversity, Diversity, p. p. 87. 87. Times, 35. 35. For For thoughtful thoughtful reviews reviews of of some some of of the the ethical ethical issues issues that that arise arise in in colcollege admissions, admissions, see see two two articles articles by by Michael Michael McPherson McPherson and and MorMorlege ton Schapiro, Schapiro, “The “The Search Search for for Morality Morality in in Financial Financial Aid, Aid,”” Academe Academe ton (November– December 1993): 23– 25; and “Moral Reasoning (November–December 1993): 23–25; and “Moral Reasoning and and Higher-Education Education Policy, Policy,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education, Education, September September Higher7, 2007. 2007. 7, 36. Kronman, 36. Kronman, “Is “Is Diversity Diversity aa Value Value in in American American Higher Higher Education?” Education?” Florida Law Law Review, Review, December December 2000, 2000, p. p. 40. 40. At At Yale, Yale, in in the the early early Florida 1950s, nearly threequarters of alumni sons who applied were 1950s, nearly three-quarters of alumni sons who applied were acaccepted cepted (see (see Richard Richard Kahlenberg, Kahlenberg, ed., ed., Affirmative Affirmative Action Action for for the the Rich: Rich: Legacy Preferences Preferences in in College College Admissions Admissions (New (New York: York: Century Century FounFounLegacy dation, 2010, p. 137). By the 1960s, that figure was still more dation, 2010, p. 137). By the 1960s, that figure was still more than than twotwo-thirds thirds (Bowen (Bowen et et al., al., Equity Equity and and Excellence, Excellence, p. p. 169). 169). Today, Today, acaccording to to Yale Yale dean dean of of admissions admissions Jeffrey Jeffrey Brenzel, Brenzel, around around one one in in cording five legacy candidates are admitted, still more than twice the rate for five legacy candidates are admitted, still more than twice the rate for other applicants applicants (( Jenny Jenny Anderson, Anderson, “Debating “Debating Legacy Legacy Admissions Admissions at at other Yale, and and Elsewhere, Elsewhere,”” New New York York Times, Times, April April 29, 29, 2011). 2011). Depending Depending on on Yale, one’s one’s point point of of view, view, this this is is aa glassglass-halfhalf-empty empty or or glassglass-halfhalf-full full situasituation. For For arguments arguments against against legacy legacy admissions, admissions, see see Kahlenberg, Kahlenberg, ed., ed., tion. Affirmative Action Action for for the the Rich. Rich. For For aa defense defense of of legacy legacy admissions admissions Affirmative as as aa form form of of “tolerable “tolerable corruption, corruption,”” see see Russell Russell K. K. Nieli, Nieli, “A “A RelucReluctant Vote Vote for for Legacies, Legacies,”” Minding Minding the the Campus, Campus, February February 14, 14, 2011, 2011, tant www.mindingthecampus.com. www.mindingthecampus.com. 37. 37. Roger Roger Lehecka Lehecka and and Andrew Andrew Delbanco, Delbanco, “Ivy“Ivy-League League Let Let Down, Down,”” New New York Times, Times, January January 23, 23, 2008; 2008; Theda Theda Skocpol Skocpol and and Suzanne Suzanne Mettler, Mettler, York “Back “Back to to School, School,”” Democracy: Democracy: A A Journal Journal of of Ideas Ideas (Fall (Fall 2008): 2008): 8– 8–18. 18. See also Richard Ekman, “Free Ride to College? Bearing the Brunt See also Richard Ekman, “Free Ride to College? Bearing the Brunt of of Changing Expectations Expectations on on Who Who Should Should Pay Pay for for College, College,”” University University Changing Business, Business, April April 2008. 2008. Ekman Ekman calls calls the the new new policy policy “affirmative “affirmative action action for the the upper upper middle middle class.” class.” for

227 211

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 120–124 120–124 38. Eric Hoover, “The “The Flock Flock of of Early Early Birds Birds Keeps Keeps Growing, Growing,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of 38. Eric Hoover, Higher Education, Education, November November 18, 18, 2011. 2011. The The best best study study of of the the effects effects of of Higher early early admissions admissions programs programs is is Christopher Christopher Avery, Avery, Andrew Andrew Fairbanks, Fairbanks, and Richard Zeckhauser, The Early Admissions Game: and Richard Zeckhauser, The Early Admissions Game: Joining Joining the the Elite Elite (Cambridge: Harvard Harvard University University Press, Press, 2003). 2003). See See also also Bowen Bowen et et al., al., (Cambridge: Equity and and Excellence, Excellence, pp. pp. 173– 173–75; 75; and, and, for for aa thoughtful thoughtful response response to to Equity the resumption of early admissions at Harvard, Geoffrey W. Challen, the resumption of early admissions at Harvard, Geoffrey W. Challen, “Early “Early Inaction: Inaction: College College vs. vs. Country, Country,”” Harvard Harvard Crimson, Crimson, March March 2, 2, 2011. 2011. 39. The The figures figures are are from from Bowen Bowen et et al., al., Equity Equity and and Excellence. Excellence. The The eleven eleven 39. institutions are are Barnard, Barnard, Columbia, Columbia, Oberlin, Oberlin, Penn Penn State, State, Princeton, Princeton, institutions Smith, Swarthmore, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley, Smith, Swarthmore, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley, WilWilliams, liams, and and Yale. Yale. When When the the sample sample is is broadened broadened to to include include the the “top “top 146 colleges, colleges,”” as as reported reported in in the the Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education Education (Karin (Karin 146 Fischer, “Elite “Elite Colleges Colleges Lag Lag in in Serving Serving the the Needy, Needy,”” May May 12, 12, 2006), 2006), Fischer, the figure falls to 3 percent. Bowen also reports that only 3 percent the figure falls to 3 percent. Bowen also reports that only 3 percent of of students students at at nineteen nineteen selective selective colleges colleges and and leading leading state state universities universities are both both lowlow-income income and and firstfirst-generation generation college college goers goers (p. (p. 163). 163). are 40. Bowen Bowen et et al., al., Equity Equity and and Excellence, Excellence, p. p. 162. 162. 40. 41. 41. “Despite “Despite Surging Surging Endowments, Endowments, HighHigh-Ranking Ranking Universities Universities and and ColColleges Show Disappointing Results in Enrolling LowIncome leges Show Disappointing Results in Enrolling Low-Income StuStudents,”” Journal Journal of of Blacks Blacks in in Higher Higher Education, Education, January January 6, 6, 2008. 2008. David David dents, Leonhart, “Top “Top Colleges, Colleges, Largely Largely for for the the Elite, Elite,”” New New York York Times, Times, May May Leonhart, 24, 2011. 24, 2011. 42. 42. Michaels, Michaels, Trouble Trouble with with Diversity, Diversity, p. p. 17. 17. 43. See See Trends Trends in in College College Spending: Spending: Where Where Does Does the the Money Money Come Come From? From? 43. Where Does Does It It Go? Go? Delta Delta Cost Cost Project Project and and Lumina Lumina Foundation Foundation for for Where Education, 2008, available at www.deltacostproject.org; and David Education, 2008, available at www.deltacostproject.org; and David Levinson, Levinson, “Grand “Grand Solution Solution or or Grab Grab Bag, Bag,”” American American Prospect, Prospect, NovemNovember, 2009, 2009, p. p. A15. A15. ber, 44. See See Arum Arum and and Jopska, Jopska, Academically Academically Adrift; Adrift; and and William William G. G. Bowen, Bowen, 44. Matthew M. Chingos, and Michael S. McPherson, Crossing the Matthew M. Chingos, and Michael S. McPherson, Crossing the Finish Finish Line: Line: Completing Completing College College at at America’s America’s Public Public Universities Universities (Princeton, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Princeton University University Press, Press, 2009). 2009). NJ: 45. Peter Peter Orszag, Orszag, “A “A Health Health Care Care Plan Plan for for Colleges, Colleges,”” New New York York Times, Times, 45. September 18, 2010, argues that the rising cost of Medicaid accounts September 18, 2010, argues that the rising cost of Medicaid accounts

228 212

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 124–135 124–135 in large large measure measure for for declining declining support support of of public public higher higher education education in in in the budgeting budgeting priorities priorities of of the the states. states. Orszag, Orszag, former former director director of of the the the White White House House Office Office of of Management Management and and Budget Budget under under President President Obama, points out that over the last thirty years, faculty Obama, points out that over the last thirty years, faculty salaries salaries at at public universities universities have have gone gone from from rough rough parity parity with with their their private private public counterparts to to aa shortfall shortfall of of at at least least 20 20 percent. percent. counterparts

Chapter Five. Five. Brave Brave New New World World Chapter 1. Karabel, Karabel, The The Chosen, Chosen, p. p. 5. 5. 1. 2. John John Murray Murray Cuddihy, Cuddihy, The The Ordeal Ordeal of of Civility: Civility: Freud, Freud, Marx, Marx, LéviLévi2. Strauss, and the Jewish Struggle with Modernity (New York: Basic Strauss, and the Jewish Struggle with Modernity (New York: Basic Books, Books, 1974), 1974), p. p. 5; 5; Owen Owen Johnson, Johnson, Stover Stover at at Yale, Yale, p. p. 176. 176. 3. Eliot, Eliot, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 2:614. 2:614. 3. 4. See See Richard Richard F. F. Miller, Miller, Harvard’s Harvard’s Civil Civil War: War: A A History History of of the the Twentieth Twentieth 4. Massachusetts Massachusetts Volunteer Volunteer Infantry Infantry (Lebanon, (Lebanon, NH: NH: University University Press Press of of New England, 2005). Shaw and his troops are the subject of a New England, 2005). Shaw and his troops are the subject of a bronze bronze memorial frieze frieze by by Augustus Augustus Saint Saint Gaudens Gaudens overlooking overlooking the the Boston Boston memorial Common. Common. 5. 5. James, James, The The Bostonians Bostonians (1886; (1886; Baltimore: Baltimore: Penguin, Penguin, 1966), 1966), p. p. 210. 210. 6. Johnson, Stover at Yale, p. 186. 6. Johnson, Stover at Yale, p. 186. 7. Ibid., Ibid., pp. pp. 29, 29, 68. 68. 7. 8. Geoffrey Geoffrey Kabaservice, Kabaservice, The The Guardians: Guardians: Kingman Kingman Brewster, Brewster, His His Circle, Circle, 8. and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment (New York: Henry and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment (New York: Henry Holt, Holt, 2004). 2004). 9. Auchincloss, Auchincloss, The The Rector Rector of of Justin Justin (Boston: (Boston: HoughtonHoughton-Mifflin, Mifflin, 1964), 1964), 9. p. 33. 33. p. 10. 10. Ibid., Ibid., pp. pp. 45, 45, 39. 39. 11. Karabel, The 11. Karabel, The Chosen, Chosen, p. p. 35. 35. 12. Young, Young, The The Rise Rise of of the the Meritocracy, Meritocracy, 1870– 1870–2033 2033 (London: (London: Penguin Penguin 12. Books, 1961), 1961), p. p. 92. 92. Books, 13. 13. Ibid, Ibid, p. p. 116. 116. 14. Ibid, 14. Ibid, pp. pp. 106– 106–7. 7. 15. Ibid., Ibid., pp. pp. 167– 167–68. 68. 15. 16. Ibid, Ibid, p. p. 74. 74. Even Even in in our our brave brave new new world world of of “attention “attention deficit deficit disordisor16. der” and Ritalin, students who are strong in one academic area der” and Ritalin, students who are strong in one academic area and and

229 213

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 135–139 135–139 weak in in another another (as (as reflected reflected in in “berserk” “berserk” records records of of As As in in some some subsubweak jects and Bs or Cs in others) are much less likely to gain admission jects and Bs or Cs in others) are much less likely to gain admission to to top top colleges colleges than than they they would would have have been been aa generation generation ago. ago. 17. Michaels, Michaels, Trouble Trouble with with Diversity, Diversity, pp. pp. 97, 97, 104. 104. Michaels Michaels argues argues that that 17. race-conscious conscious admissions admissions functions functions for for white white students students in in elite elite colcolraceleges as “a powerful tool for legitimizing their sense of their indileges as “a powerful tool for legitimizing their sense of their individual vidual merit” merit” by by fostering fostering the the notion notion that that minority minority students students are are the the beneficiaries of of exceptional exceptional allowances. allowances. beneficiaries 18. See See Shamus Shamus Khan, Khan, “Meritocracy “Meritocracy Is Is an an Engine Engine of of Inequality, Inequality,”” CoCo18. lumbia Spectator, March 3, 2011, which describes a system in which lumbia Spectator, March 3, 2011, which describes a system in which “the “the winners winners think think they’ve they’ve won won because because of of their their merit, merit, not not their their advantages.” advantages.” 19. Quoted Quoted in in Ben Ben Wildavsky, Wildavsky, The The Great Great Brain Brain Race: Race: How How Global Global UniUni19. versities Are Shaping the World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University versities Are Shaping the World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Press, 2010), 2010), p. p. 125. 125. 20. Ibid., Ibid., p. p. 171. 171. 20. 21. Jack Jack Matthews, Matthews, “Nathaniel “Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hawthorne’s Untold Untold Tale, Tale,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of 21. Higher Education, August 15, 2010. Higher Education, August 15, 2010. 22. 22. Miller, Miller, Harvard’s Harvard’s Civil Civil War, War, p. p. 3; 3; Melville, Melville, “The “The College College Colonel, Colonel,”” in in Battle-Pieces Pieces and and Aspects Aspects of of the the War War (1866). (1866). Battle23. 23. Michaels, Michaels, Trouble Trouble with with Diversity, Diversity, p. p. 85. 85. Ross Ross Gregory Gregory Douthat, Douthat, PriviPrivilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (New lege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (New York: York: HyHyperion, 2005), 2005), pp. pp. 12– 12–13. 13. perion, 24. John John Cotton, Cotton, A A Treatise Treatise of of the the Covenant Covenant of of Grace, Grace, in in The The Puritans Puritans 24. in America, ed. Alan Heimert and Andrew Delbanco (Cambridge: in America, ed. Alan Heimert and Andrew Delbanco (Cambridge: Harvard Harvard University University Press, Press, 1985), 1985), p.151. p.151. 25. Karabel, Karabel, The The Chosen, Chosen, p. p. 557. 557. 25. 26. Kirn, Kirn, The The Daily Daily Beast, Beast, May May 19, 19, 2009. 2009. These These are are essentially essentially the the same same 26. characters whom David Brooks, a graduate of the University of characters whom David Brooks, a graduate of the University of ChiChicago, cago, described described as as “Bobos” “Bobos” (a (a hybrid hybrid of of “bourgeois” “bourgeois” and and “bohemian”) “bohemian”) in his his bestbest-selling selling book book Bobos Bobos in in Paradise: Paradise: The The New New Upper Upper Class Class and and in How They They Got Got There There (New (New York: York: Simon Simon and and Schuster, Schuster, 2000). 2000). Two Two How biting biting articles articles about about the the sense sense of of entitlement entitlement among among students students at at Harvard and Yale are John Summers, “All the Privileged Harvard and Yale are John Summers, “All the Privileged Must Must Have Have Prizes,”” Times Times Higher Higher Education Education Supplement Supplement (London), (London), July July 19, 19, 2008; 2008; Prizes,

230 214

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 139–145 139–145

27. 27.

28. 28.

29. 29.

30. 30. 31. 31.

and William William Deresiewicz, Deresiewicz, “The “The Disadvantages Disadvantages of of an an Elite Elite EducaEducaand tion, ” American Scholar 77, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 20– 31. tion,” American Scholar 77, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 20–31. William William Bowen, Bowen, Lessons Lessons Learned: Learned: Reflections Reflections of of aa University University President President (Princeton, NJ: NJ: Princeton Princeton University University Press, Press, 2011), 2011), pp. pp. 33– 33–34. 34. BeBe(Princeton, tween 2001 2001 and and 2008– 2008–2009, 2009, the the number number of of publicpublic-university university presipresitween dents dents earning earning more more than than half half aa million million dollars dollars rose rose nearly nearly tenfold, tenfold, from six to fiftyeight. For an account of the “cozy and from six to fifty-eight. For an account of the “cozy and lucrative lucrative club” club” of academic academic leaders, leaders, see see Graham Graham Bowley, Bowley, “The “The AcademicAcademic-Industrial Industrial of Complex,”” New New York York Times, Times, July July 31, 31, 2010. 2010. It It should should be be noted noted that that Complex, the Illinois chancellor donates her board salary to support student the Illinois chancellor donates her board salary to support student scholar scholarships. ships. See See Erik Erik Siemers, Siemers, “Nike “Nike Director Director named named U. U. of of Illinois Illinois Chancellor,”” Portland Portland Business Business Journal, Journal, August August 5, 5, 2011. 2011. Chancellor, Henry Rosovsky, Rosovsky, “Annual “Annual Report Report of of the the Dean Dean of of the the Faculty Faculty of of Henry Arts and Sciences, 1990– 1991, ” Policy Perspectives 4, no. 3 (SeptemArts and Sciences, 1990–1991,” Policy Perspectives 4, no. 3 (September ber 1992): 1992): 1b– 1b–2b. 2b. Sewell Sewell Chan, Chan, “Academic “Academic Economists Economists to to Consider Consider Ethics Code, Code,”” New New York York Times, Times, December December 31, 31, 2010. 2010. On On the the Qaddafi Qaddafi Ethics matter, see see David David Corn, Corn, “Monitor “Monitor Group: Group: Still Still Spinning?” Spinning?” Mother Mother matter, Jones, March 3, 2011; and Paul A. Rahe, “The Intellectual as Courtier, Jones, March 3, 2011; and Paul A. Rahe, “The Intellectual as Courtier,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education, Education, March March 7, 7, 2011. 2011. John Jay Jay Chapman, Chapman, “The “The Function Function of of aa University” University” (1900), (1900), in in UnUnJohn bought Spirit: A John Jay Chapman Reader, ed. Richard Stone (Urbought Spirit: A John Jay Chapman Reader, ed. Richard Stone (Urbana: bana: University University of of Illinois Illinois Press, Press, 1998), 1998), p. p. 93; 93; James James Engell Engell and and Anthony Dangerfield, Dangerfield, Saving Saving Higher Higher Education Education in in the the Age Age of of Money Money Anthony (Charlottesville: lottesville: University University of of Virginia Virginia Press, Press, 2005); 2005); David David Kirp, Kirp, (Char Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education Education (Cambridge: (Cambridge: Harvard Harvard University University Press, Press, 2003); 2003); JenniJennifer Washburn, Washburn, University, University, Inc.: Inc.: The The Corporate Corporate Corruption Corruption of of Higher Higher fer Education (New (New York: York: Basic Basic Books, Books, 2005); 2005); Carlos Carlos Alonso, Alonso, “Paradise “Paradise Education Lost: The Academy Becomes a Commodity, ” Chronicle of Lost: The Academy Becomes a Commodity,” Chronicle of Higher Higher Education, Education, December December 12, 12, 2010. 2010. Joseph O’Neill, O’Neill, Netherland Netherland (New (New York: York: Pantheon, Pantheon, 2008), 2008), p. p. 91. 91. Joseph Robert Pollack, Pollack, “I “I Am, Am, Therefore Therefore II Think, Think,”” Columbia Columbia Spectator, Spectator, Robert September September 16, 16, 2010. 2010. In In his his autobiography autobiography The The Bridge, Bridge, Ernest Ernest Poole Poole (Princeton, class of 1902) writes that during his college days, (Princeton, class of 1902) writes that during his college days, only only once once did he he see see aa cheating cheating incident. incident. Sitting Sitting behind behind the the cheater cheater during during an an did

231 215

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 145–146 145–146 exam was was the the class class president, president, who, who, seeing seeing his his classmate classmate “furtively . . . “furtively . . . exam looking at notes, ” whispered in his ear, “Tear up your paper looking at notes,” whispered in his ear, “Tear up your paper and and flunk flunk this” (quoted (quoted in in Wertenbaker, Wertenbaker, Princeton, Princeton, 1746– 1746–1896, 1896, p. p. 364). 364). Suitably Suitably this” shamed, shamed, the the culprit culprit obliged. obliged. This This kind kind of of peerpeer-group group policing policing seems seems less prevalent prevalent today. today. One One question, question, about about which which frank frank discussion discussion is is less hard to come by, is whether cultural differences regarding issues such hard to come by, is whether cultural differences regarding issues such as originality originality and and imitation imitation are are part part of of the the problem problem as as Asian Asian students students as (both foreignborn and the children of immigrants) enter U.S. (both foreign-born and the children of immigrants) enter U.S. colleges colleges in in large large numbers. numbers. See See Elizabeth Elizabeth Redden, Redden, “Cheating “Cheating Across Across Cultures, Cultures,”” InsideHigherEd.com, May May 24, 24, 2007; 2007; and and Kelly Kelly Heyboer, Heyboer, “Centenary “Centenary InsideHigherEd.com, College Closes Satellite Schools in China, Taiwan after Finding College Closes Satellite Schools in China, Taiwan after Finding RamRampant Cheating, Cheating,”” NJ.com, NJ.com, July July 25, 25, 2010, 2010, www.NJ.com. www.NJ.com. pant 32. 32. William William Dowling, Dowling, Spoilsport: Spoilsport: My My Life Life and and Hard Hard Times Times Fighting Fighting Sports Sports Corruption at at an an Old Old Eastern Eastern University University (University (University Park: Park: Penn Penn State State Corruption University Press, 2007); Murray Sperber, Beer and Circus: How University Press, 2007); Murray Sperber, Beer and Circus: How BigBigTime College College Sports Sports Is Is Crippling Crippling Undergraduate Undergraduate Education Education (New (New Time York: York: Henry Henry Holt, Holt, 2000). 2000). Quoted Quoted in in Philip Philip Kay, Kay, ““ ‘Guttersnipes’ ‘Guttersnipes’ and and ‘Eliterates’: City City College College in in the the Popular Popular Imagination” Imagination” (PhD (PhD diss., diss., CoCo‘Eliterates’: lumbia lumbia University, University, 2011), 2011), p. p. 264. 264. 33. Erick Erick Smith, Smith, “Stanford “Stanford Discontinuing Discontinuing ‘Easy’ ‘Easy’ Class Class List List for for AthAth33. letes, ” USA Today, March 9, 2011; “The Early Admissions Loopletes,” USA Today, March 9, 2011; “The Early Admissions Loophole,”” InsideHigherEd.com, InsideHigherEd.com, October October 19, 19, 2006. 2006. James James L. L. Shulman Shulman and and hole, William G. Bowen, The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational William G. Bowen, The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values (Princeton, (Princeton, NJ: NJ: Princeton Princeton University University Press, Press, 2001.) 2001.) In In aa highly highly Values critical discussion discussion of of college college athletics athletics as as aa drain drain on on institutional institutional rerecritical sources, Derek Bok, Universities in the Marketplace: The Commersources, Derek Bok, Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of of Higher Higher Education Education (Princeton, (Princeton, NJ: NJ: Princeton Princeton University University cialization Press, 2003), chap. 3, points out that “the cost of intercollegiate Press, 2003), chap. 3, points out that “the cost of intercollegiate athathletics dwarfs dwarfs the the amounts amounts made made available available for for community community service, service, stustuletics dent orchestras, theater, and other worthwhile extracurricular activident orchestras, theater, and other worthwhile extracurricular activities” (p. (p. 41). 41). For For the the practice practice of of sending sending out out “likely “likely letters” letters” during during the the ties” (temporary) suspension of early admissions, see Lingbo Li, “Likely (temporary) suspension of early admissions, see Lingbo Li, “Likely Letters on on the the Rise, Rise,”” Harvard Harvard Crimson, Crimson, March March 13, 13, 2008. 2008. Letters

232 216

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 146–153 146–153 34. Andrew Andrew Dickson Dickson White, White, president president of of Cornell Cornell (1873), (1873), quoted quoted in in Bok, Bok, 34. Universities in the Marketplace, p. 55; Bowen et al., Equity and ExcelUniversities in the Marketplace, p. 55; Bowen et al., Equity and Excellence, lence, p. p. 171; 171; Lewis, Lewis, Excellence Excellence without without aa Soul, Soul, p. p. 252. 252. 35. Christopher Christopher Jencks Jencks and and David David Riesman, Riesman, The The Academic Academic Revolution Revolution 35. (1968; New New Brunswick, Brunswick, NJ: NJ: Transaction, Transaction, 2002), 2002), p. p. 243. 243. (1968; 36. 36. Bok, Bok, Universities Universities in in the the Marketplace, Marketplace, p. p. 30. 30.

Chapter Six. Six. What What Is Is to to Be Be Done? Done? Chapter 1. Zephyr Zephyr Teachout, Teachout, Washington Washington Post, Post, September September 13, 13, 2009. 2009. See See also also 1. Sarah Lacy, “Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet. Sarah Lacy, “Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet. It’s It’s Higher Higher Education, Education,”” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, April April 10, 10, 2011, 2011, www.techcrunch www.techcrunch .com. (Thiel (Thiel is is cofounder cofounder of of PayPal.) PayPal.) .com. 2. Michael Michael S. S. McPherson McPherson and and Morton Morton O. O. Schapiro, Schapiro, “The “The Future Future EcoEco2. nomic Challenges for the Liberal Arts Colleges, ” in Koblik and Graunomic Challenges for the Liberal Arts Colleges,” in Koblik and Graubard, bard, eds., eds., Distinctively Distinctively American, American, pp. pp. 49– 49–50. 50. 3. New New York York Times, Times, August August 25, 25, 2010. 2010. 3. 4. Clark Clark Kerr, Kerr, “The “The American American Mixture Mixture of of Higher Higher Education Education in in PerspecPerspec4. tive: Four Dimensions, ” Higher Education 19 (1990): 1; American tive: Four Dimensions,” Higher Education 19 (1990): 1; American Council on on Education, Education, Fact Fact Book Book on on Higher Higher Education, Education, 1986– 1986–1987 1987 Council (New York: York: Macmillan, Macmillan, 1987), 1987), p. p. 57; 57; U.S. U.S. Department Department of of Education, Education, (New National National Center Center for for Education Education Statistics, Statistics, 120 120 Years Years of of American American EduEducation: A Statistical Portrait (Washington DC: U.S. Department cation: A Statistical Portrait (Washington DC: U.S. Department of of Education, 1993), 1993), table table 24, 24, pp. pp. 76– 76–77. 77. Education, 5. Arthur Arthur Levine, Levine, “Colleges “Colleges and and the the Rebirth Rebirth of of the the American American Dream, Dream,”” 5. Chronicle of Higher Education, July 11, 2010; Bowen, Chingos, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 11, 2010; Bowen, Chingos, and and McPherson, McPherson, Crossing Crossing the the Finish Finish Line, Line, p. p. 30; 30; Jane Jane Wellman, Wellman, New New York York Times, February February 4, 4, 2010; 2010; Sara Sara GoldrickGoldrick-Rab, Rab, “Following “Following Their Their Every Every Times, Move: An An Investigation Investigation of of SocialSocial- Class Class Differences Differences in in College College PathPathMove: ways, ” Sociology of Education 79, no. 1 ( January 2006): 61– 79. ways,” Sociology of Education 79, no. 1 ( January 2006): 61–79. 6. 6. Eugene Eugene Tobin, Tobin, comments comments to to the the board board of of the the Teagle Teagle Foundation Foundation (March 5, 5, 2010), 2010), quoted quoted by by permission. permission. (March 7. David David Kirp, Kirp, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Einstein, Einstein, and and the the Bottom Bottom Line: Line: The The MarMar7. keting of Higher Education (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, keting of Higher Education (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), p. p. 69. 69. 2005), 8. Donoghue, Donoghue, Last Last Professors, Professors, p. p. xiv. xiv. 8.

233 217

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 153–159 153–159 9. Diane Auer Jones, Jones, “Assessment “Assessment Changes Changes Online Online Teaching Teaching from from an an 9. Diane Auer Art to to aa Science, Science,”” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education, Education, November November 6, 6, 2011. 2011. Art 10. 10. Over Over the the last last decade, decade, the the dollar dollar amount amount of of loans loans going going to to students students enenrolled in forprofit colleges has expanded by nearly 700 percent, rolled in for-profit colleges has expanded by nearly 700 percent, from from $4 billion billion in in 2000 2000 to to $27 $27 billion billion in in 2010 2010 (National (National Public Public Radio, Radio, All All $4 Things Considered, Considered, August August 17, 17, 2010). 2010). Some Some observers, observers, noting noting the the comcomThings bination bination of of increasing increasing government government scrutiny scrutiny and and growing growing public public skeptiskepticism about the value of credentials earned from forprofit cism about the value of credentials earned from for-profit institutions, institutions, believe that that this this is is aa business business headed headed for for collapse. collapse. See See Steve Steve Eisman Eisman et et believe al., “Subprime “Subprime Goes Goes to to College, College,”” Market Market Folly, Folly, May May 27, 27, 2010, 2010, http:// http:// al., www.marketfolly.com/2010/05/steve-eisman-frontpoint-partners-ira www.marketfolly.com/2010/05/steve-eisman-frontpoint-partners-ira .html. .html. 11. W. W. Robert Robert Connor Connor and and Cheryl Cheryl Ching, Ching, “Can “Can Learning Learning Be Be Improved Improved 11. When Budgets Budgets Are Are in in the the Red?” Red?” Chronicle Chronicle of of Higher Higher Education, Education, April April When 25, 2010. For a cautionary tale of how the effort to measure educational 25, 2010. For a cautionary tale of how the effort to measure educational “outcomes” “outcomes” has has affected affected universities universities in in Britain, Britain, see see Stefan Stefan Collini, Collini, “From Robbins Robbins to to McKinsey, McKinsey,”” London London Review Review of of Books, Books, August August 25, 25, 2011. 2011. “From Francis Lieber, Lieber, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, Francis 1:299. 1:299. See See chap. chap. 1, 1, n. n. 3. 3. 12. Ticknor, Remarks 12. Ticknor, Remarks on on Changes Changes in in Harvard Harvard University, University, p. p. 35. 35. 13. McCosh, McCosh, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 13. 2:723. 2:723. 14. 14. Perhaps Perhaps the the most most persuasive persuasive critical critical voice voice in in the the debate debate is is that that of of DiDiane Ravitch, who once supported NCLB but now calls it a “timetable ane Ravitch, who once supported NCLB but now calls it a “timetable for the the destruction destruction of of public public education.” education.” See See Ravitch, Ravitch, “Obama’s “Obama’s War War for on Schools, Schools,”” Newsweek, Newsweek, March March 20, 20, 2011. 2011. on 15. 15. Cotton Cotton Mather, Mather, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher EducaEducation, 1:16. Margery Foster, “Out of Smalle Beginnings: tion, 1:16. Margery Foster, “Out of Smalle Beginnings: An An Economic Economic History of of Harvard Harvard College College in in the the Puritan Puritan Period Period (Cambridge: (Cambridge: HarHarHistory vard University University Press, Press, 1962), 1962), p. p. 105. 105. vard 16. 16. Dave Dave Gershman, Gershman, “Legislative “Legislative Study Study Group Group Explores Explores Idea Idea of of PrivaPrivatizing the University of Michigan, ” Ann Arbor News, December tizing the University of Michigan,” Ann Arbor News, December 18, 18, 2008. 2008. 17. For For an an attempt attempt to to measure measure student student learning learning at at seventeen seventeen colleges colleges and and 17. universities, see the Wabash National Study, 2006– 2009, at http:// universities, see the Wabash National Study, 2006–2009, at http://

234 218

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 159–161 159–161 www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/study-research/. On On October October 26, 26, 2009, 2009, www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/study-research/. Newsweek ran ran aa cover cover story story by by Senator Senator Lamar Lamar Alexander Alexander of of Tennessee Tennessee Newsweek (a (a former former university university president president and and secretary secretary of of education), education), entitled entitled “Why College Should Take Only Three Years.” “Why College Should Take Only Three Years.” The The same same idea idea had had been put put forward forward more more than than one one hundred hundred years years earlier earlier by, by, among among been others, William William James, James, “The “The Proposed Proposed Shortening Shortening of of the the College College others, Course, ” Harvard Monthly 11 (1891). Course,” Harvard Monthly 11 (1891). 18. 18. “Board “Board Responsibility Responsibility for for the the Oversight Oversight of of Educational Educational Quality, Quality,”” aa report issued issued March March 17, 17, 2011, 2011, by by the the Association Association of of Governing Governing Boards, Boards, report www.agb.org. See See also also José José A. A. Cabranes, Cabranes, “Myth “Myth and and Reality Reality of of UniUniwww.agb.org. versity Trusteeship in the Post-Enron Era, ” Fordham Law Review versity Trusteeship in the Post-Enron Era,” Fordham Law Review 76, 76, no. no. 22 (November (November 2007): 2007): 955–79. 955–79. 19. Christopher Christopher Jencks, Jencks, “The “The Graduation Graduation Gap, Gap,”” American American Prospect, Prospect, NoNo19. vember 18, 18, 2009. 2009. vember 20. 20. Ronald Ronald G. G. Ehrenberg, Ehrenberg, “How “How Governments Governments Can Can Improve Improve Access Access to College, ” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 6, to College,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 6, 2007; 2007; Donald Donald Heller, “A “A Bold Bold Proposal: Proposal: Increasing Increasing College College Access Access without without SpendSpendHeller, ing More More Money, Money,”” Crosstalk, Crosstalk, Fall Fall 2004. 2004. ing 21. 21. See, See, for for instance, instance, Charles Charles Murray, Murray, “Intelligence “Intelligence and and College, College,”” NaNational Affairs (Fall 2009): 95– 106, who states with remarkable tional Affairs (Fall 2009): 95–106, who states with remarkable conconfidence that that “only “only aa small small minority minority of of highhigh-school school graduates graduates have have the the fidence intelligence to to succeed succeed in in college.” college.” intelligence 22. 22. Eliot, Eliot, in in Hofstadter Hofstadter and and Smith, Smith, American American Higher Higher Education, Education, 2:604. 2:604. 23. An exemplary collegecommunity partnership is the 23. An exemplary college-community partnership is the Double Double DiscovDiscovery Center, Center, founded founded at at Columbia Columbia in in the the 1960s 1960s by by students students and and faculty. faculty. ery Through volunteers volunteers who who are are mainly mainly college college students, students, DDC DDC provides provides Through over over one one thousand thousand local local middle middle and and high high schoolers schoolers with with tutoring tutoring and mentoring, in order to improve their chances of becoming and mentoring, in order to improve their chances of becoming first first in their their families families to to attend attend college. college. See See http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ in college/ddc/. college/ddc/. 24. 24. See See Christopher Christopher Avery Avery and and Thomas Thomas J.J. Kane, Kane, “Student “Student Perceptions Perceptions of of College Opportunities: The Boston COACH Program, College Opportunities: The Boston COACH Program,”” in in College College Choices: The The Economics Economics of of Where Where to to Go, Go, When When to to Go, Go, and and How How to to Pay Pay Choices: for It, It, ed. ed. Caroline Caroline M. M. Hoxby Hoxby (Chicago: (Chicago: University University of of Chicago Chicago Press, Press, for 2004). 2004). For For aa summary summary of of recommendations recommendations to to clarify clarify and and simplify simplify

235 219

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 161–165 161–165

25. 25. 26. 26. 27. 27. 28. 28.

29. 29.

30. 30.

31. 31.

32. 32.

33. 33.

the process process of of applying applying for for financial financial aid, aid, see see Michael Michael S. S. McPherson McPherson the and Sandy Sandy Baum, Baum, “Fulfilling “Fulfilling the the Commitment: Commitment: Recommendations Recommendations and for for Reforming Reforming Federal Federal Student Student Aid, Aid,”” College College Board, Board, 2009, 2009, www www .collegeboard.com/rethinkingstudentaid. .collegeboard.com/rethinkingstudentaid. Bowen, Chingos, Chingos, and and McPherson, McPherson, Crossing Crossing the the Finish Finish Line, Line, pp. pp. 204, 204, Bowen, 219. 219. New New York York Times, Times, April April 26, 26, 2009. 2009. Emerson, journal entry, Emerson, journal entry, September September 14, 14, 1839, 1839, in in Porte, Porte, ed., ed., Emerson Emerson in in his Journals, Journals, p. p. 223. 223. his Richard L. L. Morrill, Morrill, Strategic Strategic Leadership: Leadership: Integrating Integrating Strategy Strategy and and Richard Leadership in Colleges and Universities (Westport, CT: American Leadership in Colleges and Universities (Westport, CT: American Council Council on on Education/Praeger, Education/Praeger, 2007), 2007), p. p. 26. 26. See Open Open Learning Learning Initiative, Initiative, http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/, http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/, See which offers offers courses courses in in statistics, statistics, biochemistry, biochemistry, economics, economics, and and other other which subjects. subjects. One One interesting interesting experiment experiment is is “University “University of of the the People, People,”” aa global global ononline university university that, that, up up to to now, now, has has charged charged no no tuition tuition and and minimal minimal line processing and and examination examination fees. fees. www.uopeople.org. www.uopeople.org. processing Cathy Davidson, Now You See It: Cathy Davidson, Now You See It: How How the the Brain Brain Science Science of of Attention Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn (New York: Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn (New York: Viking, Viking, 2011). Davidson’s Davidson’s vision vision reminds reminds me me of of something something II heard heard twentytwenty-five five 2011). years ago ago from from aa job job candidate candidate during during an an interview interview for for an an English English dedeyears partment teaching position. When asked what he would teach in partment teaching position. When asked what he would teach in aa course course on on American American poetry, poetry, he he replied replied that that he he preferred preferred the the “inductive “inductive syllabus”—by by which which he he meant meant that that rather rather than than assigning assigning readings readings he he syllabus”— would ask ask students students to to consult consult some some poetry poetry anthologies anthologies in in the the library, library, would and, and, after after they they had had leafed leafed through through them them for for aa bit, bit, he he would would have have them them nominate their favorite poems, put the nominees to a class nominate their favorite poems, put the nominees to a class vote, vote, and and the winners winners would would constitute constitute the the course course reading reading list. list. the Michael Schudson Schudson et et al., al., “General “General Education Education in in the the 21st 21st Century: Century: A A Michael Report of the University of California Commission on UndergraduReport of the University of California Commission on Undergraduate ate Education, Education,”” Center Center for for Studies Studies in in Higher Higher Education, Education, April April 2007, 2007, www.cshe.berkeley.edu. www.cshe.berkeley.edu. For an an account account of of Mazur’s Mazur’s practice, practice, see see Derek Derek Bok, Bok, Our Our UnderUnderFor achieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students achieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn Learn

236 220

Notes Notes to to Pages Pages 165–170 165–170 and Why Why They They Should Should Be Be Learning Learning More More (Princeton, (Princeton, NJ: NJ: Princeton Princeton and University Press, Press, 2006), 2006), pp. pp. 132– 132–34. 34. For For an an innovative innovative method method of of University teaching history, whereby students, having read relevant primary teaching history, whereby students, having read relevant primary and and secondary secondary texts, texts, adopt adopt the the roles roles of of historical historical figures figures and and dedebate contentious contentious issues issues from from the the trial trial of of Socrates Socrates or or Galileo, Galileo, to to the the bate partition of of India India or or Palestine, Palestine, see see Mark Mark Carnes, Carnes, “Inciting “Inciting Speech, Speech,”” partition Change (March– April 2005): 6– 11. Carnes calls his teaching Change (March–April 2005): 6–11. Carnes calls his teaching method method “Reacting “Reacting to to the the Past.” Past.” 34. Kronman Kronman calls calls it it the the “research “research ideal” ideal” (Education’s (Education’s End, End, chap. chap. 3); 3); 34. Menand writes writes of of the the decline decline of of general general education education in in favor favor of of “cre“creMenand dentialization dentialization and and specialization” specialization” (Marketplace (Marketplace of of Ideas, Ideas, p. p. 101); 101); Hacker and Dreifus speak of “knowledge that professors create Hacker and Dreifus speak of “knowledge that professors create for for other professors” professors” and and of of faculty faculty inflicting inflicting their their “microspecialties” “microspecialties” on on other defenseless undergraduates undergraduates (Higher (Higher Education?, Education?, p. p. 85). 85). defenseless 35. 35. Emerson, Emerson, quoted quoted in in Bledstein, Bledstein, Culture Culture of of Professionalism, Professionalism, p. p. 265. 265. 36. Carol Geary Schneider, “Transformative Learning— 36. Carol Geary Schneider, “Transformative Learning—Mine Mine and and Theirs,”” in in Literary Literary Study, Study, Measurement, Measurement, and and the the Sublime: Sublime: DisciplinDisciplinTheirs, ary Assessment, Assessment, ed. ed. Donna Donna Heiland Heiland and and Laura Laura J.J. Rosenthal Rosenthal (New (New ary York: Teagle Foundation, 2011), p. 28. York: Teagle Foundation, 2011), p. 28. 37. 37. Ronald Ronald G. G. Ehrenberg, Ehrenberg, Harriet Harriet Zuckerman, Zuckerman, Jeffrey Jeffrey A. A. Groen, Groen, and and Sharon M. M. Brucker, Brucker, Educating Educating Scholars: Scholars: Doctoral Doctoral Education Education in in the the Sharon Humanities (Princeton, (Princeton, NJ: NJ: Princeton Princeton University University Press, Press, 2010), 2010), p. p. Humanities 260. 260. 38. 38. Edward Edward J.J. Eckenfels, Eckenfels, Doctors Doctors Serving Serving People: People: Restoring Restoring Humanism Humanism to to Medicine Through Through Student Student Community Community Service Service (New (New Brunswick, Brunswick, NJ: NJ: Medicine Rutgers University University Press, Press, 2008), 2008), p. p. 5. 5. Rutgers 39. Robert Maynard Hutchins, The Higher 39. Robert Maynard Hutchins, The Higher Learning Learning in in America America (New (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1936), p. 115. Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1936), p. 115. 40. Quoted Quoted in in Mark Mark Schwehn, Schwehn, Exiles Exiles from from Eden: Eden: Religion Religion and and the the AcaAca40. demic Vocation Vocation in in America America (New (New York: York: Oxford Oxford University University Press, Press, demic 1993), 1993), p. p. 70. 70. 41. Roald 41. Roald Hoffmann, Hoffmann, “Research “Research Strategy: Strategy: Teach, Teach,”” American American Scientist Scientist 84 84 (1996): 20– 20–22. 22. See See also also David David F. F. Feldon Feldon et et al., al., “Graduate “Graduate Students’ Students’ (1996): Teaching Experiences Experiences Improve Improve Their Their Methodological Methodological Research Research Skills, Skills,”” Teaching Science 333, no. 6045 (August 19, 2011): 1037– 39. Science 333, no. 6045 (August 19, 2011): 1037–39.

237 221

Notes to Pages 170–177 170–180 42. I have put forward this suggestion in greater detail in “What Should PhD Mean?” PMLA 115 (2000): 1205–9. 43. Donald I. Finkel, Teaching with Your Mouth Shut (Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2000). 44. John Cotton, Christ the Fountaine of Life, p. 119. 45. Emerson, The American Scholar (1837), in Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Stephen Whicher (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1957), p. 69. 46. Leon Botstein, “Con Ed,” New Republic, November, 6, 2009; Debra Satz and Rob Reich, “The Liberal Reach,” Dissent (Winter 2004): 72–75. 47. These words were spoken by Mark DeFusco, former director of the University of Phoenix, on the PBS Frontline report, “College Inc.,” broadcast May 4, 2010. I owe the reference to an unpublished paper by Christine Smallwood, “What Makes Education So Special: ForProfit Colleges and American Higher Education,” Columbia University, spring 2010. 48. Project Pericles, www.projectpericles.org. 49. Noah Porter, American Colleges and the American Public (1870), in Cohen, ed., Education in the United States, 3:1475; Peter Pouncey, Rules for Old Men Waiting (New York: Random House, 2005), pp. 105–6. 50. Trilling, “The America of John Dos Passos,” in The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent: Selected Essays of Lionel Trilling, ed. Leon Wieseltier (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000), pp. 6–7.

Chapter Seven. After the Pandemic 1. Bryan Alexander, Academia Next: The F ­ utures of Higher Education (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), p. 23. 2. D. Shapiro et al., Baccalaureate Attainment: A National View of the Postsecondary Outcomes of Students Who Transfer from Two-­Year to Four-­Year Institutions, Signature Report No.  5 (Herndon, VA: National Student Clearing­house Research Center, 2013), https://­ nscresearchcenter​.­org​/­signaturereport5. 3. Ben Miller, “New Federal Data Show Amer­i­ca Still Needs to Improve

238 222

Notes to Pages 180–183 College Access,” Center for American Pro­gress, July 12, 2018, https://­ www​.­americanprogress​.­org​/­article​/­new​-­federal​-­data​-­show​-­america​ -­still​-­needs​-­improve​-­college​-­access. 4. Raj Chetty et al., “Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 23618, July 2017, https://­www​.­nber​.­org​/­papers​/­w23618. 5. Charles Clotfelter, Unequal Colleges in the Age of Disparity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017), p. 251. 6. Daniel Hurley, “The Peril of State Disinvestment in Michigan’s Pub­ lic Universities,” Michigan Association of State Universities, May 25, 2021, https://­www​.­masu​.­org​/­news​/­optimizing​-­education​-­higher​-­ed​ -­finance​/­05​-­25​-­2021​/­peril​-­state​-­disinvestment​-­michigans​-­public. 7. Jon McGee, Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), p. 191. The figure cited derives from 2010 data. 8. Mary B. Marcy, The Small College Imperative: Models for Sustainable ­Futures (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2020), p. 5. 9. For a nuanced analy­sis of t­hese trends, see Nathan Grawe, Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018). 10. Laura T. Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen, Broke: The Racial Consequences of Underfunding Public Universities (Chicago: University of Chica­ go Press, 2021), p. 11. 11. State appropriations per student have risen since the start of the pandemic—­owing largely to a combination of federal emergency funding and declining enrollments. See Josh Moody, “State Higher Ed Funding Rose in 2021,” Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2022. 12. See Mary Dana Hinton, “What Keeps a President Up at Night,” Inside Higher Ed, January 24, 2022; and Olivia Sanchez, “­After the Pandemic Disrupted Their High-­School Educations, Students Are Arriving at College Unprepared,” Hechinger Report, April 26, 2022. Sanchez quotes a mathe­matics professor at the University of Texas, Austin, Uri Treisman, who is renowned for his success in teaching students with ­limited precollege math, saying, “We know the stakes for our students . . . ​their failure is my failure.”

239

Notes to Pages 184–192 13. Corey Robin, “The Pandemic Is the Time to Resurrect the Public University,” New Yorker, May 7, 2020, https://­www​.­newyorker​.­com​ /­culture​/­cultural​-­comment​/­the​-­pandemic​-­is​-­the​-­time​-­to​-­resurrect​ -­the​-­public​-­university 14. Martin Kurzweil and Josh Wyner, “Rich Kids Are Eating Up the Fi­ nancial Aid Pot,” New York Times, June 16, 2020. 15. Kevin Carey, “The G ­ reat Master’s Degree Swindle,” Chronicle of Higher Education, August 5, 2021. 16. Frank Donoghue, The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008), p. 56. 17. Walter Metzger, “Academic Tenure in Amer­i­ca: An Historical Essay,” in Commission on Academic Tenure in Higher Education, Faculty Tenure: A Report and Recommendations (San Francisco: Jossey-­Bass, 1973), p. 138. 18. Holden Thorp, “The ­Future of Tenure,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 7, 2021. 19. Noah Smith, “When Disciplines Hit Dead Ends,” Chronicle of Higher Education, August 3, 2021. 20. Harry Brig­house, “Becoming a Better College Teacher (if ­You’re Lucky),” in Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson, eds., “Improving Teaching: Strengthening the College Learning Experience,” Daedalus 148, no. 4 (Fall 2019): 25. 21. Carl Edwin Wieman, “Expertise in University Teaching and the Im­ plications for Teaching Effectiveness, Evaluation and Training,” in Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson, eds., “Improving Teaching: Strengthening the College Learning Experience,” Daedalus 148, no. 4 (Fall 2019): 47. 22. Clayton M. Christensen and Henry J. Eyring, The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out (Hoboken, New Jersey: Jossey-­Bass, 2011), p. xxiv. 23. Lindsay Mc­Ken­zie, “Coursera IP ‘Seized on the Right Moment,’ ” Inside Higher Ed, April 9, 2021. 24. Jonathan Shaw, “Harvard and MIT to sell edX for $800 million,” https://­www​.­harvardmagazine​.­com​/­2021​/­06​/­sale​-­of​-­edx.

240

Notes to Pages 192–200 25. Michael M. Crow and William B. Dabars, The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni­ versity Press, 2020), pp. 75, 45, 27. 26. Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson, “The H ­ uman ­Factor: The Promise and Limits of Online Education,” in Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson, eds., “Improving Teaching: Strengthening the College Learning Experience,” Daedalus 148, no. 4 (Fall 2019): 238. 27. Thomas R. Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars, and David Jenkins, Redesigning Amer­i­ca’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 14. 28. Baum and McPherson, “The ­Human ­Factor,” pp. 239–40. 29. Home page, https://­www​.­clementecourse​.­org. 30. Home page, https:/​/­www​.­warrior​-­scholar​.­org. 31. Home page, https:​/­​/­www​.­nettercenter​.­upenn​.­edu. 32. Home page, https:​/­​/­drexel​.­edu​/­dornsifecenter. 33. Home page, https:​/­​/­www​.­mttamcollege​.­org. 34​.  https:​/­​/­ddc​.­college​.­columbia​.­edu/ 35. Home page, https:​/­​/­www​.­teaglefoundation​.­org​/­Call​-­for​-­Proposals​ /­Initiatives​/­Knowledge​-­For​-­Freedom. 36. Home page, https:​/­/­www​.­newark​.­rutgers​.­edu​/­tags​/­newark​-­city​-­learning​ -­collaborative. 37. Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-­ Administrative University and Why It M ­ atters (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 3.

241

INDEX

abolitionist movement, 71, 96 Academic Duty (Kennedy), 141 academic freedom, 79, 80, 90, 141, 159 The Academic Revolution ( Jencks and Adams, Abigail, 4 Riesman), 14851–52, 70, 72 Adams, Henry, Abigail, Adams, John, 28 4 Adams, Henry, 51– 52, 70, 72 195 adaptive learning technologies, Adams, John,ac­28cep­tance rates, 117, Admissions: admissions: acceptance rates,of, 117,117; 226n32; deceptive culture 210n32; deceptiveprograms, culture of,120, 117; early admissions early merit admissions programs, 146; and, 126, 134, 139;120, need-­ 146; merit and, 126, 134, 139; needblind, xii, 111, 112; race-­conscious, 55, 108,xviii, 230n17; wealth advantage blind, 111, 112; raceconscious, in, 118–19, 121–24 55, 108, 214n17; wealth advantage affirmative action, 55, 108, 119, 178–79; in, 118–19, 121–24 for the privileged, affirmative action, 55,105, 108,119 119; for the African-­American students. See black privileged, 105, 119 students AfricanAmerican students. See black agestudents of matriculation, 45 Alexander, Bryan, 179,45194–95, 196 age of matriculation, All My Sons (Miller), 110

­children, 117, 119, 121, 211n36 227n36 alumni children, American Association of University 80, 187, 190 Professors (AAUP), 80 American Historical Association, 80 American Mathematical Society, 80 Amer­i­ca’s world dominance: decline America’s of higher education and, 26; in ­century, 108. See See also twentieth century, also globalization Amherst College, 71, 122, 176 Animal House (film), 152 anti-­Semitism, 105–6, antiSemitism, 43, 105– 6, 107, 113 Aristotle, 36 Arizona State University, 93 Arnold, Matthew, 33 92–93 Arrowsmith (Lewis), 92– 93 arts, 3, 99, 148 Arum, Richard, Ascham, Roger, 189 45 Ascham, Roger, 45 Asian American students, 113, 147, Asian American students, 113, 147, 215–16n31 The231–32n31 Ask (Lipsyte), 18

243 223

Index The Ask (Lipsyte), 18 athletics, 117, 121, 145–47 Auchincloss, Louis, 131 Augustine, 40, 51, 52, 60, 90, 101 Ave­nue Q, 152 Bacow, Lawrence, 140 Bailey, Thomas, 197 Bakke case, 55 Baltzell, E. Digby, 133–34 Bard College, 173, 198 Barnard, Frederick, 41 Bartlett, William Francis, 137 Bauer, Nancy, 210n18 Baum, Sandy, 194, 197 Bayh-­Dole Act, 141–42, 158 Baylor University, 57 Beard, Charles, 80 Bennington College, 55 Berea College, 122 The Big Chill (film), 152 black students: admissions policies benefiting, 107–8; at historically black colleges, 22, 108, 122; Ivy League schools and, 106, 107, 130; nineteenth-­century bachelor’s degrees and, 72; strug­gles over “merit” and, 126. See also minorities Bob Jones University, 85 Bok, Derek, 149, 188–89 Bologna pro­cess, 155–56 The Bostonians ( James), 127–28 Botstein, Leon, 173, 174 Bowdoin College, 56 Bowen, William, 5, 21, 121, 146 Brainerd, David, 68 Brave New World (Huxley), 126 Brewster, Kingman, 130

244

Brig­house, Harry, 188 Brint, Steven, 189–90 Brody, William, 22 Brooklyn College, 112, 184 Brown University, 67, 72, 222n51 bullshit meter, 29, 60 Burr, Aaron, 68 Burroughs, John, 21 Bush, George W., 157, 158 Bush, Vannevar, 158 business schools, 79, 99–100 Butler, Nicholas Murray, 80, 105 calculus, 94 California Institute of Technology, 91 California master plan, 108, 110. See also Kerr, Clark Calvin, John, 40 Cambridge, ­England, colleges, 37, 39 Camus, Albert, 99 Carey, Kevin, 195 Car­ne­gie, Andrew, 74, 79 Car­ne­gie Commission on Higher Education, 81–82 Car­ne­gie Mellon University, 5, 163 Catholic institutions, 76, 91 Central Michigan University, 181 character, 42–44, 73, 106, 129. See also duty; ethics cheating, 20, 23, 144–45, 155, 211n23, 231–32n31. See also plagiarism Child, Francis James, 81 Chinese educational system, 56, 136, 155, 156 Christensen, Clayton, 190 Christian students, 147. See also religion citizenship: demo­cratic, 28–31, 149, 175, 177; reflective, 3

Index City College of New York, 112, 145 City University of New York (CUNY), 184 civic duty, 128. See also duty civility, 143–44 Clark University, 79 class. See social class classes. See curriculum class size, 56–59, 88–89 Clemente Course in the Humanities, 198 Clinton, Bill, 25 Clotfelter, Charles, 181 Clydesdale, Tim, 21 Coeducation: Oberlin’s pioneering commitment to, 72; in previously all-­male institutions, 86–87, 108 Coffin, William Sloane, 130 college/colleges: age of matriculation at, 45; ancient and medieval origins of, 36, 37; antebellum history of, 67–74; commercial interests and, 140–43, 158; cost-­cutting mea­sures of, 185; criteria for assessing quality of, 2; demo­cratizing of, 35, 107–12, 129–30; diversity of, 7–8; end of traditional experience of, 150–53; En­glish origins of, 37–39, 54; existing apart from a university, 86; forces of change acting on, 4–5; growth in enrollments of, 86–87, 108; as historically quasi-­penal institution, 18–19, 38; innovative solutions for prob­lems of, 162–65; operating costs of, 116, 154, 159–60; post-­Civil War changes in, 74–80; public attitude t­ oward, 74–76; pub­ lic ser­vice by, 198; recent changes in

culture of, 19–22; religious origins of, 37, 39, 40, 41, 64–66, 72–73, 138, 171; university in relation to, 2–3, 81–82, 102–3; word origin of, 38. See also community colleges; elite colleges; faculty; liberal arts col­ leges; purposes of college; students college degree, uncertain significance of, 155–56 college rankings, 1–2, 116–17 Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), 159 Columbia College: community ser­vice by students, 235n23; Core Curriculum, 30, 32, 84, 88, 91, 104; founding of, 67; goals of freshmen, 13; growth of, 87; need-­blind admissions at, xviii; university arising from, 78, 79 Columbia University: Beard’s 1917 resignation from, 80; black students at, 107; Butler’s presidency of, 80, 105; Christian student group at, 147; Double Discovery Center at, 199; immersion program within, 185; online course marketing at, 191; opposition to Jews at, 105–6; pre-­ existing college and, 78, 79 commercialization of higher educa­ tion, 140–43, 158. See also for-­profit institutions Common Application, 226n32 community colleges: Amherst’s admis­ sion of students from, 122, 176; at bottom of institutional hierarchy, 82; in California master plan, 108, 110; class disparities and, 122; Covid-19 pandemic within, 184;

245

Index community colleges (continued) current member and enrollment of, 110; demo­cratic education and, 8; demographics of, 180; enrollment growth in poor economy, 87, 154; faculty within, 186; liberal edu­ cation and, 34; partnerships with four-­year colleges, 161; spending within, 180; starved for resources, 34, 123 community ser­vice by students, 175, 235n23 commuter schools, 12, 151 competitive pressures on students, 16–17, 22–23, 136 compulsory courses. See core curricula Conant, James Bryant, 107 conflicts of interest: of professors, 142; of university presidents, 140 consilience, 41, 99 core curricula, 84–85, 87–89, 104; of Columbia College, 30, 32, 84, 88, 91, 104 Cornell, Ezra, 92 Cornell University, 80 corporate investors in technology transfer, 141–42 cost of attending college, 27, 114, 116, 154. See also financial aid cost of ­running a college, 116, 154, 159–60 Cottom, Tressie McMillan, 191 Cotton, John, 47, 53–54, 61 Coursera, 191, 192 Covid-19 pandemic: bud­get consid­ erations regarding, 184–86; faculty challenges following, 185–89; fictional scenario regarding, 179;

246

inequities regarding, 182–83; online learning during, 193–94; outbreak control of, 184 crisis in college education, 4–5, 162 crisis of 2008. See economic crash of 2008 ­Cromwell, Oliver, 38 Crow, Michael, 93, 192 curriculum: of early American college, 39–41; ideas of Western culture in, 30; recent Harvard reform effort, 90–91. See also core curricula; elective courses Dartmouth College, 67–68 Darwin, Charles, 76, 78 Davidson, Cathy, 163–64 Defoe, Daniel, 98–99 demo­cratic citizenship, 28–31, 149, 175, 177 demo­cratic education: Emerson on, 172; ideal of, 8; promise of, 174 demo­cratizing of American colleges, 35, 107–12, 129–30. See also educa­ tional opportunity demo­cratizing potential of Internet, 163 Denison University, 164 departments, academic, 78 Dewey, John, 53, 55, 80 Dickens, Charles, 72, 140 Dickinson, Emily, 58–59 Dickinson College, 65 digital online world of students, 14, 16, 21, 63, 163. See also online courses digital revolution, 4, 163. See also Internet

Index discrimination, racial and ethnic, 43, 107, 113. See also anti-­Semitism distance learning. See online courses distant reading, 98 distribution requirement, 85. See also core curricula Donoghue, Frank, 186 donors, ­children of, 117 Dornsife Center at Drexel University, 198 Double Discovery Center, 235n23 Douthat, Ross, 138 Dreifus, Claudia, 145, 166 Drew University, 82 drinking, 17, 18, 23, 37, 137, 211n23 DuBois, W.E.B., v, 60 Dunne, Finley Peter, 74–75, 76 duty, 126, 128–29, 130, 132, 141. See also character early admissions programs, 120, 146 École normale supérieure, 136 economic crash of 2008: failure of academics to foresee, 95; money chase leading up to, 143; pressure on college bud­gets since, 116, 226n30; student concern for mar­ ketable subjects and, 87, 148; Tufts president’s compensation and, 140 education: word origin of, 46 educational opportunity: democracy and, 30, 35; f­ amily income and, 26–27, 114; public universities and, 111–12. See also demo­cratizing of American colleges; discrimination, racial and ethnic; low-­income students Edwards, Jonathan, 40, 41, 51, 52, 68

edX, 191–92 Ehrenberg, Ronald, 160 elective courses: of late nineteenth-­ century colleges, 77; McCosh-­Eliot debate about, 82–84, 156; pre­sent broad se­lection of, 19 Eliot, Charles W.: on active learning, 53; on aristocracy of sons of Har­ vard, 126–27; debate with McCosh, 82–84, 86, 87, 89–90, 156; on dog­ matic teaching, 209n10; followed by Lowell, 103; on growth in enroll­ ment, 87; on “luxury and learning,” 142; on pro­gress of knowledge, 93, 94, 95–96; on “stupid sons of the rich,” 105 elite colleges: Covid-19 challenges to, 182–83; demo­cratizing of, 108, 129–30; difficulties of low-­income students at, 113–14; faculty of, 6, 153; grade inflation at, 155; liberal education and, 34; life benefits of, 14, 26–27; pattern set by, 6; persisting appeal of, 153; princi­ ples discounted by, 137; public ser ­vice by, 198; reinforcing class structure, 122; snobbery and anti-­ intellectualism at, 107; statistics regarding, 180; tuition and fees within, 180–81 Emerson, Ralph Waldo: on aftermath of Civil War, 76; on college’s removal from real world, 162; on education, 46, 63, 172; on memory, 51, 52; on teaching, 166; on “the miraculous in the common,” 51; on twentieth college reunion, 1; on youth of the 1830s, 71

247

Index employment: advantages of college education for, 212n27; retraining for, 87; students’ worry about ­future and, 16–17. See also market­ able skills engineering schools, 79 En­glish colleges, 15, 37–39, 54, 65 Enlightenment precepts, 43–44, 66 Erasmus, 40 The Establishment, 133 ethics, 3, 44, 45–46, 140–46, 174. See also character Eu­ro­pean educational tracking, 27 Eu­ro­pean universities, 14–15; German, 79, 83–84, 93, 96; movement for uni­ versal degree requirements, 155–56 Evergreen State College, 170 faculty: academic freedom of, 79, 80, 90, 141, 159; caring about students, 166; changing role of, 5–6; ­children of, 117; close contact with students, 161; compensation in relation to undergraduate teaching, 2; conflicts of interest of, 142; cost of small classes and, 57; disconnection from academic governance, xix; at elite colleges, 6, 153; end of mandatory retirement for, 158; fragmentation of, 91; moneymaking opportuni­ ties for, 140–42, 158; part-­time, casual, or adjunct, 5, 123, 153–54, 186; po­liti­cal views of, 21; quest for prestige and, 117; required for com­ pulsory curriculum, 87–88; student evaluations of, 11, 155, 208n3; successful solutions for prob­lems of, 164–65; teaching in prisons and

248

other institutions, 173; tenure for, 5, 141, 153, 162, 164, 187–89; transfor­ mation into certified professionals, 79–81; underpaid and overworked, 140–41, 186; “up or out” mentality of, 187–88. See also teaching failure, academic, 20 Faust, Drew, 143 Ferrall, Victor, 33 financial aid: crash of 2008 and, 116; cutback by in­de­pen­dent colleges, 154; dilemmas of, 119–21; faculty disengagement from issues of, 91; for-­profit institutions and, 158, 220n28, 233n9; loans, 115, 119–20, 161; merit-­based, 115; need-­based, 111, 115–16, 184–85, 225n27; need-­ blind admissions and, xii, 111, 112; Pell grants, 13, 115, 122, 160, 220n28. See also low-­income students; scholarships financial crisis. See economic crash of 2008 Finkel, Donald, 170 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 19, 96, 129 Foreman, Spencer, 18 for-­profit institutions: abuses by, 109; CEO earnings at, 140; financial aid for students of, 158, 220n28, 233n9; questionable educational value of, 82, 154, 233n9; rejection of liberal educa­ tion, 174; vocational training by, 154 Franklin, Benjamin, 65, 78 ­Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), 183 Freud, Sigmund, 104 ­Future of Education Observatory, 194–95

Index gap year, 223n5 Geneva College, 57 Georgetown University, 76 Georgia State University, 183 Georgia Tech, 194 German national examinations, 156 German universities, 79, 83–84, 93, 96 GI Bill, 109–10, 158 Gilman, Daniel Coit, 93, 94 Ginsberg, Benjamin, 199–200 Gladwell, Malcolm, 2 global economic crisis. See economic crash of 2008 globalization, 4; of knowledge econ­ omy, 100; of meritocracy, 135–36. See also Amer­i­ca’s world dominance Golden, Daniel, 113 Goldman Sachs, 140 “Goodbye, Columbus” (Roth), 152 government: funding of higher educa­ tion by, 27 (see also financial aid); in global knowledge enterprise, 93; in technology-­transfer partnerships, 141–42 grace, 48–49, 73, 129, 138 grade inflation, 155 graduation rates, 2, 123, 152, 161, 162–63, 183–84 Greene, Graham, 126 Groton School, 131–32 Hacker, Andrew, 145, 166 Hadas, Rachel, 100 Hamilton, Laura T., 182 Hand, Learned, 43 Harper, William Rainey, 81 Harvard, 6, 18–19, 133–34; admission of athletes, 146; admission of

female students, 220n37; admission policy for low-­income students, 122; age of metriculation, 45; Cot­ ton Mather at, 68; demo­cratizing of, 130, 139; Dicken’s impression of, 140; early admissions program, 120; endowment of, 180; faculty culture at, 141; failure of recent curricular reform, 90–91; financial aid at, 107, 109, 120; financial ­careers of recent gradu­ates, 143; founding of, 39, 67; Franklin’s criticism of, 78; General Education program, 89; GI Bill and, 110; Jews at, 106; Memorial Hall, 127–28; MIT and, 191–92; Morison at, 42; nineteenth-­ century assessments of, 69–70, 72; nineteenth-­century reforms, 71; original “mission statement,” 11, 39; pattern set by, 6; racial and ethnic discrimination at, 106; seventeenth-­ century subjects of study, 39–40, 41; social stratification at, 106–7; transition to university, 78; undergraduate ­houses of, 103, 106; undergraduate teaching at, 81. See also Eliot, Charles W.; Lowell, Abbott Lawrence Harvard, John, 39 hate speech, 20 Hawthorne, Julian, 137 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 54, 137 Heller, Donald, 113, 160 Hennessy, John, 191, 196 Hispanic students: admissions policies benefiting, 108; chances of ­going to college, 151; at community colleges, 154. See also minorities

249

Index history: as guide to the pre­sent, xix; “scientific,” 97; as stepchild in colleges, 99 Hobart College, 71 Hoffmann, Roald, 169–70 Hofstadter, Richard, 69 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 132 Holocaust, 96 Homer, 101 Hope House, 173, 174 Horse­feathers (film), 75 Hrabowski, Freeman, 162–63 ­human capital, 108, 109 humanities, 94–101; declining number of majors in, 221–22n51; doctoral education in, 167–68; marginalized in colleges, 99; in professional schools, 99–100; pro­gress and, 94–95, 98–99; science and, 96–99 Hutchins, Robert Maynard, 92, 169 Huxley, Aldous, 126 I Am Charlotte Simmons (Wolfe), 18 The Idea of a University (Newman), 34. See also Newman, John Henry The Iliad, 101 immersion programs, 185 Indian Institutes of Technology Joint Entrance Exam, 136 Indian Universities, 155 in­equality: following Covid-19 pandemic, 182–85; socioeconomic, 123–24; sustained by elite colleges, 26–27, 122. See also meritocracy; social class information technology revolution, 4, 163 in loco parentis, 20

250

integrity, 143–45 interdisciplinary studies, 41 international students, 87, 122 Internet: demo­cratizing potential of, 163; plagiarism using, 211n23; radi­ cal change in higher education and, 150–51. See also online courses interviews of student applicants, 112–13 James, Henry, 9, 127–28 James, William, 52, 60, 64, 81, 131 Jarrell, Randall, 55 Jefferson, Thomas, 28, 32, 43–44, 68, 89, 114 Jencks, Christopher, 148, 149, 160 Jews: abating of discrimination against, 113; elite colleges’ discrim­ ination against, 43, 105–6, 107; excluded from the meritocracy, 126; Protestant origins of the colleges and, 171. See also Holocaust; Judaism Johns Hopkins, 42, 79, 81, 93 Johnson, Owen. See Stover at Yale ( Johnson) Joyce, James, 99 Judaism: Talmudic debate in, 57; Torah study in, 44 ju­nior colleges, 110. See also commu­ nity colleges K-12 education, inadequacy of, 4–5, 161 Kamenetz, Anya, 69 Kant, Immanuel, 101, 173 Karabel, Jerome, 126, 139 Kennedy, Donald, 141 Kennedy, John F., 134 Kernan, Alvin, 97

Index Kerr, Clark, 3, 85–86, 92, 108, 110, 130 Kim, Walter, 139 King Lear (Shakespeare), 49–50 Kirp, David, 153 Knefelkamp, L. Lee, 46 knowledge, expansion of, 89–90, 93–94, 97 Kronman, Anthony, 7, 30–31, 119, 166 Kurzweil, Martin, 185 land-­grant colleges, 77, 80, 108, 158 Larkin, Philip, 100 lateral learning, 54–57, 61, 104, 164 Lattimore, Richmond, 101 law schools, 79, 99–100 learning, 47–53; lateral, 54–57, 61, 104, 164 LeBlanc, Paul, 192–93 lectures: American colleges’ tradition of, 60–64; in ancient Greece, 36; in core curriculum, 89; creative alternatives to, 165; new type of student and, 21, 63; online, 5, 163; in sixteenth-­century ­England, 38 legacy admissions. See alumni ­children Lehecka, Roger, xix Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 94 Levine, Arthur, 195, 196 Lewis, Arthur, 42 Lewis, Harry, 24–25, 146 Lewis, Sinclair, 92–93, 102 liberal arts colleges, 12, 82, 151 liberal education, 33–35; challenge of conveying value of, 171; for demo­ cratic citizenship, 149; global com­ petitiveness and, 100; not amenable to rankings, 136; Seneca on, 44; students’ capability for, 172–74

Libyan regime, professors’ support of, 142 Lilla, Mark, 12–14 Lindsay, John, 130 linguistic science, 96–97 Lipsyte, Sam, 18 lit­er­a­ture, 98–101 loans, 115, 119–20, 160, 161. See also financial aid Lovejoy, Arthur, 80, 186–87 Lowell, Abbot Lawrence, 43, 103, 106, 107 low-­income students: benefits of college for, 172; chances of ­going to college, 114, 151; community colleges and, 122–23, 154; current sociopo­liti­cal realities and, 123–24, 160; disadvantages in admissions, 120–22, 123; disparities for, 181; at for-­profit institutions, 158; not graduating, 161; SAT scores of, 118; strategies for assistance to, 160–62; worsening situation for financing college, 113–16 MacIntyre, Alasdair, 90, 91, 96, 98 MA degree, 159 Madison, James, 78 marketable skills, 7, 87, 148 Marquand, J. P., 19 Marx, Anthony, 122 Marx, Groucho, 75, 76 Mather, Cotton, 47, 54, 68 Mazur, Eric, 165 McCabe, Donald, 211n23 McCosh, James, 73–74, 82–85, 86, 87, 89–90, 156 McPherson, James, 71

251

Index McPherson, Michael S., 12, 194, 197 medical schools: absorbed by univer­ sities, 79; humanities in, 99–100, 223n52; preparation for patient care in, 168–69 Melville, Herman, 15, 137; Moby-­Dick, xii, 69 memory, 51, 52 Menand, Louis, 21, 166 meritocracy, 125–26, 128–29, 130–32, 137–39, 143. See also in­equality; socioeconomic Merton, Robert, 133 Metzger, Walter, 186 Michaels, Walter Benn, 135, 137, 230n17 midway ­people, 176 military ser­vice, 127–28, 137, 174 Miller, Arthur, 110 Miller, J. Irwin, 130 Milton, John, 38 minorities: advantage in admissions, 117, 121; chances of ­going to college, 151; at community colleges, 123; declining college attainment rates, 26; expectation of failure by, 50; improving graduation rates of, 162–63; race-­conscious admissions and, 55, 108, 230n17. See also Asian American students; black students; discrimination, racial and ethnic; Hispanic students; Jews; low-­ income students The Miracle Worker, 10 MIT, 5, 89, 191–92 Moby-­Dick (Melville), xii, 69 Modern Language Association, 80 modern languages, 71

252

monastic community, 38, 53 Monro, John U., 224n19 Moore, Paul, 130 moral philosophy: nineteenth-­century courses on, 73–74. See also ethics Morison, Samuel Eliot, 40, 41–42, 43, 65 Mount Tamalpais College, 198–99 multitasking, 163–64 Muslims, 171 Nancy Cantor, 199 National Survey of Student Engage­ ment (NSSE), 159 need-­based financial aid, 111, 115–16, 184–85, 225n27 need-­blind admissions, xii, 111, 112 Netter Center at the University of Pennsylvania, 198 Newark City of Learning Collabora­ tive, 199 New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, 159 Newman, John Henry, 34, 41, 43, 50–51, 54–55, 91 Newton, Isaac, 38, 94 Nielsen, Kelly, 182 Nike, 140 noblesse oblige, 134, 138 “No Child Left ­Behind” law, 157 nontraditional students, 12, 16, 108, 174 normal schools, 110 Northwestern University, 78–79 Norwalk Community College, 57 Notre Dame, 91 Obama, Barack, 12, 25, 115 Oberlin College, 68–69, 72

Index older (nontraditional) students, 12, 16, 108, 174 online courses, 5, 7, 12, 108–9, 163, 190–91, 193–94 Oral Roberts University, 85 Oxford, 37 parental involvement, 14 parietal rules, 20 pastoral image of college, 11–12 Paul, Saint, 61, 131 Peabody, Endicott, 131, 132 Pell grants, 13, 115, 122, 160, 190, 220n28 Pennsylvania State University, 17, 77, 145 Perkins loans, 160 Perry, William, 46, 48, 55, 137 PhD as teaching credential, 80–81 philosophy: moral, nineteenth-­ century courses on, 73–74; as stepchild in colleges, 99 Pictures from an Institution ( Jarrell), 55 plagiarism, 15, 144, 211n23. See also cheating Platonic dialogues, 53, 57 Plato’s Acad­emy, 44 Plautus, 40 Poe, Edgar Allan, 17 po­liti­cal priorities, 123, 160 Pollack, Robert, 144 Porter, Noah, 53 postmodernism, 98 poverty: belief in justice of, 135. See also low-­income students Powell, Lewis, 55 presidential compensation, 140, 231n27

Prince­ton: Asian American students at, 113; athletes’ admission to, 146; attitudes t­ oward black students at, 107; demo­cratizing of, 130, 139; early admissions program, 120; founding of, 67, 68; Jonathan Edwards at, 40; Kim’s memoir of, 139; pattern set by, 6; as Presbyterian institution, 72; president on board of Google, 140; reforms of Wilson’s presidency, 103–4; tuition discounts at, 194. See also McCosh, James private college advisors, 118 professor, root meaning of, 66 profit motive, 140–43. See also for-­ profit institutions pro­gress, 94–96, 98–99, 101 Proj­ect Pericles, 175 Proposition, 13, 114 Protestantism, 64, 76. See also Puri­ tans; religion public higher education: competi­ tion with Medicaid for funding, 228n45; loss of tax revenues for, 154; universities, 111–12, 114, 158. See also community colleges; land-­ grant colleges public ser­vice, 65–66, 131. See also volunteer work by students public subsidy of private institutions, 157–58 Pudd’nhead Wilson (Twain), 17, 105 “The Pupil” ( James), 9–10 Puritans: community of learners and, 41–42; concept of grace, 48–49, 73; dogma and, 56; inseparability of education and religion for, 45–46, 47, 53–54; lecturing and, 61–62, 66;

253

Index Puritans: community of learners and (continued) nineteenth-­century moral philos­ ophy and, 73–74; origins of Amer­ ican colleges and, 37, 39, 64; on paradox of learning, 50; on power of education, 171; proto-­democratic conception of truth, 60 purposes of college: demo­cratic citizenship, 28–31, 149, 175, 177; economic, 16–17, 24, 25–28, 211n27; enjoyment of life, 31–33; figuring out what’s worth wanting, 14, 24; forces of change and, 6; learning how to think and choose, 15–16; vs. purposes of university, 2–3; qualities to be attained, 3–4; social, 17–19, 24; training of public servants, 65–66. See also liberal education; self-­examination Pusey, Nathan Marsh, 107 Qaddafi, Muanmmar, 142 The Quiet American (Greene), 126 race. See affirmative action; minorities race-­conscious admissions, 108, 230n17 racial and ethnic discrimination, 43, 107, 113. See also anti-­Semitism racial integration, 72, 108, 130 rankings: of colleges, 1–2, 116–17; of worldwide academic institutions, 136 recession of 2008, 87. See also eco­ nomic crash of 2008 The Rector of Justin (Auchincloss), 131 Reed College, 226n30

254

reform: demands for, 162; examples of, 162–63, 164–65 Reich, Rob, 173 relativism, 46, 98 religion: American colleges’ origins in, 37, 39, 40, 41, 64–66, 72–73, 138, 171; Christian students of ­today, 147; nineteenth-­century societal changes and, 76; as twentieth-­ century anachronism, 79, 80; in Weber’s analy­sis of education, 102. See also Puritans remedial help, 161 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 140 research universities: in California master plan, 108, 110; government funding of, 158; as multiversities, 92, 93; position in the hierarchy, 81–82; return on investment in, 95; rise of, 70, 78, 102; undergraduate teaching and, 2, 3, 86, 165. See also universities Reuben, Julie, 96 Rich, Adrienne, 173 Riesman, David, 148, 149 Riley, Richard, 25 The Rise of the Meritocracy (Young), 125–26, 134–35 Robin, Corey, 184 Rocke­fel­ler, John D., 79, 81 Rocke­fel­ler University, 91 Rogers, William Barton, 62 Roksa, Josipa, 189 Romano, Carlin, 21 Roo­se­velt, Franklin, 131–32 Rosovsky, Henry, 141 Roth, Philip, 19, 152 Rush, Benjamin, 65, 78 Rutgers University, 67

Index Sandel, Michael, 89 Santayana, George, 64 SAT, 118, 157 Satz, Debra, 173 Schapiro, Meyer, 63 Schapiro, Morton O., 12 Schneider, Carol Geary, 167 scholarships: athletic, 146; bene­ fiting higher-­income families, 115; seventeenth-­and eighteenth-­ century, 109. See also financial aid Schwab, Joseph, 10 science: driving modern university, 93–95, 102; government funding for, 158; limitations of, 96; mim­ icked by some humanists, 96–98; minority students majoring in, 163; repudiated by some humanists, 98; supplanting religious perspective, 76; supplanting the classics, 71. See also research universities scientism, 98 self-­criticism, 99–100, 134–35 self-­discovery, 14–15, 102, 177 self-­examination, 25, 74 self-­improvement, 73 self-­knowledge, 3, 139 self-­reflection, 47, 99–100 self-­sacrifice, 129, 131–32, 137, 148. See also duty Selingo, Jeffrey, 195 Seneca, 44–45 Sewanee, 82 sex, 17–18, 19, 144, 210n18 Shakespeare, William, 49 Shanghai University, 135–36 Shapiro, Judith, 32–33 Shaw, Robert Gould, 127, 137

Shriver, Sargent, 130 Shulman, Lee, 10 Skocpol, Theda, 120 Smith, John Alexander, 29 Smith, Noah, 188 social class: disparities of, reinforced by colleges, 122; ­human capability and, 109. See also elite colleges; in­equality; socioeconomic social sciences, 95 Socrates, 22, 25 Socratic dialogue, 53, 57 Song of Myself (Whitman), 34 Southern New Hampshire University, 192–93 specialization: in Taylor’s scientific management, 94; trend ­toward, 86; in Weber’s analy­sis of education, 102–3 Spellings, Margaret, 158 Stanford University: academic free­ dom case within, 186–87; athletic imperatives at, 146; declining number of humanities majors, 222n51; faculty teaching addicts and ex-­convicts, 173–74; lit­er­a­ture lab at, 98; president on board of Google, 140; undergraduate education at, 4; undergraduates’ motivations at, 17 state universities, 112; land-­grant origins of, 77, 108. See also public higher education STEM education, 189 ste­reo­type threat, 50 Sternberg, Robert J., 118 Stevens, Mitchell, 113 St. John’s College, 84

255

Index Stover at Yale ( Johnson), 34, 104, 108, 129 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 23 Strayer University, 140 students: amenities offered to, 142; assessing the achievements of, 154–57, 158, 159; changes in learning style of, 21; concern for ­future employment, 16–17; criminal be­hav­ ior of, 70; digital online world of, 14, 16, 21, 63, 163; diversity of, 13, 22, 86, 108; freedom of, 19–20; living together at college, 53–56 (See also lateral learning); maturing of, 45–47; nontraditional, 12, 16, 108, 174; peren­ nial concerns of, 22–24; personal educational needs of, 197; po­liti­cal views of, 21; poor achievement of, 154–55; twentieth-­century growth in population of, 108; uncertainty in aftermath of global economic crisis, 148. See also low-­income students; minorities; ­women study time per week, 214n42 substance abuse, 211n23. See also drinking ­Sullivan, Annie, 10 Sumner, Charles, 69–70, 72 Sumner, William Graham, 129 Swarthmore College, 130 tax deduction for tuition, 160 tax revenues, loss of, 114, 154 tax structure, 123 Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 94 teacher-­training schools, 79 teaching: constancy in method of, 22; dogmatic, 209n10; as generative act, 11, 176; innovative methods of,

256

165, 236–37n33; inspirational role of, 45; preparation for, 167–68, 169–70; Puritans’ view of, 47–48; by questioning, 53; relationship at center of, 9–11; supposed conflict with research, 166–67, 169–70; of undergraduates at universities, 2, 3, 81, 85–86, 90–91, 165. See also curriculum; faculty; learning Tea­gle Foundation, 199 technological advances benefiting society, 95, 96 technology-­transfer partnerships, 141–42 tenure, 5, 141, 153, 162, 164, 187–89 term papers for sale, 144 Terrorist (Updike), 8 testing: American uses of, 110, 117–18, 156–57; of Chinese students, 136; German system of, 156; of Indian students, 136; meritocracy and, 138; of three-­year olds, 126, 134; in Young’s futuristic fiction, 125–26 The Academic Revolution ( Jencks and Riesman), 148 The Chosen (Karabel), 139 The Odyssey, 99 The Paper Chase, 10 Thoreau’s ethic, 101 Thucydides, 99 Thwing, Charles, 17 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 112 Trilling, Lionel, 17, 57, 59, 105, 176–77 Trinity College, 71 truth, 60 Tufts University, 140 tuition increases, 27, 114, 154, 182 Twain, Mark, 17, 105

Index Udacity, 191 Ulysses ( Joyce), 99 Union College, 71 universal college education, 27 universities: colleges in relation to, 2–3, 81–82, 102–3; in global knowledge enterprise, 93; growth in size of, 86–87, 90; meanings of, 41, 78; public ser­vice by, 198; purpose of, 2–3, 200; rise of, 78–82, 102. See also German universities; research universities Universities in the Marketplace (Bok), 149 University of California, 3, 112, 113, 209n29. See also Kerr, Clark University of Chicago, 78–79, 81, 84, 92, 104, 222n51 “University of Everywhere,” 195–96 University of Illinois, 77 University of Mary­land at Baltimore, 162–63 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 181 University of North Dakota, 109 University of Pennsylvania, 65, 67, 78 University of Phoenix, 174, 190 University of South Carolina, Beau­ fort branch, 57 University of the South, 82 University of Tulsa, 176 University of ­Virginia, 17, 68, 71, 114 Updike, John, 8 Ursinus College, 84–85, 88 U.S. News & World Report, 1–2, 24, 116–17

Vallee, Rudy, 104 Valparaiso University, 57, 164 Vance, Cyrus, 130 Van Pelt, Scott, 195, 196 Veblen, Thorstein, 20, 117 Vedder, Richard, 22 vocational training, 12, 27, 126, 154 volunteer work by students, 175, 235n23 war. See military ser­vice Weber, Max, 51, 52, 102, 126, 166 Wesleyan University, 82 Western Reserve University, 17 Wheaton College, 57 White, Andrew Dickson, 80 Whitman, Walt, 34, 51, 148 Wieman, Carl, 189 Wikipedia, 164 William and Mary, College of, 67, 68 Williams College, 7, 194 “William Wilson” (Poe), 17 Wilson, Woodrow, 103–4, 130 Witherspoon, John, 73 Wolf, Alison, 5 Wolfe, Tom, 17–18, 143–44 ­women: admission to Harvard, 220n37; admission to Yale, 130; excluded from the meritocracy, 126; in ­today’s college population, 16 ­women’s colleges, 108 Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 188 working students, 12, 16, 108 Wyner, Josh, 185 Yale: age of matriculation at, 45; black students at, 107; chapel requirement in early years, 69;

257

Index Yale: age of matriculation at (continued) community ser­vice by, 176; contri­ butions of, 198; declining number of humanities majors, 222n51; demo­cratizing of, 130, 139; Directed Studies program of, 30; fictional Stover at, 34, 104, 108, 129; finan­ cial aid at, 120; founding of, 67, 68;

258

Jonathan Edwards at, 40; pattern set by, 6; reforms of nineteenth ­century at, 71; transition to univer­ sity, 78; Twain’s fiction about, 17, 105; undergraduate colleges of, 103, 104 Young, Michael, 125–26, 134–35, 139 Zoom classes, 193