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The view from beyond the tower
The National Association of Scholars is marking its twentieth anniversary--and its president, Stephen Balch, is taking stock of all that has changed since 1987, as well as challenges that remain. "After twenty years of struggle for higher education reform," he asks at MindingtheCampus.com, "how do things stand, and, more significantly, what has been learned about feasible routes to remedy?"
Balch--who deserves great credit for his significant role in launching the movement whose work he surveys--begins with the good: "First, we have a genuine academic reform movement where twenty years ago there was none. A sizeable community of organizations, with distinct missions and partially distinct if overlapping bases of support, now act in concert." Balch goes on to note the heartening creation of academic programs such as Princeton's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, which give crucial scholarly space to topics that have been marginalized by the postmodern university.
But progress has been limited, Balch concludes, by a waning institutional commitment to the ideals of free inquiry. It is not enough for critics and reformers merely to outline problems. In addition, it is important to define constructive ways to bring about accountability. And empowering engaged and thoughtful boards of trustees is one of them:
The academic oversight powers of governing boards, now virtually a nullity, might be substantially strengthened. Perhaps this could be prudently done by allowing boards to rely for independent advice on committees of intellectual visitors--outside scholars reporting to them on the integrity and openness of academic discourse.
Balch's suggestion that outside input may well be what's needed to help the academy recover its proper course dovetails closely with ACTA's own recommendations. ACTA's 2005 report, Intellectual Diversity: Time for Action, outlined steps colleges and universities can take to guarantee intellectual vitality on campus, and noted that trustees would have to take the lead in ensuring that their own campuses are indeed taking such steps. The report also noted the value of public hearings--which can alert concerned citizens to what's happening on campus--as well as the role governors, taxpayers, and alumni can take in demanding that colleges and universities live up to their educational missions.
Balch's survey offers an instructive perspective on historic successes and continuing challenges in higher ed reform. It also offers an inspired vision for greater accountability in the future.
Posted by acta online on July 03, 2007 at July 3, 2007 12:51 PM
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