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Trouble in the dorms?
With the decline of the in loco parentis role of the university beginning in the 1960s, the practice of telling students what they could and could not do disappeared from most universities. The concomitant bureaucratization of the university witnessed the rise of a new, more subtle mode of administrative control centered on telling students what they could and could not think.
Many will remember the intrusive program at the University of Delaware a couple of year ago that billed itself as a "treatment" to cure students of their purpoted moral failings. While UD's program represents a particularly outrageous example, the outlook and methods that underpinned it are in fact widespread.
ACTA's latest guide therefore calls on trustees to take a close look at their university's res life program to make sure that it doesn't push an ideologically charged agenda on unsuspecting students. Trouble in the Dorms also suggests other more meaningful ways to engage students, like encouraging greater interaction with the faculty outside of the classroom and enriching the educational experience.
Posted by David Azerrad on October 20, 2009 at October 20, 2009 12:31 PM
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