The University: Stumbling Bellwether
The university long has prided itself on the effectiveness with which it bas carried out its traditional roles of generating new ideas and providing critical assessments. Nowhere is this effectiveness more apparent than in science, where, through research, conducted largely in academic institutions and durine this centurv alone. we have: radicallv .~~~~ revised our perceptions of space, time and causality; identified the basic nrincinles that eovern the behavior of matter at all levels f;om atoms to s L s ; learned how the genetic mechanism works, and much about how continents form; determined the detailed nature of physiological functions, and discovered the chemical processes that keep the living cell alive and healthy; learned to successfully transplant oreans. - . to eradicate deadly diseases such as polio and tuberculosis; and made progress that puts us well on our way to learning how the brain is able to think. Yet, a s we survey the social climate at the end of 1974, we find a frustrated, confused, and unhappy citizenry, beset with a constellation of large issues, closely related to science, and which the university, as bellwether and mastermind of social change, has made remarkahly little effort to resolve or clarify. To be sure, these issues--energy, environmental quality, transportation, public health, public education, and soonare much broader and have much greater social content than those ordinarily considered by scholars. In addition, many of these problems interact, intersect and often are inherently in conflict with one another. Cheap energy, for example, may lead to burning high-sulfur coal, strip-mined without provision for land restoration. Such problems also reauire both long-range planning and massive coordination, and cannot b e soivd by acGon or decisions taken in traditional ways. Thus, a detailed knowledge of synthetic fuels and nuclear reactors, including their impacts on health and environmental quality, is but one of many components needed to formulate any national energy policy. Also, the time, benefit and cost horizons for these issues are considered well beyond reach by most scholars. For instance, air and water quality or energy sources are thirty year enterprises at best, and far too risky for the ambitious young academician. Hence, the university, while assisting from time-to-time in developing partial solutions to the major social problems that face us. most often views these ~roblemsas unnatural to its role. Ik defenders frequently seek to exempt it from these duties with uuestions such as: Is develo~ingsolutions and options for problems as broad-based as these the proper role for the university? These questions usually are countered on the spot with others such as: Can the university afford not to tackle such problems? or: How can socieiy's bountifully-supported department of research refuse to carry out its principal purpose of providing new options for theaociety as a whole? The argument continues with more questions: Is it not natural and comfortable to divide the task into bite-sized ~~~
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Ieditorially speaking
pieces, and let each discipline do its thing? followed by: Is not the present condition of things direct evidence that this is a fatal approach? And again: Are not the professional disciplines the tried-and-true mechanism for getting the job done? countered by: Are not the professional discinlines more nearlv the tools and scaffoldine necessarv for ;he construction df something of greater sozal w o n h f ~ n other vollev: Is it not true that the disciolines provide not only a continuous supply of new knowledge, but also a basis for judging performance, establishing standards, and encouraging excellence? rebutted by: Is it not also true that certain disciplines flourish a t the expense of the larger problem of how best to respond to certain social needs? And inevitably: What can substitute for the great creative output of the disciplines? contested by: What does it profit a society if it gains massive pockets of knowledge, and loses the struggle to survive? It is more than an academic argument, of course. It is a crisis of major proportions and far-reaching consequences. Academicians who say that taking on broad and complex major social issues, such as energy and environmental qnality, is beyond the responsibility of the university, might reflect on t h e alternatives from which society must ehoose should the university default on this matter. They also might reflect on the clout, favor, and opportunities that will fall to any group or institution that helps the society surmount these obstacles. Obviously, the university is not being asked to abandon the pursuit of knowledge and the methods of scholarship that have led to such great achievements in the past, and that are so vitally needed if we are to continue to grow as a society. What apparently is needed is a supplement to this canabilitv. The supdement mieht be described as a hol.. ism-oriented dimension, just as contemporary research and scholars hi^ . mieht - be described as a disci~line-orienteddimension. Holism-oriented programs might have as their seed crystals the structure and philosophy of systems engineering units. They might begin as centera of graduate and postdoctorate education, featuring interdisciplinary research, directed primarily at developing responses to major social issues, and using the university's talents and facilities. Seminars and brain-storming sessions might form the core of intellectual activity at these centers. Faculty members might move in and out of the center as need and desire suggest. While programs such as this are now in operation at a small number of universities. those in which scientists. social scientists and humanists work together in concert are all but nonexistent. The word is that scientists are the most reluctant of participants. Holism-oriented activities are where the action and sunport are. The university and academic science can contrihute meatlv to a troubled societv bv directing a definitive WTL oitbeir efforts to this en;. -
Volume 61, Number 12, Dec. 1974
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