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EDITORIAL
Student Unrest sign of the times, it seems, is the boiling dissatisfactjon of a small,
A but vocal, minority of young people. They condemn all aspects of society but reserve special contempt and even violence for the universities, which they view as totally out of touch of reality and feel to be anachronistic symbols of authority. Most people are disturbed by this ferment on the campus; many consider current student dissent to be unjustifiable and without historical precedent. However, “student power” does have a precedent and, indeed, a long tradition of effectiveness, as Lord Bowden, Principal of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, England, pointed out at the Tripartite Chemical Engineering Conference in Montreal in September. One of the first two universities to be founded (800 years ago) was the University of Paris; here the tradition of the iron rule of professors was started and it has persisted to this day (or perhaps only till yesterday!) in most of the universities of Western Europe and North America. But a t the same time that the University of Paris was founded, so was the University of Bolognia in Italy. And Bolognia was an entirely different type of university-here students were totally in command, hiring and firing professors and even fining them for being late for lectures! The Bolognia type of university became widespread in Italy and Spain, and later in Latin America. Student power did not make universities any more effective, of course-in fact, the deficiencies of student control and of professorial control are equally striking. At the University of Paris it may, even today, be necessary to line up for hours to ensure a seat for a lecture. I n Buenos Aires (a Bolognia-type school), two thirds of the 80,000 students are studying law but only 2y0 study agriculture, though Argentina is sadly underdeveloped. Lord Bowden feels that the stage became set for student unrest in Paris-type universities when some Latin American students went to the University of California a t Berkeley and found there most of the attributes of the university with which they were familiar-the huge number of students, the lack of contact with professors, the feeling of loss of identity-but not one other attribute: student power (or, a t least, vociferousness). Lord Bowden’s remarks provide an essential background to what otherwise might seem baffling developments. Note however, that few engineering students are active in “militant” student movements. Perhaps it is because engineering courses are so much more attuned to reality than the philosophy and literature courses to which students of those subjects seem to object so strongly. Even so, engineering students too are beginning to clamor for changes in the content of their courses. They are demanding more emphasis on subjects of concern to society-air and water pollution, artificial limbs and organs-and less on what they consider to be banausic course material. These new demands from a new breed of concerned engineer may do more to change the nature of disciplines like chemical engineering than all the engineering education goals reports, written by professional educators, put together. If the crusading students are right, these changes will of course be for the good, but if they are not-and we seriously question student omniscience-then there are more battles in the offing.
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