Seminar: Competing Visions of the University

I'm posting below the syllabus for a seminar I am teaching this semester with historian Allen Guelzo on competing visions of the university.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Politics

Politics 491:  The Politics & Principles of Higher Education: Competing Visions of the University

Instructors: Robert P. George (Politics) & Allen C. Guelzo (Humanities)

Description/Objective: This course will examine the history, contemporary reality, and likely future of higher education, especially in the United States but also abroad. We will consider the changing and often conflicting ideals and aspirations of parents, students, instructors, and administrators from classical Rome to Christian institutions in the European Middle Ages to American athletic powerhouses today, seeking answers to fundamental practical, economic, and political questions that provoke vigorous contemporary debate.

Free Speech:  As set forth in Rights, Rules, Responsibilities section 1.1.3, Princeton University strictly respects the right to free speech of everyone in our community of scholars and learners. That right is sacrosanct in this seminar and is possessed by faculty and students alike. With the aim of advancing and deepening everyone’s understanding of the issues addressed in the course, students are urged to speak their minds, explore ideas and arguments, play devil’s advocate, and engage in civil but robust discussions. There is no thought or language policing. We expect students to do business in the proper currency of intellectual discourse—a currency consisting of reasons, evidence, and arguments—but no ideas or positions are out of bounds.

Texts:

Gary A. Berg, The Rise of Women in Higher Education: How, Why and What’s Next (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)

Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of the Intellectual Life (Princeton University Press, 2020)

Anthony Abraham Jack, The Privileged Elite: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students (Harvard University Press, 2019)

Anthony Kronman, Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life (Yale University Press, 2007)

John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, ed. Frank M. Turner (Yale University Press, 1997)

Keith Whittington, Speak Freely Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (Princeton University Press, 2018)

Digital Reader:

• Mark Edmundson, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education,” Harper’s (September 1997)
• William Deresiewicz, “Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League,” The New Republic (July 21, 2014)
• Plato, Protagoras, 320c-328d
• Aristotle, Politics, 7.13-8
• Quintilian, Institutio oratoria (Book 10)
• Petrarch, “The Ascent of Mt. Ventoux,” ed. Henry Reeve (Edinburgh, 1878), 84-89
• Vergerio, De ingenius moribus (1472)
• John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916), chs. 6 & 7
• Clark Kerr, “The Idea of a Multiversity,” from The Uses of the University (1963)
• Lynn D. Gordon, “From Seminary to University: An Overview of Women’s Higher Education, 1870-1920,” in Wechsler, Goodchild & Eisenmann, The History of Higher Education (1997), 473-498
• Emma Whitford, There Are So Few of Us That Have Made Their Way,” Inside Higher Ed (October 28, 2020)
• Naomi Oreskes & Charlie Tyson, “Is Academe Awash in Liberal Bias?” Chronicle of Higher Education (September 14, 2020) & Phillip W. Magness, “Tenured Radicals Are Real,” Chronicle of Higher Education (September 24, 2020)
• Robert P. George, “Natural Law and Positive Law,” In Defense of Natural Law (1999)
• William E. Thro, “Embracing Constitutionalism: The Court and the Future of Higher Education Law,” University of Dayton Law Review 44 (2018-2019)
• Nat Hentoff, “Multicultural Contempt for Free Speech,” CommonQuest (Summer 1999);
• Arthur Levine & Jeanette S. Cureton, “Collegiate Life: An Obituary,” Change (May/June 1998)
• Arthur Levine & Scott Van Pelt, “5 Ways Higher Ed will be Upended,” Chronicle of Higher Education (August 25, 2021)

Online Readings:

• James Axtell, “The Death of the Liberal Arts College,” History of Education Quarterly (Winter 1971) - https://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Axtell-1971.pdf
• Patsy Parker, “The Historical Role of Women in Higher Education” -- https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1062478.pdf
• AAUP, “Data Snapshot: Full Time Women Faculty and Faculty of Color” -- https://www.aaup.org/news/data-snapshot-full-time-women-faculty-and-faculty-color#.YZQwRL3MJVo
•  C.J. Libassi, “The Neglected College Race Gap: Racial Disparities Among College Completers,” Center for American Progress (May 23, 2018) -- https://www.americanprogress.org/article/neglected-college-race-gap-racial-disparities-among-college-completers/

Weekly Schedule

1. January 26 – What Is the Purpose of a University, and especially the kind of education we call “liberal arts”? This will be a general get-acquainted session, with a detailed review of the syllabus and readings, some preliminary questions about why, exactly, we’re all here at Princeton and what we expect Princeton to be, what Princeton has been in the past, and then the distribution of assignments as per above.

1. February 2 -- The Ancient Model of Learning – What we call ‘higher education’ today takes its earliest form in in classical times. But what was its purpose? To whom was it addressed, and what were its ‘graduates’ expected to do with it?

Readings: Plato, Protagoras, Aristotle, Politics, Quintilian, Institutio oratoria (Book 10)

1. February 9 -- The Renaissance Model of Learning – If the classical education gives us many of the questions we associate with ‘higher education,’ then the Middle Ages and Renaissance gives us its forms, in the monastery schools and then the universities. What did those universities aspire to teach, and how did the emphasis on virtue emerge in the Renaissance?

Readings: Petrarch, “Ascent of Mt. Ventoux”; Vergerio, De in genius moribus (1472)

1. February 16 -- The Victorian Model of Learning – The medieval universities evolved in the 19^th century into models of research, especially in Germany. That emergence was both challenged and accommodated in one of the most famous modern texts ever written on university life.

Readings: John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (1852/58)

1. February 23 -- The Progressive Model of Learning – By the turn of the 20^th century, government had begin to look to higher education as a source of administrative expertise. How did this change the functioning of higher education, especially in the United States? Modern mass society has changed, not only what is taught, but also how universities are supposed to serve the public interest. It has, however, created serious questions about whether higher education has become purely instrumental.

Readings: John Dewey, Education and Democracy (1916), chs. 6 & 7; James Axtell, “The Death of the Liberal Arts College,” History of Education Quarterly (Winter 1971); Clark Kerr, “The Idea of a Multiversity,” from The Uses of the University (1963), 1-34

1. March 2 -- Women in the University – Until the later 19^th century, women were almost entirely absent from higher education. How have women challenged and changed university life since then?

Readings: Lynn D. Gordon, “From Seminary to University: An Overview of Women’s Higher Education, 1870-1920”; Patsy Parker, “The Historical Role of Women in Higher Education;” Gary A. Berg, The Rise of Women in Higher Education: How, Why and What’s Next (2019)

Spring break – March 5-13

1. March 16 -- The Color of the University – Higher education in the United States, and at Princeton, was a closed door to people of color. This, too, has changed since the 19^th century. But are its implications different than those posed by the entrance of women at the same time into American colleges and universities? What challenges do race pose today? – AAUP, “Data Snapshot: Full Time Women Faculty and Faculty of Color;” Anthony Abraham Jack, The Privileged Elite: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students (Harvard University Press, 2019); C.J. Libassi, “The Neglected College Race Gap: Racial Disparities Among College Completers,” Center for American Progress (May 23, 2018); Emma Whitford, There Are So Few of Us That Have Made Their Way,” Inside Higher Ed (October 28, 2020)

1. March 23 -- What is a Curriculum?– Anthony Kronman, Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life (2007), Chs 1-3; Naomi Oreskes & Charlie Tyson, “Is Academe Awash in Liberal Bias?” Chronicle of Higher Education (September 14, 2020) & Phillip W. Magness, “Tenured Radicals Are Real,” Chronicle of Higher Education (September 24, 2020)

1. March 30 – What is the Purpose of an Education?  -- Readings: Donald P. Verene, The Art of Humane Education (2002); Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of the Intellectual Life (Princeton University Press, 2020); Mark Edmundson, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education,” Harper’s (September 1997) Ch 1; William Deresiewicz, “Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League,” The New Republic (July 21, 2014)

1. April 6 -- Law and the University: Dartmouth, Gott, Dixon, Healy, Furek, Bakke, Grutter -- Robert P. George, “Natural Law and Positive Law,” In Defense of Natural Law (1999); Kronman, Education’s End, Ch 4; William E. Thro, “Embracing Constitutionalism: The Court and the Future of Higher Education Law,” U. Dayton Law Review 44 (2018-2019)

1. April 13 -- Academic Freedom & Its Purpose -- Nat Hentoff, “Multicultural Contempt for Free Speech,” CommonQuest (Summer 1999); Keith Whittington, Speak Freely Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (Princeton University Press, 2018)

1. April 20 -- How Will Universities Change? -- Arthur Levine & Jeanette S. Cureton, “Collegiate Life: An Obituary,” Change (May/June 1998); Arthur Levine & Scott Van Pelt, “5 Ways Higher Ed will be Upended,” Chronicle of Higher Education (August 25, 2021); Kronman, Education’s End, Ch 5

Requirements:

In addition to regular, often substantial, reading, there will be a take-home midterm examination and a final 15-20-page paper. Each student will also be responsible for helping lead one class meeting.

Grading: Midterm Exam 20%

Paper In Lieu Of Final Exam 50%

Class/Precept Participation 20%

Oral Presentation(s) 10%

Prerequisites and Restrictions: This seminar is open to all Class years. There are no prerequisites or restrictions