The Value of Knowledge

The American academy of higher education has stood for centuries as the theatre for new ideas and progressive discourse. In the never-ending search for truth, and the formation of hearts and minds, over 17.4 million people seek to further their education beyond secondary schools each year in the United States, in more than 4,100 colleges and universities--this according to The National Center for Educational Statistics reported in 2005. The value earned is far greater than the value raised by tuition bills. Higher education is the nursery for new dreams and opportunity for so many Americans.

As grounds crews work through the night, in preparation for many college and university commencement ceremonies to be held in the coming days, planting flowers and making sure thousands of plastic folding chairs sit uniformly together, I find myself growing concerned over a new value on education that has come across my radar this past semester.

On yesterday's Leonard Lopate show aired daily on WNYC in New York, Former LBJ press secretary and Peabody winning journalist Bill Moyers shared his thoughts on the state of democracy. In the interview, he raised his concern over the recent demands on American universities to teach specific courses as a stipulation for large charitable donations. The concern comes after a $1 million donation made to Marshall University this past February was given with the requirement that the university must teach a course on Atlas Shrugged, the popular novel by Russian born Ayn Rand, a renowned American author who launched her hard-lined political philosophy in her fiction novels. Rand has been an iconic figure amongst American venture capitalists for over forty years, and her views have become the drum beat for a great number of Americans who feel that opportunity is gained solely by a "Go it alone" approach.

This past march, BB&T, a large Carolina based banking company who offered the donation to Marshall University, gave a $2 million grant to The University of Texas--Austin, to establish a chair in the Department of Philosophy dedicated to the study and discussion of Rand's work and philosophy. Large donations are made to universities across this country, earmarked for specific purposes and research. Indeed, without such charitable gifts, many of the great advancements in scholarship and research would have died as soon as they were dreamed. However, I'm left with dismay at how the American paradigm of education continues to move more in line with the interests of stock holders, over the interest of intellectuals. This has been a growing trend in American education for several generations. Sociologist Stewart Hall made note of this in the 1970s when contrasting American higher education with that of Europe. I can't help recall my own undergraduate school long known as an institution for liberal arts and the humanities, and how it channelled all of a $10 million donation into its small business program, while the philosophy department struggled to stay alive. I left that school to finish my undergraduate and graduate work from a leading college of journalism at a major public university, completing seven years of coursework in journalism without ever having to take an ethics class.

There is no doubt that education has a price in this country. However, the solution to prevent our colleges and universities from turning American higher education into higher corporations (where dollars are greater than hearts and minds) comes through our own choice as market consumers. Ultimately, our demand dictates what deans will choose to offer in their course catalogs. Therefore, we need to be bold in promoting liberal studies as the foundation for any higher education. Offering courses that expose students to a wide range of ideas is a strong benefit to their overall intellectual formation. Excluding Rand, then, is not something I suggest. However, colleges and universities need to make sure that her philosophy is balanced with alternative views, and critical analysis of how her work has impacted opportunity and community values should not be railroaded by donors who see her rhetoric as dogma. Control should come from those who have been given the faculties to profess the arts and sciences, not those who can buy them.

Take, then, some time, if you're registering for classes next semester, to let your college dean know how important you feel a balanced curriculum is. Call up your alumni association and remind them how important the value of intellectual freedom is in expanding the opportunity to education. And faculty should not be afraid to challenge their university administration when programs are designed without full faculty consent.

With over 4,100 schools of higher education in the United States, the opportunity that college affords is greater than any single novel like Atlas Shrugged can provide. We come together in the classroom as a community determined to not just raise our own level of success, but to raise that of our whole society. The opportunities I've received from my education have been priceless; not just in the path my career has taken, but in the depth that life has taken on after leaving the classroom. This is a depth--a beauty that the expanding mind earns--which is critical in overcoming so many of the social blindnesses that greed often creates. It, too, is a depth that touches our humanity by truly knowing one another in this culturally complex world.