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Page 12 text:
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1971, even by current stan- dards, was a bizarre year both in- ternationally and at home. After twenty-one years of mutual recri- mination, the U. S. came to terms with China, announcing plans for the first visit there by an Ameri- can president in history. Long ac- customed to supporting the cause of freedom abroad, the U. S. leaned heavily on the side of to- talitarian West Pakistan in the Bangladesh conflict. In an abrupt reversal, President Nixon sud- denly imposed the wage and price controls he had vowed never to allow. The Army had just completed a successful pros- ecution of one of its own officers. Most notably, the national econo- my’s state of illness has devas- tated institutions a nd govern- ments across the country, and virtually eliminated job openings in the scientific, technical, and educational professions. In this context, the institutions of higher education in the U. S. are in serious trouble, as many people are aware. There are sev- eral major facets to the problems they face. One is dropping enrollments. A few years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that a time would soon come when col- leges and universities would be anything but flooded with appli- cations. Most high school stu- dents used to apply to a large number of schools to make sure that they would find a college they liked. Today only the most prestigious colleges have been able to maintain the rigid stan- dards of selectivity of the past. For the first time, a significant proportion of high school stu- dents, including those of top scholastic standing, are choosing not to enter college — at least not immediately. Partially related to the enroll- ment slump is the fiscal crisis which nearly every educational institution, regardless of size or prestige, is grappling with. Pri- vate schools are the hardest hit; already, some of the smaller ones have been forced to close. But state-supported institutions are by no means exempt. The State University of New York has low- ered the room temperature by two degrees in all buildings at its nearly 30 campuses to meet its budget. Of course, this kind of measure could easily get out of hand. A trend towards the unioniza- tion of faculty members has in- creased the number of pressure groups with which university ad- ministrators must deal. In a few cases, the power of such unions has reached a point where an ad- ministrator’s ability to make alt- erations and innovations in aca- demic structure has been serious- ly compromised. Particularly at colleges located in urban settings, relations with the surrounding community have deteriorated to a point of barely controlled hostility. Neighbor- hood residents feel that the uni- versities carry out their programs with arrogant indifference to their effects on local situations. The colleges themselves feel that local demands are often unrea- sonable, and if implemented, would interfere with their ability to continue to operate. Urban universities must also deal with a variety of difficulties which are now ingrained into the urban life style. Rising crime, det- eriorating neighborhoods, and parking and traffic hassles have made urban colleges undesirable to many prospective students. Part of this situation can be at- tributed to factors largely beyond the control of academic institu- tions. The combined effect of op- erating-cost inflation and the sluggish economy have forced colleges to charge more when students can afford less. The market for people trained in many academic specialties has fallen and many graduates find their degrees next to worthless when trying to obtain employ- ment also a function of the na- tion’s economy. Abolition of stu- dent deferments has certainly been partially responsible for dropping enrollments, and the competition from inexpensive two-year community colleges has taken a large part of the college and university market. Nevertheless, it would be a gross over-simplification to main- tain that the colleges and univer- sities of the U. S. are not them- selves largely responsible for their present bind. In general, they have failed to recognize that the services they offer are no longer as needed or wanted as they once were. The history of higher education has been one of ever increasing specialization. Within each pro- fessional field, which already confines its activity to a fairly small area, a multiplicity of sub- specialties has been built up over the years. Training in these fields requires the assimilation of so much detailed data on such small subject areas that almost all sense of relationship and scale is lost. Each specialty views man and his activities from its own narrow and remote vantage point, with no tools to grasp larger, more basic patterns. Universities were originally founded to deal with universes; now what most stu- dents see are slides under the mi- croscope, Students today are not gener- ally interested in learning all about such things as genus and species, without some idea of why they matter. Students have always come to the university at- tempting to make some sense of their lives. But sense can no long- er be made, if it ever could, from mere accumulation of data. There is simply too much data. The increased demand for in- terdisciplinary programs, for “general studies” curricula, re- flects a recognition of the neces- sity for revitalizing and moder- nizing the old concept of general humanistic education — a struc- ture intended to deal with pat- terns. The failure of higher education to meet this demand for a com- prehensive approach to learning and knowledge has left it with a product which fewer and fewer students want to pay for. Colleges have been learning lately that simply adding a few innovative- sounding titles to old concepts isn’t working. It seems that some major adjustments will have to be made to current academic struc- ture and content, as it has devel- oped, if higher education is to avoid death from lack of interest.
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