[Alumni-chat] Response -- misdirected

[Art Dole]

On 10/12/07 8:47 PM, "Sistersara at aol.com" <Sistersara at aol.com> wrote:

> 
> My  senior seminar (Level III) was on Governance in Higher Education  with
> Morris Keaton and James Dixon in 1967.  At that time Antioch was  setting up
> centers in many locations.  Governance was a really big  issue that did not
> get resolved.
> 
> 
>Sister Sara--As usual an excellent analysis. Governance in higher education
remains a challenging, difficult topic. Begin with the mission of a small
private residential co-op liberal arts college. Suppose it's something like--to
prepare young people for a meaningful life, one in which they do something for
humanity. Then, I submit, neither a commercial nor a military nor a
governmental, nor a medical model is appropriate, but a democratic educational
model is.
That is  all  stakeholders, especially students, participate, take
responsibility, learn from mistakes, grow from late adolescence to maturity.
True community government is therefore essential. Both administration (from
the president on down to staff) and faculty must know how to play the small
college game--a topic which can easily consume an advanced seminar. In this
context tenure (imo) still is essential for faculty to protect them from
meddling by administration or trustees once they have proved themselves.
Then by their example they can truly teach students to think  for
themselves. 
 
My rant for the day.

Art Dole '46