This essay starts with utopia—the utopia known as the American university. It is the finest educational institution in the world, everyone tells us. Indeed, to judge by the praise that is heaped upon it, the American university may be our best institution, period. With its peaceful quadrangles and prosperity-bringing innovation, the university is more spiritually satisfying than the church, more nurturing than the family, more productive than any industry.
The university deals in dreams. Like other utopias—like Walt Disney World, like the ambrosial lands shown in perfume advertisements, like the competitive Valhalla of the Olympics—the university is a place of wish fulfillment and infinite possibility. It is the four-year luxury cruise that will transport us gently across the gulf of class. It is the wrought-iron gateway to the land of lifelong affluence.
It is not the university itself that tells us these things; everyone does. It is the president of the United States. It is our most respected political commentators and economists. It is our business heroes and our sports heroes. It is our favorite teacher and our guidance counselor and maybe even our own Tiger Mom. They’ve been to the university, after all. They know.
-
Recent Posts
- Team unearths what may be secret weapon against antibiotic resistance
- Hazing: How to hide in nearly plain sight | Student Science
- 3quarksdaily: Philosophy is a Bunch of Empty Ideas: Interview with Peter Unger
- Thirst for water moves and shakes California | Student Science
- Digital displays get flexible | Student Science
Recent Comments
- Jeff Ollerton on 56 Indicators of Impact
- Jodie on 56 Indicators of Impact
- Brigitte on From Peer Review to the Wisdom of Crowds? Open Access & Peer Review | History Workshop
- Adam on Scenes from another academic conference
- Altmetrics: achieving and measuring success in communicating research in the digital age | Hazel Hall on 56 Indicators of Impact
Archives
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
Categories
- Accountability
- Basic News
- Broader Impacts
- Calls for papers
- Climate Change
- Conferences Upcoming
- Convergence
- Creative & Visual Science
- CSID Publications
- Degrowth Economics
- Economics & STEM Research
- Environmental policy
- Field Philosophy
- Future of the University
- Gas Fracking
- Globalization
- Graduate Studies
- Innovation
- institutionalizing interdisciplinarity
- Interdisciplinarity
- Libraries
- Metrics
- Multidisciplinarity
- NASA
- New Books
- New Lexicon
- NIH
- NOAA
- NSF
- Occupy Wall Street
- Open Access
- Peer Review
- Philosophy & Politics
- Public Pedagogy
- Public Philosophizing
- Science and technology ramifications
- STEM Policy
- Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security
- TechnoScience & Technoscientism
- Transdisciplinarity
- Transformative Research
- Uncategorized
- US Science Agencies
Meta