It’s Time to Upend the Modern University | RealClearEducation

The Center for American Institutions at Arizona State University recently put forward some policy recommendations that should be closely considered by every state legislature in the country. The recommendations were part of a detailed report, The Study of American History in Our Universities. The findings of the report were damning: they revealed an overwhelming, disproportionate emphasis on teaching the negative aspects of American history.

But pertinent to the question of reforming the university, the report included several policy recommendations.

First, the report calls for educational transparency. All course syllabi should be publicly available and easily accessible. Most syllabi at most public universities are not available to anyone outside the university. Americans should know how their tax dollars are being used in the classroom.

Second, the report calls for administrators and regents to insist on broader faculty searches that are not aimed exclusively at attracting highly ideological, left-wing candidates. State legislatures could also write this requirement into law.

Lastly, the report recommends upending the hardened disciplines within the humanities and social sciences through the creation of multi-disciplinary departments, schools, and colleges within the university, complete with expansive curricula to encourage dialogue across the disciplines and to foster greater intellectual diversity among the faculty.

Most Americans agree that our universities are an utter mess. But the university has been a bedrock of Western civilization since the Middle Ages. It would be foolish to surrender such a necessary and foundational institution simply because radicals successfully hijacked it half a century ago. Recapturing these institutions will require courage, will, persistence, and thoughtful innovation.

via www.realcleareducation.com

Jonathan Barth is an associate professor of history at Arizona State University and is a fellow with the Jack Miller Center.