cultural diversity and academic excellence

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

byErnest L. Boyer

President

The Carnegie Foundation

for the Advancement of Teaching

University of Montana

Missoula, Montana

September 26, 1994

UWTNA-R1.DOC, (SPC,ELB/lb), December 8, 1994

INTRODUCTION

Let's begin by acknowledging that

• "diversity" has become one of the

• most divisive issues in higher education.

The word seems to have itself become a problem. On the one hand,

• "social justice," acknowledging past prejudice and

On the other hand, a lowering of standards (at best). At worst, a "policing" of the university.

UWTNA-R1.DOC, (SPC,ELB/lb), December 8, 1994 2

INTRODUCTION

Kay and I are delighted to join you at this distinguished institution. We've been in Montana for almost a week, the weather has been magnificent.

The visits to

• Western Montana College,

• Montana State, and to

• an NSF Conference at Big Sky

• have been wonderfully stimulating.

And I recall, with great pleasure, my visit to this campus about four years ago.


Distinguished historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disunity of America.

I am constrained to feel that the

• cult of ethnicity Min general" and the

• Afrocentric campaign, in particular,

• do not bode well either for American education

• for the future of the Republic.


GATES

On the other side, Professor Henry Gates at Harvard, writing The New York Times, says,

• "Is multiculturalism un-American?"

Herman Melville didn't think so, as he wrote,

• "We are not a narrow tribe.

• No, we are not a nation so much as a world."


The cultural right wing, threatened by demographic changes, and the ensuring demands for curricular change,

• has retreated to a kind of "intellectual protectionism,"

• arguing for a great western tradition which contains the

• seeds,

• fruits, and

• flowers

• of the best thought uttered in history.


Having listened to the debate from all sides, it's

• obvious that honest people define scholarship differently.

As a background to our discussion, I'd like to

• identify four issues that seem to go to the heart of debate about

• diversity in higher education.


I. STUDENTS

The first issue relates to student access.

• the tension,

• excellence,

• equality of opportunity.


No institution more dramatically represents the conflict than CUNY,

• for years, restrictive, cutoff score, 83.

• 1970, open admissions.

• Debate rages on, New York Times,

• a "more vital," or

• "more diminished" institution.


And it's still sobering to recall that I was twenty-five years old before

• black children were able to attend a "nonsegregated" neighborhood school.

And it was not until 1962,

• just thirty plus years ago, that federal marshalls

• escorted James Meredith onto the campus at

• the University of Mississippi.


Historically, higher education has been cautious, even restrictive, or occasionally prejudicial, in its policies of student access.

• 150 years ago, young white males

• Mt. Holyoke Seminary, 1837, 200 years after Harvard College

• When Harvard admitted one woman, three blacks, 1850, riots

• 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell, Geneva Medical School, joke, first in class, New York Infirmary for women

• 1915, Paul Robeson, Princeton, Phi Beta Kappa, Rutgers

• 1903, Princeton, "qualified" Negro applicants

• 1962, James Meredith, federal marshalls (Mississippi)


Again, honest people differ. My own view is that American higher education and the nation have benefitted from expanded access.

• G.I. Bill, eight million "unqualified"

• Princeton women.

The agenda is unfinished.

• One-third, minority

• , LA, English second language

• educational and ethical obligation to recruit

• not open admission issues,_____ system to serve adiversity of students.


II. FACULTY

The second issue in the diversity debate relates to the faculty itself.

• tension

• excellence and equality of opportunity,

• role models

Much more complicated

Pool, unlike scholars, is shockingly restricted.


Historically, the majority male population has

• dominated the profession.

They were educated and prejudiced as well.


My own opinion, standards of scholarship

• must, of course, be maintained.

In the short term the imbalance will remain. For the long term, universities should

• have recruitment and mentoring programs to

• broaden the talent pool and

• create a hospitable climate toward scholarship in all its forms.

Discovering integral and teaching.


III. CURRICULUM

The third issue in the diversity debate

• relates to the curriculum and the so-called common core.

Tension, traditional recognized canon of scholarship

• vs. "trendy" politically correct opinions.


ILLUSTRATION

No institution better illustrates the conflict than Stanford.

Dinesh D. Souza, declared that Stanford

• abolished "The Great____Books," that

• focused on the classics of Western civilization,

• installed a new requirement called Culture, Ideas, and Values, which

• emphasized non-Western and minority cultures.

Either or.


HISTORICAL

The curriculum in American higher education has never fixed.

Recall the essential core

Harvard College - 1636

• First year: Logic, Greek, Hebrew, Rhetoric, History, Nature of Plants, Divine Catechism.

• Second year: Ethics, Politics, Aramaic, Rhetoric, Divine Catechism.

• Third year: Arithmetic, Astronomy, Syriac, Greek, Rhetoric, Divine Catechism.

19th Century: Science, Modern Language, Applied Studies

1828: RPI, Fred Rudolph; Yale, _____, Classical

1867: Charles Eliot, Elective

1900: Harvard, two requirements

Eliot, distribution

Today, there is no agreement about what it

• means to be an educated person.



MY OWN VIEW

There is an essential core changing too.

The curriculum tells the human story,

• great ideas,

• great events.


It should not be trivialized,

• SUNY Buffalo

• Bulletin board college

• "We can do better."

Still, the past curriculum did have omissions,

Dayton, Ohio: Notre Dame, undergraduate_____, China, LatinAmerica.


To put it simply, in the days ahead,

• students should study Western civilization to understand our past.

• And they should study non-Western cultures to understand our future.

And I'm also convinced that Indian studies

• can reflect scholarship at its best.


CAMPUS LIFE

The fourth issue in the diversity debate relates to campus climate.

• Tension: separateness and community on the campus.

Visit: U.C., Irvine, Jack Peltason

Three separate institutions

• white,

• Hispanic,

• Caucasian

They never speak to one another.


Oberlin was for a century and a half the model of a racially integrated college. "Increasingly," Jacob Weisberg, an editor at The New Republic, reports,

• "Oberlin students think, act, study, and live apart."

• Asians live in Asia House,

• Jews in "J" House,

• Latinos in Spanish House,

• blacks in African-Heritage House,

• foreign students in Third World House.

• Even the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Union has broken up into racial and gender factions.

"The result is separate worlds."


Nothing is more important than confronting diversity on campus. Bob Atwell, ACE Board. Study: racial tensions.

Our report, Campus Life in Search of Community,

• Purposeful Place,

• Communicative Place,

• Just Community,

• Disciplined Community,

• Caring Community,

• Celebrative Community,

Civility on Campus. Speak and Listen. Wayne Booth, inspired _____, genuine understanding. Community in the classroom.

UWTNA-R1.DOC, (SPC.ELB/lb), December 8, 1994

REAFFIRM COMMUNITY

This leads to one final point. While stressing diversity, we must continuously affirm both sides of the equation.

1960's, student riots

Have nothing in common, not personal, over 30, corrupt _

1970’s, Stanford faculty, introduce Western Civilization

A required course. How dare they introduce uniform requirements on nonuniform students.


Discussed are differences, not connections. Not discovered that we are ultimately dependent on each other. Indirectly, but community had been lost.

What do we share? What are the commonalities?

• The Life Cycle, birth, life, death

• The Use of Symbols

• Response to the Aesthetic, art

• Membership in Groups and Institutions

• Recall the Past

• Committed to Values

• Search for Meaning


CONCLUSION

Here then is my conclusion.

Diversity is important. But I'm convinced the time

• has come to "go beyond" diversity in our curriculum


Regarding student access

• the goal is not just diversity,

• but the need to tap human potential,

• especially among historically bypassed students,

• which I believe will renew the university itself.


Regarding the curriculum, the goal is not just diversity, but the need to

• review continually the core of learning,

• to maintain an essential balance between

• essential truths and new discoveries,

which will, I believe, enrich scholarship itself.

And regarding campus life, the goal is not just diversity, but also the need too.

And perhaps the time has come to form a committee to study these issues—

• The Committee on Diversity and Community.


Finally, in reflecting on the tension between diversity and community, Professor Arthur Schlesinger writes:

• "The question America confronts as a pluralistic society is how to

• vindicate cherished cultures and traditions without breaking the 'bonds of cohesion,' that

• hold the Republic together."


GRANDCHILDREN

On a personal level, I have a grandson here in Montana, and

• four grandchildren in a Mayan village.

And it is my urgent hope that with all of the

• differences in language, culture, and traditions,

• they will still grow up understanding that deep down inside

• they are all members of the same human family.

cultural diversity and academic excellence

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