Educating for Citizenship

Announcing a new website based on last fall's conference at Washington University

As I noted previously, last fall I convened a gathering at Washington University of some of the leading scholars writing about the challenges and opportunities of higher education today. I am pleased to announce the launch of the website that grew out of this conference.

My goal for this website was to capture the content of the conference in ways more accessible and more engaging than the typical edited volume that emerges from these kinds of gatherings. I thought this approach would be particularly important given the subject matter. These issues matter not only to specialists but also to anyone concerned about the state of higher education: students, teachers, administrators, parents, alumni, taxpayers, and others.

To that end, you will find edited dialogues from our sessions, video interviews with many of the participants, and resources for further reading.

Here are some especially relevant and provocative observations:

• “To have real debates about democracy, we need participants who genuinely doubt it. That’s part of how the university contributes to democracy: by re-litigating the case for it, again and again, against those who challenge it.” (Frank Lovett)

• “The modern research university is fundamentally a financial enterprise, with trustees prioritizing fiduciary interests. Education, citizenship, democracy—those are secondary functions at best.” (Roosevelt Montás)

• “If these schools are producing our leaders, what kind of moral formation are we doing to get them into these schools—and what kind will they carry into the world?” (Johann Neem)

• “An institution that has lost sight of any type of ultimate telos will inevitably become consumed by one immediate end—self-preservation.” (Elisabeth Kincaid)

I hope you are able to spend some time engaging with the site and the various resources that it highlights. Feel free to leave any impressions or feedback in the comments below. And special thanks to Marshall Byler, Matt Kile, and Eden Sung for their work on the website and its contents.