by Prof. John Snider, MSU-Northern
Nowhere is the sad failure of our state's educational leadership more evident than in the recent decision to pursue football at MSU-Northern.
Faced with an array of problems--students are not academically prepared, faculty are poorly paid, the university is laying off mathematics faculty, buildings are in disrepair, tuition and fees keep going up, janitors are being laid off--our local leadership seizes on football to save the day.
Their hope is that football will boost enrollment by 100 students, thus stabilizing funding.
Our educational leaders need to reflect upon the ultimate goal of a university. The goal of a university is not to raise enrollment and generate financial contributions, and the goal is certainly not entertainment in the form of sports.
The goal of a university is to discover the truth, to educate students, to promote civil society, to further reasoned public debate, to foster the arts, to ask disturbing questions, and act as a conscience for society, and to celebrate learning for its own sake.
These ideals cannot be measured by numbers or money.
Simply put, a university is not a business; a university is a higher and more noble thing. MSU-Northern could enroll 1,000 new students tomorrow, but if these students were not taught mathematics or music, philosophy or art, science or history, then the university would be a failure even if it had $100 million in the bank.
A business may exist to make money, but a university must be held to higher standards. Unfortunately, our Commissioner of Higher Education and our presidents and chancellors have traded the genuine ideals of education for a tawdry vocationalism and a cynical boosterism.
Their rhetoric is indistinguishable from the local Rotarian luncheon. If George F. Babbitt came to Montana tomorrow, he would no doubt be made a dean or provost and then dressed up in a cap and gown and set down to giving commencement speeches.
But despite this vulgar parody of education, there are still those of us who read books and love ideas.
We understand that a civilized society cultivates its universities because civilization itself demands members who can listen intelligently to music, engage in civil public debate, speak and write and read more than their native language, appreciate art and poetry, understand complicated science and technology, analyze complex legal and ethical dilemmas, and worship their God in a manner that does not abuse their God-given reason.
Our educational leaders fail when they are tested against these high ideals because they constantly appeal to the lowest and most self-serving impulses of the public.
Instead of demanding that the public rise to the legitimate and difficult intellectual rigor of a genuine university, they pander to the public's base impulse for bread and circus.
Our universities in Montana need leaders who are not embarrassed to talk about the transcendent ideals of Beauty and Truth which are the foundation of higher education. These leaders must stop trying to be business persons and politicians; they need to start to place education first.