What is an Academic Imperative? (Part 2: A Conflict of the Faculties?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wilhelm von Humboldt

 

The Idea of the University

In my last post on the “Charge to the Academic Initiatives Committee,” I began to suggest that perhaps the first “academic imperative” the committee ought to identify is the task of providing a definition of an academic imperative.

After reading Alan Wolfe’s review of Michael Bérubé’s new book, What’s Liberal about the Liberal Arts?, in last Sunday’s New York Times, it finally struck me why the phrase “identify academic imperatives” in the committee’s charge seems to me so strange.

What is an Academic Imperative? (Part 1: Introducing a Question)

One of the things influencing my decision this past spring to apply for the position of Chair of the Senate Academic Initiatives Committee was the following statement included in the position’s advertisement describing the committee’s “charge.”

CHARGE TO THE ACADEMIC INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
The Academic Initiatives Committee will serve to identify academic imperatives, develop and/or review proposals for corresponding program initiatives, and assist in the approval and implementation process of those initiatives. Faculty and Chairs are encouraged to play an active role in the identification and examination of current academic imperatives, and to offer relevant proposals for committee consideration.