Refocusing on the Public Mission of Higher Education

David Glenn offers a report on the recent conference of the Network for Academic Renewal, a project of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and focusing on rethinking how colleges and universities connect with the public. Glenn reports that a number of “speakers also called for a renewed idea of the professoriate as a profession. But the speakers offered a range of different ideas about what faculty professionalism actually requires.” And then this: “The most austere vision came from Neil W. Hamilton, a professor at the University of Saint Thomas School of Law and director of its Thomas E. Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions. During a session on Friday afternoon, Mr. Hamilton argued that the heart of professionalism is upholding norms and policing one’s peers. Just as law students are required to take courses in professional responsibility, Mr. Hamilton said, graduate students should be required to study research ethics.” David Glenn, “After the Crash, Scholars Say, Higher Education Must Refocus on Its Public Mission,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 6, 2009, http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/04/15232n.htm