Carol Smith > Recent Status Updates

Infuriating.

Slow, dense reading. Well worth the time.

"The lesson I have drawn from my childhood in Nazi Germany and my happier adult life in this country is the need to walk the sometimes difficult path of denouncing the bigot's hateful ideas with all my power, yet at the same time challenging any community's attempt to suppress hateful ideas by force of law."

I am deeply troubled by current efforts - however well-intentioned - to place new limits on freedom of expression at this an other campuses. Such limits are not only incompatible with the mission and meaning of a university; they also send exactly the wrong message frmo academia to society as a whole. University campuses should exhibit greater, not less freedom of expression that prevails in society at large."

"We seem to have arrived at a situatino where we still recognize diverse views about religion as a basis for institutional autonomy, but not diverse secular views about what matters in education. That strikes me not only as dangerous but as diminishing the marketplace of ideas."

The four freedoms of a university: "to determine for itself on academic grounds who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught, and who may be admitted to study."

"Sitting in judgment is necessary and unavoidable. But judgment, especially judgment at a university, that is not based on making every effort at understanding, including understanding the context, is no more than an exercise in arrogance."

"To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures. It is a community but only for the limited, albeit great purpose of teaching and research. It is not a club, it is not a trade association, it is not a lobby." - Kalwen Report

"Apart from gathering the best minds and providing them with resources, hard work and a substantial measure of fredom in the setting of research priorities have always been among the conditions that make the highest quality research possible. Good institutions and good work need a lot of breathing space...The research enterprise can easily be smothered by internal and external politics, pressures, and red tape."

"a university 'cannot take collective actino on the issues of the day without endangering the conditions for its existence and effectiveness. There is no mechanism by which it can reach a collective position without inhibiting that full freedom of dissent on which it thrives.' This viewpoint...arises out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a diversity of viewpoints."

"Eighth, the wind of freedom cannot blow in a closed & stuffy ivory tower. Members of a university community must not shy away from the social & political issues of their time,..Public service is their freedom, indeed their obligation. It is not, however, necessarily the university's freedom. A university's freedom & obligation are to provide a forum for the most searching & candid discussion of public issues."

"Eight, the wind of freedom cannot blow in a closed and stuffy ivory tower. Members of a university community must not shy away from the social and political issues of their time, from shaping the social and political values of society, from engaging in public service. Public service is their freedom, indeed their obligation. It is not, however, necessarily the university's fredom. A university's freedom are t

"Seventh, the winds of freedome blow across natinal and cultural boundaries, it does not stop at them...We need to understand, appreciate, and value differences, while realizing that without a common threat holding us together we shall be lost."

"A university's freedom must be first of all the freedom that we take mostly for granted...the pursuit of knowledge free from constraints as to sources and fields."

"Sixth, a university's freedom should include the freedom to take pleasure in the life of the mind."

"Fifth, a university's freedom must be the freedom to speak plainly, without concealment and to the point - that is, without endless hedgings and escape clauses."

"Fourth, a university's freedom must be the freedom of its members, faculty, and students to think and speak for themselves. A university must not have dominant ways of thinking. [We must be] 'intolerant of intolerance'. No university can thrive unless each member is accepted as an autonomous individual and can speak and will be listened to without regard to labels and stereotypes."

"Third, a university's freedome must be the freedom to challenge new orthodoxy. Just as traditions should not be embraced merely because they are traditions, the newest intellectual fashions should not rule just because they are new."

"Second, a university must be free to challenge established orthodoxy...A university is the ally of cahge, and change is the ally of the university. the main task of the university is to question and to challenge fundamental assumptions and practices..."

"I strongly believe that the fashionable inclination to stress managerial business skills in lieu of a university president's academic background is, most of the time, ill advised. The former are clearly needed but the latter is also indispensable. Since so much depends on the academic direction of the university, a president needs to be accepted as one of the faculty."

"...duties include...campus architecture, given its lasting impact. The world often forgets that the visual art we are most exposed to on a daily basis is architecture...that is why, to me, competitive architectural design is so important in the exercise of good stewardship at our universities...renewing it as needed to meet the changing nature of teaching, learning, & research, but also aesthetics."

"Fiduciary duties include - at least to my mind - campus architecture, given its lasting impact. The world often forgets that the visual art we are most exposed to on a daily basis is architecture...that is why, to me, competitive architectural design is so important in the exercise of good stewardship at our universities...renewing it as needed to meet the changing nature of teaching, learning, and research, but als