Universities Should Be More Than Academia

Students expect their colligate years to be life changing. William Deresiewics of Yale University and Mark Edmundson from the University of Virginia have come together to challenge the view of college institutions. In their segment “Is there still room for the big question in college?” on bloggingheads.tv, colleges’ true motivation is called to question. Colleges are supposed to be institutions that shape young adults, so they will have a successful future. Deresiewics has a different view and says, “The purpose of Yale is to produce Yale alumni”. He says that colleges are turning away from the humanities and focusing on producing alumni that can produce high level incomes as to donate to the school. Both these professors think that college institutions need to incorporate more.

Shelby Lee Porter did not agree with Deresiewics, and Edmundson views and believes that these big questions should not be asked in college. Porter believes that people have to experience things and not discuss them. Porter does not take into account that everyone has different experiences and discussion can be a great way of learning about these experiences to better one’s self. She also believes that schools that have money as its main motivation are effective and give students all what they need to be successful. While money is always going to be a factor or even much needed asset, it is not what colleges should have as their top priority because the students they teach will have more in their life than just a career.

It is true that life experiences can teach people how to answer these questions, but why can’t colleges be involved? Porter states in her response to the blogging heads video, “Every person finds their own happy medium in life that they consider “good” by simply living their life. Every person finds their own happy medium in life that they consider “good” by simply living their life”. Not everyone in life is happy. Many people live difficult challenging lives and happiness is much harder to find for those people. Not all students have strong foundations and great upbringings. Why not have professors teach these young adults what in life has made them happy and how they experienced their life to its fullest. Even if the professor did not have the greatest life experience it would still get students to think to themselves what do I want after college. Colleges are here to help shape the men and women of the future. They have a great influence on young adults moralities and life expectations.

People who go to universities come from different places and have had different experiences. The college environment is a perfect place for its students to learn moral values from their own peers and professors. College is a new experience that the youth of our world does not know yet. In Porter’s own response she wrote “College is the place to discover who you are, to accept and reject certain believes, and know why”. In order to do all of these things people must be willing to ask the big questions and talk about them. Many students are overloaded with their work load doing whatever they can trying to get into the best the best graduate school in order to try and make the most money and will never take the time to ask these big questions themselves. According to Porter this is not a problem.

Porter says schools are still functional because they are educating the student to a certain degree. Professor Deresiewics and Professor Edmundson where arguing that schools do not educate students at all but that universities do not talk about life issues. The two professors are arguing that schools are not playing a role in molding students’ morals and helping them discover what is important to them. Students need to have a more personal relationship with their professors and should be able to go to them for advice not just about the class but life in general. The schools education needs to be more than just what is in a text book and how to do a job correctly. Teachers are not just living text books, they have experiences and knowledge to share outside of their career.

Porter wrote “The main goal of a university should involve producing a well rounded education, that in turn would produce well rounded alumni”. In order to have a well rounded education then colleges need to touch on social issues as well and have humanity
classes. Porter contradicts herself by saying that financial motivation works but that schools should focus on being well rounded. If schools have money in mind they are not going to worry about teaching their students important life lessons. The only thing money motivates colleges to teach is that your career is what is most important. Happiness is not factored into the equation. There must be more to a person’s life than their job for them to be well rounded.

Colleges undoubtedly should be trying to produce financially successful students, but that should not be the main goal on their mind. Colleges should be creating an environment where students have original thought and are not just programmed. Students need to be thinking of ways to better our world and know how to solve whatever problem they face throughout their life. A career is not everything in a person’s life and real happiness cannot be one dimensional. Surly students want to be financially successful when they are older, but how will they know how to use that success to help society?

Personal relationships with instructors will help students discover what has made other people happy and allow them to form their own definition for themselves. Universities are more than just a career building experience. It is the transitional process of turning youth into adults, not turning youth into workers. Students will react to their environment so colleges need to provide the best environment possible for growth not only academically but also as an individual.