A column in today’s The Globe and Mail by John Fraser titled, “Universities need money, yes, but a social mission, too” (Saturday, March 26, 2005, Page F9) drew my attention to a longish submission to the Rae commission by George Fallis from York. Titled “The Mission of the University” this report is available on the COU Think Ontario ª Resources ª Documents page. The report is a good overview of the history of the university, the uses and expectations of the university leading into the current mission of the Canadian university.
Here are some quotes:
Clark Kerr in his book, The Uses of the University, has famously written: ìAbout
eighty-five institutions in the Western world established by 1520 still exist in
recognizable forms, with similar functions and unbroken histories, including the Catholic
church, the Parliaments of the Isle of Man, of Iceland, and of Great Britain, several Swiss
cantons, and seventy universities. Kings that rule, feudal lords with vassals, and guilds
with monopolies are all gone. These seventy universities, however, are still in the same
locations with some of the same buildings, with professors and students doing much the
same things, and with governance carried on in much the same ways.î (p. 4)Thus, universities have a new mission, a mission because they are institutions of
democracy. Great universities should be judged not just by the quality of their research,
the learning of their students, and the contributions and accomplishments of their
graduates, but also by their service to democratic society as critic, conscience and public
intellectual and by their preparation of students for citizenship. (p. 52)Will the traditions of liberal learning survive? What should be the curriculum for
an undergraduate? What should be the interconnections between liberal learning, the
professions, and advanced research? Will the reliance on external fundraising destroy the
commitment to disinterested inquiry? Will the multiversity remain committed to public
knowledge under pressures to commercialize its research? Can quality be maintained
when government support per student continues to decline? Can accessibility be
maintained if tuition fees rise still further? These are questions facing Ontario and
posterity will judge us how they are answered.Many in the university are convinced that the ideas of our age will revolutionize
the university, so radically changing its functions that the unbroken history will be
severed. The modern university has a multitude of functions, often conflicting and always
with shifting emphasis. If the tormenting worry had to be summarized in a single
sentence it would be: in post-industrial society of the twenty-first century, the economic
mission of the university will flourish and the democratic mission will wither. We must
not allow this to happen. (p. 53)