In this thought provoking work, Wilshire provides insight into how the modern American university has morally defaulted because "academic professionalism, specialism, and careerism have taken precedence over teaching, and the education and development of both professors and students has been undermined." 

Wilshire starts with an account of his bewilderment upon first meeting of his 150 undergraduates in a class on "Current Moral and Social Issues." Bemused by every aspect of the situation, he wonders: What is the relationship between what he knows and what the students are interested in? What are the students supposed to learn? How are they supposed to react? Deeply dismayed by what he takes to be the orthodox university responses to these questions, he looks at how the "moral collapse" of the traditional mentor- learner relationship has come about, and ventures to outline a wiser and more humane alternative.

Wilshire presents a number of practical "piecemeal" measures as first steps toward "reorganizing the university": a substantial percentage of the faculty (one-third to two-thirds) should be hired and retained for their success as teachers -- not researchers or writers; liberal arts should be taught in liberal arts colleges small enough to promote genuinely human relations among and between teachers and students, but large enough to include "a wide variety of temperaments, career plans, and ethnic backgrounds"; greater emphasis should be placed on the arts to help members of the faculty "reclaim what Wordsworth called the feeling intellect"; courses should be interdisciplinary; and a "think tank" should be set up charged with finding "a common language" and a "shared vocabulary" for the modern, post-Cartesian university.

Order the Moral Collapse of the University

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© 2004 Bruce Wilshire. All Rights Reserved.