Chelsea Lemburg Professor Ted Hamann TEAC 331 Final Draft Due February 11, 2013

The Port Huron Statements Relevancy in Todays American University

4. How applicable is the following quoted section of the Port Huron Statement to the contemporary American university? Our professors and administrators sacrifice controversy to public relations; their curriculums change more slowly than the living events of the world; passion is called unscholarly. The questions we might want raisedwhat is really important? Can we live a different and better way? If we wanted to change society, how would we do it? are not thought to be questions of a fruitful, empirical nature, and thus are brushed aside. (L & L, pp. 26-27)

The Port Huron Statement, borne of an overwhelmed generation with many good and noble, (if misguided and nave) intentions, was the first of its kind to address some of the most pressing issues facing students during the 1960s. Written and declared by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1962, the Port Huron Statement was heard loud and clear by the very same institutions of higher learning they had blasted, which is in part why the contemporary American university has altered so dramatically in just over fifty years. There are a few simple takeaways implied in Port Huron- namely that a. asking fundamental questions is necessary and important and hasnt been done for some time, and b. that an education worth having doesnt always need to involve immediate, identifiable rewards and quantifiable results [After Hours Intellectualism, p.1]. The Students for a Democratic Societys namesake came of their belief that the university is located in a permanent position of social influence [Lagemann & Lewis, p.27], which means that universities both past and present have the power to take existing frameworks of political, social, and economic policy, and alter them in a new and better way in order to create the idealized American democracy. Of course, there have been several advances towards

Chelsea Lemburg Professor Ted Hamann TEAC 331 Final Draft Due February 11, 2013

that ideal of democracy since the early 1960s, as well as some steps backwards in other respects. For example, general education has increasingly been seen as one of the main sources of civicmindedness in students, (graduates especially), as well as important to have in order to shape the whole, informed student. In contrast, this ideal of democracy has met some pitfalls in terms of the stakeholders that seem to have a place in determining how students receive their education. The Port Huron Statement was originally intended to be a call to arms for students by students in order to induce change, but by the 80s and 90s, these same students grew older and became the university administrators and national policy-makers who had the influence and wherewithal to change our contemporary American university into what it seems to be today. In the excerpt given, Port Hurons first claim is that our professors and administrators sacrifice controversy to public relations [Lagemann & Lewis p. 27], which was at least in part intended by those professors and administrators to bolster academic integrity in order to secure research funding. Today, this rhetoric that controversy is unscholarly- and only what is scholarly can be submitted for public relations- has grown to be a tired and outdated notion. In todays universities, passion is lauded as a valuable human resource, and not as something that is automatically present in every student. This passion for controversy and open-ended inquiry is seen in todays universities as something that should be cultivated in incoming freshman and preserved in students with more educational experience. The second claim that their curriculums change more slowly than the living events of the world [Lagemann & Lewis, p. 27], is no longer applicable. In todays universities, curriculums must include an analysis of the living events of the world in order to be considered relevant enough to spend limited resources on. For example, todays students want to know that

Chelsea Lemburg Professor Ted Hamann TEAC 331 Final Draft Due February 11, 2013

they will have a working knowledge of the economy as it is today, of international relations, and of our rapid environmental decline so that we have the tools to handle these issues now and in the future. The living events of the world must be built into any curriculum at any university that wishes to be taken seriously by students and financial/political stakeholders alike. Also included in this excerpt of the Port Huron Statement is the implication that certain profound and reaching questions, including- what is really important? Can we live a different and better way? If we wanted to change society, how would we do it?- are that which, since they are not grounded in concrete fact, are either unfit to ask or be answered. These questions are implicit and have no true answers; they also do not yield anything of immediate value. Hence, theyre not fruitful or empirical, at least not immediately. Today, while we are not hesitant to admit that our university system is flawed, we are still hovering over the real questions that run as an undercurrent as to why it is flawed. During the 1960s and 70s, however, these sorts of probing questions were in fact asked, if not answered, by the incredibly influential student movement that swept the nation. Fueled by the frustration stirred up by Vietnam and over the draft, students began to ask these questions themselves and found that their universities had no interest in answering them. Today, it is a common occurrence to hear these or similar questions in any course dedicated to the advancement of humanity, namely in inquiry courses, applied arts and sciences courses, and in ethnicity and national relations/policy courses, to name just a few. While the Port Huron Statement is less relevant to the contemporary American university today, in some respects, it is still accurate. While professors and administrators no longer sacrifice controversy to public relations, per se, they do to some extent sacrifice controversy to the university system. This means that universities may want to seem as unbiased and purely

Chelsea Lemburg Professor Ted Hamann TEAC 331 Final Draft Due February 11, 2013

academic as possible, without ever having to discuss or address much controversy. Of course, this leads to a complex and puzzling dilemma for universities that need to secure funding- i.e. all universities- because while they need to remain relevant to the living events of the world, they also must stay academic and free of any out-of-control, drummed-up, or short-lived controversies.