Beyond the Ivory Tower
Byron, William J.
Moral institutions in immoral societies BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MODERN UNIVERSITY. Derek Bok Harvard, $15.95, 318 pp. William J. Byron SOCIETY'S problems require...
...He surveys, not too scientifically, past practice and finds little, if anything, in the area of "applied ethics" in the American college classroom in the middle of this century...
...They should export knowledge to the poorer nations...
...But absent from the chapter is a discussion of the process of moral development (despite the extensive research on this topic in Harvard's Graduate School of Education...
...each or all will condition any given response by trustees, presidents, and deans to issues which, in the view of student activists, faculty critics, an intruding government, or an outraged community conscience, call for action from within the academy...
...Universities should address social needs through normal academic functions, namely, teaching, research, and technical assistance...
...To give full respect to academic freedom is not to declare helplessness in the face of the abuse of academic freedom...
...but they are not newcomers to the exercise...
...And all will find helpful his inventory of the skills and qualities the good teacher of ethics should possess...
...Bok has set high standards for the additional reflection needed on the modern university's social responsibilities...
...Most educators will agree with Mr...
...They should take "special pains" to enroll minority students...
...Not surprisingly, the academic are seen as more appropriate...
...But beyond this, the concluding generalization will not stretch to an endorsement of the boycott, stock divestiture (rather, keep your stock and work for change through shareholder resolutions), or publishing institutional statements on political issues (let academic persons speak as individuals and as they wish on these matters...
...Many would like to see the ivory tower lean a bit...
...Few would disagree that discussion of these issues is more pedagogically productive than lectures on them...
...But application of the basic principles will, as evidenced in the many cases discussed in this book, restrain the resulting response, Non-academic tactics are considered by President Bok to be, in the main, inappropriate, ineffective, and unacceptable on any administrative cost-benefit scale...
...Others, with the possible exception of the administration's activist adversaries, are unlikely to possess the staying power required to track the pros and cons through to the one concluding generalization offered by the author...
...Although this book has serious limitations, it is a welcome addition to the literature on higher education administration...
...Bok treats with care and admirable respect both sides of every argument associated with affirmative action, preferential admissions, or hiring for racial minorities, issues of research for war and peace, academic and commercial cooperation in basic research, technical assistance to foreign governments, accepting gifts with or without strings, taking political stands, participating in boycotts, and the multiple relationships of a university to its local tax-collecting and service-providing government...
...It is, in fact, a requirement of academic freedom in a faith-committed context, to permit, in response to societal needs, both actions and expressions of ideas which may seem "out of place" in other contexts, particularly in those houses of intellect where faith and reason are regarded as unrelated and incompatible...
...Some colleges have been teaching ethics quite well for a very long time...
...Principled judgment," "principled standard," "principled manner," and "principled response," along with "principled replies," remind the reader that reason and reflection enjoy special respect in the house of intellect...
...Bok that the goal of classroom ethics is to bring students "to reason more carefully about moral issues...
...Trustees, presidents, deans, and others close to university administration will find the argumentation interesting...
...The principles behind an appropriate academic response are three, writes Harvard president Derek Bok, a lawyer whose experience in these matters is anything but insignificant...
...Some students, faculty, state agencies, and organizations within the civic community will not disagree with that but will still hope for something more than perfect balance within the academy as the larger society tries to hold or repair its splitting seams...
...They would not claim complete success (some of their alumni showed up in the Watergate hearings too...
...There are indeed both academic (teaching, research, technical assistance) and non-academic (boycotts, stock divestiture, protest statement) ways of responding to social pressures and problems...
...The three basic principles set limits on the academy's collective or corporate response to society's needs...
...Derek Bok's book is an amicus brief in support of the main line argument for balance on the public issues and preservation of academic assets for continued academic service through the long run...
...They should aid economic progress and productivity, by permitting their research discoveries to be translated into useful products...
...President Bok's chapter on "The Moral Development of Students" is disappointing...
...Academic freedom, institutional autonomy in academic matters, and the principle of institutional neutrality...
...But the book he has built on these three pillars is incomplete and unsatisfying...
...It assumes that a completely secular university is also a complete university and, in function of this, fails to acknowledge that faith, religion, and theology are all important for social responsibility...
...It fails to recognize that a moral institution might have to be off balance in an immoral society...
...William J. Byron SOCIETY'S problems require "principled replies," not immediate solutions, from the universities which society supports...
...To have a church-relationship or an institutional faith-commitment is not to compromise academic integrity, nor is it a denial of institutional autonomy...
...The author's commitment to academic freedom, to the protection of the academy from coercion from without, and to the maintenance of institutional neutrality is admirable...
...In response to Watergate and related discoveries of moral nomads in high places, however, the academy has begun only lately to take the teaching of ethics seriously...
...He asserts that families, churches, and lower schools have all declined in influence and implies that universities can fill this moral vacuum...
...Also absent is any indication that theological reflection has a role in all of this...
...Always searching for the "merits of the case," Mr...
Vol. 109 • October 1982 • No. 18
