Top Educators Blast College Critics, Paint Rosy Outlook for Universities

Reports of the death of quality higher education in America are greatly exaggerated, four top educators told an audience of several hundred gathered in Sanders Theater yesterday afternoon.

Harvard President Derek C. Bok, acting Dean Henry Rosovsky, Dartmouth College President James O. Freedman '57 and University of Chicago President Hanna H. Gray rebuffed critics who have been predicting the demise of the nation's universities.

A Problematic History

"History tells us that the outlook for higher education has always been problematic," said Bok, who delivered the opening remarks at the colloquium. The discussion was the first in a series of events the Harvard Alumni Association is sponsoring this weekend to celebrate its sesquicentennial.

Bok, who will leave office in June, disputed the doom-filled predictions of authors of "futuristic tracts" on education, saying that American universities continue to top the ranks of educational institutions worldwide.

Rosovsky, who has been serving as acting dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences since the summer, defended the standard executive structure of American university administration as particularly effective, saying that he believes it is one of the characteristics that keeps U.S. institutions competitive on a worldwide basis.

Although American universities sometimes suffer from inefficient management, he said, "the popular perception... that we are fat, happy and uncaring gougers is way off the mark."

Rosovsky also defended rising tuition, stating that over the years, the average annual cost of an American college education has continued to correspond roughly to that of a medium-priced car. He pointed to greatly increased student services as part of the cause of higher costs.

"We no longer offer a plain vanilla education; all of it is different versions of sundaes," he said.

Gray, who has headed the University of Chicago for 12 years, emphasized what she called the "continuum" between undergraduate, graduate, and faculty work, and warned against considering faculty and student concerns divergent.

"To stress...the collegiate as something separate from the scholarly would be a grave mistake," she said.

Freedman, who is reportedly a candidate to succeed Bok at Harvard, stated his opposition to the "great books" approach to curriculum reform, characterizing programs structured around a standard canon of works as vain efforts to recapture an academic "Camelot."

"That is not a notion that corresponds with a successful reality of the past," Freedman said.

"We need...to construct a curriculum that takes account of our times, of the intellectual concerns and intellectual battles of our time," he said.

While the educators generally lauded higher education, they expressed concern that colleges and universities could be handicapped by a decaying primary and secondary school system.

Rosovsky, who described American public education as being "in a powerless state," called for the formation of a nationwide coalition to address education issues.

"What is really needed is a major interdisciplinary effort," Rosovsky said, adding that graduate schools of education should be called on to help set priorities for such an undertaking.