An Educator's Dilemma: The Problem of Divided Responsibilities
L OOKING up from his building plans, his budget sheets, his enrollment forecasts, and his faculty appointment forms, the American educator today sees a long, accusing finger pointing across his desk, zeroed in on a spot near the middle of his forehead. Behind this finger, glare the sharp, angry eyes of the press and the American public. The air is charged with indictment. He has been caught, it seems, in the act of gypping his students. He has been shirking the basic function which he is paid to perform. "Who? Me?" The question springs from my conscience. I happen to be the chancellor of a university, and the indictment has admittedly taken me by surprise. "You!" comes the answer, from somewhere over the horizon. "You and your bursar and your deans, and those self-seeking junketeers who call themselves your professors. You have lost sight of your mission. You have left the path and gone astray." Specifically, it seems, the charges are that our colleges and universities are neglecting the business of teaching. They are squandering their resources, according to their critics, on various and sundry activities related to the world off campus and to personal scholarly prestige and financial remuneration, while delivering a shoddy product to the citizenparents who support them with their taxes and to the hapless undergraduates who pay tuition fees. I do not panic, since the problem, if it exists at all, is not yet a dangerous one on my particular campus. I do, however, look up from my building plans, my budget sheets, my enrollment forecasts, and my personnel forms, and ponder.