Academe: Then and Now

CONTEXT:
                    A Purdue University faculty member was criticized in the local newspaper for his "radical" political views. The then President of the university, Frederick L. Hovde, made a public statement about "academic freedom" that prompted my letter to the President.






















President Frederick L. Hovde
Office of the President
Executive Building
Campus       
                                                                                     May 7, 1966




Dear President Hovde:


  
      Your recent statement on the importance of academic freedom of expression in the university made me proud to be a member of this academic community. Your views contained the elements of a philosophy which is essential for the growth and maintenance of a great university. I sense a renewed spirit and strength among my colleagues in having heard you express something publicly which they so firmly believe in as academics.



  I would also like to take this opportunity to express my strong disagreement with a view you expressed at a recent faculty convocation. You stated, as I remember, that "the professional schools are the heart of the university." I know that this view is shared by many who see the decline of the liberal arts college which cannot  compete with the professional schools financed by Federal, corporation, and foundation money. And I see no necessary reason to lament the passing of the liberal arts college, for the changing world has put science and specialized education at the center of the university. What I take issue with is that the professional schools are so heavily tied and connected to the production of specialists for consumption by business and government. What disappears in this atmosphere is the humanism of independent scholars in both the liberal arts and the professions.     




    The heart of any university is to be found in the strength of the spirit of free inquiry among a community of scholars. While such a spirit is not tied to any particular school or college in a university, it has traditionally been found to flourish best in the liberal-humanistic studies.




    I hope that you will have some occasion in the future to present your views on the meaning of education and the university in American society. The faculty, students, and community would prosper by having the opportunity to hear you speak.


         
Sincerely,


                Robert Perrucci,  Associate Professor of Sociology