Why Is a Liberal Education So Elusive?
Timothy Goldsmith In view of the enormous impact of science and technology on the human condition and the insights that science brings to an understanding of the world, these subjects occupy an astonishingly marginal place in a liberal education. This deficiency surely contributes to the disjunction between scientific consensus and political will on issues as diverse as stem cell research and global warming. For 50 years, federal support for basic research within U.S. universities has made our graduate education, postdoctoral training, and research accomplishments the envy of the world. No one wishes to see this outcome changed. But the process has also created competition among universities for research-based reputation, with deep-seated consequences for the education of undergraduates. 1) Universities have actually ceded some of their autonomy to outsiders by letting individuals at other institutions certify their faculty members’ research accomplishments in the context of appointmen
