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DEEP THINKERS MISSING IN ACTION

Even at elite campuses, some students and faculty fret over anti-intellectualism

 * By Mark Clayton Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

January 21, 2003

Cheerleaders for a collegiate chess team? It may sound odd, but the president of
the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, doesn't mind going to such lengths
to celebrate smarts.

In an effort to draw more academically talented students, this mid-size research
institution offers scholarships to top chess players. It recently won the
American Intercollegiate Chess Championship for the sixth time, handily
surmounting intellectual bastions such as Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.

This strategy has not won the school millions in advertising revenue. Nor has it
magically vaulted it into the Ivy League. But President Freeman Hrabowski says
it sends a signal to prospective students that if they cherish the life of the
mind, they will feel at home at UMBC.


About these ads

"We want to counter the anti-intellectual thread that runs across higher
education, even [at] the best schools," Dr. Hrabowski says. "People often know
about an institution because of a winning football team. How often do you hear
about a university known for sending large numbers of students on to graduate
programs, professional schools, or community service? We're talking about a need
for balance."

Critical thinking, self-examination, and the questioning of assumptions are all
widely genuflected to as part of any good college education. But that's not
what's happening on many college campuses, he and others argue.

American higher education has long had a dynamic tension between intellectualism
- represented by the humanities and elite colleges - and more "practical"
education offered up by land-grant universities, observers say.



But while the US university system is widely hailed for its quality, some fear
the pendulum may be swinging toward an overall anti- intellectual approach.

"You can party a lot, ski a lot, and still do well and not be that
intellectual," says Michael Newton, a junior majoring in government at Dartmouth
College. "At Dartmouth, it's not that cool to be intellectual. It's much cooler
to be outdoorsy. At Yale, my friends say it's cooler to be urban trendy."

Sports aren't the only culprit

At public universities, much of the blame for anti- intellectualism tends to be
laid on big-money sports programs (see story, left).

Murray Sperber, a professor at Indiana University, says a "beer-and-circus
culture" has permeated much of public higher education, often substituting for
solid intellectual growth among undergraduates. He traces this phenomenon, in
part, to an attitude prevalent in society that college is merely a means to a
well-paid job.

"It's always anti-intellectual when the most important thing in life is making
money," Dr. Sperber says.

And it's not just an issue at big-time sports schools. Some may be surprised to
realize that anti-intellectualism is also rearing its head in the Ivy League.



Take the "nerd" label. In a column in the Daily Princetonian, Prof. John Fleming
recently opined that "even at Princeton, one will frequently hear echoes of a
national culture that rewards people with an undisguised passion for knowledge
and exact intellectual application with such appellations as nerd, geek and
wonk."

Princeton students' open letter

Some students and faculty recently raised concerns about what they see as a
paucity of intellectual ferment at the Princeton, N.J., campus.



"There seems to be a widespread belief that intellectual life in the classroom
and in the dorms, colleges, and clubs is not what it should be," wrote the
Undergraduate University Council in an open letter to the president Sept. 30.

"This problem of a lackluster intellectual culture manifests itself in various
ways and in all aspects of undergraduate life."

Signed by 11 student leaders, the letter calls for an investigation into what
has weakened intellectualism on campus. One suspect, the letter says, is a
prevalent "work hard, play hard" mentality that leads to "a strict dichotomy
between structured, résumé-building extracurricular activities and activities
that provide a mindless release."



One Princeton professor, quoted in the open letter, jokes that faculty office
hours are so underutilized they provide "the best time for solitary meditation."



In the face of such criticism, some observers caution that it would be a mistake
to believe there was ever a "golden age" of intellectualism on campus.

The "gentleman's C," for instance, was acceptable at elite universities in
decades past. When Woodrow Wilson was president of Princeton (1902-1910), he
introduced "precepts" - small discussion groups that are still part of the
structure today - designed to improve the level of intellectual discourse.



But even these discussions now sometimes end up being "uninspiring" and
"underwhelming," the letter says.

If students see their degrees as just credentials for jobs, they decide, "Hey,
if it's not going to be graded, why study for it?" says Jason Navarino, a junior
at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

In one of his precepts, the moderator would check a student's name off once he
or she had participated in the discussion. "You had to speak at least once....
After they said something intelligent, everyone just sat back," Mr. Navarino
says.

Objections to the anti-intellectual label

Already the letter may have accomplished what it intended. A faculty committee
is examining the problem. And a hot campus debate has ensued, with many
complaining the letter unfairly tars Princeton students as "anti-intellectual."
It's something Joshua Anderson, one of the signers, is quick to deny.



"There's nothing bordering on an anti-intellectual culture at Princeton, and
nobody frowns on intellectual pursuits," he says. "But there is an intense
concern over what we'll be doing after graduation. Will you be making a lot of
money or changing the world? ... Sometimes general intellectual pursuits fall by
the wayside."



Some at Princeton aren't so quick to dismiss the idea that there may be a
problem of anti-intellectualism by omission.

"It's possible to have kids who are very bright, capable, and hardworking, who
are not necessarily intellectual in terms of being inquisitive, part of the life
of the mind, in pursuit of knowledge for its own sake," says Aaron Friedberg, a
professor at the Woodrow Wilson School.



"It's true that there is less of that kind of interest than you might hope for
and want to see at a place like Princeton."



Deference to authority was another concern mentioned in the open letter.
Princeton professors were quoted as saying that students were "disconcertingly
comfortable with authority" or rarely challenged what a professor said.

"America is not a deeply intellectual culture," says Anthony Grafton, a history
professor at Princeton. "[Intellectualism] is a countercultural value, not one
that most people embrace. It's not what life in the suburbs is about, and most
of our wonderfully bright students come from a well-off suburb."

'No reflection time' at Harvard

The challenge to reexamine intellectual culture spans far beyond Princeton.



For students with packed schedules on many elite campuses, dinnertime and
weekends are more for blowing off steam than for discussing Ovid's
"Metamorphoses" or lessons that the Yuan Dynasty might hold for modern
globalization.



The Chronicle of Higher Education hosted a vigorous online debate in 2001 about
whether most colleges were overlooking the way students ignore campus
intellectual life.

At the center of the discussion was an article by Duke University's Prof. Stuart
Rojstaczer entitled, "When Intellectual Life is Optional for Students."



"The hardest thing for students at Duke - and at most elite institutions - is
getting in," he wrote. "Once admitted, a smart student can coast, drink far too
much beer, and still maintain a B+ average."

At Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., the undergraduate curriculum is
undergoing a top-to-bottom review.

The rich mix of lectures outside of class do seem well attended, but the hectic
pace can sometimes work against deeper learning, says Sujean Lee, president of
Harvard's undergraduate council.

"There is no reflection time whatsoever," says the senior biology major. "I
don't even account for reflection in my schedule. The fact that I don't even
think there needs to be reflection time is telling what values are at Harvard. I
have a journal I rarely write in."



Many students seem to think they gain more from their extracurricular activities
than from their classes, she adds.

For Hrabowski at UMBC, anti-intellectualism in higher education was summed up
perfectly in the response to a recent speech he gave to a group of academics.

"I was making the case that universities should be celebrating the student who
is accomplishing a lot in English literature as much, or more, than the student
who's a great basketball player," he says. "Well, when I said that, they just
laughed. They laughed! That's the problem we face."

• E-mail claytonm@csmonitor.com

The interplay of sports and smarts

Intercollegiate sports can have a corrosive effect on educational values, even
on elite campuses. That's the thesis of "The Game of Life," a seminal book
coauthored in 2001 by William Bowen, a former president of Princeton University.

But there's an active debate about how responsible sports are for what some see
as an intellectual culture that's not living up to its potential at Princeton.

"Princeton does have a big-time sports culture," says history professor Anthony
Grafton. "We actually have a much bigger proportion of recruited athletes than
many people think. Athletics pose a challenge.... They do pull a lot of the
energy away from students and what they may be doing in class."

English professor John Fleming has been writing a regular column for Princeton's
student newspaper about the intellectual climate on campus. A former athlete, he
enjoys campus sports, but notes misplaced priorities among some athletes on
campus.

"When I meet someone at Princeton who says, 'I'm here to row,' I just figure,
well, nobody should be here who isn't here to get a great education first and
foremost," Dr. Fleming says.

Some students, however, are circumspect about the issue.

"I don't know whether athletics is a problem or not," says Jason Navarino, who
is majoring in political science. "But there always seems to be the right number
of running backs on the football team."

Dane Claussen, a professor at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pa., points to
the NCAA's recent push for reform, which began in the early 1990s, as
recognition of the problem of anti-intellectualism.

"It's kind of funny that athletics got a free ride on campus - so little
scrutiny, for so long," he says. "I think, though, that with all the sports
scandals on campus in the last few years, people are beginning to get a better
picture of how the tail is wagging the dog."

In at least one place, though, the "big man on campus" is more likely to be a
bespectacled chess player than a burly football player.

The chess team at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has
cheerleaders, pep rallies, and road trips. It's a winning team of intellectual
athletes - complete with nicknames like the "Hammer From Alabama."

The team's star is Alex "the Invincible" Onischuk, a hero to the
nose-in-the-books set on campus. A 26-year-old Russian grand master, Mr.
Onischuk once played Gary Kasparov, the world's top player, to a draw.



The school has sports teams, but it's the chess team that gets the most
attention, just the way President Freeman Hrabowski likes it.

"In my mind, we spend much too much time overemphasizing athletics and
underemphasizing intellectual activity," he says. "We wanted to focus on the
life of the mind in a proactive way."

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