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Speech

September 12, 1995

Presidential Forum 1995 (1995)

The University

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Article

A Moral Mission for Colleges (1986)

Until about 50 years ago, it was commonly accepted that the university was responsible for offering its students moral guidance. Professors regarded themselves as not only the teachers of knowledge and skills, but also as educational stewards of a special kind of wisdom: the nature of the good life; truth and goodness and beauty; and the value of thought and reflection. In time, that received wisdom came under progressive assault. Universities began to disseminate knowledge without reference to this ethos. Intellectual inquiry became an autonomous enterprise. The moral mission of higher education was denigrated as too parochial and amateurish and, in the sixties, as being hypocritical, a cover for imperialism. Not long ago, a noted British philosopher observed that philosophers have been trying all this century to get rid of the dreadful idea that philosophy ought to be edifying. If this is true of philosophy, what can one say of other branches of knowledge taught in our ivied halls?This despair about the larger questions of life having a claim on our attention has filtered down to our lower schools. Only a few weeks ago, New York’s Governor Cuomo created a stir when he suggested that values ought to be taught in New York State public schools. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett has repeatedly urged public school leaders to teach moral and ethical subjects that represent a consensus of the community.It is fairly obvious that this erosion of the teaching of values in our schools is a reflection of a deliberate turn of events in higher education and in the intellectual climate of this country. No wonder that George Bernard Shaw once said of us:"I doubt if there has been a country in the world's history where men were ashamed of being decent, of being sober, of being well-spoken, of being educated, of being gentle, of being conscientious, as in America." As usual, Spaw was exaggerating. But there is an undeniable kernel of truth in his criticism.Such value-agnos…
The University

Correspondence

Exchange with Jeffrey Holland about "A Moral Mission for Colleges" (1986)

Dear President Lamm: I was heartened and inspired by your recent article in The New York Times entitled "A Moral Mission for Colleges." You make a very telling point in a wonderfully articulate way and I commend you for your leadership in this important area. The whole matter of declining moral and ethical strength in public and private life, particularly as such a decline indicts educational practices, is a chief concern of mine. I am taking the liberty of enclosing a copy of a talk I gave at the National Press Club not long after the highly publicized A Nation at Risk was issued. Perhaps you will find it of at least passing interest. With best wishes, Jeffrey R. Holland
The University General Education

Correspondence

Exchange with Professor Bartholomew about "A Moral Mission for Colleges" (2002)

Dear Dr. Lamm, Thank you inviting me to today’s luncheon with Lee Schulman. Not only did the lunch stimulate the tip of the tongue, but the discussion stimulated that back part of the mind wherein course pedagogies are engineered—strike that—are designed. We do need to remind ourselves of the forcible effect we may have on our students’ lives, and especially so during inconstant times such as we see today. I recall your letter to the Times. My interest was keen because I was then deciding whether to join the YU faculty, or perhaps it was that I had recently joined the faculty, and I was curious about you and your positions. I remember thinking that those who attacked you in follow-up letters were really attacking positions advocated by Allan Bloom (in his best-selling book that was released about then) and that most of your naysayers missed the nuance of significant differences (I thought) between your use of “values” and his. His use was more political and yours was more ethical and moral. Then again, life has been trying to teach me not to be overly immodest about the accuracy of my long term memory—as for the short term…what was the subject? (I call this condition “Halfzeimers.” Not yet the whole thing!) With best regards, Noyes Bartholomew
The University