I
rnS,S.F"f
"]
Arts..cg.Ilggg
j4 SE l{ode{n
Metropolis
A Paper presented to the Augsburg College Faculty
January L2,
L967
ftre very pret^entiousness of the subject to which this Paper
addresses itself
it
came
reguires at the outset
some explanation
of
how
to be written as wel... Show more
I
rnS,S.F"f
"]
Arts..cg.Ilggg
j4 SE l{ode{n
Metropolis
A Paper presented to the Augsburg College Faculty
January L2,
L967
ftre very pret^entiousness of the subject to which this Paper
addresses itself
it
came
reguires at the outset
some explanation
of
how
to be written as well as some indication of the limitations
I have arbitrarily set
upon
it.
is most appropr i ate Iy perceived as some reflections
frotn my sabbatical study of 1965 and 1966. My decision to use that
academi"c occasion for a study of the liberal arts college in the
lltre paper
rpdern metropolis was influenced by several considerations. In
the first place, the metroPolis is emerging as the do:ninant community
society. whatever role an institution of higher
learnlng seeks to play in such a society, it rmrst do so in the
context of that reality. fn the seconrl place, the location of
reality in
modern
at the heart of one of the fastest grotring
, metropolitan areas in the United States gives it a strategic setting
Augsburg College
, for deliberately developing an educational program responsive to
..
the opportunities and challenges of- such a cotnnunity. Thirdly, if
'
Augrsburg
is to develop such a program, it nust give careful attention to the forces at qrork in the ripdern metropolis and learn all
it can from the experiences of other institutions of higher learning that have consciousLy sought to resfond creatively
'
imaginatively to
them.
and
,
*',
-2were
,,he readings and travels rnade possible by m)' sabbaticar
therefore focused upon the social realitj es of the metroporis and
the responses of co 1Leges and universities to them. I'ty rernarks
ref lect some of my f irst irnpressions of my study '
I.
Sorne
PerspeCi:ives and Issues of the study
such a study of school and sceiety is of course not a new one '
of
The reraticnsirip between learning and J-iving has been a rnatter
interest to phil,osophers, historians, sociar scientists, and educators for ages. I'los-t schorars have assunted that nei-'her education
nor society can be adequately unders*'ood tJithol'r-t examining the
interactive rerationships between them. The modes by rn'hich these
rerationships have been perceived, however, ancl the ways they have
theorogibeen examined have variec i.;ideIy. The philosophers, the.
alr
ans, the historiansr eild the various sociar scientists have
brought clistinctive intelrectuar orientations, conceptual tools,
contriband knowledge skilrs to bear upon the subject. Alr have
uted substantial literature that is relevant'
j-nteractive
My studies have been primarily fccused uPon the
relationships between community anc co13-eEe (university) as
dynamic and adaptive sociar institutions
responding to each other
and to the social forces within and beyond the local- community.
whire this focus perhaps rnost accuratery fits under the rubric of
soeiorogy of education, r irave found helpfur materiars frorn
sources other than soeiologieal.
many
,
-3-
of the major assumptions of the study has been that higher
education is dynam j-c a lly influenced by changing cornmunity realities.
Even tthen the intelLectual corurunity seeks to affirm its autonomy
One
from corulunity it does so in the context of what is going on within
it.
It has been agsumed that major transformations in coutrunity
life inevitably alter the character and the functions of, the academic
conununity as we11.' It is from this perspective that the current
relationship between college and metropolis has been examined'
Historical records Provide suPport for this Perspective' Ever
since the emergence of the universities in twelfth eentury Europe'
of the important aspects of the relationshiP between education
and society tras been the interactive encounter between college and
one
conununity. Whether those universities developed through an expansion of cathedral schools as l{as typical in Northern Europe, or gtr ell^'
as voluntary guildls
of students
and teachers, as was the case
in
places like Bologna, their very emergence reflected a major trans'
fornation of the structure of comnunity life.
students anel teachers
alike were exposed to the cross-fires between ttre claims
and expect-
ationsofthehistoricmanorialandmonasticcommununitiesofthe
past andl the claims and expectations of the rapidly rising urban
in the future. In fact the very exPansion and development of the universities were in large measure a
response to the rapid increase of the range of activities for which
communities whose hopes were
the literary skills beca e essential in the growing urban commrni'
ties.l ftte inevitable tensions produced by the major conununity
t
-4transformations gave rise to a heightened sensitivity to both
actuar and potential reLationships between the earry universities
and their resPective communities'
that
The reccrd of the ongoing accomodations and adaptations
institutions of
h
er
earnl-n9
ave
twelfth century constitutes a
It is nainly
major chapter in the history of western civilization'
in the context of that history that one can get an adeguate aPprecommunity transformations since the
ciation of the intellectual heritage of higher education' Both the
constantly changing curricula and the ever-changing academic social
of
structures are appropriately perceived as indices or reflections
college and cornmunity encounters'
2
In our day, the emergence of the modern metropolis presents a
city in which
ner,r chapter in this history - Neither the historic
the university was born nor the agrarian villages to which so many
of the colleges and universities leter withdret'r fully encompasses
the dominant corununity realities of the modern world' In the course
of the revolutionary changes that have brought an ever-increasing
both the
nuniber of people into the orbit of great urban centers'
structural and the cultural characteristics of urban life have
the
changed. The o1d boundaries between the city' the suburbs'
surrounding
indistinct.
viltages,
and the oPen cotrntry have become increasingly
region' a configuration of aII
the dominant community reality in the mod-
The large metropolitaa
these Parts, has become
ern worLC- It is in the context of this great world-wide community
-5transformation that higher education finds one of its major chalIenges in the twentieth century. rt is with the compelling chalIenges of this metropolis and the college responses to them that r
have been primarily concerned.
II
Some
Major Impressions From My Studies
In this presentation,.I can only summarize briefly some of the
major impressions that my studies have made upon me. Some of these
relate to the changes in the forms and cuLture of modern conmunity
l-ife and some to the innovating responses of colleges and universities to these changes.
A. The Revolutionary Implications of the Exploding lletroPolis
One does not have to read very much of the rapidly grovring
Iiterature on contemporary urbanization to be impressed with its
revolutionary character. The first and most obvious fact can be
represented in terms of the grorrring numbers of people and propor-
tionE of the population living within the context of the metropolis.
TabLes
I and 2 provide
some
these demographic dynamics.
elementary
statistical data concernirg
-6Table I.
Population Growth in the United
States and in Standard Me'EroPoliLan Areas, 1900 2000.
Population
(
1, 0O0 )
1900
19 10
192 0
As A Per-
PO
1 ation
cent of U.S.
Year
I'. S.
SMA
SMA
75,995
24,l.05
3L.g%
9L,97
34, 5L7
46, O59
37
2
.5
43.6
49.7
195 0
1e6 0
1o5,7LL
L22,775
131,669
151,326
L79,323
67 , L27
84, 854
LLz, BB5
I9EO
2 000
245, 000
320. 000
171,500
235,000
Source:
The Research and Policy Cornrnittee of the
Cornmittee For Econonic Development,
Developing I,letropo Iitan Transpo rtation
.P-o1lc.ies, (New York: Commi.ttee For Economic
Development, 1965 ), p. 18.
1930
1940
Tab1e 2.
61,005
51.
O
.1
62.9
70.0
56
74.O
Percentage Increase in Population
States, in l,letroPolitan Areas and
side of MetroPolitan Areas, 1900
in the United
in Area Out-
I 960.
1950-60 1940-50 1930-40 L920-50 1ero-zo Ieo o-10
Total U.S.
14.5
7.2
16.1
L4.9
21.O
22 -O
B. 1
28. 3
26.9
34.6
r.5
13.9
5.
22.3
25.2
33.6
6L.7
35-6
15.1
44.A
32.O
38 .2
6.1
6.5
9.6
L6.4
18.5
Population
A1I lvletro-
politan Areas 26.4
Central
Cities
Suburban
Areas
Area outside
of Metropolitan
Ar eas
Source:
'l
.L
r
'7
.g
Gist and SYlvia Ftois I'ave, Ufban Soc ietv (New
York: Thornas Y. crowell Company, rifth Edition, 19 64) ,
p. 73.
Noel
P
-7Americans (at least 2'l3) notp live
most
tlat
These data indicate
within regions described by the census Bureau as Standard Metropolitan Areas and that more v,iIl do so in the future' lDtrey also indihave becate that since I93O an ever increasing Percentage of them
a
e areas surrounding the
of the Census Bureau indlicate that
of
by now tbe number of those residents is greater than the nudber
is
residents in central cities. What is most important, perhaps'
central cities.
that the
Recent reports
produceil a
emerging metropolitan concentrations have
history' Ilans
"socletal scaIe" which has no precedent in hunran
a
Blurnenfeld has noted that the moclern metropolis contains Population
city
which is up to ten times the size of the largest pre-industrial
city of
encomPasses an area up to lOO times that of the largest
and
former times.
Tinre
3
will only allow a few observations here concerning the
of
irnplicatlons of these demographic and ecological transformations
exploding metropolis
modern community 1ife. rn tl.e first place the
of historic cornmunity identifications
jurisdlictions that still
and made obgolescent the multiple political
persist as legal realities in metropolitan areas' lFhe incongruity
of the
between the tect.nocuLturaL interdependence of most asPects
the
metropolis with its political "Balkanzation" is indicated by
data concerning the number of political jurisdictions in
has meant a blurrihg
follorving
various metropolitan regions
:
-8I"letr opolit an Area
New York
Chicago
Approx imate Number of PoliticaI
Ju.ri sdictions
1000 +
950 +
Philadelphia
Los Angeles CountY
San Francisco BaY
T\din Cities
No one has
7OO +
600 +
750 +
200 +
better described the conseguences of this political
fragmentation than professor Robert Wood in the following excerpt
from his book on suburbia:
This superimposition of provincial governraent on
cosmopolitan people provides a strange pattern of
incongruity. Inlithin the sipgle economic and social
complex we have eome to call a metropolitan area, ?rundreds
and hundreds of loca1 governments jostle one another
about. Counties overlie school districts, which overlie
municipalities, whieh overlie sanitary and water districts,
villages. Except
which sometimes overlie townshiPs and
t
for the special purpose 'd.istricts , each suburban government maintains its own police force, its fire station,
its health department, its library, its welfare service'
Each retains its authority to enact ordinances, hold
eleetions, zone land, raise taxes, gfrant building licenses,
borrow moneyr E;1d fix speed limit,s.... By ordinary standards of effective, responsible public services (this)
mosaic_of suburban principalities creates grovernmental
havoc .5
As Gibson winter has so cogently argued,
similar incongruities
the dj.fferentiated religious, raciaL and socialclass enclaves and the interdePendent technical and economic realities of the metropolis.6 The urgency of the guest for political
persist
between
and social structures which are eppropriate and adequate
for the
rearities can hardly be exaggerated' such a guest
constitutes an immense challenge to institutions of higher learning'
An even more compelling challenge is raised by the way in
which the sprawling metropolis threatens to wipe out aLtogether
new community
-9both the structural and cultural rudinents of all conununity life
other than that of the nation-state. !'odern man's communityiessness
the tendency of his becoming imnersed in an amorptrous "mass
society" which is increasingly dominated by the nation-state has
and
become a
familiar
theme among atudents
of
modern society.
lbst scholars have ernphaaized that the forces of coununity transformation have their roots in massive historical changes in the form
and structures of human association. Sir Henry Maine salr' these
changes in terms of a general rrcvement away from the centrality of
their attributes of status and mefibership to the
"primacy of the Lega11y autonomous individual and the accomPanying
funpereonal relations of contract. "T Karl Marx perceived the changes
in terms of a dialectical process in which the bourgeoisie, in the
social groups
and
interest of its
tions that
ovrn
class, put an end to all the feudal social rela-
bound men
together, leaving no other nexus between
rnan and
self-intereet and a cal!-ous cash Payment. simmel in
his perceptive essay on "Ttle Metropolis and Mental Li-fe, " focused upon
the impact of noney as the dominant medium of social exchange, noting
man ttran naked
hot it transformed ttre relationships betLreen men and suited the
eighteenth century call upon man to free hi:nseIf of all the historical
bonds
in state
and
rerigion, morals
and economics.
t&nies described
the changes in terms of a continuous weakening of the ties of
"cemeinschaft" (community, family, guild and village) and the increas-
ing importance of the
more impersonal
tionships of "Gesellschaft".
atomistic and mechanical rela-
Max weber accented
the powerful pro-
- IO-
of rationalization
cesses
and bureaucratization upon human
relations.
He observed that, neither love nor hate had a place in the values of
the bureaucratic model that was becoming the typical organizational
structure of modern society. Durkheim emphasized the atomizi-ng
effeets of technology and the division of labor upon the social
fabric.
He was deepLy concerned about
the possible development of
a society where the "naked individual" would confront the
"naked
state" without communities between. Contemporary rvriters
have
elaborated upon these rnore classical works in terms of the development of the "organization
man
rt
, the
"
Icne l-y crowd
" and the
"power
elites " .8
A persistent theme of all the literature here alluded to, has
been that of the eclipse of the locaI conmunityr Es modern man has
sought to maximize his individual freedom. It seems appropriate to
note that his accent on individual freedom has often been aecompanied by a relative indifferenee coneerning the development of
social and lega1 struetures within which such freedoms eould be
made
secure. That is certainly part of the community crisis of the
modern
metrotrrolis. Perhaps no cornmunity in
so critically
challenged by such complex problems with such inap-
propriate social and political
ropolis.
human history has been
institutions
as the modern met-
To expect to redeern the situation by merely muddling
through with piece-mea1 solutions to particular problems such
as
those of pollution, autosclerosis, crime, poor housing, or inadeguate inner city schools without creating the structural order
-1rcongruent urith the net{ realities i6 to fail to understand the nature
of the crisis of
B-
comrnunity
in the
modern metropolis.
Toward An urban Renaissance
one
of the most hopeful signs of recent years has been the
e
to the realities of
metropolitanization, accompanied by a re!-uctant accePtance of the
fact that neither a revival of agrarianism nor the search for its
In part this
may
be but a delayed response
counterpart in suburbia affords a promising basis for a viable
comnunity in the modern world. Beyond this however, there have
positively affirming the merits
of the metropolis and celebrating the "gIories of the city". In the
light of our historic anti-city stance, this does rePresent a new
spirit in our country which is extremely important for its future.9
emerged some new spokesmen rdho are
c. A New Rapprochement Between College and City
It is in the context of this urban renaissance that the recent
historic linkages bettreen higher education and
urban life can best be understood. Irlhi le at first urban instituti.ons of higher learning were perhaps reluctantly driven to a recrevival of the
o1d
ognition of their community of fate with the city, they have noq'
come increasingly to recognize the creative potentials of the urban
for their highest educational aspirations.
This recognitign has led to a rapid development of joint planning on the part of educational and urban leaders throughout arcrica.
some notable examples of such joint ventures have been the univer-
commrnity
sity of chicago's involvement in the
P4rde Park-Kenwood urban
-L2-
in Chicago; the "University city" development in
Philadelphia involving among other institutions the University of
Pennsylvania, Drexel Institute, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy,
rene$raI program
institutions; the "University Circle"
including 28 institutions of higher learning,
and certain medical-teaching
project of
C1eveland
medicine, fine arts and religioni and "Morningside Heights IncorPo-
rated" in
New
Iege, Columbia
School
City involving such institutions as Barnard ColUniversity, The Jewish lfheological Seminary, iluliard
York
of Music, Teachers Co!.lege, Union Theological Seminary
other religious and charitable institutions.
An examination
of these
10
and other developments among urban
leges and universities provides substantial evidence that a
nuniber
of Leading educators
and
and educational
coI-
grorruing
institutions are coming
to identify their highest expectations with the renewal
and
revitaL-
ization of the American city.
lfhus even as the
rise of the western city
gave
birth to the
universities in the first, place, colleges and universities in urban
America are looking to ttre renaissance of the citiee as an oPPortunlty for their own renewal and development.
IIf uajor uotifs of Academic Response to Metropolis
Both the lack of time and the incompleteness of documentation
at hand m6ke irnpossible an adeguate inventory of the character and
the extensiveness of these innovative academic responses to the
modern metropolis. To indicate some of the major motifs of these
responses, and to present some illustrations of them must suffice
for this presentation.
-13-
A.
The Metropolis As a Laboratory For
Perhaps the most pervasive
Liberal Learning
motif has been the perception of the
metropolis as an integral part of the universityts (or collegers)
comlunity of learning. Though not a new idea, the deliberateness
and extensiveness
of the programs, together with their conscious
orientation to the spirit of the urban renaissance, reflect a nen
Etance. Leading urban colleges
and
universities are seeking to
establish creative interactive relationE between
in virtually every aspect of their
campus and community
academic programi
in the fine
arts, the social and physical sciences as well as in religion and
philosophy. They are implementing what Professor Dyckman recommended
a fer', years ago in an essay on "The Changing Uses Of
The
City" by consciously designing the metropolis as an educative
experience and regarding it as an essential part of its institutionaI
mL].r.eu-
lhe
11
modes and
depending on
and the
volved.
day
particularities of these programs vary widely,
historic
interests
academic legacies,
and imaginativenesa
On one campus
the subject being studied,
of students and faculty in-
the students of
1aw may
learn
some
day-to-
realities concerning legal problems of housing through care-
fully arranged interneships in legal service centers in
depressedl
housing areas (University of Chicago).
et Monteith College, a course in "Art and the City" emerged
out of an interest in the Detroit urban setting and its technologica1 culture as they rclated
to art and the artistic process.
-L4Cornbining ttre study of the city in works of art with field trips to
old and new urban developments and visits with urban planners and
architects the students developed new perceptions of life in the
rnodern
12
"ity.
At othar leadinq collecres and universities religious grouPs
in urban ministries such as
that of the alohns llopkins YMCA which has now become the center for
28 volunteer grouPs engaged in tutoring programs throughout the
entire metropolitan area of Baltimore. one does not need to visit
have spearheaded dynamic new ventures
long ririth C'trester L. Wickr,uire. the director of the Hopkins YMCA
to have dispelledl such sterotypes as one might have
acguired of l&lcA! s naieve middle-class perceptions of reality.
programs,
For
that matter a relatively short visit with him night well modify some
of the images one may have of Johns HoPkins as a university that
prides itself on its aloofness from the world about it and celebrates
its indifference to the needs of both the undergraduate students and
the metropolis in which most of them live. such ventures aa the
Mercy College Program in Detroit, the Hunter College Program in New
York, the Master of Arts in Teaching programa at places like
"ohns
Hopkins and Temple are providing new motivations and orientations
for the student in teacher education. lfhey are encouraged to
perceive their roLe as one of critical importance for the renaissance
,.3
of urban America.' Sirnilar illustrations of educative uses of the
city could be recited which indicate that virtually all the academic disciplines o? higher education are discovering the city as
a resouree for learning. The participant-observer strategems of
-
Is-
student involvement in the study of life in the-1trâ¬ltrqrolis - wtrether
or paid work experience - have become virtually
comnon-place in such varied fields as government, community organization, social sen/ice, church uork, business and industry. reform
through volunteer
mrlrramant s - trrh:ln
B.
r:lannino
ete -
The Metropolis As a Laboratory For Research
closely related to the motif of the city as a laboratory for
liberal learning has been the development of an increasing interest
and involvement
of
academia
in urban research-
lEhe
rapidity of
of the emerging "technopolitan" culture
have given research an increasingly imPortant role. Conventional
change and the cornplexity
and inherited wisdom are challenged everywhere by the imPeratives
of ne!, social realities. In the context of such tensions betareen
the imperatives of the new and the claims of the historic, institutions of higher learning have been inescapably driven to more selfof their relationship to the world about them.
Furthermore, economic and political leaders of the metropoLis are
turning more, and more to institutions of higher learning for "unconscious reassessment
biased" and "dispassionate" information about the crisis of our
cities. fhey are counting on their developing the resources of
knowledge and research technigues which can guide them
in their
perilous decision making. whether the response to these challenges
in the culture of what Mumford has
called a "technics civilization", or provoke it to an increasing
concern for the larger issues of man and culture in more humanistic
will tend to
immerse academia
contexts will depend largely on the imaginativeness, resourcefu lness,
- 16-
and sensitive responsiveness
of the
academic communities themselveg'
helpful response of academia to these chalUrban studies centers
Ienges so far has been the develognent of lfhe
Perhaps the most
nov' imPortant
at our leading urban universities ' Such Centers are
parts of the academic rife of such reading institutions as the
universitiesofHarvard(jointlywith!tIT),Pennsylvania'chicago'
and
Pittsburgh, Berkeley, North carolina' New York' wayne State'
others. In most instances these Centers are becoming interdisciplinary in their approach; getting historians' political scientists'
sociologists,architects,anthropologists,geographers'aswelIas
pursue
philosophers and theo!.ogians into the act' students may
as
their postgraduate degrees within their particutar dlisciplines
with
they participate in a core of urban-studies courses shared
students from other disciPlines '
On a more inodest scale undergraduate programs
of special urban
years'
studies also appear to be getting some impetus in recent
researctr
Special courses in urban affairs w:ith seminars and linitedl
join toprojects are emerging- rn some cities' several colleges
the
gether to promote these studies through such structures as
area and
Higher Educational Council in Urban Affairs it tl'o Baltimore
District of
the Washington center for Metropolitan Studies in the
Columbia.
l"letropolis As An opportunity For community service
developed
Another motif of town-gown relationship that has
rt is of
considerable currency is that of "community service" the motifs
course serf-evident that this is not unrelatec to
c.
Thre
I
.,--.--
'-
,
-17-.
.
a.lready discussed. But the enptrasis "ie r4ron the idea that both
students and faculty - besides being scholdrs - ir⬠menbers of
corununities which not only need their help but also have some
legitimate claim upon thern. Besides this, it is argued, the irudeochristian legacy supports the notion of community service as both
a mora
19a
on
an
an express
virtually every urban c ampus many atudert grouPs
are becoming ipvolved in comnunity service ventures: whether on suctl
prestigious campuses as Harvard, Radcliff, and lt{i118 College or on
such massive urban campuses as Temple anil Ner!, York, or on less
On
prestigiouE colleges in other PIaceE. In recent years, service
projects in the inner city have become particularly current'
D.
:fhe Metropolis As An Occasion For corPorate Scademic Responsi-
bil-itY
uodern urban society has become essentially a corPorate one.
$he corporation has become the predominant Pattern
of organized
!.ife. :fhis is true in virtually every selrment of 6ociety, including education. It is inevitable, therefore, that corporate decisions of large organizations will play a leading role in fashioning
thefutureofurbanll.fe.underthesecircumstancestheindividualistic persPectives and ethics developed in the era of the private
entrepreneur are no longer adeguate. sensitive corporation leaders in virtually every sector of our society are acknov'ledging this
to rethink their corPorate leadership responsibilities
One manifestation of this has been the growing involvement
of urban colleges and universities in urban rene!"aI' This has aland beginning
-18ready been alluded to in an earlier part of tllis report where
reference was made to the rapprochement between academia and metL2
The point to be noted here, is that urban universities
rotrrcIis,*o
and colleges, acting as corporate bodies can play an important role
in revitalizing urban community Iife.
f'here is a grovring convic-
tion that their corporate decisions reguire considerations that 90
beyond the strictly academic concerns: that every building they
erect wi.L1
.nlaV
a part in the over-alI urban imagery; that their
cooperation rrrith over-all urban planning and renewal can contribute
inrneasurably
to the renaissance of the city.
In the very
process
of playing a responsible role as a corporate citizen, the urban
college and university teach by example aII who corne in contact
with them lessons for corporate citizenship in the larger society.
Beyond such corporate decisions concerning the development of
within the context of general urban revitalization, colleges and universities have begun to play a more active role in
the
c
arnpus
conununity organization and
problems and hazards
leadership. While there are lots of
in this
new
role, the alternatives of corporate
passivity and isolation are neither very attractive nor inspiring
to say nothing about their practical viability.
closely related to this more active role in corununity leadership, has been the
development
of college
and university-sponsored
seminars, forums, lectures, etc. on modern issues. In most instances
these have been developed in cooperation with other groups
institutions of the surrounding netropolis.
and
I
-19-
IV
Some
Implieations For Augsburg College
It wil1 be obvious to anyone acguainted with recent developments at Augsburg College, that many of the academic responses I
have noted in my year's study of college-metropolis relationship
have already been begun at Augsburg College. This might well be
cited as one of Augaburg's strengtns.
Hovrever, like most urban universities and colleges, it haE much
unfinished work to do before it can claim to have maximized its
Etrategic location at the heart of a rapidly emerging metroPolis.
Last faII, when thinking about some initial steps r.rorth taking; I
set out the following suggestions and submitted to the
Dean
of the
College as an addendum to my rePort concerning my sabbatical' They
may perhaps serve as
a stimulus to discussion which in turn
may
lead to actions tnrch better thought put than tttese- are at this
atage. It is in this spirit that I submit themA. Augsburg shou Id establish a task force on college and
metroPolis. It should be made up of repreEentatives of
Administration, Faculty, Students, and Board of Regents for
the purpose of findinq and proposing ways and means of
maximizingitsurbansetting.Thefourmotifsofacademic
response described in this rePort may serve as a means of
dividing the areas of work for the task force.
B.Intherecruitmentofneqrfaculty,thecollegreshouldseek
to draw to its teaching staff people who are interested in
and concerned about the collegets role in the modern
-20-
metropolis (of course this eannot be a substitute f9f-"'scholarly competence). In at Least the folloruing fields
it should be possible and desirable to add scholars with
particular urban specialties and concerns:
. po lit ic a L science and Publ-ic Admini stration
2. Education
3. Sociology
4. Economics and Business Administration
I
c
The college ought to explore the trrcssibilities of adding
a limrted
number
of courses to its curriculum which reflect
its concern for urban affairs.
Some
of these miqht well
be taught by highly competent specialists in the metropol-
itan area
who would
Iikely welcome a chance for a more
intimate touch with the acadernic community.
specialists that
I.
2.
3.
4.
D.
come
to mind are
Among such
3
Urban Planners
trublic Administrators
Architects
Journalists (columnists
An interdisciplinary
)
Program on Man
in the Metrolrclis
should be developed. There are several options for this;
but it ought to go beyond the social sciences to include
some aspects
E
of religion and the fine art-s.
Efforts should be made to expand the field experience progranns
into areas beyond those developed for students en-
rolled in the collrses in education and social vrorkfollowing are illustrative
might prove desirable:
The
of areas where such developments
-2L-
1. Business and Industrial Relations
2. Political Science
B. In urban government
b. In urban politics
c. In public administration
3. SecretariaL Studies
F. An expanded student
employment,
service might be devel-oped
which takes more complete advantage of
u
an se t D9.
The service should carefully consider the educative func-
tions of employment, such that the worl< experience will
complement the studentrs academic work and aid him in his
'
explorations of alternative vocational goals. If this
service is well conceived and effectively operated it might
well- be self-supporting
.
G. The college.'ought to carefully determine the format
type of annual public programs it should foster.
and
Some-
thing like the Annual Seminars sponsored by Boston College
for 10 suecessive years might be considered. An Annua1
Augsburg College Serninar on "Man in the Modern Metropolis"
might be a vray of regularly proclaiming to the eommunity
its coneerns for the future of its metropolitan community.
Over the years, virtually
academic life
every segment of Augsburg's
could become involved in some aspects of such
an on-going public service.
H. Efforts should be made by the College to get as many of its
faculty living wj-thin walking distance of the
campus as
possible. To this end the College should eooperate with
the University
Community Development
Corporatlon, the
(
--.:'*.-
"h,^
4-Z-''
Minneapolis Planning
Commis
sion,'and ot?rer appro'Ilriate...'
public bodies in gathering land around it for suitable
housing and coillmunity development. Both owner-occupied
town-houses and 5ental apartments should be developed,
e9e
e
indifference the faet that such great universities
as
the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsyl'vania have seen fit to make such housing for its faculty
and staff an integral part of their institut j-onal policies.
At Chicago, about 85 percent of its faculty now live within walking distance of the university
campus.
The extra-curricular programs at Augsburg should be care-
I
fuIly examined in terms of maximi
tion.
zi.ng
the College's loca-
A great many resources for enriching the extra-
curricular program are very lik-e1y still
untapped. Per-
haps too rnueh of Augsburg's extra-curricular programing
still
follows models developed on isolated small-town
campuses. Both its academic and social clubs might well
explore ways of relating their programs more sharply to
the on-going activities of their interest oriented
counterparts in the rest of the city.
J
a
In the field of Community ReLations, Augsburg Faculty
and
Administration (perhaps through the Faculty Senate ) should
give eareful study of the imagery the college wishes to
have ref lected; the media it r,vants especially to use;
and
I
-23-
the particular publics it wants to eultivate.
It must be
that the metropoLis by its very nature provides
remembered
ready-made structures for such public relations; that
virtually
all sophisticated institutions carefully take
these structures into account when planning their public
relations programs. Ttris is particularly crucial for
a
small institution at the heart of a major metropolis.
K. As another
means
of building bridges bet$reen Augsburg's
Academic Community and
the life of the metropoLis
around
it, advisory councils made up of leading aLumni and other
people engaged in particular vocations and pursuits should
be created who could meet occasionally rdith representatives
'
of students
and
faculty of appropriate departments in the
college. Itris could help relate students and faculty to
recent developments in fields they are particularly
interested in and representatives of those fields to
ac ademia.
llhe above recommendations are at best sonre suggestions for
acti.ons by which the eollege might more adeguately implement
some
of its currently developing rhetoric about its unigue opportunities
as a liberal arts college at the heart of a metropolis.
In alL that I have tried to say in this presentation, I have
been mindful
of the larger context of the metropolitan challenge.
I agree with llenry Steele Commagerrs remarks made a few years ago
when he said that if "our universities (and I would add colleges)
are to enjoy the advantages of their urban position, if they are
t
-24-
to be to American society what ths great urban universities of
.-.-- --Europe hawe ibeen to qheir societies, they must assume responsilrlltty
for the developnent of an urban and regional civilization....
what
they need is an awareness of their opportuni.ties and potentialities;
what they need ie a philosophy.
o14
--JoeI S. Torstenson
Professor of Sociology
t
a
t,
FOOTNOTES
1
See Don
New
Martindale, Social
Lif.e_ and Cultuqa1 Chanqg (princeton,
Jersey: van Nostrand company, rnc.r L962) pp. 424-43s
for an excel-Ient review of the rise of the universities.
For
more detailed accounts see Charles Homer Haskins, Iltre Rise
of Universities
(Uew
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1903 )
and 'Jacob Burkhardt, ELre civilization
(ttew
2.
of the Renaissance
York, Oxford University press, 1945).
For a convenient review of the evolution of the college cur-
ricula in America see Willis Rudy, TIrS Evolglnq Liberal Arts.
Curric ulum:
A Historical Revie.w of Basic rhe.meF_
(wew
york:
Bureau of Pirblications Teachers College, Columbia University,
1960). For more comprehensive aecounts.'see George p. Schmidt,
rhe Libqr_al 4rts Co_Ilgqe: A Chap_te_E in 4glgrican Cultural
Historv
(New
Brunswick, N.J. 3 Rutgers University press,
1957
)
and Richard Hofstadter and $Iilson smith, editors, American
Hiqher Educ tion
Press,
3.
Volumes
I and II (The University of Chicago
1961)
Hans Blumenfeld, "fLle Modern Metropolis,,,
Scientific
VoI. 2L3, No. 3 (September, 1965) p. 68.
See also Scott
Greer, the Eryelrqinq Citv
(New
Amerie an
Yori<: The Free press of Glencoe,
L962) pp. 33-59 for an insightful discussion of the importance
of the increase in "societal seale,,
4.
.
Mitchell Gordon, Sick Ci!i,es_ (aattimore: prnguin Books,
pp. 331-333.
5. Robert Wood, SuFurbia: f ts People ang Thei{. politics
L963 )
(Boston:
t
t
Iloughton Miff lin Company,
6 (t
See Gibson
(wew
L958
)
pp
.
3-87 .
Winter, The S\rbufbqlq Ca.plivitE of the
York: IvlacmiLlan
paperbacks
,
Lg6Zl .
7. See Robert A. Nisbet, Tlre Ques.t for
University Press, 1953 ) p . 78
Churches
Much
C.ommunity (Iqew
york; Oxford
of this section on the
erisis of community is based upon Nisbet's' exCellent review
of classical works concerning it.
B. see t,rlilliam H. whyte, Jt.,
Th,e
olqaqi.z,a,tio} Maq (uew york:
Doubleday Anchor Book, Lg57), David Reisman and others,
The-
Longlv
C-Towd (wew
Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), and
C. Wright Mil1s, The Power, Flite
Press,
(wew
York: Oxford University
1956 ) .
9. Ilhe major work describing the anti-city orientation of
intellectuals is Morton and Lucia White, Ihg
Intellectual Ver_qus the. CiF,v (Camtrridge, Mass.: Harvard
America I s
University Press,
10.
L962).
For further details on these developments see Charles G:
Dobbins, The
uniyersitv,
ington, D.c. !
The
cily,
eng urpjlg Bgqewel (wash-
council on Education, Lg64), and J.
Martin Klotsche, ?he Urban Universit (ttew York: Ilarper and
American
Row, Publishers , L966 ) pp . 61-87.
'
11. John Dyclcman, "The Changing Uses of the City" in TI:e Future
Metropolis
(Daedalus: Winter, 1961) pp. L?3-LZS. See also
Eugene Hohnson, "continuing Education
Elizabeth
Geen,
gt. aI (editors)
for urbanism" in
Man a4d Modern Soe
(university of Pittsburgh Press, 1963) pp. 97-1I1-
iety
>
I
L2. For a brief account of this university involvement i-n urban
renewal see Charles G. Dobbins,
Rene}^ra1
The
Universit t, Ttre Citv, gng
(Washington, D.C. 3 American Council of Education
Lg64) .
13. Robin Vil. Eichleag, â¬t. BI.,
(Detroit: Monteith College,
Coopera tive Self-Education
Wayne
State University, 1954)
PP. 12-13. ftris is a brochure describing the lttonteith
CoII-ege program
of "Cooperative Self-Education. "
L4. See American Assoeiation of Colleges For Teacher Education,
Strength Throuqh Reanpr aisal (Washington, D.C.: The Sixteenth
Yearbook,
1963
) pp. 135-49.
15. Henry Steele Commager, "Is Ivy Necessary" Saturday
(Sept. L7, 1960) p, 89.
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