The Purpose of Higher Education
A proposed mission statement for New College of Florida.
I have been reporting on American universities for the past year and believe that we can best understand the nature of the crisis on campuses today by asking a simple question: What is the purpose of higher education?
If you ask many American university administrators for an answer, many would respond with a blank stare. Others would wax about diversity, inclusion, and social justice, or repeat consultant-style language about securing new facilities and federal grants.
At New College of Florida, where I am a trustee, we are charting a different path. When Governor Ron DeSantis appointed a new slate of trustees, he tasked us with nothing less than revitalizing the classical liberal arts tradition and restoring the original mission of the college.
Following that vision, I have helped draft a new mission statement for New College that is currently under review and available for public comment. Here is the latest language:
At New College of Florida, our mission is to revive the great tradition of the classical liberal arts and to cultivate good citizens, artists, academics, entrepreneurs, and statesmen.
The founders of New College envisioned a community of scholars, modeled on the University of Oxford, that would provide students with a “classical liberal arts education” and pass down “the learning of our civilization in the classical tradition.” In our era of stifling academic orthodoxy, this task is more urgent than ever.
At New College, our unwavering commitment is to rediscover the deepest purpose of education and to give students a foundation of logos, human reason, and techne, the applied arts. Our distinguished faculty and student body, while advancing a diversity of opinions, hold a shared commitment to liberal principles—free speech, open debate, colorblind equality—all oriented to the pursuit of the highest good.
Let us be unapologetic: We are a public university, open to all, in which exceptional students of any background can participate in the great tradition of the West. Our calling is to provide a liberal arts education befitting free men and women, and a free society. While others are caught in the fray of ideology, we look up: to the true, the good, and the beautiful.
We create students who will move the Earth.
The intention of this new mission statement is to lay out the animating philosophy of the college and to move beyond the platitudes and bromides of our competitors. The phrases about reviving “classical liberal arts education” and passing down “the learning of our civilization in the classical tradition” are borrowed directly from the founders of New College.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Despite working for the renewal of liberal education for two decades, I never expected a public institution to be recovered. At best, I hoped for a minority of private colleges to recover an authentic mission. Thanks to you and Governor DeSantis for restoring the democratic promise of intellectual freedom and education for liberty.
I have my B.A. from Columbia University. The most interesting facet there was the Core Curriculum. Everyone - whether an English, History, or Philosophy major - or a STEM student - learned about Literature, Art, Music, and Contemporary Civilization - beginning with Classical Antiquity and going right up to the present. It was Columbia, so the professors had their slant. But, there's no getting around the texts, the ideas, and the messages - not even for Barry Sotero.
I know that everyone who was graduated from Columbia has common educational basis. We all understand references from the Odyssey or the Decameron or the Inferno or Paradise Lost. We all had discussions of "the good" for Aristotle and Kant and John Stuart Mill and Bertrand Russell. That ought to be the aim of classical education.
Today, we have a students who are a pack of idiots with ADD social media doom-scrolling. That is where the younger generation gets their "news and information," if you can call what Taylor Swift or a Kardashian wore the night previous as "news and information." And there is no common educational basis - whether the Bible or a classical curriculum - to provide societal context for issues - especially important ones.
In 1984, former KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov detailed the Soviet plan for ideological subversion:
“What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.”
We are there. We are a country without the tools for rational thought.
Kudos to you, Chris, and to Ron DeSantis for being culture warriors, while we still have an opportunity to save the Western Tradition.