15 September 2009. Sun light in the fall, blue pool waters, silent swimmers seen from afar...
The University in crisis--a forum in 160 Kroeber--my own room, filled to the brim with Berkeley faces--students in the main, eager to hear Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Tim Clark, George Lakoff, Charlie Schwartz and Laura Nader each hold forth with a personal overview of what the institution--at its best--continues to represent. Education as a public good, not a commodity. Producers of doubt--of questions--to broaden our sense of the world. Not the narrow interests of class--a maintenance of privilege--but the dreams and the aspirations of a much broader class--the children of the people of California--more than a million of them, over the years, graduates of this public institution...
The threat: "a warping and closing down of intellectual horizons." (Tim Clark) * Question of "who is going to be educated? Those with the most money--or (pointing to the audience) you?" (George Lakoff) * Thorsten Veblen got it right in 1908: a public good. "Society's conscience." (Laura Nader). * Accountablity to this vision on the part of the administration--and the Regents (Charlie Schwartz).
Whom do we serve?
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