The Academy
Modified: 2024-10-27 7:54 PM CDST
In this section, we will explore the history and development of colleges and universities. That exploration will begin with a look at the classic philosophers, move into the Medieval period, and finally into modern times. We will also look at non-Western academic traditions. We will follow with a close examination of Southern Arkansas University and attempt to determine its place in the taxonomy of modern academe. Later in another section, we will look at today's students and their characteristics.
What is the academic experience?
- Ancient Greece
- Included Ionia (Modern Turkey), Crete, and parts of the Italian peninsula
- Dominarted by sea with a mountainous interior
- Warm climate, favorable for farming
- City-states evolved about 2,800 years ago (Notably: Athens and Sparta)
- Warred with the Persians twice (City-states united against them)
- Marathon
- Salamis
- Both Greek victories
- Peloponnesian War ended Athenian democracy and left Sparta ascendant
- Phillip and Alexander of Macedon, conquer Greece
- Alexander the Great spreads Greek ideas
- Alexander's conquests
- Hellenization: the spread of Greek ideas (Aristotle was Alexander's tutor)
- Founded Alexandria, Egypt. It later became an intellectual center with its famous library.
- (Greek word roots)
- polis: politics, police
- demos: democracy, demography
- photo: photograph
- chrono: chronic, synchronize
- geo: geology, geometry
- dyna: dynasty, dynamic
- Early Greek philosophy argued over materialism vs rationalism (and we are still arguing about them)
- materialism the belief that everything in the universe must consist of matter, including minds and mental states.
- rationalism the universe, including physical events, can only be explained through the action of human thought.
- The Big Three
- Socrates (469-399 BCE)
- Hoplite (Greek soldier)
- Active in the Assembly
- Did not write, but spoke in public
- Know thyself
- An unexamined life is not worth living
- If I know anything, it is that I know nothing
- Convicted by the Assembly for corrupting the youth of Athens
- Chose execution by drinking hemlock over exile (notice that there are no women present)
- Plato (429-347 BCE)
- Wrestler, poet, politician
- Became a philosopher after meeting Socrates
- After Socrates death he founded his own school: The Academy
- Plato's Academy
- He wrote dialogues with Socrates as a literary character
- Search for truth
- It was to be found in the mind of a philosopher
- The forms were those truths, Goodness was the most important
- Allegory of the Cave from his dialogue The Republic illustrates his thinking
- Slaves chained to a wall in a cave
- They only can see the shadows from the street
- One escapes and sees the "real world"
- He's caught and tries to describe what he saw to the other slaves
- Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
- Plato's student, thought he would take over from Plato in the Academy but did not get the job
- Aristotle's Lyceum
- First library? (scrolls, of course)
- Empirical philosophy (cats)
- Plato: ideal cat in philosopher's mind
- Aristotle: concept of cat comes from observation of many cats
- Studied more that philosophy:
- Biology
- Psychology
- Ethics
- Politics
- Painting
- Theatre
- Physics
- His physics was later codified by the Church
- Bruno burned
- Galileo jailed
- Copernicus's works burned after his death
- School of Athens (detail) by Raphael
- Later philosophers and philosophies
- Cynicism
- Diogenes (412-323 BCE)
- Looking for an honest man
- and Alexander (quit shading me)
- Austere lifestyle
- Money does not buy happiness
- Stoicism
- Zeno of Citium (344-262 BCE)
- Stoicism became the leading philosophy of the Roman Empire
- Living in accordance to nature
- The Greek gods interacted with humans
- Propositional logic
- "and" (to enroll in course must have 3.00 GPA and consent of the instructor)
- "or" (to enroll in course must have 3.00 GPA or consent of the instructor)
- "if...then" (if you have less that a 3.25 GPA then you cannot graduate as HC student)
- Fate (dog and cart)
- Cleanthes offered the example of a dog tied to a cart. Once the cart began to move the dog, too, had to move either by walking or being dragged. The dog was fated to move, but could choose how deal with fate.
- No reason for charity, the rich and poor each fated
- Skepticism
- Suspended belief about sensations
- How to explain dreams and hallucinations?
- Wait until more was known
- Anti-dogmatism
- Epicurianism
- Trusted in their senses to a point
- The swerve (atoms moved by chance at times
- Retreated from world to:
- Epicurus's Garden (341-270 BCE)
- No afterlife
- Greek gods to busy to interfere with people
- Hedonists: good food, good times
- Philosophy takes a Nap
- So called Dark Ages
- Christian monks
- Christianity and Islam impose revealed knowledge (Bible and Qu'ran)
- Both prohibited the search for new knowledge
- Philosophy slowly re-emerges as European universities are founded
- Founded to train priests and clerics
- A side effect was the slow restoration of intellectual inquiry
Medieval Universities
Students
Questions
- How do you see college as being different than high school?
- What kind of school is SAU?
- What are college students like?
- SAU so far?
- Honors College so far?
How the University Works
- 21st Century University Faculty
- Terminal Degrees
- Minimal Qualification
- Master's degree with 18 graduate hours in subject
- Typical Ranks
- Professor
- Associate Professor
- Assistant Professor
- The above are usually tenure track (see tenure below)
- Instructor
- Lecturer
- Usually a visiting faculty from another institution
- Atypical Ranks
- Distinguished Professor
- Seven in SAU history
- Rank conferred by president
- University Professor
- Typically a highly published scholar
- May have minimal or no teaching duties
- Adjunct Faculty
- Usually not tenure track (see below)
- Usually teach less than a full load
- Minimal pay ($1800/course at SAU)
- Online Faculty
- Relatively new category
- May be resident or remote
- I have served as online faculty the last two years at two institutions
- Tenure
- What is it?
- Condition of employment
- 6 year probationary period
- Terminal contract or obtained tenure
- Difficult to revoke, but see:
- Henderson State University
- Declared "financial exigency"
- In other words, they ran out of money and had to cut faculty
- Emporia State University
- The Board of Regents let "universities bypass regular policies on faculty and employee terminations to balance budgets. The policy was originally set to expire at the end of 2021 but was extended to Dec. 31, 2022."
- Has since cut many majors and minors due to economic difficulties
- How obtained (at SAU)
- Make application
- Reviewed at level of: chair, department, college, university, VPAA, president, Board of Trustees
- Schools without tenure
- Exist
- Substitute renewable longer term contracts (e.g., 3 years, 5 years)
- What do faculty do?
- Teaching
- teaching loads: SAU 12 hours for tenure track; 15 hours for instructors
- In research intensive universities faculty may only teach one or two classes. The rest of their time should be devoted to research
- release time: for administration or research
- I have 6 hours release time to administer the Honors College
- Assistant director has 3 hours release time
- Faculty at SAU conducting research may apply for 3 hours of release time
- Scholarship
- publish or perish (at research intensive universities)
- broadly defined (think about the wide variety of departments and how each defines scholarship)
- Service
- to college or university
- to community
- speaking (for no or nominal fee)
- serving in community organizations
- voluteering
- to profession
- reviewing scholarship (no remuneration)
- membership in professional organizations
- holding office in professional organizations
- The role of faculty varies depending on the institution
- SAU faculty must first be teachers
- R1 faculty must first be scholars creating new knowledge
21st Century Funding
- We will look into SAU's funding in detail near the end of the course
- Private Institutions
- Tution is high
- Endowments are high
- Public Institutions
- Mostly state institutions
- Funding percentage from states is much lower at present
- Tuition less than private, typically
- Out-of-state tuitions tend to be higher
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