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BOOK EXCERPT
�Declining by Degrees�
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From �SIX CHALLENGES TO THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY�
by Vartan Gregorian
... Throughout our history, the university has risen to challenges, whether it was the democratization of knowledge, the Depression, Sputnik, or affirmative action. No challenge has been too daunting, and I believe the challenges I have described here can be met imaginatively� so long as we hold constant to our commitments to academic freedom and the centrality of the faculty. Institutions with excellent, high-quality faculty will survive and thrive. Those with a mediocre faculty will not likely survive the competition. During times of revolution, the strong prevail. The weak coalesce, merge, or disappear.
Will faculties and universities respond to the challenges or retreat from them? Universities�which invented the computer, the Internet, and distance learning�are not derivatives, in stock market lingo; they are a primary source of knowledge, inspiration, and invention. Universities will survive provided they do not undermine themselves; I believe that they are not so much at risk from external threats as they are from internal ones of our own making. As Walt Kelly�s comic-strip character Pogo observed, �We have met the enemy, and he is us.�
As we face higher education�s challenges, we must remember that the university in the West is the result of some eight centuries of struggle, oppression, perseverance, and endless refinement. The university is a living institution, and change it must. But as we make changes, we must be careful not to inadvertently undermine its foundations, muddle its architecture, or reduce its priceless value to society. ...
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MEET ADRIANA, JASON, MATT & BRITNEY
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