Academia should take back the power of determining its own curriculum because politicians and the public have become the arbiters of what colleges and universities are teaching.
Delmont R. Oswald, executive director of the Utah Humanities Council, told Utah Valley State College faculty and students on Friday that scholars should be deciding curriculum issues.Oswald's speech came during his acceptance of the prestigious Excellence in Ethics Award from UVSC's Center for the Studies of Ethics. UVSC President Kerry Romesburg made the presentation after explaining that ethics courses are required for graduation from the institution. "Ethics is an important part of this institution," he said.
The award was the highlight of UVSC's Ethics Awareness Week. Noting that knowledge is power, Oswald said that all accumulated knowledge should be shared. "The secret is determining how we use the knowledge we have make the best of it," he said. Ethical considerations should be part of that, he said.
Experts often don't like equality, Oswald said. They would rather have superior knowledge so they can dominate others, he said. Teachers and students need to respect one another and be able to disagree. Teachers need to grow with their students, Oswald added.
He said infighting among scholars has allowed politicians and the public to determine what should be taught. That should be kept within academia, he said, because curriculum change is ongoing.
"Some politicians, such as Patrick Buchanan, have likened this struggle to a `war for the soul of America,' " he said. "Political wannabes such as William Bennett and Lynne Cheney, former chairs for the national Endowment for the Humanities, have chosen to vilify certain scholars and make the changes in higher learning public issues rather than issues normally dealt by the scholarly community itself."
The issues of curriculum - much of which is aimed at relevancy - diverse viewpoints and anger at being left out of history have merged together to form "political correctness," he said.
"Critics like I have mentioned have made this a partisan issue unique to the `liberals' and unique to our time," he said. The power of knowledge can be used correctly and incorrectly; ideas can destroy or open new sources of power, he said.
"The academic community is the breeder reactor for this knowledge, and it is our charge to maintain, expand and protect it without the desecration of partisan intervention," he said.