In this month's issue of Foreign Affairs there is an article entitled "College Goes Global," one that every Hopkins students should know about, but so far as I can tell, has not even been mentioned here on campus. This is striking because the article is by William Brody, who is, after all, the president of our university. His views are an important indicator of the direction the school is taking and will continue to take in the future.
In his article, Brody emphasizes emerging trends in higher education to argue that American universities will have to start acting as global players in an increasingly integrated education market if they want to retain their preeminent position in the world.
At the same time, he is rightfully skeptical of the claim that we are on the brink of the so-called "megaversity," where education will be transmitted electronically and the college campus will be a thing of the past. Brody's argument is reasonable and moderate, but misses the point of what universities will really have to do if they want to become full-fledged global players.
To start with, undergraduate education is largely absent from his vision of the future of the American university. We really only come up once, as a force for the continued existence of traditional campuses, since going to college is an important rite of passage for many young people. Undergraduates are treated more as a resource than an integral element of universities' educational missions.
The oversight of everything else we contribute to a college might not surprise many Hopkins students, but as the founders of this university realized, undergraduate education is the principal link and source of goodwill between the university and the public at large. Without it, many people see the ivory tower as a place of vanity, self-absorption and wastefulness -- something worthy of suspicion.
As globalization continues to progress, the size of the public that needs to be convinced will only get larger, and the need to enlist its support for research will only continue to grow. At the same time, this will mean that competition for students and therefore, for public backing, will likewise also become more intense. If public profile is important, the nebulous "megaversity" will not be so useful after all.
The upshot of this is that universities may have to become a great deal more politically involved than they have traditionally been, a fact that Brody seems to miss. If colleges are serious about going global, they can no longer afford to quietly acquiesce or engage in mostly symbolic opposition when national governments idiotically decide to inhibit research in fields like stem cell research.
Universities may also have to be more vocal in calling on high schools to teach evolution as a scientific fact, pointing out that they cannot be internationally competitive if our education system churns out largely unqualified students. In short, the globalization of education may make political neutrality a luxury that universities can no longer afford.
This new political awareness should go much further than just national and educational issues too. In presenting themselves on a global stage, universities will have to act with a greater awareness of global needs and issues, perhaps even perform something akin to diplomacy.
This may mean something as simple as taking the lead in adopting responsible environmental policies when there is solid science to back them up. More broadly, it might entail taking principled stances on events of international importance and actually using the institutional weight of the university to do political good in the world. Divestment from companies that do business with Sudan might be one such example in popular currency.
A great deal of important work on these issues is already done on college campuses, Hopkins in particular. But in a globalized world, universities will have to be both institutions and actors if they expect to remain competitive. In fulfilling that role, they may not be able to wait for national governments to figure out the right thing to do.
--Vijay Phulwani is a senior political science and ancient law major from Johnstown, Pa.
