January 27, 2004

The Idea of a University

            Why am I here?  My main concern at the higher institution is to obtain a degree in a field of study which will eventually become my field of expertise.  However, along the way I hope to further development my non-vocational skills such as speaking and writing.  These are skills that have been stressed as much as vocational skills in my development as a professional, business woman. 

On the other hand, my father argues for the “‘sound, extensive, and practical scientific knowledge’” (320B) and less of these arbitrarily-picked music and history classes which will better serve me as a business woman.  To survive in the modern world, he insists that one must have a focus during college and not stray from that focus.  But contrary to what conclusions I drew last semester, I’ve realized my father tacitly expects mastery of these non-vocational skills.  He once stressed that being able to communicate well and write well was important, but did not believe in the need for a specific class to hone these skills.  I assume that he figured the more intelligent you were, the better an idea you had of what you needed to become successful in life: mastery of speaking, writing and literary skills

were an implicit agreement between daughter and father.  Then, he considered me “intelligent”; he didn’t find it necessary to enroll me in specific speaking or writing classes.  I would soon learn to cultivate these with time and experience.

To this day, my father keeps questioning my decision to double major in Plan II and Business Honors.  If he were in my place, he would have dropped liberal arts to focus on business.  I understand his reason to pressure me into dropping liberal arts for he has heard, to his horror and astonishment, of Ivy League school liberal art majors who end up jobless after graduation.  Perhaps he is eager to see me well off and feel secure knowing that I will find a place in the work field after having thrown half his life savings to the University.

            According to John Henry Newman, Universities must exist “as the assemblage of strangers from all parts in one spot” (314) as “a place for the communication and circulation of thought” (315).  It’s as if we pilgrims arrive from around the country, possibly across the seas, to share our experiences and thoughts—“mutual education” (315) Newman calls it.  I have learned not only from my professors but from my fellow students as well.  Most of my fellow students come from across the state of Texas; however, there is still quite a difference between the students within the state of Texas.  It just so happens that the capital of Texas, acts as “a sort of necessary University” (316):  businesses and laboratories spring up in one of the biggest and most important metropolis in all of Texas.  Here in Austin, the “best of every kind” (317) congregate to produce the greatest result.  Austin is as Newman would have expected of a University—“it is a place where inquiry is pushed forward, and discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with knowledge” (317).  Moreover, in agreement with Newman’s ideal University, the University of Texas tamed the land upon the rolling hills of Texas as Rome settled upon seven hills.  Mixed with the blocks of concrete are plots of land large enough to provide relief “for [the scholar’s] eyes, wearied with intense reading” (318).  Even a creek, that of Waller Creek, remains preserved to this day winding along the East edge of campus.