On
the Question of Quality
When I sat down to write this, I had the intention of
being here all day in order to form a long winded argument about the quality of
the University system and about how one would go about answering such
questions. Instead, after a brief
consideration, I realized that the answer was both more difficult than I
originally believed, and, paradoxically, simpler. Frankly, I think the journey is equally as
important as the destination in an understanding of Quality and how it is
evaluated in a University setting, and, therefore, I will not spoil the ending
just yet but will bid you to follow me along through my thought process as I
address the question of Quality.
The first question which must be answered (or, rather,
addressed) is, “what is Quality?” Quality
judgments are ones that we make every day; from choosing which outfits we wear
(a question of quality of appearance) to what we eat (qualities of taste and
health) to where we choose to work or go to school (qualities of life and
happiness). These might seem a bit reductive,
but the point stands. Even in these
cases, you will notice that each of these things, which are being called into
question, are evaluated differently (though there are cross-over in most cases,
which is why we are using the reductive model and not a more complex
schematic). By this, I mean, one does
not judge an outfit by its quality of taste, or what we eat by the quality of
life it produces (thought he inverse is the norm). Each object must be evaluated by qualities
that are within its means. This leads us
to the old adage of Einstein, “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” If we place this into the University setting
we arrive at: If you judge an engineer by his ability to dissect the rhetoric
of Tennyson, he will live his
entire life believing that he is stupid.
Within the University, there are infinite situations where this
expression may be applied. It is obvious
this line of reasoning illuminates the need for a better evaluative system
within the university. But where must one start? And how do we evaluate
students? Faculty? Departments? Colleges? Universities as a whole?
Let us, for simplicity’s sake, start with the simplest
unit: the student. How can we possibly
evaluate even the students? Do we evaluate the freshman? the seniors? the
graduates? everything in between? And
this leads back to how do we evaluate the students of one discipline against
those of another? I think we can agree
that to be able to accurately do anything of the sort would be impossible. It becomes apparent that until students can
be made equally ‘rounded’ academically, the question of identifying and
measuring quality is void. Since we have
moved away from the trivium and quadrivium, a move for which I am infinitely grateful,
we must not attempt to compare the students for that is impossible, instead, we
must address the University itself and the overall Quality thereof. But here, I think we must only be concerned
about increasing Quality as opposed to simply measuring it. By investing in the University (in terms of
money, resources, etc.) we can make it of the highest possible quality. If the focus becomes one of increasing the Quality
of our universities, we will not need to worry so much about the Quality of the
students because, if the Quality of the University is truly increased, so will
the Quality of the students. A master
potter and novice potter may both make pots, but the master potter, who is
consistently supplied with the highest quality materials and the latest pot
making techniques, will consistently turn out pots which are less likely to
leak or to break than is the novice. By
investing in the University, we invest in the students.
All in all, I think we must address the Quality of the University
before we attempt to evaluate the constituents thereof. In a country notorious for consistently undervaluing
education, we must be willing to put an end to fretting about the outcome of
the University. Instead, we must ensure
that the University is consistently supplied with appropriate funds and
resources to remain competitive in the fields of technology and science,
humanities and arts, business and education.
By ensuring the Quality of the Universities and always striving to
increase that Quality, the University will be able to become more
self-sustaining by increasing department size and by being able to produce
large departments which are capable of creating supervised internships in order
to give students firsthand experience while being able to bring in money to the
University. In these larger departments,
upper level students would be able to gain teaching experience while lowering the
cost of tuition and eliminating student loans.
I believe that, with the proper resources, the University is able to
reach a high enough Quality wherein it will not be only a source of higher
education, but an intellectual institution and community that betters, not only
itself (and therefore increases its quality from the inside), but also
increases the quality of the its environs, from local schools (including
Elementary/Middle/High Schools operated by the University) to providing the
community with jobs both for graduates of the University as well as
non-graduates. By continually striving
to increase Quality of the University System, we can effectively increase the Quality
of all members of that system and the surrounding community.
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