The Role of the College or University in a Changing World?

Mick Womersley

Is a college meant to be a driver of societal change? Protector of the sacred tradition? Both? How is this function changing as society and the planet change?

Colleges and universities began as religious organizations. The great European foundations such as Oxford or Cambridge were associated with monastic and other religious orders. They were necessarily conservative. They acted largely to found and to conserve the western tradition.

Today the western way of life is threatened again, by climate change, by higher energy costs, and through conflict with other civilizations.

At Unity College, for many years we turned out uniformed conservation professionals: foresters and rangers, wildlife biologists and fisheries professionals. A minority went into the sciences and humanities.

Protecting land and habitat, our alumni supported society in a specific way. Our college had a specific and narrow niche. But old ideas of the proper role of the conservation professional are changing rapidly. ItÕs no longer good enough to train a good forester or a good wildlife biologist, if climate change will literally change the ground under their feet. A newly graduated environmental educator or environmental policy major can now expect to work in climate mitigation. A conservation law enforcement major that decides to work for a local police service will have new homeland security and environmental disaster preparedness duties. We will all have to increase the energy efficiency of our lifestyles.

The importance of the environmental movement has grown hugely, and with it the importance of the environmental college in protecting and preserving society.

These days, all our graduates will be forced to think about how they should participate in the conservation of the western tradition. It isnÕt just the energy. ItÕs the conflict and civil unrest that occurs over the energy, or that will occur over climate change. When I think about sustainability, I donÕt just think about reducing climate emissions. I think about habeas corpus and other civil rights. I think about whether I want my children to grow up in a world where security is privatized, run by corporations who answer to no civil authority. I think about my role and the role of our graduates in re-founding and conserving the western tradition. I think about ethics for police and Army officers and national security training for environmental humanities majors.

ItÕs not good enough to train good graduates for todayÕs job market. We have to train them for tomorrow too. In particular, we have to train people who can help take society from the place itÕs in now, heading for conflict with the rest of the world over energy, climate and other security issues, to the place it needs to be in, ready, willing, and able to invest in energy security and climate stability for the real long haul. And if we fail, then we have to have people who can pull us out of the fire. And we all have a stake in every part of the puzzle. The police officer we train today has to be tomorrowÕs civil liberties activist and next yearÕs congresswoman. The environmental policy major we train today has to be tomorrowÕs disaster preparedness officer and next yearÕs USAID official. The environmental humanities major we train today, has to be tomorrowÕs farmer and next yearÕs Army civil affairs officer.

When the monks built the great medieval universities of Oxford, Paris, and Naples, they built for the long haul. Those foundations are still around because of that. Each new generation makes higher education reborn and newly relevant. Today our job is made harder than ever because of environmental events. I canÕt tell you how many tornadoes and hurricanes the Gulf coast will see in 2017, but I can tell you it will be a larger number than today. I canÕt tell you whether the Maine climate will be closer to that of North Carolina or Georgia in 2057, but I can tell it will be much warmer than today. I canÕt tell you if we will be in conflict with Iran, North Korea or some other country in 2027, but I can tell you that it shouldnÕt be over oil, climate, or culture.

And I can tell you that if I donÕt try to get our graduates to think about these things, then IÕm not doing my job as a college professor.