MAD HATTER PAGE 29 :

 

 

it has played a role in the development of scholarship. May I remind my colleagues
in the history department that many of the methods of modern historiography were
originally developed by theologians who then taught them to their less gifted
friends in other faculties.

Strictly speaking, to argue that personal commitment is a barrier to serious
scholarship would mean arguing for the instant dismissal for any professor of
political science who joined a political party, for any professor of economics who
invested his money, or any professor of education who read a book. This is of
course ridiculous, for it is the mark of an educated person that it is precisely
his/her commitment to a cause that demands scrupulous honesty in discussing it.
Religious commitment, no more than any other sort of personal commitment, is far
from being a disqualification for academic work.

But I would like to go further and argue it is precisely this religious commit—
ment of the federated colleges which gives them something positive to offer to
Laurentian at a time when the humanities are not viewed in a positive way by many
politicians. For in their commitment to the question of truth, the sort of question
kept alive in the liberal arts, the federated colleges by their very existence, even
by the inconvenience of their existence, act a brake on those who would reduce
university to a large trade school. This is not to claim that without the federated
colleges the humanities would disappear from Laurentian, but we may be of some help.

In order to carry out this function, we need to have a certain autonomy within
the university system. May I remind you that 12 years ago when Thorneloe flirted
unwisely with the idea of giving up its teaching functions it was justly censored by
the Senate of Laurentian. Now this autonomy is seen as an administrative inconvenience
by those who would like to strip the federated colleges of their teaching functions
and turn them into a collection of high class bunk houses, but then human history
does not always suggest that the convenience of some is the summum bonum. Checks
and balances are sometimes in order; in parliamentry democracy, for example, the
opposition is not there for the convenience of the government, but a government
without an opposition is not necessarily the better for it. One should not push
analogies too far; the federated colleges do not see themselves as an opposition even
though they are sometimes seen that way by others; rather they have something of
importance they wish to see maintained in the university system. Because of their
religious affiliation nothing. less than excellence and nothing less than truth will
do for the service of God and therefore nothing less than excellence and truth should
prevail in higher education. I do not claim that we always live up to this - institu-
tions too can sin - but at least in an age when no one seems to know what university
is all about, we do have some memory of more significant things than job training.

We are therefore the good friends of Laurentian, for while at one time advert-
isements suggested that your best friends won't tell you, in fact it is the mark of
true friends that they will occasionally say what we need to hear rather than what
we want to hear. As the Bible suggests, wise men love those that rebuke them justly.

Cont'd.....