These entities of higher learning have produced millions of graduates throughout the years who have gone on to have positive and negative impacts on society. These graduates have definitely been major players in social change. Therefore, with that fact established, today's universities should realize even more that they are vital players in social change today and tomorrow. Young minds enter the college door, learn from older, greater and experienced minds, and exit to make a further impact somewhere in society. The University as a whole plays an active role in social change from the individual perspective.
College is a time of self discovery and questioning.
The University atmosphere breeds this free thought mentality. As for what role the public expects, I believe they expect the organization to stay above social issues and simply teach their students. Accordingly, the university, through the process of consensus gained through academic freedom, slowly formed a moral consensus that then affected the larger society. In particular, when such academic discussions use public funding, as this conference did, things become even more difficult. I believe that the impossibility of the University actually doing that will always cause conflict, and the academy is best served not by giving up the good fight, but by making its arguments for its positions as clear, concise, and intelligible to the larger society as possible.