I suggest five background expectations that sustain such behaviors. The purpose of lectures, laboratories, libraries, classrooms, seminars, tests, homework, conferences, workshops, administration, and tenure is to assure the above expectations are persistently and pervasively met with spirit, honesty,and discipline. The University is a social institution defined by the pervasive and persistent influence of such background expectations. Strong arguments can be made in support of other activities such as job training, obtaining grants, enhancing economic development, and developing a competitive athletic program. However, when such activities limit or undermine these essential expectations, when such activities are employed to justify a university and sustain its identity, then, they are in conflict with the real University.
Incoming students are raw resources and graduates are finished products.
The use of television, video tapes, teaching machines, productivity evaluations, marketing techniques, and faculty incentives to secure outside funding are seen as essential means for attaining such management goals. In other words, the university is seen as a knowledge industry with essentially the same requirements as any other industry. From this view, the testing of students, while important, is secondary to the care of knowledge itself. The University is not primarily concerned with the efficient production, distribution, and utilization of information. Rather, the University is primarily concerned with discovering and sustaining that which is worthy of being called knowledge.