Universities were once largely insular institutions whose purview
extended no further than the campus gates. Not anymore. Today's
universities have evolved into multifaceted organizations with complex
connections to government, business, and the community. This
thought-provoking book by Harold Shapiro, former president of both
Princeton University and the University of Michigan, and Chairman of the
National Bioethics Advisory Commission under President Bill Clinton,
explores the role the modern university should play as an ethical force
and societal steward.
Based on the 2003 Clark Kerr lectures, A Larger Sense of Purpose draws
from Shapiro's twenty-five years of experience leading major research
universities and takes up key topics of debate in higher education. What
are the nature and objectives of a liberal education? How should
universities address the increasing commercialization not only of
intercollegiate sports but of education and research? What are the
university's responsibilities for the moral education of students?
The book begins with an expanded history of the modern research
institution followed by essays on ethics, the academic curriculum, the
differences between private and public higher education, the future of
intellectual property rights, and the changing relationship between the
nation's universities and the for-profit sector. Shapiro calls for
universities to be more accountable morally as well as academically. He
urges scientists not only to educate others about the potential and
limitations of science but also to acknowledge the public's distress
over the challenges presented by the very success of the scientific
enterprise. He advocates for a more intimate connection between
professional training and the liberal arts--in the hope that future
doctors, lawyers, and business executives will be educated in ethics and
the social sciences as well as they are in anatomy, torts, and leveraged
buyouts.
Candid, timely, and provocative, A Larger Sense of Purpose demands the
attention of not only those in academics but of anyone who shares an
interest in the soul of education.
