A New Life Read Online Free PDF Page B

attitude,” Gilley said, “but there isn’t much that can be done about it now. Due to the fact that our graduates land so many influential jobs in the state, and since our athletic teams are usually better than theirs, we have a larger student registration than the University, which annoys them no end. And they also haven’t forgotten that during the Depression they lost a lot more staff positions than we did here, and we lost plenty, believe me. They still think of those days, though a lot of the old timers who have always hated
us have died off. They’re afraid if we keep on gaining at the rate we have since the end of the war, they’ll lose out percentagewise in funds for buildings and faculty salaries, so you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as somebody starts talking about bringing liberal arts majors back here they get hopping sore and start telegraphing the legislature. Frankly, it’s a bread and butter proposition and you can’t really blame them. We’d do the same in their place.”
    “But that’s fantastic,” Levin said, “—ah—isn’t it? How can we—if you’ll excuse my making myself familiar—teach what the human spirit is, or may achieve, if a college limits itself to vocational and professional education? ‘The liberal arts feed our hearts,’ this old professor of mine used to say.” Levin laughed self-consciously.
    “Don’t get me wrong,” Gilley said patiently. “We do have lower-level liberal arts courses here, though not many or in much variety. Still and all, there are departments of English, art, religion, history, speech, philosophy, modern languages, et cetera, on the campus. I will have to admit that the great majority of our boys and girls don’t seem to be much interested in these subjects and take only what they have to. If they insist on more, they have to transfer elsewhere, usually to Gettysburg—and we don’t go out of our way to encourage that. We have to handle it that way because the Higher Education Committee of the legislature just won’t recommend an investment in a double liberal arts program in the two big state institutions of higher learning.”
    “But didn’t you just say that full schools of science exist in both places?” Levin asked.
    “They do but pure science has always been considered part of the liberal arts, and besides that’s ‘necessary duplication’ because we have the Russkies to think about. What are you still standing for, Sy?”
    “Excuse me.” Levin sank into his chair. “I was just going to say—if you’ll pardon me, I realize I’m a stranger—but I don’t see how this situation can go on without weakening us
in the long run. Democracy is in trouble. How are our students supposed to—” His right ear, when he absently touched it, felt on fire. Levin ceased speaking and gnawed his beard at the lip.
    Gilley, lifting his leg off the chair, sat back. “I like your enthusiasm, Sy, but I think you’ll understand the situation better after you’ve been here a year or two. Frankly, though I agree with some of the things you just said, Cascadia is a conservative state, and we usually take a long look around before we commit ourselves to any important changes in our way of life. You might keep in mind that education for an agrarian society, which is what we are—the majority of our state legislators come from rural areas—is basically a ‘how to work’ education. And if you’ve been keeping up on your reading on the subject, more and more liberal arts colleges in America are going in for more and more vocational subjects.”
    “I think they’re making a serious mistake—”
    “That’s not to say that we won’t be making some changes here, but most of us at Cascadia agree there’s no sense hurrying any faster than most people want to go. If you push too hard you arouse resentment and resistance, and the result is the changes you are pushing for are resisted too. We’ve seen that happen too often in the past.