Ironically, higher education institutions are among the last bastions of the liberal philosophy upon which the basic principles of this country are founded. These include opportunity, inclusion, acquiring expertise to contribute to self and society, love of knowledge, awareness of the global community and service to the less fortunate. However, higher education is under siege from conservative forces that seek to change its mission and return it to a mechanism for perpetrating race and class stratification. In this conflict, university officials are on the front lines of a struggle to preserve this heritage, and they will need the kind of courage that was symptomatic of such officials in other eras of history.
I believe, with Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., that “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, and convenience, but where he stands at time of challenge and controversy.” He felt that there was something called the “point of challenge,” where people, leaders, were tested.
The university in the early 21st century is at the point of challenge, and we must not only lionize Dr. King, we must activate the principles of the civil rights movement as a part of the democratic processes by which we administer these institutions. But most important, in this work, let us emphasize the courage necessary to meet the challenges I have presented, which after all is the characteristic of leadership that has been most responsible for making this the great country that it is today.
Dr. Ronald Walters, a professor in government and politics at the University of Maryland, author of White Nationalism, Black Interests: Conservative Public Policy and the Black Community.
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