Once again college campuses are the site of protests. Students across the country are camped out protesting US military support for Israel. Why is it that protests erupt on college campuses so frequently? What it is about the university as an institution that leads to disruption? Surely it must be that faculty must be putting radical and subversive ideas into their students’ heads. Or there might be another answer if we look into the origins of the modern research university as it developed in the German state of Prussia in the early 19th century.
There was no Germany during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. What we call Germany today was a collection of kingdoms, city-states and other governmental forms, the largest of which were the Kingdom of Prussia and the Empire of Austria. At the Battles of Jena and Austerlitz, Prussia was soundly defeated by Napoleon’s armies and the Kingdom was occupied. In an effort to regain independence, the government of Prussia began a number of reforms. Among the guiding principles of these reforms was the realization that one of the significant reasons for Prussian weakness was the Prussians were treated as royal subjects, whose primary duty was to obey orders. As a result, they felt no responsibility or allegiance to the state. The French, on the other hand, had an army which fought not because they were subjects under orders, but because they were citizens with a stake in the success of their country and of its ideals.
The question for the Prussian Reformers, therefore, was to find a way to turn subjects into citizens. There were many aspects to the proposed changes, which have become known as the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms, but among these were changes to the educational system. At the center of these reforms was the creation of the modern research university. Before this, universities were seen primarily as institutions which transmitted received wisdom from one generation to the next and which trained men for the professions. Under this new plan, largely the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt, brother of the famous naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt, universities would be places for research–generating new knowledge. But in the process of uncovering new knowledge, they would be learning skills such as learning to evaluate evidence, whether to accept or reject an argument, and be willing to challenge received wisdom. In short, students would learn to think for themselves. They would not simply be subjects following the king’s command, but citizens able to express their own informed opinions and take part in the governing of the society.
The university reformers were incredibly successful. Students, under the banner of the Burschenschaften, worked for liberal nationalism in many German states. For example, the Wartburg festival of 1817 brought together more than 500 students to call for the national unification of Germany. A group of professors at the University of Goettingen, known as the “Goettingen Seven,” lost their positions because of protests against the annulment of the Hannoverian constitution. When, in the wake of the uprising the delegates met in 1848 to write a German constitution, the majority were university professors or men with academic backgrounds.
The new research university had proven itself as an engine for change. Thousands of the best minds in the States went to Germany to learn because they could not get this kind of education in the US. It was not until 1876 that the United States had a modern research university in the form of Johns Hopkins University. After the founding of Johns Hopkins and its success, many former colleges followed suit and declared themselves universities. Many institutions changed their names without really embracing the full nature of the new university program. It wasn’t the promise of a freer and more democratic country to the United States; it was the promise of money to be made through scientific discoveries.
So from the start the American research university was divided in its purposes. Some still looked at the university as place where traditional values would be bestowed on the next generation, ignoring the changes in perspective brought about by engaging in research. Still others looked to the university as an investment which would pay off with new ways to make money. But there were some, like John Dewy and Arthur Lovejoy, founders of the American Association of University Professors, who worked to make this new institution in American conform to the vision of Wilhelm von Humboldt 100 years earlier.
What is happening on the college campuses today is a reflection of the tension which is built into the American University. There are pundits and politicians on the right who see protests as disorder and lack of respect for authority. There are college administrators who fear the damage to their institutions brand and the consequent reduction in donor support. But then there are the students who are doing just what the founders of the new university intended: they are exercising their rights as citizens of democratic republic.
Protesting is one of the important ways in which citizens participate in the democratic process. If anything, these protest should be treated as a opportunity to restore order, but as an opportunity for education. How can we take the impulse to make significant change and refine it into the most effective channels? How can we help these students make their arguments more effective? How can we, in other words, look upon this as an educational opportunity? These students are participating in the democratic process, as they should be doing. If we are upset at the way they are doing it, we should be teaching them to do it better, not arresting them.