Is Higher Education Living in “Right Relationship”?
Choosing the right college was a large part of my life growing up. This was because, at a very young age, I felt what some would call a calling. While I didn’t know it at the time, this calling was what the Buddhists describe as a need to be in “right livelihood” which is simply a desire for a life trajectory which would allow me to be of service in the world. In thinking about how most colleges represent themselves to students, being in right livelihood tends to be the least of higher educational concerns. Growing up in the era of the Princeton Review, colleges were primarily advertised based on the more arbitrary aspects of the on campus experience i.e. the quality of the food and the buildings, sporting events, fraternities/sororities, parties, and resident life. I wanted none of it.
The marketing materials that I received in the mail did not explain to me how I would grow or develop as a person at these institutions, which is what made religious schools, and orders, quite interesting. As a high school student I was enthralled by the materials and memoirs of nuns living and teaching in convents across the centuries. Their relationship to education, as an act of service that they were providing to transform the world for the better, was deeply appealing. As my friends filled out college applications to large state universities, I went through the process of discernment, an intense process of questioning where I belonged, the convent or the college?
Despite the fact that I ended up at a college (albeit a tiny Methodist women’s college aka the best of both worlds) I am still in the process of discernment and the desire to join the commune or the clergy continues to be something that I ponder in the life that I have made at the college. This is because the concept of service within and outside of the university is not what it used to be. Like so many other things that have been lost to time, few institutions outside of the more religious colleges and universities have maintained a strong connection to the importance of service within education. The university has become so disconnected from the concept of service in fact, that when one brings up the topic it is met with moans, groans, eye rolls, and knowing laughter. Service is viewed as those things which don’t want to be done. The committees you don’t want to join. Those administrative tasks that one would rather somebody else do. University service is now framed as the rent one pays to be a part of academia, and is rarely framed as a way to be in “right relationship” with the institution and its constituents.
As the Quaker anti-slavery advocate John Woolman proclaimed, being in “right relationship” with the world is primarily about a desire for justice and harmony, a balancing of the scales within our lives, with others, and in relationship to the natural world. In thinking back to my own college days and what I have seen from colleges in the era of COVID-19, I am fascinated by how few colleges and universities advertise themselves through this understanding of service and being in “right relationship” with the world. As eager students rush back to college campuses in the face of a pandemic, and those who can’t complain about what they are missing out on with the online educational experience, I am reminded once again of the stark differences between the clergy colleges of the past and the secular colleges of today [1]. No longer just an educational space, college is now seen as an experiential space. Students go to college, not just to learn in the classroom, but to learn outside of the classroom. The experience of college is that of a coming of age story, and many students come to the college campus to find themselves.
Even more so now, as students confront the realities of economic instability, climate crisis, and overt social injustice, I wonder what role the university will play in creating a space for this finding of oneself that speaks to a right and just relationship to the world? In my own experience at a Methodist college, taking part in activities that were service oriented was a regular requirement and we were consistently given opportunities to become engaged members of not only the campus community, but the city outside of our small campus. Whether this be through volunteering at shelters and donation centers or tutoring students in local neighborhoods. These service learning opportunities push back against the idea that the college is an ivory tower separate from the surrounding area. Service learning encourages students to view the city as part of their story and interactions within the community as an extension of their education.
In addition to learning through service, it is also imperative that institutions view themselves as being in right relationship through the ways that they engage with the faculty, staff, students, and community members. Many times the burden of fighting for justice and equality in the world falls on the shoulders of the most marginalized individuals within a campus community, which should not be the case. Instead, for higher education to truly be in right relationship with the campus community and the larger world, it would mean that institutions themselves would have to think seriously about what they are taking and what they are giving back. From ecological footprints to economic impact, colleges and universities have a huge effect on everyone and everything that they contain and come in contact and moving forward we will need to not only consider the costs of this influence, but the potential benefits. Therefore, in the following posts in this series on “Abolition and Academia” I will continue thinking through the questions: How can the world of higher education get back to its roots of service through education? And, What does it look like for educators to be of service to their students and society?
-FJ Day
[1] Shout-out to conversations with Ashlee Day, who reminds me of the places where service is still alive and well within higher education and the importance of returning to the Classics when you need guidance.
