Education Is Not Consumer-Driven

* The recent Times editorial “Rebuilding Collegiality at CSUN” appears to endorse a view that fails to appreciate the complexities of education in general and the university in particular.

I refer to the assertion, “Academic programs that are in high student demand deserve more of the funding that remains. Those that are not may have to be cut.”

To compare what is essential to a university education to what commodities are in demand by consumers is to make a precarious assumption. Vast areas of human knowledge will be lost if consumer-driven curriculum is demanded by the public. At a time of reduced state funding those of us in higher education must be vigilant not to allow human wisdom to be evaluated by the standards of marketplace values.

If we have learned that there is a reason to preserve the spotted owl in spite of economic pressures, surely someone needs to defend, for example, the preservation of Greek and Latin, the cultural contributions of Benin, Africa, the music of Mozart, the creativity of artists and poets, the mind-boggling theories of physicists and the ethical insights of the world’s cultures, past and present, none of which is in high student demand.

While we are and will continue to be sensitive to student and community desires, we also have the obligation to challenge students to take seriously areas of learning that the collegial structure of the university deems essential. The effort to preserve the integrity of the university’s mission in a time of fiscal crisis is clearly the joint responsibility of administration, faculty, students and staff of CSUN. I hope the Los Angeles Times endorses that effort as well.

JAMES GOSS

Chairman and professor

of Religious Studies

Cal State Northridge