Value referents in the governance of higher education

Abstract

deeply concerned that our penal systems are not aimed at rehabilitation, that our welfare systems are inadequate to break the poverty cycle, that our political institutions are in many respects outmoded and ineffective, and that our school systems do not serve a considerable portion of the total population and probably miseducate many of those they do serve. Within the colleges and universities many have been outspoken about institutional shortcomings in general for many years, but with scant reference to the inadequacies of higher education. In a relatively short time, this condition has changed, not by professional or administrative volition but because of student demands for change accompanied by overt demonstration and less frequently by violence. In this present setting-one of turmoil and strife within our institutions of higher education-this paper seeks to deal with the referents that are basic to campus conflicts and to the decisions and processes required for their resolution. The term value as used in this paper will focus upon those motivators of human behavior which may be termed rational; that is, they are intellectualized guides to conduct which may be synthesized into a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs. This limitation seems essential since value in the general sense may refer to feelings of preference or attachment, consciously or unconsciously held, to any object or idea. A further limitation is that these intellectualized values be derived and appraised through a study of human behavior. Many professional educators accept the general notion of value but relegate values to the affective domain. This precludes attention to the development of rational values since the cognitive domain is viewed as having no control over the motivators of behavior. In developing an intellectualized system of principles which discipline his behavior, an individual must expend considerable effort in the examination of his biological and cultural inheritance of disorganized personal preferences, desires, and attitudes. Without such a system of principles an individual can neither display a high order of rationality in his behavior nor engage effectively in the development of rational modes of social behavior. It should be noted that this individual approach does not negate the idea of social values. The individual can develop an intellectualized system only in the context of a social system. The impact of referents, like and unlike his own, and help with intellectualization are prerequisites. Further, it is highly improbable that any group-be it family, church, school,