Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

that, of education at 2ny level; we lack teachers, faefli-
ties, standards, contprehension and the willingness to accept
differences. In the hurly-burly which exists, excellent
work =ill go nn,..scholars and scientists...have never been
defeated -- not by war or poverty or persecution, and they
will not be defeated,,.
It ks, however, becwe a question whether the term 'univer-
sity' can be saved or is even worth saving. 'Why should it
not continue to be used in order to indicate the formless
and incongruous aetivf ties -- good, bed, and indifferent --
which I have described in this chapter? ...
It is, in any case, clear that no uniform country-vide
and thoroughgoing revolution is feasible. 2
After suggesting a few chnges vhich might improve Rarvard,
Coldia and Chicago, he launched rather abruptly into descrfption of
an institute of higher learning, thus closing the chepter on American
unfversitie6.
Progress might be greatly assisted by the outright creation
of a school. or institute of higher learning, a university
in the post-graduate sense of the word. It should be a free
society of scholars -- free, beckuse mature persons, animted
by intellectual purposes, must be left to pursue their
own ends in their own way. Ahinistration should be slight
and inexpensive.* Scholars and scientists should participate
in Its government; the president should came down fram
Lis pedestal, The term 'organization' should be banned.
The institution should be open to persons, cmqetent and
cultivated, who do not need and would abhor spoon-feeding
-- be they college graduates or not, It should furntsb
simple surroundings I- books, laboratories, and above aLZ,
- tranquillity -- absence of distraction elther by worldly
concerns ar by parental responsibility far sn imture stu-
dent body. Provision should be made for the ammities of
life in the institution and in the private life of the
staff. Lt need not be complete or smtsical: if a chair
could not be admirably filled, it should be left vscant.
There exists in Americs no university in this sense -- no
institution, no seat of learning devoted to higher teaching ...
and research. Everyvhere the pressure of undergraduate and
vocational activities hampers the serfous objects for which
universitfea exist. Thus science and scholarship suffer;
money is wasted; even undergraduate training is less effi-
cfent than It might be, if left to itself.