Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

Agent of Democracy
Brown: Are there dissenting opinions, and, if so, what are
their concerns?
Weinberg: Yes. People will argue that there is too much emphasis
on student affairs, cynicism about students (can this really
work). But it is amazingly small. Without conflicts around fraternities,
it would almost be nonexistent.
Brown: In the “Social Change” piece you mention the “generation
of faculty moving into deans’ positions who came of age in
the movements of the 60s.” Does that describe your own journey?
Did you become “disillusioned and professionalized” along the
way? Did you “retool your professional obligations”? Could you
tell me more about that journey?
Weinberg: I was born in 1965, so I am too young. My journey
is probably more typical of the younger academics, who are becoming
associate faculty and taking on administrative roles. I came into
the academy because everybody was going to graduate school and
I didn’t want to go to law school. I was searching for a way to
combine different passions: community organizing, writing, the
world of ideas. I was also looking for a profession that would allow
me to live my politics. I wanted an egalitarian marriage.
I was also driven into the academy by a passion for democracy.
I wanted to spend my life working on ways to make communities
(the places people live) more democratic. That is why I was attracted
to community-based research and service learning. I wanted to
raise my children in a social and political household. I probably
would have left graduate school had community-based research
and service learning not become acceptable ways of doing things.
It gave me ways to combine my passions for community work
with my love for writing and thinking. I stayed because I came to
understand the untapped potential of universities. Along the way,
I fell deeply in love with teaching.
Over time, I have become more optimistic and less professionalized.
I see my work as a craft. I came very close to leaving the
academy a few years ago. I had viewed myself as an academic
who was focused externally. I had never envisioned myself as an
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