Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

Reconstructing a Democratic Tradition
The second thing to note about this pattern has to do with the
conflicted and conflicting claims scholars make about their political
roles and stances. In positioning themselves as working on behalf
of their personal view of the public good, many of the scholars we
interviewed also position themselves as being “unbiased” or “neutral,”
working from a political stance that many of them refer to as
the “middle.” For example, in one of our focus group interviews that
was devoted to a discussion of the practice story about herbicide
compatible strawberries, which I quoted earlier, an associate professor
in a social science discipline said that he is “very sympathetic”
to the role he sees the natural scientist playing in the practice story.
“This is the kind of work we all do: trying to bring knowledge to
bear, looking at the question from all sides, not taking—not advocating
a particular point of view.” But as he continued, he suggested
that faculty should take on a social role that is about more than
providing information from an unbiased or neutral stance. Referring
to the natural scientist in the practice story, he said: “He has to help
growers make a good decision and not be hoodwinked by a corporation
that is going to want to sell something that might be very
short sighted and profit driven.” Rather than remaining neutral,
this suggests that faculty should protect growers’ interests against
the interests of corporations.
This comment provoked a response from a full professor in a
natural science discipline. Instead of working to protect growers’
interests, she said, land-grant faculty should “work for the public
interest.” She argued that land-grant faculty members have “a
unique opportunity and obligation to provide analysis on behalf
of the public’s point of view. That’s our job, and for me, it ultimately
traces back to democracy.” The role of land-grant faculty in a democracy,
she went on to say, is to serve “as an objective resource for
accurate, thorough, considered analysis.” Speaking of her own
public engagement work as a plant breeder during the previous five
years, she went on to say that “I felt I almost became an activist, but
it was an activist on behalf of the public, of my perception or my
interpretation of the public interest.” In her view, then, land-grant
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