From the Academy

V artous organizations of college un- dergraduates—led, often, by graduate students—aspire to “student power” on the campus. However noisy they may become, they will not obtain the total authority which some of them seek, for the ineluctable reason that bodies of undergraduates do not pos- sess the continuity and the experi- ence required for administering the affairs of an academic corporation. Students necessarily are probation- ers in the Grove of Academe. If they were already sufficiently wise to pre- scribe the curriculum, choose the professors, supervise the finances, and all that—why, there would be no need for them to enroll at all. Why not embark upon — life immediately? The fable that in medieval times great universities were governed collectively by the undergraduates is – a fable only, even

though it has been promulgated by some people who ought to know Kirk better, including Dr. Robert Hutchins. – Only one university—Bologna—was so controlled for a time, and even there such government did not en- dure. Really, the medieval schools were church foundations, subject to ecclesiastical authority; at many of them, in the beginning, the students were mere acolytes, literally, there on sufferance to gather what crumbs of learning they might from the men in holy orders (chantry priests, some- times) who were provided with aca- | demic leisure by pious benefactors of the foundation.

RK

About the Author

Russell Kirk

V artous organizations of college un- dergraduates—led, often, by graduate students—aspire to “student power” on the campus. However noisy they may become, they will not obtain the total authority which some of them seek, for the ineluctable reason that bodies of undergraduates do not pos- sess the continuity and the experi- ence required for administering the affairs of an academic corporation. Students necessarily are probation- ers in the Grove of Academe. If they were already sufficiently wise to pre- scribe the curriculum, choose the professors, supervise the finances, and all that—why, there would be no need for them to enroll at all. Why not embark upon — life immediately? The fable that in medieval times great universities were governed collectively by the undergraduates is – a fable only, even

though it has been promulgated by some people who ought to know Kirk better, including Dr. Robert Hutchins. – Only one university—Bologna—was so controlled for a time, and even there such government did not en- dure. Really, the medieval schools were church foundations, subject to ecclesiastical authority; at many of them, in the beginning, the students were mere acolytes, literally, there on sufferance to gather what crumbs of learning they might from the men in holy orders (chantry priests, some- times) who were provided with aca- | demic leisure by pious benefactors of the foundation.