Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 2. 7th March 1973

Look around you, Professor

Look around you, Professor

Professor Philpott claims in his review that the taxpayer would be happier if we were producing 'responsible, informed, and constructive University graduates' rather than a 'disgruntled, disorderly and destructive mob'. If the latter is Professor Philpott's idea of what produced "Handbook" I suggest he start looking around him for the trouble, and not downwards at the students at his feet. Two of the three editors of "Handbook" are fellow staff members, as were two of the major contributors to the sections you abhor. Hands up, you're surrounded!

What does the Professor mean by 'responsible' and 'constructive' graduates? The terms of his review suggest that only people who are trained to service the machine would fit his description, not those who wanted to change the machine, or perhaps dispose of it. The taxpayer may feel that this sort of graduate is the one who will serve him best, but are the interests of New Zealand workers well served by paying exorbitant sums of money to educate the sons of their employers to become economists or accountants trained to treat them as things rather than men? If workers do think that, then perhaps one of the most urgent tasks of the university is to show them why they are wrong.

Professor Philpott's description of the university's problems illustrate the misunderstanding which characterises staff attempts to analyse the university's dilemma. The problem, as I see it, is not so much the forms (i.e. large classes, accommodation, better teaching methods) as the content. And it is the content of their courses which the academics most steadfastly refuse to submit to critical examination.

Mill once asked whether it was better to be Socrates dissatisfied or a pig satisfied. Professor Philpott appears to believe that he has resolved the dilemma by becoming Socrates satisfied. He should ponder the possibility that in doing so he has helped create a race of dissatisfied people.

Drawing of a mouse with books