Word: lipset
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Seymour Martin Lipset...
...Lipset proposes the establishment of a school of social science in Washington--not only so the professors can study Washington policy-making first-hand but also so the professors can influence the policy-makers first hand. Lipset believes that academic people and government people should develop close personal relationships. He says that professors do not understand political decisions because they are too far away from them: "Much of the academic community is simply in the dark about the reasons for policy that they disagree with Hence, the American academic community feels much more outside of government then do comparable communities...
...Lipset notes that there are certain characteristics of universities that get in the way of serious social scientists who are trying to make contacts and learn about government policy. One of these characteristics is students. In Lipset's "University of the United States" the student problem will be taken care of once and for all. This particular Ultimate Solution is one that many faculty members at Harvard and other universities would probably greet enthusiastically: "There is clearly no way to reduce the concerns of existing universities about the possible loss of faculty to a major Washington school. Some...
Another advantage of this new university in Washington would be the proximity to federal money itself. Lipset writes, "Presumably distinguished scholars in Washington will find it easier to secure funds, or, conversely, will be offered funds since they will be the people best known to those in control of money in Washington." Lipset admits that the ease that the faculty members will have in getting federal money may cause hard feelings in other universities. He suggests, then, that the new school "have as a rule that no member of the faculty could consult for a government agency or handle government...
What federal funding in universities has done in to make faculty members so uncommitted to their universities, so uncommitted to teaching that Lipset's university sounds like a wonderful ideal to them. Lipset writes, "The institution which has the most prestige in this country is one which has the aura of an institution for advanced studies, that is, an institution which is perceived as academic, but in which almost all its faculty are primarily defined as research professors." Harvard and many other large universities, sadly, are approaching this ideal. J.K.G...