We in universities are not in the democracy business. What we do, when we're doing it, is teach and learn.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
A university is not a political party, and an education is not an indoctrination.
I think universities are trying to figure out how we could use what we know about learning to change our education system, but it is sort of funny that they don't necessarily seem to be consulting the people who are sitting right there on campus.
In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.
I believe that access to a university education should be based on the ability to learn, not what people can afford. I think there is no more nauseating a sight than politicians pulling up the ladder of opportunity behind them.
We've been doing this here since 1968, so we have been identified as an example of a free, democratic school, and many professors want to expose their students to our philosophy.
I believe that our office has clearly been the leader in building coalitions, in getting other universities across the contrary to interact more effectively with the government and particularly the Congress.
Universities are some of the few places left where a struggle for the commons, for public life, if not democracy itself, can be made visible through the medium of collective voices and social movements energized by the need for a politics and way of life counter to authoritarian capitalism.
Education and democracy have the same goal: the fullest possible development of human capabilities.
We Americans have the great gifts of freedom and democracy, but it has been our education system that has fulfilled the promise of democracy.