our mission
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” ~ Aristotle
■ PURPOSE
Why do we have schools of higher education? To make productive citizens? Moral citizens? Thinking citizens? What is their purpose?
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■ GOVERNANCE
How do we ensure that colleges and universities fulfill their purpose? From where does their authority come? How is that authority implemented? How is their governance structured?
■ PUBLIC TRUST
Can higher education endure without the support of the people? Where does such support come from? How is the public trust in their purpose and governance maintained? READ MORE
■ EXTERNAL ORDERS
How does the pace of change in the culture, politics, economics and technology of the society affect higher education? How does the evolution of it and the other emergent orders in the society impact the purpose and governance of such institutions and public trust in them? READ MORE
Paideia Times aims to keep America’s college and university trustees informed. To their email inbox, it will deliver a comprehensive, readable summary of the news affecting the institutions they are entrusted to govern.
Coupled with it is a web site focused on the history and traditions of higher education: Emergent Orders in Higher Education. It will provide ready access to the reflections of such authorities on the purpose and governance of higher education institutions as John Henry Newman (The Idea of a University), Harold Berman (Law and Revolution), Jaraslov Pelikan (The Idea of the University - A Rexamination) and Henry Rosovsky (The University: An Owner's Manual).
Through the lens of such reflections, Paideia Times will examine the effect the myriad of events and contentious issues now buffeting America’s universities have on:
- the Purpose of higher education institutions;
- the Governance structure best suited to fulfill such Purpose;
- the Public Trust in such Purpose and Governance; and
- the External Orders in the society that then affect such Purpose, Governance and Public Trust.
In the years since they were founded, America’s higher education institutions have grown dramatically in size and ambition, and thus their impact on American culture. As the soul of that culture, to serve them is not a challenge to shirk. ■
