Academic Values Quotes

Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.

As an academic, I value the free exchange of ideas.

Within the confines of the lecture hall, no other virtue exists but plain intellectual integrity.

Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.

Freedom of speech is not an academic value. Accuracy of speech is an academic value; completeness of speech is an academic value; relevance of speech is an academic value. Each of these is directly related to the goal of academic inquiry: getting a matter of fact right.

The venerable emeritus professors still at Yale when I entered graduate school [in the 1960s] may have been reserved, puritanical WASPs, but they were men of honor who had given their lives to scholarship. Today in the elite schools, honor and ethics are gone.

The University conceives of itself as dedicated to the power of the intellect. Its commitment is to the way of reason.

But I would much prefer students going to college to learn and be prepared for the rigors of the new economic order, rather than dumping fees on them to subsidize football programs that, far from enhancing the academic mission instead make a mockery of it.