LIBERALISM INSURED

The fires of controversy over liberalism which blazed viciously at Amherst upon the resignation of President Meiklejohn last June have apparently burned out; but rather than dross and ashes they have left a refined conception of a liberal college which has found expression in the program published by twenty-six alumni in the Amherst Student. There is nothing remarkable, however, in either the ideas or their phrasing. The definition that "a liberal college must be one in which the intellectual aim is dominant" and one which will thoroughly ground the student in the essentials of "an intelligent scheme of values" has often been used to express the ideals of every American college. It is more significant that these alumni who are all teachers and educators should think it necessary to restate accepted principles.

Such action seems to imply that the American college is falling to accomplish its avowed purpose, or at least that the liberal attitude is suffering under the present complicated organization of collegiate life and instruction. If this indictment is true it calls for more than a description of educational utopias. What is needed is not further definition of aims but practical methods of achieving them. In part these means must be determined by the endowments, resources, and charters of the individual colleges but to a significant degree they can be fixed by the opinions and actions of the undergraduate bodies.

Liberalism in the last analysis is a state of the mind. Do what it will with the cumbrous formulae of entrance requirements, lectures, and schedules of courses no college administrative office can maintain a spirit of liberalism in the face of undergraduate bias, snobbery, or provincialism. Only by the origination and perpetuation of a tradition of student liberalism will the ideal college be translated into an actuality. Nor is it an answer that the undergraduate body can only reflect the spirit of the times. Since the middle ages Cambridge and Oxford have cherished a tradition of liberalism which has persisted despite eras of national bigotry and prejudice. Reform, like charity, begins at home, and from within rather than from without. The real guarantee against illiberalism must be evolved by the undergraduates; the graduate can offer only wise and guiding counsel.