Post-Retreat
Infographic detailing the progression of popular opinion of education's purpose
Although Chancellor Caldwell aligned himself with the student activists’ political leanings, he continued to believe that “the responsibility of the University, its administration, and faculty, is to the educational purposes of all its students.”[1] In the following school year, Caldwell appointed Disruption Policy Committees. These committees advised the chancellor during times of campus disruptions, like the Peace Retreat. Each committee contained both students and faculty who served one-year terms.[2] The committees themselves, however, are prime examples of the new age of collaborative learning that Caldwell supported.
Caldwell left his post as chancellor in 1975, but he continued teaching for years afterwards.[3] His feelings about the purpose of higher education and the role politics played in it surfaced in his graduate-level course “Politics of Higher Education.” In this course, students examined the changing perceptions of the role of higher education in society.[4]
In the years that have since followed the protests across the country in May 1970, many institutions of higher education have continued with Caldwell and his contemporaries' open-minded approach to education. They claimed that colleges should nurture both the traditional aims of higher education – like preparing students for a future career – and the changes – such as open communication and cooperation between students and faculty – brought to campuses in the age of student activism.[5] In doing so, they would create well-rounded students who were not only prepared to work in a specific career for the rest of their lives; they were also ready to be active participants in American society once they left the universities’ hallowed halls.
[1] John T. Caldwell, “Chancellor Requests Students to Attend Class,” The Technician, May 11, 1970.
[2] Hilton Smith, “Chancellor Appoints Disruption Policy Committees,” The Technician, November 18, 1970.
[3] “Caldwell, John T. (John Tyler), 1911-1995,” North Carolina State University Libraries, accessed November 10, 2014, http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/names/15-caldwell-john-t-john-tyler-1911-1995.
[4] PS607/ED607 Course Action Form, September 1977, box 30, folder 10, John Tyler Caldwell Papers, North Carolina State University Special Collections.
[5] Charles Franket, “Change and conservatism: colleges must nurture both,” The Christian Science Monitor, March 5, 1979, box 30, folder 12, John Tyler Caldwell Papers, North Carolina State University Special Collections.