The 'failure' of the university to make explicit the specifics of a life of usefulness and reputation stems from the fact that each student should approach this question differently and come away with a personalized answer. The university's role is not to define, but to help a student discover and cultivate his or her path. The university must foster an environment open enough to allow students to feel comfortable making a wide range of choices as they define where their talents and interests intersect with the needs of the society. This community must impress upon the students the importance of their future actions, and the role of their current pursuits in the livelihood of the community. Classes and activities should force students to continually reevaluate their place in the university, the surrounding community, and the society as a whole. I do not believe that the college graduates are the only ones impressed with this responsibility of leading a life of social obligation. However, college presents an opportunity for gaining direction and evaluation, offering a 'break' for development and reflection, a chance not available to others. The trust of the society in its graduates is a demand of fulfillment of the obligations that college instills one with; students have been given an opportunity that not everyone can have, and the community that has supported them in reaching this point is asking for recognition of this fact.
My interests lie both with the responsibilities of the individual to society, and also with the obligations of the university to remain 'useful' to the community. The university, in possession of such a wealth of knowledge and resources, who feeds only those within its walls, starves too many others not given the luxury of this collegiate comfort. I am particularly drawn to the issue of the disparity of United States elementary and secondary education in comparison to higher education. How can it be that this country can produce the highest quality post-secondary system in this world, but can not control the schools that feed these higher education institutions? Higher education institutions have an obligation to help bridge this gap, to bring elementary and secondary schools up to par. My interest in this issue began as I spent a year with AmeriCorps, teaching in inner-city Chicago, where I was frustrated by a particularly ineffective K-16 partnership. Upon arriving at Brown, I have been interested in the abundance of programs partnered with Providence schools, but maintain fears that this profusion of attacks is uncoordinated and illicits frustration all sides. I continued working on this issue as a research assistant for Dr Frank Newman with his Futures Project, which analyzes the forces transforming higher education, with the goal of creating policies and practices that will lead to the more thoughtful evolution of the forthcoming reforms. This work has brought other issues to my attention, which frighten me in terms of the university's role in creating socially-minded individuals; higher education seems to being pushed by the market towards creating workers not citizens. With this focus, higher education loses the opportunity to pass on James, 'tone', asking students not to evaluate their place in society but their place in the office.