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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Opinion: Student protests are what created the university as we know it | |
Opinion by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele | |
Updated: | |
12:56 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
In recent days, against Israel’s actions in the ongoing war in | |
Gaza have popped up . They are a complicated national phenomenon, like | |
all protest movements . | |
But what holds our attention as historians is how surprised some� | |
people have been to see college professors standing up to defend | |
their students. For example, at Emory, philosophy department chair | |
Noëlle McAfee trying to protect her students, and economics | |
professor Caroline Fohlin was and herself arrested for asking a | |
police officer to stop mistreating another student. Concerned faculty | |
at the University of Texas-Austin to protest police actions against | |
peaceful protestors. At CUNY, to put their bodies between the | |
protestors and the police. | |
But as we write in our book, “,” faculty and students uniting | |
against outside political interference is baked into the core of the | |
modern university - in fact, it’s quite literally why we have an | |
institution called a “university” at all. | |
For much of the European Middle Ages, learning was centered in | |
religious institutions. These tended during the period to be | |
cathedrals - often in growing cities, with amenities that allowed | |
students and teachers to cluster in a certain area under the | |
supervision of the cathedral’s archdeacon (called the “provost”) | |
and its archpriest (called the “dean”). | |
In the late 12th century, one such school, centered around the | |
cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, began to attract students and | |
teachers from across Europe - lured by the growing riches of Paris | |
itself and the growing power of the French monarchy. All was generally | |
well, but there was some tension between the citizens of the city and | |
the students. But then, in the year 1200 CE, a group of students in | |
Paris got swindled by a shopkeeper. The students got drunk and returned | |
to trash the shop. | |
These developments set off a chain reaction of retribution, culminating | |
in the shopkeeper, the school’s provost and a posse of their friends | |
raiding the school grounds and killing a number of students. | |
The school’s teachers, in solidarity with the students, refused to | |
teach and threatened to move the school elsewhere unless the king | |
listened to the students and provided justice. King Philip II Augustus | |
of France did just that. He arrested the posse and issued a royal | |
decree protecting the teachers and students, saying that they were a | |
“corporate body” that together enjoyed certain rights. The word, in | |
Latin, he used for this corporate body was “universitas.” | |
Out of this unlikely origin story - a bar brawl, vigilante violence - | |
came the origins of the modern university. The lesson is clear: | |
universities only exist when students and faculty stand together, and | |
when they do, they have power. | |
That term for the cathedral school in Paris didn’t become common | |
until later in the century — but the hard-won rights of this | |
“university” were quickly put to the test, because although history | |
doesn’t actually repeat, it does sometimes echo. | |
In 1229, there was another bar fight in Paris. | |
Almost the same scenario played out: a shopkeeper tried to con some | |
students about the price of wine. This time, however, the innkeeper got | |
annoyed and had his servants beat the students up. The students | |
returned the next day to smash up the shop, the shopkeeper went to the | |
authorities for justice, and this time the queen sided with the | |
citizens against the school. Her soldiers swept through the student | |
quarter injuring many and killing a few. | |
The teachers again rallied to the students, invoked their status as a� | |
universitas and demanded a stop to this outside interference. This | |
time the monarchy refused. The king was increasingly concerned about | |
the independence of this corporate body, about the “dangerous” | |
things that were being taught in this school (such as Aristotle, and | |
Islamic thinker Ibn Rushd), about the need to discipline and control | |
these young people. This bar brawl was a perfect pretext for the | |
politicians to take control of the school. | |
But the teachers stood with the students. Together, they went on | |
strike. Every teacher and student left the city, vowing not to return | |
for at least six years. The monarchy was horrified and quickly worked | |
to restore the school. The situation was only resolved two years later | |
when the pope himself issued a decree recognizing the university’s | |
authority to self-regulate and limiting the powers of the king and | |
bishop over the teachers and students. This organizing principle was | |
copied by other schools across Europe. | |
Today, universities stand as one of the proudest and most visible | |
legacies of the history of medieval Europe. They are a reminder that | |
institutions of higher learning are a union between teachers and | |
students dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. And outside forces will | |
always seek to control that pursuit, to put reins on young learners. | |
This historical fact carries implications and responsibilities for the | |
present day. Teachers must stand with their students. In some cases, | |
that may mean some of the bravest acts possible, placing yourself in | |
the path of the violence brought by heavily armed and armored cops. But | |
it doesn’t have to mean that. It can mean much smaller and everyday | |
acts. Give students extensions on their final exams. Use the university | |
governance to fight back against administration attempts to | |
academically punish them. Be kind when grading. | |
The real history of the university, the most authentic and medieval, | |
reveals that with solidarity between teachers and students, a community | |
that continues to learn together, once stood against kings. That | |
history reminds that even now, together, we can stand against the real | |
“outside agitators” — politicians who care so little about free | |
speech and education. | |
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