Taking its title from Cardinal Newman's book about what a university ought to be, this class will look at his and other ideas about the ideal -- or not so ideal -- university. Occupants of the "real" world often distinguish it from the "academic" world, making their own real life experiences a basis for discounting or active contempt of those whose lives are merely academic. In turn, academics may scorn those who grub in the world and see their own as the only environment in which disinterested thought and research can take place. Whatever their status within the academy, faculty may feel marginalized by the larger society in which they live, anxious to be heard by it yet frustrated when they are not. Students may think (or have been told) that their student years are "the best years of their lives." Yet they may also wait eagerly for graduation when they finally get out of school to encounter reality. These and related constructions (academic vs. real life; the best years of our lives; how we envisage academics in society; how we envisage the idea of the university itself) are the subject of this course.

We will read a few "theoretical" texts that consider the idea of the university from a variety of perspectives. We will also read several very different kinds of texts: novels, works perhaps unlike Newman's that, explicitly fictitious, consider the experience of the university from the points of view of students and faculty.

Note carefully: this is a class for people who like to read. The reading list is heavy, although the instructor labors under the delusion that it is also manageable. The instructor reserves the right to spring pop quizzes, unannounced, if it becomes clear that people are not keeping up, so consider carefully, realistically, and early on whether this is a reading list you really want to cope with.

The class has neither a midterm nor a final. Students will write three short papers, and one longer final one. Those papers will ask students variously to respond to the readings or to think about the nature of "the university" on the basis not only of those readings but also of their own experience of the university in their second semester at one.

Students are expected to attend all classes and to contribute to the discussion of issues raised in the readings. Active classroom participation will be a significant factor in all final grades. In addition, the course requires the papers mentioned above. Short papers should be short -- approximately 750 words (1000 words maximum). The final paper should be about 2000 words (2500 words maximum). The instructor will either provide paper topics as assignments or students with a specific topic in mind may write on it if the instructor, after consultation, has agreed.

Some additional points:

1. Grades will be based on a combination of paper grades, quiz grades (if any), attendance, and classroom participation. Ask now if there is anything about this grading policy that you do not understand or find worrisome.

2. Death (preferably yours) is the only acceptable excuse for lateness with papers. I am particularly tired of killing off grandparents whenever papers are due.

3. In general, I appreciate good writing. I look with disfavor upon essays, whether short or final papers, that are poorly written. Writing will affect your grades. Sloppy writing normally means sloppy thinking.

• Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim (Penguin)
• Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy and Other Writings (Cambridge University Press)
• Julien Benda, Thomas Bender, Burton J. Bledstein, Stephen Leacock, Czeslaw Milosz, James Thurber, et al., essays TBA -- bulkpack
• Edna Ferber and Newman Levy, $1200 a Year -- bulkpack
• Eugene Ionesco, The Bald Soprano & Other Plays: The Lesson, Jack or the Submission, The Chairs (Grove Atlantic)
• Randall Jarrell, Pictures from an Institution (University of Chicago Press)
• Alice Kaplan, French Lessons: A Memoir (University of Chicago Press)
• Lawrence W. Levine, The Opening of the American Mind: Canons, Culture, and History (Beacon)
• David Lodge, Changing Places (Penguin)
• William Maxwell, The Folded Leaf (David R. Godine)
• John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (Yale University Press)
• May Sarton, Faithful Are the Wounds (W. W. Norton)
• Jane Smiley, Moo: A Novel (Random House)
• James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, The Male Animal -- bulkpack

1. WEEK ONE
   Introduction; The Idea of a University
   • January 8 -- Introduction to the class
   • January 10 -- John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, part one

2. WEEK TWO
   The Idea of a University, continued
   • January 15 -- Newman, part one, continued
   • January 17 -- Newman, part two

3. WEEK THREE
   The Idea of a University, continued
   • January 22 -- Newman, part two, continued
   • January 24 -- Newman, part two, continued

4. WEEK FOUR
   The University as a Stupid Place
   • January 29 -- Edna Ferber and Newman Levy, $1200 a Year (PHOTOCOPY)
   • January 31 -- James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, The Male Animal (PHOTOCOPY)

     PAPER ONE IS DUE TODAY
     To shift from Newman's high idealism about the university to the depictions of universities and their professors offered by Ferber-Levy and Thurber-Nugent is to make a very fast descent into what seems to be farce, stupidity, and a wide range of callow behaviors that have nothing whatsoever to do with "the life of the mind" universities exist to cultivate. What aspects of universities (or might it only be "American universities"?) makes this descent so plausible for an American theater-going audience? Or -- if you prefer: this is (perhaps) an alternate possible topic -- do the critiques offered by these two plays say something different about universities than that they fail to fulfill their raison d'être?

5. WEEK FIVE
   The University as a Comic Place / UK
   • February 5 -- Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim
   • February 7 -- Amis, continued

6. WEEK SIX
   The University as a Comic Place / UK, continued
   • February 12 -- David Lodge, Changing Places
   • February 14 -- Lodge, continued

     PAPER TWO IS DUE TODAY
     We've read about the university as a site of comedic ineffectiveness, stupidity, hypocrisy, and self-aggrandizement for the past several weeks. What is it about colleges and universities that makes them so attractive -- and, of course, so useful -- to the would-be comic writer?

7. WEEK SEVEN
   The University as a Comic Place / Canada & the US
   • February 19 -- Stephen Leacock and James Thurber, essays TBA (PHOTOCOPIES)
   • February 21 -- Randall Jarrell, Pictures from an Institution: A Comedy

8. WEEK EIGHT
   The University as a Comic Place / US, continued
   • February 26 -- Jane Smiley, Moo: A Novel
   • February 28 -- Smiley, continued

9. WEEK NINE
   The University as a Place That Might Matter
   • March 5 -- Julien Benda, Czeslaw Milosz, Thomas Bender, Burton J. Bledstein, et. al., essays TBA (PHOTOCOPIES)
   • March 7 -- Alice Kaplan, French Lessons: A Memoir

     PAPER THREE IS DUE TODAY
     We have made a turn, this week, to writers for whom the university -- and, more broadly, the world of ideas -- is a profoundly serious place. Has anything you have experienced in your first and, now, second semester suggested that this view might be valid? -- NOTE: this topic does not ask you specifically to use what you've been reading in writing your essay; but, to the degree that you can relate readings and experience, the instructor will find himself increasingly pleased with your essay.

10. WEEK TEN
    SPRING VACATION
    March 12, 14 -- NO CLASSES THIS WEEK

11. WEEK ELEVEN
    The University as a Place That Might Matter, continued
    • March 19 -- Lawrence W. Levine, The Opening of the American Mind
    • March 21 -- Levine, continued

12. WEEK TWELVE
    Experiencing American Universities
    • March 26 -- William Maxwell, The Folded Leaf
    • March 28 -- Maxwell, continued

13. WEEK THIRTEEN
    Experiencing American Universities, continued
    • April 2 -- May Sarton, Faithful Are the Wounds
      Although it is now out of print in all forms, students particularly interested in this fictional depiction of F. O. Matthiessen and the intersection of political and sexual dissent in the modern American university might also find the relatively recent and extraordinary novel by Mark Merlis, American Studies (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994; also paperback), worth reading.

    • April 4 -- Sarton, continued

14. WEEK FOURTEEN
    Experiencing A Different University
    • April 9 -- Eugene Ionesco, The Lesson
    • April 11 -- Ionesco, continued

15. WEEK FIFTEEN
    Conclusion?
    • April 16 -- Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy and Other Writings -- read at least Culture and Anarchy itself, as well as whatever else you can manage
    • April 18 -- Arnold, continued