Distinguished Professor to Engage University in Higher Education Discussion

NEW PALTZ — At SUNY New Paltz next week, Distinguished Professor Stanley Aronowitz, who teaches sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, will lecture and lead discussion on values in general education.

Aronowitz is the author or editor of 18 books, and will center his lecture, “Higher Education or Higher Training,” on his most recent. In this book, The Knowledge Factory: Dismantling the Corporate University and Creating True Higher Learning (Beacon Press, 2000), Aronowitz contends that the curriculums of universities – from Ivy League schools to community colleges – are lacking. He denounces the trend toward corporatization of the university, which makes management, fundraising and private partnerships priorities over educational obligations.

Aronowitz explained: “Students have to get mastery over what’s been done and said. They need to read the leading texts of global, intellectual traditions. They need to know what their legacy is and to evaluate what they think of that legacy To encourage students to specialize too early is a mistake. It encourages them to learn only what they need to get a job. That’s not what higher education is about.”

In the final chapter of The Knowledge Factory, Aronowitz proposes a specific new curriculum that meets his vision for “true higher learning”: placing a well-rounded education at the center of the university’s mission.

The lecture at New Paltz will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the university’s Lecture Center 102 on Thursday, October 26. It is free and open to the public.

Earlier that day, Aronowitz will have private discussions with the university’s General Education Committee and the chairpersons of the departments in the SUNY New Paltz College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

Long involved in both education and the labor movement, Aronowitz is the founder of the Center for Worker Education at City College of New York.

Co-sponsors of Aronowitz’ visit to SUNY New Paltz are the Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the Sociology Department.

For more information on this event, please call Harold Jacobs, associate professor of sociology at New Paltz, at 845-257-3481.