The idea of a university

In 1947, Martin Luther King Jr., then an 18-year-old Morehouse College student, wrote an article in the campus newspaper arguing that education should be about more than just developing the intellectual skills needed to get students ready for careers. It should shape character to ensure they pursue worthy goals as individuals and as part of society.

The nation’s universities and colleges lately are missing the mark, said Paula Johnson, Wellesley College president and this year’s honoree of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture.

“I have been president of Wellesley College for just over a decade,” said Johnson ’80, M.D. ’84, M.P.H. ’85, in her address Thursday evening in Memorial Church. “In those tumultuous years, I have come to see the hard truth of how we are falling short of our responsibility to prepare students to be the citizens our country needs. I have witnessed the growing discomfort of students and faculty with sharing their views. I have observed the consequences of a focus on service without a corresponding emphasis on citizenship or civic purpose.”

Drawing on King’s words and legacy, Johnson urged university and college leaders to honor “the higher purpose Dr. King saw in education.” For King, the goal of true education was “intelligence plus character,” she said.

“For many, higher education has become an economic endeavor in terms of a return on an investment, an exercise of gaining knowledge for the purpose of personal gain,” said Johnson.

Read the full story in the Harvard Gazette