The Promise, Perils, And Practices of Multiperspectivism (Multiperspectivism in Honors)

The modern university has, at best, an ambivalent relation to multiperspectivism. In the seventeenth century, when European universities finalized the break with their medieval past, a century and a half of religious wars had made multiperspectivism a pressing intellectual and social problem, one that, it was argued, could be overcome only with rigorous intellectual method (Toulmin 69-80, Stout 46-47). In our own day, the academy widely celebrates multiperspectivism as a means to achieve the legitimate ends of higher education or, in some cases, as one of those ends itself. Contemporary reflection on academic practice routinely cites notions of diversity, pluralism, or multiculturalism in justifying or modifying curricula, establishing new programs of study, hiring faculty, or admitting students. Furthermore, the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in the University of Michigan's Law School admissions policy grants legal sanction to these practices. Writing for the majority, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor argued that both the university and the state have "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body," benefits which clearly include the ready availability of a multiplicity of perspectives to inform and animate classroom discussion (Grutter v. Bollinger). Ironically, the Supreme Court's ruling simultaneously indicates how far the modern university has evolved since the historical moment of its birth and how deeply problematic the practice of pluralism has been and continues to be for higher education. Since intellectual pluralism has served, in the history of the modern university, as both a problem needing a solution and an object of our aspiration, we would do well to attend to both the promise and perils of multiperspectivism in higher education today. The best way to do so, it seems to me, is to examine in some detail the practices of an institution keenly aware of both the bane and blessing of multiperspectivism. It so happens that the institution with which I am most familiar--Christ College, the honors college of Valparaiso University--is just such a place. The Freshman Program at Christ College centers upon a sixteen-credit, two--semester, team-taught course called Texts and Contexts: Traditions of Human Thought. The course incorporates many of the features found in successful honors curricula around the country: common readings of challenging texts in small seminars, interdisciplinary modes of inquiry, weekly plenary lectures, and a rigorous emphasis on writing. Beyond these noble and salutary activities, Christ College freshmen also undertake two major common endeavors. In the fall semester, our first-year students invent, script, score, and produce an original piece of musical theater. In the spring, they wrestle with questions of local, national, and international importance in four public Cambridge-style debates. If learning the discourses and practices of the academic life can be likened to learning a language, the Freshman Program's instructional mode clearly is immersion.