University Makes the Society

In this previous posting, I ranted about recent security measures taken by Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH). So what is my problem?

When I think about the word university, I think of a place where learning is shared. According to Wikipedia:

The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of masters and scholars".

The great architect/ philosopher Louis Kahn stated:

“School began with a man under a tree, who did not know he was a teacher, discussing his realizations with a few others, who did not know they were students. The students reflected on the exchanges between them and on how good it was to be in the presence of this man. They wished their sons, also, to listen to such a man. Soon, the needed spaces were erected and the first schools came into existence. The establishment of schools was inevitable because they are part of the desires of man.”

Kahn, who designed Salk Institute (commissioned by Jonas Salk the inventor of polio vaccine), considered educational institutions as:

… “the houses of the inspirations” – places defined by the fundamental inspiration to learn and by concomitant need to shelter learning within a supportive community.”
Brownlee & De Long, “Louis I. Kahn, In the Realm of Architecture”, Rizzoli, New York, 1991: 94.

As a university, UPH by Kahn’s definition is also one of “the houses of inspirations”. Yet, by being such an exclusive, highly-secured compound on an already homogeneous Karawaci, what kind of inspiration does UPH seek to foster from its students, staff, and community? That university and its graduates should set themselves apart and away from the society?

Granted that UPH is a private university, but there are many private world-famous universities that share its facilities to the public. Even after 9/11, private universities in the US like Harvard and MIT still keep their doors open and unguarded. On my visit to these two institutions last October, I could stroll around the university compound, and entered some of their buildings and libraries without anyone asking me to show an ID. Even MIT’s relatively new Stata Building designed by Frank Gehry that housed the Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences was very accessible down to its private offices.

The strictest entry I encountered was to Harvard’s Fine Arts Library. It was secured by metal detectors and security guards at entry points to check whether or not one belonged to the university. This security measures, however, was due to the library’s connection to Fogg Art Museum that showcased valuable art works. Even so, when I, as an outsider, wanted to go inside the library, all I had to do was to check in at the front desk to get a guest tag, and I was allowed to roam the library for the whole day.

UPH should aim to do as Kahn maintained:

… Community making was also one of mankind’s – and the architect’s – chief responsibilities. … [He added:] “I don’t believe that society makes the man. I believe that man makes the society.”
Brownlee & De Long, “Louis I. Kahn, In the Realm of Architecture”, Rizzoli, New York, 1991: 94.

Likewise, university makes the society.

Let’s not leave universities to resemble this excerpt from Wikipedia:

“Bill Readings contends in his 1995 study The University in Ruins that the university around the world has been hopelessly commodified by globalization and the bureaucratic non-value of "excellence." His view is that the university will continue to linger on as an increasingly consumerist, ruined institution until or unless we are able to conceive of advanced education in transnational ways that can move beyond both the national subject and the corporate enterprise.”