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THE UNIVERSITY, ITS IDEAS, AND ITS DISCONTENTSThere is perhaps no more intellectually courageous act than for an established scholar to submit an essay for review and critique by a cohort of individuals in an interdisciplinary doctoral program. It is through this frame that Dr. Joseph Pittʼs submission of his essay, "On the Idea of the University," to this issue of SPECTRA must The first response by Shien-Hauh Leu embodies the core of the ASPECT communityʼs critical orientation by questioning the very concept of "the university" as presented by Pitt. Instead of accepting Pittʼs premise of the university, Leu illustrates the dubious and often retroactive intellectual and social practices that are necessary to perpetuate the myth of an ideal university that is home to, and guardian of, a knowledge that is in need of perpetuation. By tracing the post Civil-War history of the American university, the standards of assessment that riddle its contemporary manifestations, and the "tripartite relationship" between students, faculty and "the fantasy of pure
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