David Peat

166 From Certainty to Uncertaintyarchitecture complements its function. Universities are enclosed orders,a group of buildings clustered around a central grassy courtyard.They were built as places where people could gather together to reflecton knowledge. Leaving the noise and bustle of the town outside theybecame islands of tranquility that prized the excellence of scholarship.A variety of different subjects were taught in the colleges. These wereplaces where people could study, live, and eat together. Scientists, philosophers,theologians, and those in the humanities could meet dailyat dinner and consider, debate, and reflect on issues of knowledge,morals, ethics, and the condition of society. As the economist ArthurCordell puts it, universities were the flywheels that damped out themore eccentric oscillations of society. Universities were places wherenew ideas could be tested. They were free from censorship and bias.They were the debating society for national and global issues. If theuncertainties of ecology were to be resolved, then this would occurwithin the university. That was the grand vision. That’s how thingswere supposed to be before dreams came crashing down around usand glass and concrete knowledge factories were built.The first universities grew out of early medieval studia generaliaand developed into corporations of students and masters, with groupsof lodgings for scholars from all over Europe. In 1135, for example, thephilosopher Peter Abelard moved to Monte Sainte Genevieve. Soonsome of the greatest minds in Europe came to settle on the left bank ofthe river Seine to hear him lecture. The University of Paris was bornout of this informal congregation of scholars’ lodgings. Such early universitieswere given charters by kings or popes to make them totallyself-governing and free from the laws of the town and country. Scholarswere free to teach and to question. The great universities were a freeand independent haven for learning, and acted as repositories ofknowledge.Today education, in the United States at least, has become big business.Students are viewed as clients who demand efficiency and costeffectivenessfrom their courses. A university degree is supposed toopen the door to a better-paying job by emphasizing skills and abilitiesrelated to jobs and professions. Universities compete for the studentmarket and are managed like any other corporation in terms of effi-