The university and its publics: the University of Illinois from progressivism to globalism

Gietzen, Garett

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Description

Title

The university and its publics: the University of Illinois from progressivism to globalism

Author(s)

Gietzen, Garett

Issue Date

2015-01-21

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Cain, Timothy R.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Higgins, Chris

Committee Member(s)

• Cain, Timothy R.
• Peters, Michael A.
• Pak, Yoon

Department of Study

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• history of education
• higher education
• University of Illinois

Abstract

The modern university is a public institution. Its teaching, research and service mission all intersect with the public, and the public often serves as the source of its legitimacy, governance and support. The precise nature of the relationship between the university and the public is variable, something that changes over time and differs between institutions. However, regardless of historical and institutional contingencies, questions about the university and the public are of essential importance because they are about the university’s very place in society. This dissertation explicates some of the ways in which the question of the university and the public has been answered. It does so through an analysis of how the relationship between the university and the public was formulated and articulated by three University of Illinois presidents: David Kinley (1920-1930), George D. Stoddard (1946-1953) and B. Joseph White (2005-2009). It places their formulations of the university, its public credentials, and its contribution to the public in their respective historical contexts—the Progressive Era and interwar years, the immediate post-World War II period, and the first decade of the twenty-first century—as well as within the context of the University of Illinois, its immediate environment, and higher education in the United States in a broad sense. By doing so, this dissertation demonstrates how ideas about the relationship between the university and the public corresponded to their historical circumstances, discerning the conditions that influenced changes in how the university’s public nature was described. It shows how some formulations of the university-public relationship remained viable, whereas others changed over time. It reveals that the most resilient aspects of the university’s public credentials were those that related to its economic character, while those associated with its political qualities declined significantly over time.

Graduation Semester

2014-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/73005

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2014 Garett Gietzen

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