Introduction: The Unity of Departmental and University
Missions
"Once upon a time some four thousand miles east of
this place, I saw the functioning of a perfect system of
education. It was in West Africa, beside a broad river....
Education was completely integrated with life. There could
be no uneducated people. There could be no education that
was not at once for use in earning a living and for use
in living a life. Out of this education and out of the
life it typified came, as perfect expressions, song and
dance and saga, ethics and religion. ... Nothing more perfect
has been invented than this system of training youth among
primitive African tribes. (Du Bois 1973, 83,84)
Du Bois projected an ancient African ideal of education
as a model even for contemporary university education.
In his vision, destroying the link between Africa and African
America would annihilate the African American. Writing
about the role of the historically black college or university
in the 1930's, Du Bois said the African American institution
of higher learning should be founded on a knowledge of
the history of their people in Africa and in the United
States, and their present condition. Without white-washing
or translating wish into fact, it begins with that; and
then it asks how shall these young men and women be trained
to earn a living and live a life under the circumstances
in which they find themselves or with such changing of
those circumstances as time and work and determination
will permit (Du Bois 1986, 1012).
The department also looks to Alain Locke for guidance.
The first African American Rhodes Scholar and the first
Black Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard, Locke joined the
faculty at Howard University nearly a century ago, and
he continues to be the most influential member in the history
of the department. Searching for new methods of education,
Locke argued that contemporary education is in a state
of disintegration: "unless some revitalizing integration
is soon attained, ...a breakdown of the culture itself
may be anticipated." (Locke 1989, 265).
Both Locke and Du Bois were keenly aware of the virtues
of Howard's motto: veritas et utilitas, truth and usefulness.
The philosophy department at Howard looks to their inspiration
for the future. In particular the department seeks ways
to connect philosophy to all other subjects offered by
the university. It also tries to connect what students
do at Howard with what they will be doing for the rest
of their lives. The department focuses on the roles philosophy
might play in averting the "breakdown of the culture
itself" that Locke feared.
We look at the university through Du Bois' eyes. As he
puts it, the "university must become not simply a
center of knowledge but a center of applied knowledge and
guide of action" (Du Bois 1986, 1015). Together with
the rest of the Howard University community, the department
aims at solving problems that are particularly troublesome
to the African American communities, as these communities
have made Howard's existence possible for over a century
now.
Howard's solution of such problems will have beneficial
consequences for all the communities of the United States.
Du Bois argues that the task of the African American university
is to "emancipate not simply the black folk of the
United States, but those white folk who in their effort
to suppress [African Americans] have killed their own culture" (Du
Bois 1986, 1017).
The department finds its mission in the larger context
of the university's mission: to solve pressing problems
that trouble the communities that make Howard possible.
No other university has Howard's resources, responsibility,
and resolve to address these problems. Because Howard addresses
problems in ways that no other institution can, we need
excellence at Howard not just for the sake of excellence,
but to fulfill our responsibilities.
Howard must have an institutional ethos that justifies
Howard as a research university. We require total commitment
from faculty, students, and staff on this point: we do
research because we must solve problems. Research is the
art of problem solving. Howard's problems range from the
highly theoretical to the immediately concrete. A powerful
university recognizes no real separation between these
extremes.
We should be able to ask every faculty member and student:
what is your problem? Why is it your problem? Who else
has worked on it? How have they failed? What new direction
are you taking? What new problems will your solution create?
The department encourages students in its introductory
classes to realize that every course they take at Howard
is designed to solve a problem, and that their responsibility
as Howard students is to select a problem at least by the
start of their junior years and to take major steps along
the way to solving it by the end of their senior years.
The department tries to orient its courses to the context
of Howard's history. What problems has Howard already solved
(with special emphasis on Howard's greatest success in
civil rights issues)? What problems does Howard now address?
What is the status of their solutions? What problems should
Howard address in the future? If students see Howard faculty
engaged in solving problems, then they can help Howard
accomplish its two-fold mission: to solve problems, and
make it possible for its students to make this art their
life-long passion.
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