To the Editor:
(Bowdoin College) President (Barry) Mills was playing golf on a local course. He was confronted by a fellow golfer, a businessman who volunteered that he had no intention of giving money to Bowdoin.
The reasons for the dissatisfaction were unclear. Presumably, they were a version of the charge that Bowdoin’s courses are unrealistically liberal. But they may also be challenging the concept of academic freedom.
This controversy has had a long life. The businessman can ask, “What is going on behind those closed doors?”
The college president must answer, “The teacher’s classroom is his property.” That is “academic freedom.”
The businessman will answer: “Anything that private can hide the subversive.”
Just the distinction between liberal arts and academic freedom is hard to pin down. Harvard Business School’s teaching of “Moby Dick” has many valuable lessons in human relations, but the book’s place in the liberal arts is secure.
Richard Chapin
Georgetown
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