Why Studying the Academy is Important

Early in the quarter we were posed with the question “What is the purpose of studying the Academy?”  The Academy is regarded as the highest tier of learning, where intellectuals dissect meaning in the world and spend hours researching to help better humanity. Many students' goal is receiving that degree from the university for a better prospect in life The Academy is idealized, romanticized, and fictionalized. This place of learning, research, development, improvement, and thought is, however, not perfect. There are problems.

Tradition of white, upper-class male learning has long been ingrained in the Academy and remnants still remain today. We witnessed a story of sexism through Life in the Academy and stories of racism in From Oppression to Grace. Other prejudices, like religion and culture, are also present and even newer troubles, such as corporatization, retention, ethics, funding, etc…, play prevalent roles in the modern university. Many of these issues we would hope have been abolished, but through the personal accounts of academics and students, this is not true and little seems to have been done to combat these deeply ingrained bigotry and difficulties.

"It’s easier to act like these problems don’t exist." We can go about never addressing the issues. The trouble is that problems do exist and they need to be fixed. We need to find a solution to our issues, but why do we need solutions? "We could simply 'be,'" but we would never become better than who we are now. We need solutions to improve the quality of the Academy and develop the community as a whole, in terms of financial, racial, religious, cultural, ideological diversity. In light of recent events, the university wants to work together. We support each other, even if many of us come from literally all walks of life, and innately strive to do our best, the results of which benefits the whole university community as well as the city of Seattle, Washington state, United States, and even other countries.

Small parts add to a greater whole so our singular actions will influence the Academy. What we do will change how the Academy is perceived and how the Academy acts. By thinking about the Academy we will learn and begin to understand what we work for. We will know if our actions, which combine in the overarching order, are ethical, helpful, productive, and useful. This process allows us to learn about ourselves and this will prepare us for the future, so we can make the wisest decision for more situations. We think, we learn, we understand, and we act to make better changes for the future Academy.

The process cannot be static or a one-time event. "There is a tendency for institutions to not work well." We have to be continually aware, continually thinking, and continually improving to reach that better future. Interestingly, everyone in the group separately developed the idea of continuous awareness and collaborative solutions. To think that a business major, a computer science major, an astronomy and communications major, a computer science and math major, and someone who is still deciding separately developed this idea means that it is a universal necessity. Everyone needs to be conscious. It is not the responsibility of a single individual nor the effects of a single event. It is the conscious work of everyone's continual efforts that will create a better Academy.