The World's Best University

I laugh when U.S. News tells me that my University is ranked 42nd, because I know their formula cannot quantify our strengths. Our University and its people need the audacity to believe in our potential influence on the direction of the world. This campus is an oasis. Ideas grow. People grow. This is the place that divides our lives. We enter as children, and emerge unrecognizable to our past.

We should walk with confidence in our balance. At the University of Chicago you would be forced into a narrow framework of constant intellectual pursuit. At the University of Arizona you would be compelled into partying and socializing. These things are harmful when not balanced by the other. Here we are given the opportunity to cultivate both our intellectual and social skills. This University allows us to craft ourselves at any point along the spectrum and it encourages the balance that forms a holistic person.

Many kids at Harvard and Yale believe they are more naturally intelligent than public school students. The arrogance that inevitably consumes students at those schools lulls them into complacency and laziness. Why work hard when you already think you're the best? I work until fatigue because I know that there are thousands of more intelligent students.

Here we can develop an eternal and insatiable lust for knowledge. But beyond that, we learn the pragmatic applications of knowledge. We learn how to change the world by putting ideas into reality, rather than allowing them to rest idly in the realm of thoughts. The greatest thinker is nothing without the pragmatic skills to bring his ideas and creativity to the common man. Plato tells us this in his "Allegory of the Cave."

Here we can sharpen our social and emotional intelligences. Much success in the real world has to do with getting along with diverse people. Our unpretentious and easy-going nature allows us to fit into any social situation.

Here we have a sense of all corners of the world. People from all races, religions, geography and wealth converge upon us to enliven our understanding.

The intelligence of our peers can be intimidating. But they fear us too, and if they don't then they should, because we're coming. They fear our balance between the intellectual and the social. They fear our acute pragmatism and ability to implement ideas.

I don't care what we are told, we can compete with anybody. This University has given me the confidence to fear no opponent. We should invite the Ivy League challenge as the chance to prove ourselves. We must maintain our fighting faith even when confronted by challenges that appear insurmountable.

We suffer from a lack of confidence. Many of us who come here were rejected by Northwestern, University of Chicago or Yale. This admissions complex has reinforced the idea that we aren't quite as good. We must reclaim the spirit of "self-reliance" and trust Ralph Waldo Emerson when he wrote, "The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."

Forget the admissions boards, because they don't know. But we will never know if we do not thrust ourselves upon the world with the belief that we have something to contribute to the procession of humanity. We must maintain confidence against continual assault that we alone decide our worth, not U.S. News and certainly not Harvard.

We should not be timid or arrogant - again a balance is called for. Lack of self-confidence is the only thing that prevents this University from permanently establishing itself as one of the greats. People tell us that we are second-rate and we have believed them. They are wrong. Run into the dark with confidence in the weapons you have forged here.

Billy Joe Mills is a graduating senior in LAS. He thanks his father, mother and friends for selfless help with his columns - farewell to the best friends a guy could hope for. He can be reached at opinions@dailyillini.com.

Martketplace of Monotony

~Published in the Daily Illini on May 1st, 2006

Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part series by columnist Billy Joe Mills on accusations of liberal professor bias on campus.

Imagine for a moment that 90 percent of University professors are conservative. They donate regularly to the Republican Party, they praise Bush and the Iraq war often in class, they set up public "debates" among themselves to promote conservative views on issues such as abortion, and they direct their research towards matters they wish to influence. How pathetic and lacking of diversity would this place be? How boring would it be? How uncomfortable would you be?

There is a great danger within today's universities. Conservative ideas are not given the opportunity to participate in academic debate, rather they are dismissed prima facie as illogical and not worthy of consideration. Just as we do not trust Bush's cabinet to regulate itself, neither should we trust academia to close its ears to the siren song of groupthink.

A fundamental ingredient in higher education is the free marketplace of ideas. Therein, differing ideas collide and conflict to fuse into a higher and more comprehensive version of truth. Nothing is more anti-intellectual than a public servant devoted to education who believes that both sides of an argument are not necessary.

Ironically, the liberal domination of academia threatens to lessen, not heighten, the influence of liberal thought in society. Many professors complain that the policy world ignores their prescriptions. By including conservatives in the campus debate the credibility of academia would be enhanced, thus giving it greater influence over the policy-making worlds of Springfield and Washington. Additionally, the thoughts coming from academia would be sharpened and refined through real debate.

The overwhelming liberal presence challenges me to summon a better argument. This domination threatens the academic vitality of liberal students more than conservatives. The danger is that liberal students are not presented the opportunity to hone their thoughts and substantiate their beliefs. Incestuous breeding creates an inferior genetic product.

There are some academics fighting valiantly and tirelessly for the cause I lay out, "At the heart of the educational benefits of diversity is that synergy between social and intellectual diversity as a medium for fostering a vibrant exchange of people and ideas. Let us commit ourselves individually to the idea that diversity will never be a second thought, but always at the core of the University of Illinois." This was spoken in November 2003 by former Chancellor Nancy Cantor who strongly supports diversity, just not the kind that challenges her prejudices and makes her feel uncomfortable. It is inconsistent to promote ethnic diversity because it enhances education, while also believing that the faculty's intellectual monotony does no damage to the sharpness of my education.

Political neutrality should not be legislated. This University should endorse an initiative to aggressively encourage, welcome and recruit conservative intellectuals. An op-ed invitation in the New York Times would be a good start. I call upon the elite of this University to voluntarily proclaim a new beginning. I ask that you open new pathways to those different than yourselves. I ask that you expand the ideals of the "progressive" to include the other half of America.

We are intellectually segregated. Conservative intellectuals reside in think tanks and at small Christian colleges, while liberal intellectuals dominate major universities. I hope the University of Illinois has the introspective courage to rejuvenate itself and to reaffirm its purpose.

Often during the tenure of an institution its mission becomes lost, obscured, or forgotten. Great universities were built upon an intriguing and rebellious idea. Education ought to occur in a plural and diverse community - a community of friendship which thrives in a state of tireless debate. Education is best advanced when invaded by intrusive and alarming thoughts.

Logic must exist under constant peril. The thoughts of our neighbors force us to devise more clever arguments. Such are the fertile conditions for mental inquiry and prosperity. Without these challenges ideas grow soft and stale and without competition they are assumed thoroughly true by their possessors. If a university strays from its original mission it endangers the intellectual vitality of all in the community, not just those who are excluded.

Billy Joe Mills is a senior in LAS. His column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at opinions@dailyillini.com.