A community steeped in critical analysis, evaluation of information, and respectful debate can help move our world forward.
When I first started talking to members of the University community, many people I met mentioned what they described as the “the Rochester Way.”
I quickly learned that the Rochester Way was an approach to education that emphasizes analysis and the incorporation of information into the understanding of academic, social, and cultural challenges and an openness to listening to the perspectives of classmates, faculty members, and other scholars.
A graduate of Rochester, accordingly, doesn’t just know facts, dates, theories, and formulas. A Rochester graduate knows how to think independently, to analyze, and to ask and answer difficult but important questions.
As a scholar who has devoted my work to discovery, scholarship, and teaching, the Rochester Way resonated deeply with me and my hopes for every academic community where I have found a home.
Recently, though, there seem to be questions about whether the Rochester Way is still the way of our University—or of higher education in general. Media reports and opinion essays paint pictures of campuses captured by ideologies rather than driven by scholarship. The kind of campus described by some of those accounts would fail to be true universities, and they don’t represent what’s happening at Rochester.
Without robust debate, academic freedom, and the opportunity to pursue ideas honestly and authentically, our community would come to a standstill—intellectually, academically, socially, and morally.
We cannot create the kind of world we aspire to without graduates, community members, and citizens who can evaluate competing sources of information and appreciate that so much of our understanding comes in shades of gray. Despite what so many seem to want, the world and its challenges often don’t have a sharp contrast between easy and difficult or obviously right and obviously wrong. Our duty is to engage with one another, evaluate the evidence rigorously and honestly, and work together respectfully to move our world forward.
As the grounding ethos of our Boundless Possibility strategic plan, the Rochester Way is still the way of our University. We will advance our reputation as a national research university through our commitment to discovery that’s based on questioning, debate, experimentation, and analysis.
I would be naïve to imply that creating such a community comes easily. It requires leadership, the kind of value-oriented leadership team that we have at Rochester.
And it requires a diverse and engaged community. The rich differences of viewpoint, life experience, socioeconomic status, historical identity, and so many other individual aspects that allow us to thrive at Rochester—those attributes help each of us to analyze ideas and assumptions and to appreciate one another.
Bringing a diverse group of people together to live and learn is a hallmark of the residential and graduate education at Rochester. I’ve heard many alumni tell me that while the academics at Rochester were stellar, they learned just as much, if not sometimes more, from the experience of being on campus. Conversations with roommates, sometimes from other parts of the country or with differing politics or experiences, can help shape our understanding of the world. The same can be said for taking part in student government, being on athletic teams, or joining a club or social activity. The day-to-day interactions of working with classmates from other parts of the country or the world help expand how we imagine our individual futures and that of others in our communities.
At the beginning of this year, we introduced John Blackshear as our new vice president for student life. In that role, Vice President Blackshear will outline plans to build on our past, including the Rochester Way, while also extending our commitment to create an exceptional undergraduate and graduate student experience.
Our students will be prepared to appreciate and understand how to be critical, empathetic thinkers and how to be leaders in their communities and workplaces after graduation. As has long been the case, our campus is a microcosm of the political and social conversations playing out on a national stage. At a time when the world is beset with such strife and conflict, we can demonstrate how an academic community leads with its values.
Similarly, that’s why the plan seeks to invest in our research and scholarly endeavors, particularly empowering our students to put into practice their ideas for investigation and discovery.
We are a research university, after all, and introducing every Rochester student to the process of research, scholarship, and artistic creativity will equip them as citizens and community members.
We’re building an inviting and welcoming culture of innovation, of discovery, of rigorous and critical analysis that will guide us to an incredible future.
(Rochester Review, Spring 2024)