What are we teaching in universities?

Undergraduate programs should address critical thinking so that students can address social problems.

Like many academics, I have been distressed to see many university students on beaches and bars. There have been reports of “Corona parties” in which knowingly infected students show up with the purpose of infecting others; the first student to test positive wins the entry fees collected at the party.

While I’d be the first to revel in a different kind of Corona as well, my recent days have been spent calming undergraduate anxiety (“Am I still gonna graduate on time?!”) and making a fruitless attempt to get my relucantly stay-at-home teens to read something other than captions on TikTok.

One of my first thoughts about Corona Spring Break Dude was, “That’s not my student.” An admittedly smug response, and it might be pie-in-the-sky, though I would hope that most students would have the analytical skills to avoid engaging in such reckless actions. While faculty cannot be held accountable for students’ decisions, by way of our academic disciplines, we can help them to make informed ones.

At least one well-known university president has suggested that universities maintain responsibility for the moral development of students. However, it is clear that public universities, in particular, have separated knowledge from values and moralities (faith-based universities being the exception).

General discourse in public institutions infer that it is inappropriate for faculty to consider ourselves responsible for the moral development of undergraduate students; this work is delegated to family and friends, and is largely a personal issue.

Yet universities are a venue for learning and practicing critical thinking, and this is an entirely non-moralistic or value-laden practice. For example, in my third-year Communication Ethics course, there is often no “right or wrong” answer to an ethical conundrum. There are simply “less-right” or “more-wrong” answers.

Discussion between and amongst students online and in class can sometimes lead students to address issues of morality, though what is most important is thinking carefully and critically about issues presented in class. We can consider how our actions impact others, what it means to care, and how to best entertain “what if?” scenarios. Because often “what if?” becomes “what now?”

COVID-19 does not discriminate amongst academic disciplines. Those in sciences will understand the spread of viruses and biological impacts of epidemics. Students in engineering can articulate the complexities in designing and constructing tools in healthcare settings. Social science students can address how best to share, disseminate, and make sense of our individual and group challenges. Business students can help communicate how small and large organizations may suffer, prosper, and help one another throughout this challenge. Arts and humanities students can put our current struggle in historical context and help to share art that is therapeutic and informative.

Critical thinking is the hallmark of university education. It remains our responsibility to help students think, reflect, and examine their own choices and behaviour.