Who Are Members of the University Community

HE topic assigned to me, when I first came to consider it carefully, reminded me of Ambrose Bierce's definition of hash: "Nobody knows what hash is."'The simple answer to our question is similar: No one knows who are members of the university community; neither are we likely to know soon.I will try to explain briefly why this is so, and what it means to relations between universities and students. THE USES OF "COMMUNITY" IN THE UNIVERSITYThe question posed by the title is obviously not irrelevant in discourse of this kind.As most of us know, "community" is a wellused word in academ6.It is especially common in certain critical sections of university catalogs and student handbooks.For example: 33.Basis for Discipline.The University reserves the right to exclude at any time students whose conduct is deemed undesirable or prejudicial to the University community's best interest .... 2 Or:The rules which are included in this booklet are not static and immutable.They are constantly being evaluated and revised to remain responsive to the needs of the University community.3 These examples are typical of many others.Behind such references lies a long-standing idealthe university as a "community of scholars"that is cherished by present day academics despite their institution's size and internal diversity.As one former chancellor at Berkeley put it: "Our university house has many mansions.Though the dwellers therein speak in tongues of their specializations, they belong to a single community of scholarly endeavor."He went on to add: "Whatever impedes, adulterates, or thwarts that endeavor is a menace to the mission of the community."4 Such notions frequently imply that "scholars" and others in the university do in fact share a substantial measure of agreement on