BY MATTHEW BOEDY
You may remember several years ago a phenomenon called “the last lecture.”
It began with the heartbreaking story of Randy Pausch, who was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with cancer and literally gave his last lecture in September 2007. That became a book in 2008 that sold millions. Pausch died that July. (His coauthor died in 2012.) During that moment in our culture, one psychiatry faculty member suggested that everyone write such a lecture.
Then, professors who were set to retire started doing their own last lectures. Then, others not retiring started delivering lectures of this genre. Here is a series of such lectures from Stanford Business School.
The phenomenon continues to this day.
Today many of our colleagues are giving their last lecture because of austerity cuts in higher education.
Colleagues across the nation from Connecticut, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Georgia, among other states, are facing this moment with dignity like those who faced death.
Though, for some, the dignity comes with a deep irony: there is a ‘last lecture’ series at the University of North Carolina Greensboro where the administration has decided on cuts to twenty programs. There is also a “last lecture” series at the University of Connecticut, where cuts also will be deep.
If you haven’t ever heard a “last lecture,” most are about individual accomplishments and personal or professional values. Some have been framed for students as the last lecture they would hear. One example of this theme from Stanford Business School was titled “If Not You, Then Who?” by Allison Kluger, a lecturer in management.
I wrote before about putting democracy on the syllabus and in the community. Now is the time to put democracy in the lecture.
I ask you to consider Allison’s question. If not you, who? Who will stand up for programs attacked by politicians when faculty have been silenced, reassigned, or left? If not you, who?
Who will speak for the contingent lecturers, the almost-tenured, the part-time teacher if not you, the tenured and (a bit more) secure?
Who will study budgets, make cases to the provost, if not faculty? If not you, then who?
Recently faculty groups have been organizing, some even forming unions. To many, though, in politically conservative states, collective bargaining isn’t possible. Yet that only tells me these places need organizing even more. If not you, then who?
Who will persuade lawmakers that funding means student success? If not you, who?
Now all of this labor work obviously is not a lecture. But imagine if higher education were the topic of your last lecture. What would you say? And why would you be giving it? Would you be the last person of your discipline in your department? On your campus?
The last lecture comes for us all. Sooner rather than later for some.
Is there any way to forestall last lectures through the genre of lectures?
A colleague at UMass Amherst, Asheesh Kapur Siddique, offered this advice on Twitter (aka X): “I’m teaching the department’s ‘introduction to the discipline of history’ for undergrad majors course. The overarching theme is why the discipline is in crisis.”
As I noted with an earlier post about putting democracy on the syllabus, it may be one day or one lecture. But aim to put democracy in the lecture in some manner.
It is no longer sufficient to merely teach, serve, and publish in our own higher education silo. To keep our ability to do that—to have that academic freedom—we have to teach, serve, and publish on the freedom needed for higher education. In other words, the best way to save higher education is to save democracy.
If not you, then who? If not us, then it won’t be anybody else.
Contributing editor Matthew Boedy is the Georgia AAUP president and professor at the University of North Georgia. He is on Twitter or X @matthewboedy.
