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If you can remember anything about the 1960s, you weren't really
there, "so the saying goes, It may be true for those who spent their
college years in a haze of marijuana smoke. But there is one thing
everyone remembers about the 1960s: Going to college was the most
exciting and stimulating experience of your life
2 In the 1960s, California's colleges and universities had transformed
the state into the world's seventh largest economy. However
Berkeley, the University of California's main campus, was also
well-known for its student demonstrations and strikes, and its
atmosphere of political radicalism. When Ronald Reagan ran for
office as governor of California in 1966, he asked if Californians
would allow"a great university to be brought to its knees by a
noisy, dissident minority". The liberals replied that it was the ability
On university campuses in Europe, mas socialist or communist
movements gave rise to increasingly violent clashes between
the establishment and the college students, with their new and
assionate commitment to freedom and justice. Much of the
protest was about the Vietnam War. But in F
the Sorbonne in Paris managed to form an alliance with the trade
unions and to launch a general strike, which ultimately brought
about the resignation of Presidentde Gaulle
s It wasn't just the activism that characterized student life in the
1960s. Everywhere, going to college meant your first taste of real
freedom, of late nights in the dorm or in the Junior Common Room
discussing the meaning of life. You used to have to go to college
to read your first forbidden book, see your first indie film, or find
someone who shared your passion for Jimi Hendrix or Lenny Bruce.
It was a moment of unimaginable freedom, the most liberating in
our
But where's the passion today? What's the matter with college?
These days political, social and creative awakening seems to
happen not because of college, but in spite of it. Of course, it's true
that higher education is still important. For example, in the UK,
Minister Blair was close to achieving his aim of getting 50 per
cent of all under thirties into college by 2010(even though
