The League of Nations buildings at Geneva might become a university where the youth of the world could learn to understand each other
Needed: A World University
BY SHELDON GLUECK
Professor of Law, Harvard University
Here’s a plan for destroying
prejudices which cause wars.
Our sixth Forecast for America
What the world needs today is assurance
that men’s wisdom will not fall short of
their aspirations in international affairs. The
people of the United Nations can advance
over uncertainty and suspicion only by a
continuous and honest effort to learn how
each member feels about mutual problems —
and why.
A few authorities who have reflected on the
matter feel that the quickest way to bring
about regular traffic in ideas and attitudes is
by establishing an international university.
To Be a Common Effort
This would be a school to which every nation
in the world could send instructors and
students. It would be a common intellectual
enterprise to break down the religious, racial
and cultural prejudices that breed hatreds
and wars.
The United Nations Charter is a remark
able document, but it cannot overcome these
prejudices by itself. It is a combination of
concessions, hopes and safeguards devised by
8
nations which do not understand each other
very well. Primarily, it is a legal code — new
and stiff — without the mellowness of famili
arity and precedent.
Few codes have operated successfully with
out a favorable psychologic foundation. It
would be a major function of the world uni
versity to provide a cultural climate favorable
to the United Nations organization.
To raise peoples’ understanding to the level
of their hopes would be the job of the inter
national university. It would examine the
ideas which have caused wars in our century
and clarify them. Socialism, Communism,
Capitalism, racism, democracy, aggression —
all the concepts which mean different things
to different people would be honestly refined.
They could then circulate, not as debased,
trouble-breeding coins, but as ideas which
have equal meaning and value for all peoples.
The site for a University of All Nations
fortunately is at hand: the League of
Nations buildings on the shores of Lake
Geneva .in Switzerland. There is ample
room for lecture halls and classrooms. Geneva,
a resort town, is full of hotels which could
probably serve as dormitories.
When the United Nations acquires the
Geneva site and equipment, a committee of
educators and statesmen should be appointed
to draft a detailed plan for the operation of
the university.
It would probably be wise to offer a regular
four-year course, leading to a degree that
would be acceptable to any university in the
world. Graduate study might be permitted,
and short courses for students whose time was
limited. Flexibility could be the rule, as long
as students grasped the fundamental effort
toward world understanding.
Might Use All Languages
Knglish and French would possibly be the
principal languages — as in the UN councils
— but courses could be conducted in other
languages as well.
Students would be selected in their native
countries and their governments might pay
their tuition, at least partially.
The top administrative positions in the
university could be rotated — say, every two
years — among the various countries.
With a governing board of leading educa
tors, a distinguished faculty and a student
body of several thousand alert young men
and women, the university would almost
certainly improve the intellectual and emo
tional climate of all nations. For the students
Dr. Glueck has a peace plan
would be devoted to the search for truth and
the disinfection of propaganda.
Within a short time they would exert a
powerful influence for international friendship,
based on a real understanding of the problems
of all the different peoples of the earth.
Graduates would number many thousands
and lasting individual friendships would have
been made. Since the students would return
to their homes as potential leaders of opinion
and framers of policy, their university experi
ence would greatly benefit their countries.
In fact, the various nations of the world
might require their foreign-office staffs to
spend periods of study at the university.
The establishment and endowment of
such a university would probably cost less
than the United States spent on the war in
one day. The returns in world understanding
and peaceful relations would be priceless.
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Robert .Moses on the future of our cities.
TW