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Andy Polaine is certainly right that specialized structure in universities makes broad and integrative work difficult or impossible and education around broad themes is the main way I can see for reviving the remains of liberal education. I don't believe, however, that the only reason for disciplinary differences being reflected in university structure is tradition and lack of imagination. I am by temperament and interest and academic Wobbly* but my experience is that university professors treat each other with an odd mix of undue deference and barely masked contempt. In organizational schemes where neither disciplinary focus nor a strong common goal is present, that problem seems to be worse. Whether based in valid and reasonable observation, disciplinary bigotries, or egocentric myopia, much of the university considers much of the rest of the university to be a waste of funds. Left to governance decisions, however, most faculties will protect the status quo, if only to assure the preservation of their part of the status quo. It would be a rare faculty that would demonstrate that anything other than "top-down, command-and-control" governance made sense. One of the several reasons that a system of silos has evolved is that it is an easier structure for the assurance of quality. An aid and development worker or designer dealing with the problems of refugees will not judge the quality of the work of a sociologist in the same way that sociologists might, or health workers in the same way that public health researchers might. One can argue that other qualities would and should be better represented but important standards of excellence would be lost. (I am, BTW, not a demonstration of successful climbing of highly-structured institutional ladders nor a defender of or believer in current university structures.) Gunnar ---------- Gunnar Swanson Design Office 1901 East 6th Street Greenville NC 27858 USA [log in to unmask] +1 252 258 7006 http://www.gunnarswanson.com *For anyone not familiar with labor union history, the Industrial Workers of the World, AKA the Wobblies, were a labor union that was inclusive when other unions were not and had the goal of "one big union" that would represent all of the working class of the world.