The Legitimation of Inequality: Objective Scholarship vs. Black Militance.

Left-of-center criticism has emphasized the ties of the university to the industrial, war-making establishment and the consequent weakening of the university's role as remote, objective critic. But even when the university does function as a liberal ivory tower, it serves the societal elite as importantly as when it offers expertise and personnel to the industrial machine. The traditions of remoteness and scholarship make the university particularly effective in providing legitimation for the ongoing system of status inequalities. It is this service, grounded in the "objective" screening of students, that has brought the university into conflict with minority youth. The 1968 strike at San Francisco State College provides, an example of the development of this conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]