CAMPUS

From Animal House to the Academy

The moment I opened the front cover of From Animal House to the Academy, I knew I was about to fall in love. Jeffrey Langan’s new book opens with a quote from Pascal’s Pensees, one of my all-time favorite philosophical works and the best argument I have ever seen for an existence that extends beyond what we can see, touch, or hear. Professor Langan’s book is brilliant in that it argues that colleges should not just be concerned with educating students for successful life in the workforce while giving them the cliched “college experience” that so many use to “find themselves.” Instead, Jeff argues that colleges need to also concern themselves with the souls of their students, enabling them to see a more complete truth than they ever could have imagined.

Professor Langan, in making his argument, retains the notion that colleges need to prepare students to succeed in a business environment. In fact, I would say that Professor Langan is certainly a professor who feels that parts of the “college experience” are overrated. Professor Langan’s father invited me to visit his home in Detroit this summer while I was working in the Midwest. While we were eating breakfast at Denny’s one morning, Jeff’s father challenged me to “five dollar trivia,” during which he grilled me on historical events, dates, and classical literature (giving me five dollars every time I got a question right). Langan is in much the same tradition as his father, a realist who expects colleges to turn out successful professionals while looking after the religious development of students.

This is what makes Langan’s book so compelling. Seeped in reality, Langan understands that there should be a relationship between academic development and human development. Perhaps even more compelling is the fact that Langan can hardly take credit for being the “author” of the book. It was really written by the hundreds of graduating seniors that Langan has taught, mentored, and befriended during his time at Notre Dame and Holy Cross. Langan and I disagree on many subjects, but I strongly believe that he did an excellent job compiling this work and would encourage everyone to give it a read. Please stay tuned for a book review by one of our contributing writers.

You may find the book here and Chris Spellman’s review here.