The Alliance of Universities for Democracy: From Vision to Reality

Crucial junctures of human progress arrive infrequently in history, often only after long periods of deep human distress. The year 1989 was such a milestone, for it was then that the effectiveness of democracy was demonstrated in comparison to recent experiments in human governance. Within that context, the roles of universities could be reassessed and newly appreciated in all nations.

A major result of the failed experiments is the suppression of individual rights and the destruction of human initiative. Education of the individual citizens in these regions is the sine qua non for reformation and rejuvenation. In particular, higher education, contributing in its broadest functions, is an essential element for social reform and economic progress. It is in this spirit that this Alliance is conceived.

(Alliance of Universities for Democracy, 1990, p. 1)

Twenty-one years after these dynamic words were captured and celebrated in the preamble to the constitution framing the establishment of the Alliance of Universities for Democracy (AUDEM), the Alliance once again celebrates a significant milestone in its intellectual development—the launch of AUDEM: The International Journal of Higher Education and Democracy. The announcement and launch of the journal is greeted with great enthusiasm and anticipation, especially by those who have spoken eloquently and urgently over the years about the importance of a peer-reviewed product that would provide greater academic credibility and attract greater participation in the Alliance, both at its annual conferences and in its other deliberative activities. Yet, the journal is launched in an uncertain, indeed very difficult time globally for the academy—demographic change, educational reform, soaring educational costs, diminished revenues, the expansion of a for-profit system of higher education in both Europe and the United States, the strong emergence of e-learning, and increasing pressures for educational accountability to the public and the governments that carry the cost burden of education.

As AUDEM charts this new and forward-thinking initiative, it is also timely and appropriate to take a look back to reflect, however briefly, on the past 21 years in an attempt to secure the vision of those whose inspiration we applaud and carry forward with this journal.

The visible beginnings of AUDEM are documented as occurring in March 1990 with a “study tour” funded through a grant from the United States Information Agency (USIA) to the University of Tennessee for a select group of six Eastern European university rectors to visit the United States and see firsthand “the role of higher education in economic development” (From Marxist, 1990, p. 3). The countries represented by the rectors were Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, and Romania. The U.S. universities involved in the study tour were the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Indiana University, Bloomington; the University of Utah, Salt Lake City; and Chapman College, Orange County, CA. Much work occurred before this time, and in fact, the grant application to USIA was submitted before the world-altering collapse of communism in November 1989. The events of November 1989 simply provided increased opportunity and suggested a new urgency for the type of activity funded by USIA—the purposeful creation of democratic institutions and the development of market economies.

The U.S.-based founders of the Alliance and USIA grant awardees—Evans Roth, then University of Tennessee vice chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research, and David Hake, then director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee—shaped what emerged from the informal conversation of the 21-day study tour into the formation of AUDEM as an organizational entity. Optimistic about the future contributions of higher education to the new world order, the study tour participants sought ways in which they might continue their interaction once the formal tour concluded. The mission statement was drafted creating the Alliance as “an association of institutions of higher learning in Eastern Europe and the United States, formed to enhance the role of education in promoting democratic institutions, economic development including technology transfer, decentralized decision-making, and common moral and social values” (From Marxist, 1990, p. 4).

The broader framework for strategic development of AUDEM...