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New Challenges in New Situation

By Australian SCM

Current Ideological Climate

The ideological climate of all Australian universities has been indelibly altered by the effects of the end of the Cold War and the subsequent discrediting of Marxism and socialism through the demise of communism in Europe.

The effect of the fall of communism has left Australian campuses with an inherent skepticism about the ideological tenets of the left and has hastened a shift to the right in both our campuses' politics and in our governments. The practical effect of this has been a shift towards economic rationalism, that is, the notion that most things revolve around a cost-benefit analysis. Increasingly, even things such as welfare and education are being forced to follow an economic model of rationalism. This shift to the right has had an enormous effect on our campuses, especially for students in states with conservative governments, as now universities are seen to be business adventures, and have to make a profit in order to survive. Such an outlook has manifested itself in the aggressive targeting of foreign students, particularly from Asia, as they provide a solid income for universities. Such an outlook has caused concern in the community, with many fearing that Australian students are missing university education at the expense of Asian

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students who can afford to pay for places. Unfortunately, these attitudes further anti-Asian sentiments in Australia and are used to justify racist ideologies in our society.

The shift to the right in governmental attitudes towards universities has resulted in an increasing burden on students to contribute financially towards their education, with full fees looming ominously in the future. Traditionally, Australian students have received free university education since the late 1960s, when the Whitlam Labor Government abolished full fees. However, in 1990, the Hawke Labor Government introduced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme whereby students were forced to pay around three thousand dollars a year for their education but have the option of paying it after they complete their education. This move to the right by a left wing party indicates the extent of the influence of economic rationalism in Australia.

As a contrast, student politics are predominantly very left wing. Students are not very politicized though and the political inclinations of student leaders are not representative of the attitudes of students as a group. As Australian students do not have imminent issues of moral and political magnitude presently affecting our lives as we did in the 1960s (with the effects of the Vietnam War, etc.), we have become politically apathetic.

Having said this though, there are many areas of social activism that Australian campuses have championed. Universities insist on the use of gender inclusive language and are at the forefront of pro-active stances towards its use in our society. Environmental issues have also been championed as being of vital importance in our campuses. The argument concerning political correctness has also been one of the major ideological stepping-stones of recent years in university culture and highlights the conflict between the more conservative and the

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more progressive elements in our society. Over all though, liberal groups on campuses have become increasingly alienated, with the number of conservative groups burgeoning.

Current Intellectual Climate

Because of this swing to the right, and because of economic exigencies, university education is increasingly being seen as job' training rather than a general education as it has been in the past. Students no longer go to university to find themselves, rather they go in order to train themselves for a particular job and have little scope for activity at university other than the scholastic. Students have become increasingly less interested in reflecting and analyzing what they are learning, rather they are focusing merely on learning what they have to in order to get a good mark. This is to some degree representative of the entire economic structure of the society that Australia now is, but this obsession with merely learning what one has to, without time for critical reflection will have amazing ramifications on Australia's future base of intellectuals and on the flavor of attitudes of the educated in our society.

The influence of more newly established universities is eroding the class basis and reputation of many of our older universities, such as the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney. Universities established in the 1960s such as the University of New South Wales and Monash University is severely challenging the positions of the more elitist campuses, which are being outclassed by many of the newer campuses.

Current Spiritual Climate

The biggest religious influence on Australian campuses is the ever-growing fundamentalism. Evangelical groups, emphasizing biblical literalism are the most dominant Christian groups on campus, dwarfing the other groups in size and in financial

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backing. The ASCM obviously feels very isolated from the narrow theology espoused by these groups whose locus is conversion.

The scale of the influence of these fundamentalist groups’ means that they set the agenda for what Christianity is defined on campuses. Evangelical groups are perceived by the majority of the university community as being the definitive statement of what Christianity is. The judgmental attitudes of these groups towards those outside their fold leave little tolerance for any Christian group on campus. The challenge for the ASCM therefore is to define ourselves independently of the fundamentalist groups, rather than asserting our identity with reference against the fundamentalist groups.

The cutting theological issues for the ASCM are as follows:

• women’s issues and projects;

• ecology and development;

• anti-racism projects, human rights issues;

• queer theology (including church relationships with gays, lesbians, etc.);

• creative spirituality, liturgy;

• inter-faith dialogue;

• ecumenical relationships, with the IMCS, NCCA and other groups; and

• churches' involvement on campus (increasingly Australian churches are pulling out of the campuses as they don't have a clear idea of what they want to achieve on our campuses and don't see universities as a major priority).