【正文】 da] problemssuccessfully or not.It might be tempting to think that an overly diversified academic munity would impedemunication among students and faculty. However, in my view any such concerns areunwarranted, especially considering the growing awareness of other peoples and cultureswhich the mass media, and especially the Internet, have created. Moreover, many basicprinciples used to solve enduring social problems know no national boundaries。 thus a usefulinsight or discovery can e from a researcher or student from any nation.Another pelling argument for a global university involves the increasingly global natureof certain problems. Consider, for instance, the depletion of atmospheric ozone, which haswanned the Earth to the point that it threatens the very survival of the human species. Also, weare now learning that dearcutting the world39。s rainforests can set into motion a chain of animal9extinction that threatens the delicate balance upon which all animalsincludinghumansdepend. Also consider that a financial crisisor a political crisis or natural disasterin one country can spell trouble for foreign panies, many of which are now multinational inthat they rely on the labor forces, equipment, and raw materials of other nations.Environmental, economic, and political problems such as these all carry grave socialconsequencesincreased crime, unemployment, insurrection, hunger, and so forth. Solvingthese problems requires global cooperationwhich a global university can facilitate.Notwithstanding the foregoing reasons why a global university would help solve many of ourmost pressing social problems, the establishment of such a university poses certain problemsof its own which must be addressed in order that the university can achieve its objectives. First,participant nations would need to overe a myriad of administrative and politicalimpediments. All nations would need to agree on which problems demand the university39。sattention and resources, which areas of academic research are worthwhile, as well asagreeing on policies and procedures for making, enforcing, and amending these decisions.Query whether a functional global university is politically feasible, given that sovereign nationsnaturally wish to advance their own agendas.A second problem inherent in establishing a global university involves the risk that certainintellectual and research avenues would bee officially sanctioned while others of equal orgreater potential value would be discouraged, or perhaps even proscribed. A telling example ofthe inherent danger of setting and enforcing official research priorities involves the Sovietgovernment39。s attempts during the 1920s to not only control the direction and the goals of itsscientists39。 research but also to distort the oute of that researchostensibly for the greatestgood of the greatest number of people. Not surprisingly, during this time period no significantscientific advances occurred under the auspices of the Soviet government. The Soviet lessonprovides an important caveat to administrators of a global university: Significant progress insolving pressing social problems requires an open mind to all sound ideas, approaches, andtheorieskrespective of the ideologies of their proponents.A final problem with a global university is that the world39。s preeminent intellectual talent mightbe drawn to the sorts of problems to which the university is charged with solving, whileparochial social problem go unsolved. While this is not reason enough not to establish a globaluniversity, it nevertheless is a concern that university administrators and participant nationsmust be aware of in allocating resources and intellectual talent.To sum up, given the increasingly global nature or the world39。s social problems, and theescalating costs of addressing these problems, a global university makes good sense. And,since all nations would have a mon interest in seeing this endeavor succeed, my intuitionis that participating nations would be able to overe whatever procedural and politicalobstacles that might stand in the way of success. As long as each nation is careful not toneglect its own unique social problems, and as long as the university39。s administrators arecareful to remain openminded about the legitimacy and potential value of various avenues ofintellectual inquiry and research, a global university might go along way toward solving manyof the world39。s pressing social problems.Issue 8Many of the world39。s lesserknown languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak10them. The governments of countries in which these languages are spoken should act toprevent such languages from being extinct.The speaker asserts that governments of countries where lesserknown languages arespoken should intervene to prevent these languages from being extinct. I agree inso far asa country39。s indigenous and distinct languages should not be abandoned and forgot tenaltogether. At some point, however, I think cultural identity should yield to the more practicalconsiderations of daytoday life in a global society.On the one hand, the indigenous language of any geographical region is partandparcel ofthe cultural heritage of the region39。s natives. In my observation we humans have a basicpsychological need for individual identity, which we define by way of our membership in distinctcultural groups. A culture defines itself in various waysby its unique traditions, rituals, mores,attitudes and beliefs, but especially language. Therefore, when a people39。s language beesextinct the result is a diminished sense of pride, dignity, and self worth.One need look no further than continental Europe to observe how people cling tenaciouslyto their distinct languages, despite the fact that there is no practical need for them anymore.And on the other side of the Atlantic Oce