UANT: A Vision for the Future
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Most university visions begin with an appelate such as 'our goal is to become...' or 'our goal is to grow by __ and __ numbers in terms of students, degreeholders, professors, pubished alumni...' with the purpose to become ever-greater in 'the future'. These kind of goals, mission statements and commitments are pegs by which a university satisfies the present pressure, from without and within, to 'become bigger, grosser and more worthy by doing so.' And more famed. That may be what brings fame, but this fame is ephemeral. It is not the end which we seek. It is not the philosophy of UANT.
This university was founded
by people not interested in profit, nor interested in prizes. Not
interested in conforming to political pressure, and not afraid of
it. Antarctica was and is a continent of dreams. It is also a continent
that while perhaps not playing a leading role in the world today,
is a symbol of cooperation and the possibility of a law-abiding,
research-based society operating in a hostile environment. The very
possibility for habitation on our continent was not even an option
until only recently, and this kind of organized overcoming
of environmental barriers is especially important now, when
human life is poised to spread more decisively onto uninhabited
land, sea and circumsolar space.
Weather experiment at UANT's UP Campus
It is from this that UANT's vision of the future develops. This university's job is to help educate people from around the world in the theory, idea and reality of the greater human future, which is even now forming, but which has the potential to be very bad, or very good. There are no in-betweens. Many on the faculty of UANT understand that the 'very bad' is right now much, much, more probable than the 'very good.' To ask about 'the Future' of UANT, is to ask about the future in general. To ask about what UANT is doing for that future, is to ask what is going on there this very day. The old saying, 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life,' is applied by this university to the life of humankind in the abstract- this day, tomorrow and the day after that. Our goal is for you to join in the quest to make today, tomorrow, and the days after... happier than those that came before. What IS the philosphy of UANT? It was best said by Hungarian professor Dennis Gabor: "The future cannot be predicted- but futures can be invented."
