ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the educational leadership of Noah Porter, moral philosopher and president of Yale College from 1871 to 1886. Religion and education were profoundly important and interdependent in Porter's life from a very early age. During an age of tremendous expansion in higher education, Porter resisted the rise of the new research university, claiming that an eager embrace of its ideals would corrupt undergraduate education. The chapter argues that he was not a simple-minded reactionary, uncritically committed to tradition, but a principled and selective conservative. Porter did not endorse everything old or reject everything new; rather, he sought to apply long-established ethical and pedagogical principles to a rapidly changing culture. Porter may have misunderstood some of the challenges of his time, but the chapter argues that he correctly anticipated the enduring tensions that have accompanied the emergence and growth of the modern university.
