Thoughts on California…

It was good to be back in my native state last week. In spite of the drought, Pasadena had that certain lushness that no doubt enhances a Caltech education for those lucky undergraduates. That said, the traffic was as terrible as its ever been and my aggressive use of the carpool lanes was pretty much continuous.

As a state, California seems to be getting its act together again about public higher education. To my mind, investing tax dollars in the UC system is a no-brainer–it’s still the flagship of flagships among its brethren. If the Golden State can protect that golden egg, I think its future economy is going to be in really excellent shape.

On the private side, increasingly USC is comparable and complementary to Stanford. And of course Caltech is in a league of its own.

Nicholas Lemann’s vision for the American Research University….

He is the dean of journalism at Columbia and his important long piece is here, from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

There are many excellent points in the article, not the least of which is that very few academic leaders focus on actually making the case for the research to the stakeholders of US research universities. The other interesting insight is that tenured faculty self-identify on the basis of their discipline rather than their employer (e.g. I am a neuroscientist, not I work for George Mason University). I believe this, and I’m guessing that it creates an ersatz dialectic between the talent (the faculty) and their employer which works against making the larger case.

So I would say this is an excellent read. I hope it’s read by many college presidents.