Business and Higher Education: convergence or divergence

A truism about business quality is that an organization is only as good as its employees.  That is just about always the situation in higher education. Institutional reputation and effectiveness rests on the quality of faculty and staff, and is often determined by the quality of its students, who also serve as a proxy for…

On Cancelling Courses

I hate, truly hate, cancelling courses. A canceled course is more than an inconvenience. It is a failure, an unfulfilled idea, an unanswered question, a planned journey never taken. In my various roles in higher education I have had to cancel, or have been part of the decision to cancel, developmental courses, regular undergraduate courses,…

Tony Judt – difficult to forget

The 26 April 2012 issue of the London Review of Books contains a fascinating one-page piece on Tony Judt by Eric Hobsbawm. Amid the many remembrances, criticisms, and encomiums, Hobsbawm finds something different to say about Judt. Likening Judt to a crusading attorney or a bruising intellectual barrister, Hobsbawm’s characterization situates Judt’s intellectual journey. It…

High Class Problem

Stanford University. It’s stunningly attractive, wealthy, and chock full of extremely clever people. Talent attracts talent, quality begets quality. In higher education it usually takes many years to reach a critical mass that ensures long-standing appeal to the brainy and ambitious. Most institutions never make it. Stanford hit the mark decades ago and has continued…