Animal Studies and Ody’s Journey

I grew up with dogs, cats and fish. I rode horses. My mother’s relatives in Ohio had farms. I like animals, and for whatever reason, most animals seem to like me. My first job as a teenager was working as a kennel assistant in a local animal hospital. I loved it and it was extraordinarily good…

On Shakespeare and Stoppard, on Reading and Recommending

Reading combines pleasure and utility, and does so elegantly. Whether curled up in a book or poring over a tome, thoughtful reading affords an extraordinary opportunity to engage while disengaging, to travel while staying still, and to connect while remaining alone. The gift of a book and the power of a thoughtful recommendation is much…

Cheap – A Liberal Arts Challenge

Ellen Ruppel Shell, Boston University journalism professor and author, is a smart and informed writer. In her latest book, Cheap: the high cost of discount culture, Shell looks at the rise of discount culture – discount shops, outlet malls, and the proliferation of the cheap.  Cheap, she takes pains to point out, is not the…

Necessary Lies

A well-crafted history arranges space and time into a set, frames a proscenium for our viewing, and knows when to raise the curtain and when to let it fall. It crafts order out of chaos; it conjures up beginnings, middles and ends where none exist, boxing up time, processing it and rendering it digestible. History…

How Now, Mission Statement?

What makes for institutional effectiveness?  If looking at a business organization, an array of well-recognized and well understood measures can answer the question.  Profitability, market share, growth, earnings per share – the list is exhaustive and recognized. The measures themselves are also constantly being tested, evaluated and critiqued, for the market provides multiple incentives to…

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…

Hacking Through Policy Thickets – Higher Education, Accreditation and Financial Aid

What’s the best way to support higher education? It’s a very tricky question to answer and in many ways, it’s almost as hard to figure out who to ask. The United States is without a national system for higher education. The government most certainly sets policy, but it does so without the clear agency one…