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\F2\CARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CCOMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F0

\CApril 11, 1973

Professor Wm. Miller
Provost's Office
Building 10


Dear Bill,

\J	I have been thinking about our conversation after the faculty
meeting, and it seems to me that some considerations  may  have  been
missed with regard to the non-growth of Stanford.

	1. Agreed that the student population has stopped growing for
a long while and so teaching hours in the universities ought  not  to
grow much.

	2.  However,  the  number of people capable of doing research
work and interested in doing so will continue  to  grow  linearly  in
time.

	3. There is probably a continued national payoff in research.
The  present  administration  is  committed  to  expanding   research
especially  after their current budget freezing exercise is over, and
the Democrats are even more likely to do so if they get in.

	4. Therefore, the mix of activity  of  science  PhDs  in  the
United States is likely to shift in the direction of research.

	5.  As institutions for doing research, the universities will
continue to have all the advantages they have ever had - contact with
graduate  students  and  a  more rigorous personnel policy than other
research institutions.  Here I refer to the effort  put  into  tenure
decisions.

	6.  Therefore,  it  is reasonable to consider the possibility
that Stanford should continue to expand more or less linearly in time
in  the  sciences, but that its emphasis should shift in the research
direction.

	7. This can be done on soft money  with  research  associates
and  senior  research associates.  It would require giving additional
thought to the position of senior research  associate  -  a  position
without   tenure   but  with  the  privilege  of  being  a  principal
investigator. Incidentally, I plan  to  propose  Dave  Luckham  as  a
senior research associate.

	8.  To  continue  to  expand in research without expansion in
senior people will lead to anomalies and distortions if  it  goes  on
for long. Namely, new areas will not be entered or will be entered in
the name of people who are not the originators of the ideas  and  the
driving forces of the projects.\.
 
						Sincerely yours,
                                         


						John McCarthy