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C00002 00002	THE GOALS OF THE UNIVERSITY AND THE GOALS OF ITS INHABITANTS
C00011 00003		1.  The  country  needs  more  research in order to solve its
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THE GOALS OF THE UNIVERSITY AND THE GOALS OF ITS INHABITANTS


	Stanford  University  includes a variety of people pursuing a
variety of goals.  Besides the goals of the individuals  in  it,  the
University  as  an institution has its own goals and it is responsive
to  the  goals  of  other  institutions  such  as   the   government,
foundations, etc.  Until recently, it has been expanding rapidly, but
now the same kind  of  expansion  of  universities  cannot  continue,
because  the  expansion has outrun the resources available to support
it and the growth of the student population it serves.   The  purpose
of  this  paper  is  to  explore the alternative futures available to
Stanford and to make some recommendations.

	We shall consider the following groups of people:

	1. Faculty.  We shall further divide the faculty  into  those
who  do  research  in order to live and those who live in order to do
research.  Judging from the complaints of  the  various  groups,  the
former  are  concentrated in the humanities and the latter in science
and engineering, but certainly all departments have some of each.

	2. Undergraduate students.  We shall divide these into  those
with  specific  educational  goals, i.e. who would like to learn what
they have come here to learn as quickly as possible and then do  what
they  have  learned)  and those who are here because this seems to be
the most pleasant and interesting place to be  for  the  time  being.
They  will  leave  when  they  get  tired  of  the  place or when the
institution forces them to leave.

	3. Graduate students.  We divide them  in  the  same  way  we
divide the undergraduates.

	4.     Non-faculty  researchers.     We also divide them into
researchers to live and livers to do research.

	5. Other employees.  We consider them as wanting good  wages,
working conditions, and professional opportunities.

	Now  consider  the goals of the University as an institution.
The administration of the University are hired to pursue these goals,
the  Trustees  are supposed to pursue these goals as a kind of hobby,
and the faculty and staff are supposed to orient their careers toward
the  fact  that the University is pursuing these goals. Nevertheless,
we shall distinguish the goals of the University  from  the  personal
goals  of  any  of  the individuals in it, and we consider that these
goals are at least as real as the individual goals,  because  we  all
implicitly  or  explicitly pursue our individual goals in the context
of our idea of the institutional goals.

	The University's goals are the following:

	1. Giving young people a liberal education that  will  awaken
their  intellects,  refine  their  sensibilities,  and teach them the
general wisdom of humanity.

	2.   To  teach  undergraduate,  professional,  and   graduate
students what they need to know to pursue their professions.

	3. To teach students what they want to know without regard to
what other social purpose it serves.

	4. To advance knowledge as part of satisfying the  collective
curiosity of the human race.  I suppose this formulation is new, but
it seems to me to be the  basis  for  support  of  pure  mathematics,
humanities research and other basic research in proportions different
from those that might optimize potential  applications.    Admittedly
there  is  also an element of compromise between social goals and the
individual goals of the professors in determining this balance.

	5. To discover facts that will  help  humanity  live  better,
i.e.   will  benefit  people apart from the benefit they might derive
from learning the facts in question.

	6. To be a pleasant place to study, work, and live.

	It  is customary for administrators to claim that these goals
all require each other.  The most common example of this is that when
someone  claims  that the undergraduates are being neglected in favor
of faculty research,  the  counterclaim  is  made  that  research  is
necessary in order that the faculty will know what the undergraduates
want to learn.  The claim is surely true to an important extent,  but
no  one  of  the  goals  would  in  itself justify the proportions of
resources allocated by the University.  If research  were  considered
valuable only in so far as it contributed to undergraduate education,
Stanford would do well to change considerably, and I would do well to
leave.

	The  balance  among  the  goals  is  determined by tradition,
considerations of the needs of the country, the need to defer to  the
goals  of  the subgroups that comprise the University in order to get
them to support the goals of the University,  and  direct  bargaining
among the advocates of the different goals.

	1. The government's goals are varied.

		a.  First  of  all,  the universities are a political
constituency, and  the  government  is  somewhat  responsive  to  its
requests  irrespective of what other goals they satisfy.  This is not
explicitly admitted, so its effect  is  mainly  to  modify  government
programs rather than to provide the sole justification for them.

	2. The government has goals that parallel some of those ascribed
to the university - advancing pure and applied research and advancing
education.  Different parts of the government have responsibility to
different goals.

	3. To provide for the defense of the country by keeping it
ahead in military technology.
	1.  The  country  needs  more  research in order to solve its
practical problems.

	2.  The country doesn't  need  many  more  college  teachers,
because the student population has stopped increasing.

	3.  The  number  of  people  who  want to do research and are
qualified to to so will continue to expand.

	4.  Therefore, either the country is going to have to  expand
and  build  research  institutions  other  than  universities  or the
universities are going  to  have  to  increase  the  ratio  of  their
activities devoted to research.

	5.  The  universities are good places to do research, because
they are here and because graduate students do research and should be
selected by research leaders for their ability to do it.

	6.  The  government's  current way of financing research does
not provide the stability universities are used  to  providing  their
permanent employees.

	7. Therefore, either the university should allow the creation
and disappearance of ephemeral research empires or  it  should  raise
some  resources  for  endowing  the  core of its research institutes.
Perhaps there should be senior research  associates  with  tenure  or
departments  should be allowed to build faculty beyond their teaching
requirements.  The latter is the simpler.

	8.  There is much less need to expand the faculties  that  do
research to live than to expand those who live to do research.

	9.   The  real  differences  between  the  sciences  and  the
humanities with regard to research have been blurred by the  need  to
keep peace in the faculties.  This blurring has had disadvantages for
both sides.  In the sciences, "publish or  perish"  is  a  legitimate
doctrine.   A  scientist  wants  to do research and the research does
good only if it is  published  and  can  only  be  judged  if  it  is
published.   Moreover,  all the good scientists want to publish.   Of
course, quality counts more than quantity.

	On the other hand, there appear to be many  highly  qualified
teachers  in  the  humanities who simply don't want to publish; their
creativity takes different forms.  Let it. Then they need other  ways
of competing with each other.

	10.   At  a  given  time,  different  fields  have  different
importances  to  the  short  term  needs  of  humanity.    Benefiting
humanity   in  the  our  own  lifetime  is  important  and  justifies
considerable support.   However, not everyone need do it.  Those  who
do  it  require more support but not exclusive support. Claims that a
given activity has a short term payoff should be made responsibly and
scrutinized carefully.