00100	ON THE FUTURE OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY
00200	
00300	
00400		Stanford  University  includes a variety of people pursuing a
00500	variety of goals.  Besides the goals of the individuals  in  it,  the
00600	University  as  an institution has its own goals and it is responsive
00700	to  the  goals  of  other  institutions  such  as   the   government,
00800	foundations, etc.  Until recently, it has been expanding rapidly, but
00900	now the same kind  of  expansion  of  universities  cannot  continue,
01000	because  the  expansion has outrun the resources available to support
01100	it and the growth of the student population it serves.   The  purpose
01200	of  this  paper  is  to  explore the alternative futures available to
01300	Stanford and to make some recommendations.
01400	
01500		We shall consider the following groups of people:
01600	
01700		1. Faculty.  We shall further divide the faculty  into  those
01800	who  do  research  in order to live and those who live in order to do
01900	research.  Judging from the complaints of  the  various  groups,  the
02000	former  are  concentrated in the humanities and the latter in science
02100	and engineering, but certainly all departme?ts have some of both.
02200	
02300		2. Undergraduate students.  We shall divide these into  those
02400	with  specific  educational  goals, i.e. who would like to learn what
02500	they have come here to learn as quickly as possible and then do  what
02600	they  have  learned)  and those who are here because this seems to be
02700	the most pleasant and interesting place to be  for  the  time  being.
02800	They  will  leave  when  they  get  tired  of  the  place or when the
02900	institution forces them to leave.
03000	
03100		3. Graduate students.  We divide them  in  the  same  way  we
03200	divide the undergraduates.
03300	
03400		4.     Non-faculty  researchers.     We also divide them into
03500	researchers to live and livers to do research.
03600	
03700		5. Other employees.  We consider them as wanting good  wages,
03800	working conditions, and professional opportunities.
03900	
04000		Now  consider  the goals of the University as an institution.
04100	The administration of the University are hired to pursue these goals,
04200	the  Trustees  are supposed to pursue these goals as a kind of hobby,
04300	and the faculty and staff are supposed to orient their careers toward
04400	the  fact  that the University is pursuing these goals. Nevertheless,
04500	we shall distinguish the goals of the University  from  the  personal
04600	goals  of  any  of  the individuals in it, and we consider that these
04700	goals are at least as real as the individual goals,  because  we  all
04800	implicitly  or  explicitly pursue our individual goals in the context
04900	of our idea of the institutional goals.
05000	
05100		The University's goals are the following:
05200	
05300		1. Giving young people a liberal education that  will  awaken
05400	their  intellects,  refine  their  sensibilities,  and teach them the
05500	general wisdom of humanity.
05600	
05700		2.   To  teach  undergraduate,  professional,  and   graduate
05800	students what they need to know to pursue their professions.
05900	
06000		3. To teach students what they want to know without regard to
06100	what other social purpose it serves.
06200	
06300		4. To advance knowledge as part of satisfying the  collective
06400	curiousity of the human race.  I suppose this formulation is new, but
06500	it seems to me to be the  basis  for  support  of  pure  mathematics,
06600	humanities research and other basic research in proportions different
06700	from those that might optimize potential  applications.    Admittedly
06800	there  is  also an element of compromise between social goals and the
06900	individual goals of the professors in determining this balance.
07000	
07100		5. To discover facts that will  help  humanity  live  better,
07200	i.e.   will  benefit  people apart from the benefit they might derive
07300	from learning the facts in question.
07400		6. To be a pleasant place to study, work, and live.
07500	
07600		It  is customary for administrators to claim that these goals
07700	all require each other.  The most common example of this is that when
07800	someone  claims  that the undergraduates are being neglected in favor
07900	of faculty research,  the  counterclaim  is  made  that  research  is
08000	necessary in order that the faculty will know what the undergraduates
08100	want to learn.  The claim is surely true to an important extent,  but
08200	no  one  of  the  goals  would  in  itself justify the proportions of
08300	resources allocated by the University.  If research  were  considered
08400	valuable only in so far as it contributed to undergraduate education,
08500	Stanford would do well to change considerably, and I would do well to
08600	leave.
08700	
08800		The  balance  among  the  goals  is  determined by tradition,
08900	considerations of the needs of the country, the need to defer to  the
09000	goals  of  the subgroups that comprise the University in order to get
09100	them to support the goals of the University,  and  direct  bargaining
09200	among the advocates of the different goals.
09300	
09400		1. The government's goals are varied.
09500	
09600			a.  First  of  all,  the universities are a political
09700	constituency, and  the  government  is  somewhat  responsive  to  its
09800	requests  irrespective of what other goals they satisfy.  This is not
09900	explicitly admitted so its effect  is  mainly  to  modify  government
10000	programs rather than to provide the sole justification for them.
     

00100		1.  The  country  needs  more  research in order to solve its
00200	practical problems.
00300	
00400		2.  The country doesn't  need  many  more  college  teachers,
00500	because the student population has stopped increasing.
00600	
00700		3.  The  number  of  people  who  want to do research and are
00800	qualified to to so will continue to expand.
00900	
01000		4.  Therefore, either the country is going to have to  expand
01100	and  build  research  institutions  other  than  universities  or the
01200	universities are going  to  have  to  increase  the  ratio  of  their
01300	activities devoted to research.
01400	
01500		5.  The  universities are good places to do research, because
01600	they are here and because graduate students do research and should be
01700	selected by research leaders for their ability to do it.
01800	
01900		6.  The  government's  current way of financing research does
02000	not provide the stability universities are used  to  providing  their
02100	permanent employees.
02200	
02300		7. Therefore, either the university should allow the creation
02400	and disappearance of ephemeral research empires or  it  should  raise
02500	some  resources  for  endowing  the  core of its research institutes.
02600	Perhaps there should be senior research  associates  with  tenure  or
02700	departments  should be allowed to build faculty beyond their teaching
02800	requirements.  The latter is the simpler.
02900	
03000		8.  There is much less need to expand the faculties  that  do
03100	research to live than to expand those who live to do research.
03200	
03300		9.   The  real  differences  between  the  sciences  and  the
03400	humanities with regard to research have been blurred by the  need  to
03500	keep peace in the faculties.  This blurring has had disadvantages for
03600	both sides.  In the sciences, "publish or  perish"  is  a  legitimate
03700	doctrine.   A  scientist  wants  to do research and the research does
03800	good only if it is  published  and  can  only  be  judged  if  it  is
03900	published.   Moreover,  all the good scientists want to publish.   Of
04000	course, quality counts more than quantity.
04100	
04200		On the other hand, there appear to be many  highly  qualified
04300	teachers  in  the  humanities who simply don't want to publish; their
04400	creativity takes different forms.  Let it. Then they need other  ways
04500	of competing with each other.
04600	
04700		10.   At  a  given  time,  different  fields  have  different
04800	importances  to  the  short  term  needs  of  humanity.    Benefiting
04900	humanity   in  the  our  own  lifetime  is  important  and  justifies
05000	considerable support.   However, not everyone need do it.  Those  who
05100	do  it  require more support but not exclusive support. Claims that a
05200	given activity has a short term payoff should be made responsibly and
05300	scrutinized carefully.