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Reading List

If you don’t have time to read…you don’t have time to lead.

Of course, as President…you don’t have alot of time. So, just a few suggestions of books that I have found, over the years, very informative or influential.

On the general business/management side, some obvious choices:
Bolman and Deal and reframing present several classics, but the shorter version focused on education is: Reframing Academic Leadership, Bolman and Gallos. There is a version of Good to Great that recognizes the differences between education and business: Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Collins. Not as popular, but influential to me is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Pink. Short, and I think very applicable to academics in particular. More recent, and excellent, is Start with Why, Sinek. I know there are many other excellent choices…and I’d love to hear your recommendations.

On the higher ed side, I have some favorites:
Designing the New American University, Crow, Dabars is a vision that does not fit all universities, but I think is particularly appropriate to research universities and gives a great picture of the role of higher education and how we can meet our country’s needs.
The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out, Christensen, Eyering is a great comparison of Harvard and BYU-Idaho that will stimulate you to think about your mission rather than just trying to be Harvard.
Locus of Authority: The Evolution of Faculty Roles in the Governance of Higher Education: Bowen, Tobin provides a better understanding of faculty governance…but I wish that Faculty Senates would read it as I think they have abdicated, at many universities their important and appropriate roles of overseeing the curriculum and establishing professional expectations of faculty to wanting to run the mundane details for which we hire folks like our VP Finance.

Don’t forget to do your recreational reading…be sure to read the university’s Common Read, for example as well as some impactful or best sellers…your public and donors expect you to be well-read and well-spoken!

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Personal fitness

I admit; I did a very poor job of keeping fit while serving as President.  I too easily let myself eat that cookie at the reception, work late on email, and skip the gym.  I don’t think that there is one magic way to ensure fitness…but I know that if I have the opportunity to serve again as President that I will make time for fitness, at least multiple days per week and be more disciplined about my diet. 

Schedule activities-even if it is just riding the exercise bicycle 4 times per week.  My assistant even offered to do this, and I foolishly felt I needed to simply keep a more flexible schedule.  If you do that, be sure to get your favorite exercise machine at home and USE IT!

And, be sure to push away from that donor meal, leaving half the entrée at every dinner.  The cookies at the reception generally are not worth the calories.  The wine at the reception is not worth it, and will just impair your judgement…and may lead to even more difficulties.

I admit, all of this is gratuitous advice from a reformed “sinner”.  Try your best, you will feel better!

PS-I have lost almost 30 pounds since stepping down, and feel fitter and healthier…but I would still love to serve as President.

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A VERY brief history of higher education

I have found it useful to put some aspects of higher education into historical perspective; perhaps this very brief history will stimulate your thoughts, as well.  Of course, I have omitted some landmarks and skewed this history to items central to dialogs I have had as a president…love to hear some of your thoughts!

  • 859:  Oldest university, still operating, is the University of Karueein (Fez, Morocco)
    • 1088:  University of Bologna is the oldest in Europe.  Libraries are acentral resource bringing scholars and students together.
  • 1636:  Harvard founded in US (private education)
  • 1798: University of North Carolina (public higher education)
    • U. Virginia a latecomer in 1819
  • 1862: Morrill Act establishes land grants.  The act had been proposed before the Civil War, but Southern States opposed it.  The act passed post-secession.  I applaud the vision of our Congress and President, many of whom had no college education yet saw that education “for the sons of toil” in the “practical and liberal arts” would help restore the country economically and socially.  Note that two other extraordinary acts were also passed in 1862:  Railroad Act and Homestead Act.  Though both also had negative impacts, especially on Native Americans…imagine investing the equivalent of a trillion dollars in unproven infrastructure and envisioning settlement of a largely unknown West while fighting a divisive, expensive, bloody war literally in one’s backyard!
    • Note that Engineering education was almost entirely at West Point prior to 1862…and that Land Grant universities would produce hundreds of thousands of engineers to assist the US industrial revolution.
  • 1890: Second Morrill Act establishes many Historically Black Colleges and Universities to provide education to the children of former slaves.
  • 1890’s: Americanized the “German Model” of graduate education, establishing PhD programs at universities like Johns Hopkins that resemble those operating today.
  • 1906: NCAA founded as a response to horrific injuries in football-regulate or abolish the sport.  Today, the NCAA oversees 480,000 student athletes and over $1 billion in revenue.  College athletics is primarily a US phenomenon!
  • 1919: Establishment of ACE (American Council on Education) to provide credit for prior learning to the flood of returning World War I veterans, probably the greatest mobilization and “upskilling” in the US to that point.
  • 1944:  GI Bill provides many financial benefits to returning servicemen, about 2,2 million of whom eventually attend college.  One of the greatest
  • 1945: The Atom Bomb serves as an example of American universities and intellectuals serving as the Arsenal of Democracy.  A role they would continue through the Cold War
  • 1950:  National Science Foundation funded, 5 years after “Science: The Endless Frontier” is published by Vannevar Bush.  Though the NIH was funded in the 1870’s, strong, organized support of research by the Federal Government is usually dated to founding of the NSF.
  • 1960: California Master Plan for Higher Education developed creates a differentiated system of universities, state colleges, and community colleges
  • 1960s: Great American research universities rise-Stanford, Harvard, Michigan, Illinois, Berkeley….
  • 21st century: The United States and the world look to universities for workforce development and innovation.  Unfortunately, the US falls behind several countries in educational attainment, with South Korea and Canada currently leading the pack.  China invests heavily in both education and research, moving very rapidly from a nadir under Mao’s People’s Revolution.
    • We see a rise in distance education, with almost 30% of students taking at least one course online during their degree programs
    • Rise of mega-universities, from the Open University in the United Kingdom to Arizona State University to the University of Phoenix
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Indemnification and risk in research contracts

Early in my presidency, we found ourselves unable to contract with a major regional industry because they would not accept indemnification of all risks.  Now, in many ways, that was far too conservative on their part, but also too demanding on our part. 

The research we were considering was basic research on semiconductor chip design.  I asked that General Counsel develop the worst possible risk scenario they could imagine.  The scenario was that a method we developed might be used, in part, to make a chip for a critical application like a self-driving car.  If such a chip failed, resulting in a traffic death, the claimant might argue that we were responsible for the failure.  I found this possibility so remote as to be laughable…I frankly was more worried that the company would never use our technology and seek help elsewhere!

Now, my attitude would be very different if were developing the formulation for an infant vitamin to be immediately put into a major market.  My point is that universities must, at times (if allowed by Boards and state laws) accept some risk.  And, while remaining careful about the nature of those risks…a president can use discretion and judgement and should do so to establish and sustain research relationships.

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Intellectual property

The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 had a najor legal and psychological effect on universities with respect to intellectual property (IP).  Prior to that act, intellectual property that resulted from federal funding (NIH, DoD, NSF) often was the property of the government, but the Act moved ownership to the university.  Universities became much more aware of IP, and frankly, much more possessive.  Unfortunately, that possessiveness has, in many cases inhibited interactions between universities and industries that I believe can be mutually beneficial, much more so than owning IP that often has limited value.

There are several examples of universities with extremely valuable intellectual property:  Lyrica has earned Northwestern over $1.3B, Carnegie-Mellon’s disk drive noise reduction technology has earned $750M, Google earned Stanford $336M, and Gatorade has made the University of Florida over $280M, to name a few.  Blockbusters like these are the exception, however, not the rule.

AUTM’s (Association of University Technology Managers) latest report shows 7625 US patents issued to US universities in 2018 and over $2.9 billion in licensing income.  Nevertheless, the bulk of that licensing income came from a very small number of “blockbusters” like Lyrica and Gatorade.  Typically, only the top 20 or so licensing offices actually generate income in excess of costs and most patents generate no income at all.  The unfortunately naïve perception of many boards is the opposite…that the university has a great deal of valuable intellectual property and that we are letting it just walk out the door.

Though it is difficult to predict a blockbuster, and one should certainly try to protect discoveries that may yield them, I believe that the larger “pot of gold” and the greater societal impact is to have by less restrictive, less grabby IP policies.  Industries supported over $5 billion in sponsored research at US universities last year-almost twice the licensing income.  Additionally, engaging ones’ university with industry has payoffs in workforce development, engagement of professors with state-of-the-art industrial work and facilities, and often brings economic development capital.

So, what is a reasonable model?  I believe that for most research contracts with industry, an “agree to assign” or “first option” is reasonable.  Industries are much more likely to sign such contracts, allowing them to support your faculty and students and move projects forward.  Yes, you might lose some licensing revenue, but ensuring the success of a local industry will bring you a strong supporter.

As a practical matter, when I arrived at the University of Idaho, we were at a 5 year logjam in contracting with a local industry over restrictive IP attitudes.  After liberalizing our policy, we not only got a sizable grant, but the company endowed a chair ($2M), and engaged with us to now found a center to sponsor ongoing research, with a further $1.5M donation in support of the Center.

Bottom line…industry is usually better than universities at commercializing intellectual property-our strength is usually in basic research.  Consider liberalizing your IP policy in most cases, and I suspect you will see more industrial grants and greater interaction.  Remember, our job is to generate knowledge and to disseminate it-we spend money to generate knowledge…not generate knowledge to make money.