Future of the University

Statement of Purpose The Interdisciplinary Archaeology Research Focus Group draws together faculty and graduate students across eight departments in the Divisions of Social Sciences and Humanities within the College of Letters and Sciences. Lectures and discussions address current approaches to archaeological method, theory, and material analysis. Our...

Stanley Katz (Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University) Monday, November 8, 2010 / 4:00 PM McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB The financial crisis of the past two years looks like its becoming structural, especially in the public universities.  Is privatization the answer, at least for the "elite" state sector in higher education?  If so, what are the implications both for the elites and "the rest"?  A related question is what can/will replace the traditional, if nervous, balance between research and instruction in universities?  How do we balance the growing pressures for greater inclusion of the college age cohort, and the growing  cost of increasingly specialized research?  The post-World War II history of higher education, with the emergence of the multiversity, has been one of more or less successful adaptation of traditional organizational structures.  But haven't we reached the point at which we can no longer add epicycles without destroying the basic structure of higher education? Sponsored by the IHC's Faculty Forums series and the UCSB Faculty Association.

Christopher Newfield (English, UCSB) Wednesday, May 12, 2010 / 4:00 PM McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB History is replete with nations that declined because their leaders gradually undermined their own best institutions.  The U.S. now appears to be doing this to its exemplary higher education system, with the University...

Thursday, November 5, 2010 / 3:00-5:30 PM 3:00 PM Jennifer Washburn (author of University Inc.), "University Inc.: Why Public Knowledge and Public Education Are At Risk" 4:00 PM David Marshall (Executive Dean, College of Letters and Science, and Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts, UCSB), "The Plight...