|
President’s Letter
hard . . . to maintain and achieve as many excellences as is at all possible
in these times.”
The “we” in this statement recognizes that it is the faculty, students,
staff, top leadership, trustees, alumni, parents, and local, national
and worldwide friends whose active engagement has made Stanford a
continuously renewed intellectual and moral effort.
Over the last five years, I have certainly attempted to make my
contributions to this effort through a host of academic and other
initiatives. It is, however, important to remind ourselves that the most
crucial decisions the selection of students, essential features
of the curriculum, and the initiation of faculty appointments in
the contemporary university are mostly under the control of the faculty
because that is where subject matter expertise lies. Few businesses
have as many highly differentiated “product lines” as universities do.
The almost unlimited multiplicity of actual or possible endeavors is one
reason why university decision-making needs to be so decentralized. In
the end the faculty hold most of the cards. This is the way it should be
because this is the way it needs to be.
The public frequently misunderstands the nature of university
governance (as do incidentally many members of the faculty) and ignores
the most basic aspects of academic freedom. One of my favorite letters
of the last five years came from an American Legion Auxiliary in
response to a faculty member’s views concerning World War II as
expressed on television: “It is my understanding that you serve as
President of Stamford [sic!] University. I presume your position grants
you the power to control the conduct of professors teaching in your
prestigious school.” I do not wish it were so.
Universities are built by many and they are built to last. My colleagues
James Collins and Jerry Porras recently published a book about
“successful habits of visionary companies” which they entitled Built
to Last. They reminded us that charismatic or visionary leaders pass
away and great ideas become obsolete, while “visionary companies”
prosper over long periods of time. Great universities are exactly that,
visionary institutions, built, stone after stone, to last.
|
