My views on University life (dictated into my MAC)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

First some background from those who might not know. I  entered  
university life after 15 years in industry, at Bell Labs,   Rand   
Corporation and Scientific Data Systems. Having never gotten an earned  
doctorate, I do have an honorary doctorate,I was somewhat hesitant to  
enter the university life. I had taught evening classes  at the  
Stevens Institute and at the University of California at Irvine. I was  
convinced to take the gamble and received an acting associate  
professorship at Irvine. This appointment required me to be promoted  
to tenure in two years or leave.

In hindsight it was very adventurous and daring and maybe stupid for  
me to take this gamble with a new child and a new house. However I did.

I have now been in university life for over 35 years as both a chaired  
professor, as a trustee, and as an observer. My appointments have  
always been in the engineering and computer science departments below  
I have had secondary appointments in the business school and the  
public policy arena.

When I entered the University the main criteria for promotion and  
recognition was published articles in refereed journals and letters of  
reference from key people in the field. Being pragmatic institutions ,  
universities also recognized funded research as indicative of  
recognition of good work. I behaved myself, at least at Irvine, and  
published a significant number of articles, got major funding for my  
research work and felt somewhat happy. I ran into some politics which  
I will not describe in this note which endangered my achieving tenure.  
However the fact that my research was to be renewed only if I remained  
as principal investigator seem to have carried the day. In many ways  
the university was not dissimilar to industry in its politics and its  
recognitions.

Over the years I and others have fought hard to get a more flexible  
way of evaluating people for advancement. Recognition of the rapidity  
of work in this field has made journal publication less it important,  
although still historically valuable. We now pay much more attention  
to papers at conferences with good reputation general recognition by  
the field as a whole as well as funding etc.. I have noted that the  
politics involved in promotion is nowhere near what they used to be.

Aside from the endless fight for funding the universities give one an  
opportunity that exists almost nowhere else in society. That is to try  
new ideas and see if they work. If they are outside of the normal   
path one may have to do it on a shoestring but you can do it. A main  
reason for this freedom is the tenure system. My observations are that  
there is a minimum amount of dead wood produced by the tenure system.  
Perhaps the reason is that people who are not self motivated are  
removed from the system during the first years. There is a constant  
striving for recognition and for knowledge. I have found very very few  
senior people who don't behave like brand-new assistant professors in  
their pursuit of knowledge.

Remove the tenure system and unpopular ideas will be punished  
Mavericks will be eliminated and politics will abound. Tenure at most  
good universities is not granted without real care as to the  
likelihood of continued good work.

One thing I have noticed in university however is a phenomenal  
enlargement of the bureaucracy. There are vice presidents assistant  
vice president's associate vice presidents etc.. A large amount of  
this bulk is due to enlist federal regulations as well as the natural  
tendency of organizations to expand.

With all this bureaucracy and with all the Federal rules, it is still  
one of the best places in the world to work. As a faculty member I  
have no boss. I find it difficult to describe  to industrial people  
that fact. They keep asking who's your boss would you report to. When  
I tell them I have no boss  they are astonished. It is this freedom  
that allows innovation.

Finally and these are I'm afraid random thoughts, I should note that  
the main task of the University is to supply educated citizens to the  
world. In the sciences, it is to train the thinking processes that go  
into creating innovation and discovery. I know of no way to do this  
except the apprentice system that we call graduate school. As I've  
often said my early days at Bell laboratories were marvelous in that I  
could work and learn from the leaders of my field. The same can be  
said to be true of graduate students at a good university in the  
sciences. Yes graduate students are used to teach classes, most good  
universities do not let them teach the lectures but it use them as  
teaching assistants carefully supervised by the faculty. Most good  
universities require their faculty to teach undergraduate courses as  
well as graduate courses in order to expose the undergraduates to good  
scientists.

There are a lot of things that could be fixed at universities, the  
same could be just said to be true of almost all industry and  
certainly all government. Attempts to destroy a structure built over  
the years and validated at least in United States by its output would  
be damaging to the health of the nation and the world.

If I had to do it all over again I would certainly follow the same  
path I have taken and I recommend to my students that they transition  
their careers at some point into service at universities.

Dave


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