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Powerful. Your writing is so satisfying to read, I think because I am so starved for the kind of reasoning you use. It's rare today, and I thank you for it.

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Anyone who sees the problems in higher education has to wish you all the best with the new university. I hope it's a big success and ramps up quickly.

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Dear Heather,

I apologize for doing "this" here but sense that you will understand and perhaps even appreciate the etiquette rule breaking attempt ... further, I promise to not become a repeat offender - i.e. I pledge to always point my arrow in the direction of pleasant rule breaking when amongst friends or kindred spirits.

I will not go into great detail here other than to say that I've been aware of your saga for a few years now and become much more fully engaged with the remnants of the IDW since early 2020 (gee, I wonder what dramatic event around that time sent me scurrying to to find some sense and light in the world ... ironic, eh, finding sense making and light over in the IDW:-)

In any case, thank you for all you have contributed to keeping light and hope alive.

I have sent the following email to the generic UATX email accounts but assume they may go unread, filed, ignored so my hope is to appeal to you as one of the founders and help me in my quest to become part of the solution.

Here's to trying ... my dear Miss Heying :-)

Hello,

What you are attempting to build is exciting, stimulating and hopeful beyond words.

More than merely wishing you the best or contributing money - I want to be part of the solution in the actual physical (and mental) space that you endeavor to create.

My "simple" vision is to appeal to you by approaching my approach to you from an unexpected angle - alluded to in the title of this email.

Putting the end goal first and applying the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid:-) ... allow me to work (as a team member or leader) on building a Department of Athletics that is completely in line with what I understand/hope/learn to be the mission of UATX.

I have included my LinkedIn profile address below for ease of access.

Brief Highlights include:

Self-funded small business entrepreneur ("fired my boss" at age 25 :-)

Fluent in Japanese language, business, culture (lived there full time from 1996-2011)

Graduated with Departmental and National Honors in Philosophy from Gettysburg College (BA)

Married with three children aged 12,14,16 (hope they can attend UATX)

Currently live in Central NJ.

Own and operate multiple small businesses in Japan.

Entering my 8th season as a basketball coach (Head Coach of Middle School Asst. to Varsity) in my local town (same town I grew up in).

I believe strongly in the intersection of the body (athletics, physical health) and the mind (philosophy, living a good life, mental health) ... I also strongly believe that the physical world still exists (:-) and it is important to create an all around physical reality in line with a healthy mental reality ... this seems in line with your mission at UATX - creating a new Academy in the image of long lost Academies of yesteryear.

It would be an honor to contribute in some way big or small.

Kind Regards,

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This piece had my thoughts racing, and I will try to outline most of them, but inevitably some of them I have forgotten and will only recur upon re-reading the portions which elicited them in the first place. I would consider myself a pretty staunch free-market libertarian, which marries nicely with my generalist inclinations, and I am currently an M.Sc. student of mathematics studying "abstract nonsense" (e.g., algebraic topology and categorical algebra). Hopefully this is useful context for what follows.

In your examination of the market forces driving the dominant theory of value in universities today, I was wholly unsurprised as this seems to be a pretty clean-cut case of perverse incentives. This got me thinking about whether higher education would benefit from cutting all public funding to institutions of higher learning. On the one hand, this would pave the way for a diversification in models of higher education by removing the incentive to conform to the current model while also bringing together people with specialized knowledge and skills with those willing to pay for it. And with what I've witnessed in the open source community, this would not detract from research for the discovery-minded as it is very hard to keep people from using their time to pursue what they find valuable once their basic needs are met. Even so, it would be foolish to expect that there would be no remuneration provided for certain paths of inquiry or that a patronage model wouldn't arise to support prodigious individuals. On the other hand, this tight coupling of supply (teachers and researchers) to public demand very well may turn especially profit-minded people away from questions and problems that they would have otherwise made incredible progress toward solving. And keeping in mind the Pareto principle, there would be a piling up interest for the work of a few individuals, creating a de facto academic culture. Perhaps most worrisome is the possibility that diversity of educational models and societal division/polarization are two sides of the same coin — if one grants that there would be little-to-nothing in the direction of universal standards, which may or may not be rendered inconsequential by the de facto academic culture.

Something to consider is that perhaps universities will not take the form we recognize at all in this alternate reality, which would be a shame because the proximity today's students have to so many experienced practitioners of such a wide array of fields really is something worth preserving. Even then, it is a select few who truly take advantage of this opportunity, and I'm not sure if I can even count myself as one of them. I do believe that E. O. Wilson's dream (and perhaps project) of consilience is one worth pursuing, and losing the current university model entirely would likely be to the detriment of that dream. But as you rightly point out, what the current model touts as "interdisciplinary" too often cheapens the meaning of the word. Still, I would be surprised if a large contingent didn't see the value in connecting the disciplines. At least in mathematics and physics, the contributions which really bewilder are those which build surprising bridges between fields once thought to be disparate.

Also I don't have as many issues with the utilization of graduate students as one might expect me to have. Perhaps I am of a special breed, which I am very skeptical of, but I have a great level of confidence in my ability to challenge, teach, and mentor — as evidenced by successes I've had with motivated students. Just as with professors, I think all that is needed is for graduate students is that they actually give a shit about their teaching and not treat it as just some obligation. The graduate students I've come into contact with fit that criterion for the most part, but perhaps that is not so much the case outside mathematics given how cumulative it is in nature. I have not yet had the opportunity to teach a class myself, but I eagerly await the opportunity to try out my pedagogical ideas outside the echo chamber of my own mind. It may seem that there is not much that can be done with a math class, but I have every intention to challenge that perception. Others have tried and succeeded (cf. Moore method), so I'd like to toss my hat in the ring; the only prerequisite seems to be student enthusiasm and motivation.

Since I started high school, I've aspired to become a math professor. Given everything I've shared, you may (or may not) think that I am the right kind of person to ascend the steps of the ivory tower. However, I've had some serious doubts in recent months about whether academia has any space or tolerance for a person like me. The number of spots for professors is shrinking, and very likely the amount of people vying for those spots is only getting larger. To beat out everyone else, I will need to publish like crazy, and the easiest way to do that is to hyper-specialize. Will I have the bandwidth to keep up with those expectations while also giving my students a worth while educational experience, providing service and governance up to my standards, keeping up with the world around me, and keeping up my passion for music (bassoon) — all the while not hanging up my generalist hat? Just as importantly, will successfully juggling those things come at the expense of my enjoyment of this discipline, of my family and friends, of the arts and humanities, of this world we've been gifted, or of my life in general? The answers to these questions will become more apparent as my studies progress, but right now I have no idea.

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