Word: thats
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That's the picture painted by Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence in his annual budget letter this week.
Citing a host of factors which he says have damaged the ability of research institutions to conduct business, Spence concludes that Harvard must enter the fundraising sweepstakes in order to finance its future.
But the dean, not usually given to sweeping generalizations, also insists that less tangible factors present an anti-higher education view, pointing specifically to "popular books about professors taking advantage of the system to earn extra income and to minimize their commitment to teaching."
The prognosis, according to Spence, may be a gloomy one. "One may wonder, and I occasionally do, if the implicit message in all of this isn't that the American conception of the research university is no longer viable," he writes.
But after setting up a nearly apocalyptic assessment of the standing of higher education in American society, Spence says he is hopeful that the modern research institution will endure--with Harvard leading the way.