Visions for the University of Illinois
in a Time of Crisis
Restructuring the University and
New Service Models
Alexander Scheeline
5/13/10
1
Thermodynamics
Law
Zeroth
Physics/Chemistry
No net energy exchange 
bodies at same temperature.
First
Energy is conserved.
Second
Disorder increases.
Third
Perfect order occurs only at
absolute zero, an
experimentally unrealizable
temperature.
Universities
Equal levels of perceived
frustration  fair treatment.
Fairness ≠ Happiness.
There are only so many dollars.
Opportunities outnumber
resources.
Someone's ox will always be gored.
Based on conversations with L. R. Faulkner ~ 1995.
2
Kinetics
Mechanism required. Dt > 0. Faculty prefer stability. Administrators prefer speed.
Bandwidth
Information can not be exchanged at infinite speed. Minds change at a speed
less than the rate of information transmission.
Nucleation (Library)
University
Faculty
Library
x
x
,
Google and Wikipedia
They won, we lost. Vote still out on University of Phoenix.
How Are We Unique?
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Face-to-face interaction/inspiration
Laboratories
Currency (as in up-to-date, forward-looking)
Supervision
Credentials (“killing us by degrees”)
Philosophical viewpoint vs.
Declarative knowledge vs.
Operational knowledge vs.
Tacit knowledge
4
How to Restructure/Save $$
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Decaptitate cost centers
Eviscerate (cut off the bottom)
Mow the lawn (across the board)
Parametrize (narrow metrics  narrow result)
Cut people ‘til we can support the remainder
Titrate salaries ‘til income = outgo
Nip and tuck (randomly or with policy goals)
5
And Within the Library …
• Us (UIUC) vs. Us (humanity)
• Books vs. All Media
• 22 bytes/character* 211 characters/page *
29 page/book *229 volumes = 251 bytes
= 2×1015 bytes = 2000 terabytes = 150 k$
(2 TB $170 at Amazon 3/17/10; $150 on 5/7/10)
• Vs. $1/book/year on the shelf
• Virtual bookshelf software?
4*2048*512*5.37×108; “We have 3% of everything,” 11×106/0.03 = 3.3×108
Unavoidable Collision
"The things we admire in [people] men, kindness
and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding
and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our
system. And those traits we detest, sharpness,
greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and
self-interest, are the traits of success. And while
[people] men admire the quality of the first they
love the produce of the second."
John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
7