Land Grant Universities in a Rapidly Changing World: Is a new Model
Needed?
Mike Hoffmann
The land grant university system has a long and distinguished record of
contributing to the betterment of humankind. And there is very much to be
proud of in our history and the ongoing contributions we make, but the
years ahead will be far different and more challenging then anything
experienced since the passing of the Morrill Act in 1862. We now live in a
highly interconnected and interdependent world that faces a rapidly
growing human population, a rapidly warming climate and unsustainable
growth.
Yet despite the escalating need for research and extension we now face
dwindling support at both the state and federal level – a perfect storm.
How will, and how should, the AES’s, the land grant system achieve its
mission in the coming years?
Is a new model needed for the land grants to keep up with the pace of
change and the escalating challenges? Are small changes needed or is this
the time major change?
I’ll set the stage by laying out the challenges, the change underway and
Chet Warzynski will follow with thought provoking ideas and suggestions on
how organizations change, how they become more sustainable. He will
emphasize – innovation, networks and leadership.
This is intended to be an interactive session allowing you all to contribute
your ideas, thoughts to this critically important dialogue about our future.
This session is intended to stimulate some new thinking and challenge you!
It is not intended to generate all the answers but rather start the dialogue
around change/keeping pace with the world around us. And lastly, the
session is intended to instill a sense of urgency –
Chet and I will take 30-40 min in total and the balance of the time will be
yours to respond to a series of questions.
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Depending on the outcome of today’s session we may want to consider
charging the ESCOP Science and Technology Committee and the Social
Science Committee’s to develop this topic further – using the Science
Roadmap and its grand challenges as a starting point, but put it in the
context of a rapidly changing world and a sense of urgency.
To prepare for this session I reviewed a number of recent future-looking
articles/speeches by leaders of land grants and other universities. A
consistent theme that emerged was the need for change and addressing
the looming challenges now faced by humanity. As chair-elect of ESCOP
and in part responsible for this meetings agenda it seemed appropriate to
start the dialogue around the challenges we face and how we will respond.
The need for change:
Gordon Gee, President of Ohio State, offered the following comment about
the need for change in Precipice or Crossroads (2012). [a book specially
commissioned by the editors in connection with activities organized by
APLU and land grant universities to honor the 150th anniversary of the
Morrill Land-grant act.
To connect and extend the original ideals of the land-grant
institutions to the modern era, we whose business it is to mind the mighty
engine of a public university must imagine, reinvent, even reconceptualize
the university, not merely rethinking what we do, but, more fundamentally,
re-thinking what we think, rethinking what the American university is and
what it is capable of achieving.”
James Duderstadt, President emeritus, Univ. of Michigan (2001)
“it is important to understand that the most critical challenge facing most
institutions will be to develop the capacity for change.”
The pace of change:
Brown, Pendelton-Jullian, Adler (Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning,
2010)
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The most pervasive shift taking place in the world today is the relentless
acceleration in the pace of change, since today's infrastructure is based on
digital technologies which, driven by Moore's Law, continue to evolve at an
exponential rate. Moreover, technology's reach keeps growing: the Internet
now penetrates virtually every corner of the globe, while two-thirds of the
planet's population now has mobile phones.
I’ll take a little time to review three grand challenges or drivers of change –
unsustainable growth, population and climate change.
The intent is not to present a doom and gloom view of the future but rather
a reality check, an acceptance of truth. And to highlight an extraordinary
opportunity in history for the land grant universities to help address these
grand challenges – “if we don’t do it, who will”?
Unsustainable growth:
o Our growth is not sustainable: Right now the land and water area
we need to produce the resources we consume and absorb our
waste, using prevailing technology, is about 1.5 Earths.
Paul Gilding (2011) in his book “The Great Disruption” provides a
good argument that we have come to an end of an economy
based on consumption and waste. There is life after shopping.
After the great disruption we will measure growth not in quantity
of stuff, but in quality of life.
o Here are a few examples of growth/consumption
o Currently 1 billion cars, 2.5 billion by 2050 or before
 In 2012, for the first time in history, over 60 million
passenger cars will be produced in a single year (or 165,000
new cars produced every day).
o 93,000 commercial airline flights/day
o Air conditioning to increase with climate change
 U.S. homes with air conditioning was 100 million in 2009
 50 million air-conditioning units sold in China in 2010 alone
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 world consumption of energy for cooling could increase 10X
by 2050
 Population –
o 9.6 billion by 2050
 Will we be able to feed them?
 Requires 50% increase in energy production to maintain
today’s standard of living
 2 Earths to sustain us
 And the grandest challenge -- climate change
o Greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere
 40% increase to date, up to 900 ppm by 2100, started with
270 pre-industrial revolution
 31.6 gigatons/year to 53 gigatons by 2020; takes us well
past the 3.6F threshold of dangerous climate change in
decades not centuries
o Increasing temperatures
 1.50F increase globally (warmer at poles)
 Alaska, Antarctica
 Hottest decade: 2001-2010
 Warming very fast (100X)
 8-100F by 2100 (business as usual)
 Ice age and 8 degrees lower, now higher –
o Oceans are acidifying
 30% increase
 10X faster then 55 m years ago when marine extinction
occurred.
o Rapid changes in summer Arctic sea ice
 IPCC in 2007 predicted ice to disappear in 2050 or later
 Now may be free in 2020
 Implications for the atmosphere’s circulation patterns
o Increasing extreme weather
 Drought of 2012 in US may be ranked as among the
costliest “natural disasters” in US history.
 NYS lost 50% apple crop
 Agriculture will no longer be business as usual
 How can we continue with business as usual?
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 We are now in the Anthropocene – the Age of Man
The bravest thing is to take the first step: get real. Facing the truth, and
letting it sink in.
Susanne Moser (2012) a social science researcher
 If we accept the science – which is our responsibility, our job – and we
accept that there is relatively little time – a sense of urgency - what
should we change?
o For example would we think differently about the faculty lines we
fill?
o Would you partner with a nearby institution and develop a joint
strategic plan?
 These are the kinds of creative ideas we would appreciate during the
time Chet is facilitating.
Changing an organization is not easy
Overcoming faculty resistance to change.
Faculty refrain from Horse Feathers (Marx Brothers, 1932)
I don't care what you have to say
It makes no difference anyway!
Whatever it is, I'm against it!
Now Chet -- innovation, networks and leadership.
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