IN CELEBRATION OF
CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY AND
OUR UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Steadman Upham, President
Claremont Graduate University
Opening of School Convocation, September 2, 2003
It is a pleasure to inaugurate the 2003-04 academic year in the “new” Albrecht
Auditorium. The renovation of this space, along with that of our newly named Stauffer Hall of
Learning, is but one piece of an aggressive campus master plan designed to transform Claremont
Graduate University’s space into a place that fosters the reflection, imagination, and conversation
of a great university.
The DesCombes Family Gateway, CGU’s first formal and official entry, is also part of this
plan, as are the signage, landscaping, and lighting improvements in CGU’s Ninth Street block.
One of CGU’s friends has also volunteered to pay for the extensive architectural engineering
required for the master plan’s first phase. With these funds in hand, I shall begin seeking a
donation to build the University Commons, the centerpiece of the campus master plan. All of
these projects, of course, are paid for with private funds given to CGU expressly for this purpose.
These remarkable changes in our physical space bring to the surface the deeper changes
underway at Claremont Graduate University. The last academic year, like the half dozen before
it, was marked by many exceptional, indeed, extraordinary accomplishments by the people and
programs of CGU. Let me identify just a few of the many transforming achievements of the past
year:
•
The university graduated the largest class in its history—607 graduates who take their
place alongside CGU’s 18,000 accomplished and influential alumni. The prodigious and
dedicated work of CGU’s faculty is measured not only in this singular statistic, but
equally in the faculty’s contribution to the intellectual and social transformation of each
graduating student.
•
The university enjoyed the best fundraising year in its 78-year history. More than $24.5
million in commitments were made to CGU in 2002-03. About half of these
commitments were paid to CGU within the year, with the other $12 million to be paid to
the University within one to five years. Not bad for a down economy.
•
CGU secured the largest single gift in its history in 2002-03, a $10 million joint donation
to the Drucker School from Edward Jones, AIG SunAmerica, and The Starr Foundation.
This corporate and foundation gift will have a transforming effect on the Drucker School,
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and on all of CGU, as it brings to the University our second transdisciplinary chair, this
one to be called the Peter F. Drucker Chair in Management and the Liberal Arts.
•
CGU’s Advancement operation hit its stride in 2002-03, bringing more than $9 million
through the door from CGU’s friends and supporters, with about $5 million going
directly into CGU’s endowment. Importantly, more than $6 million in commitments to
CGU are earmarked for student fellowships, dramatically boosting the amount of
financial aid available for CGU’s most accomplished students over the next few years. In
addition, two new departments in the Office of Advancement were created last year to
boost alumni involvement and constituency development.
•
CGU’s Office of Research and Sponsored Projects also had a banner year, garnering
commitments of more than $6 million. Again, the spectacular efforts of CGU’s faculty
are evident in the writing and submission of more than $20 million in proposals for
research during the year. More impressive than the amount, however, is the fact that
CGU’s faculty has boosted its success rate on grant proposals to nearly 33 percent. Much
of the funding raised for research by CGU’s faculty goes directly to support graduate
students.
•
The development of the Kozmetsky Transdisciplinary Chair continued with the first
group of K-Fellows deciding to search for the inaugural chair holder in the area of
“Poverty, Capital, and Ethics,” an intellectual focus that touches every academic program
at CGU. To continue the work, CGU has named nine new and continuing Kozmetsky
Fellows this year. They will carry on the vital work of integrating transdisciplinary
approaches into CGU’s core.
•
Claremont Graduate University’s seventh school, the School of Mathematical Sciences,
was formed this past year, leaving only Arts and Humanities to finish the reorganization
we began nearly six years ago. The transformation of the Math Department into CGU’s
newest school is a great success story, and illustrates what is meant by CGU’s “quiet
revolution.” The vision, entrepreneurship, determination and hard work of CGU’s
mathematicians should inspire everyone at the University.
•
CGU’s newest institute, The California Policy Institute at Claremont (or CPIC), was
formed by the School of Politics and Economics in 2002-03. The Institute is being
launched by a very generous gift from Richard and Nancy Daly Riordan. Professor Art
Denzau stepped out of the SPE deanship to become the founding director of the Institute,
while Professor Yi Feng became SPE’s dean. Under Director Denzau’s leadership, CPIC
has already contributed in an important and visible way to help journalists better
understand the State of California’s dire financial situation.
I could go on listing many other institutional and individual accomplishments for the past
year, but I want to use the remainder of my time to focus on what lies ahead, on CGU’s very
important unfinished business.
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Given my recounting of the important things we did together just last year, it should be
clear to everyone that this university community can accomplish whatever it sets its collective
mind upon. We are very different from other universities in this regard, and most fortunate. But
our ability to agree upon and define a collective vision also places certain obligations upon us.
Simply having a vision of the future is not enough. We must also have the will and the courage
to continue to change.
Claremont Graduate University is a remarkable institution. It is quite unlike any other
university in the country. All of us can count the ways that we are different and unique—small
size; comprehensive, but graduate only; member of the Claremont Consortium; endowment in
the top five percent of U.S. colleges and universities; nationally ranked graduate programs; a
diverse graduate student population, including students from more than 40 different countries;
nationally and internationally distinguished faculty; accomplished alumni who lead in virtually
every major field of human endeavor; eminent and exceptional trustees who generously devote
their time and resources to CGU.
This past summer, I had the chance to think rather deeply about CGU. My thinking was
stimulated by a number of factors: I am beginning my sixth year in this job, slightly beyond the
average tenure for university presidents. CGU’s reorganization is essentially complete. We
have fashioned a decanal structure to match the schools we have created. Each school is crafting
its own distinct strategy for development that is linked to broader university goals. We have
balanced our budget for five consecutive years and have acquired the habits of fiscal
responsibility. Our endowment has grown, despite down markets, and we have just completed
the best fundraising year in our history. Moreover, our extraordinary trustees, visitors, and
friends confer upon CGU a distinct selective advantage in the competitive world of higher
education.
These conditions have led me to ask what’s next for this remarkable university? We are
comfortable and can remain so with only modest adjustments to changing external conditions.
But do we just want to be “comfortable”? My answer to this question, stimulated by studied
contemplation and reflection, is a resounding “No!”.
In 1978, upon assuming the presidency of Yale, A. Bartlett Giamatti sardonically
proclaimed in a memo to faculty that “Paradise is restored” throughout the university. My claim
is much more restrained and modest. I simply affirm that equilibrium, that elusive state of
balance so sought after by complex organizations, has arrived at CGU. We have a stable
structure of management and budget; tuition has risen, but far less than the national average for
comparator institutions; we have the resources we need to provide an unparalleled graduate
experience for our students; faculty have been rewarded with above-average raises in each of the
past two years; our physical plant and technology are improving; our academic programs are in
generally good health, our students are increasingly qualified, and the friends and supporters of
CGU are generous and growing.
The natural human tendency in the face of such reassuring circumstances is to relax and
enjoy the moment, to put one’s feet up on the desk and say, “We’ve made it.” Well, I’m not at
all satisfied with that response, and I hope you aren’t either.
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At the present time, Claremont Graduate University is like a ship that has arrived safely
in port. With such favorable conditions, CGU could stay in port for a long period of time,
moored to the same structures that have held it fast before. But as Admiral Grace Murray
Hopper has said, “that’s not what ships are built for.” Rather, ships cannot discover new oceans
until they lose sight of the shore.
CGU must have the will and the courage to continue to change. Because Claremont
Graduate University is different, it has an opportunity to do great things, to change in a manner
that can redefine the graduate experience for the twenty-first century. I view it as our genuine
responsibility to pursue this challenge. There are two very important “projects” that await us in
this regard, and it is my hope that we can accomplish both of them this year. Let me begin with
a familiar topic, transdisciplinarity.
CGU’s Core Course
As we have all grown to understand over the last few years, our commitment to
appropriate specialization in the disciplines is strong, but our willingness to work across
disciplines, to embrace transdisciplinarity in our teaching and research, truly sets us apart.
Because of this commitment and the great generosity of our friends, we have created the
frameworks in which transdisciplinary scholarship can thrive. We now need to put the
Claremont signature on this style of education.
Last year, we began a discussion about the desirability of having a required core course at
CGU for all incoming doctoral students. It is now time to move this agenda forward to design
and implement the core course.
We can be confident that each CGU doctoral program provides an appropriate advanced
curriculum to instill specialized and expert knowledge. We have been honing our skills
educating specialists at CGU for 78 years, and we do it very well. The purpose of the core
course, in contrast, is to add a small counterbalance to the overwhelming specialization of the
disciplines. The curriculum of the core course would reveal for doctoral students the
interconnectedness of different bodies of knowledge, the unity of the disciplines, and the
importance of thinking holistically when approaching complex, multidimensional problems.
This kind of core course will foster collaborations among faculty and students while helping each
new doctoral student position his or her specialized knowledge on a broader intellectual map.
I sense substantial unanimity among the faculty about having this kind of offering, but
some students have indicated to me they do not support the idea of a core course. They see it
deflecting them from acquiring the specialized and expert knowledge of their field, and possibly
adding to the amount of course work they would need to complete their doctoral degree. Let me
reassure our students that my recommendation to the faculty is that this course should not be
additive to the requirements for the doctoral degree, but rather should be adopted by each and
every doctoral program in place of an existing elective. Further, the core course should not
increase the cost of education for a student.
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Let me also implore our students to think about the world in which they live. It is no
longer possible—in fact, it may never have been possible—to apply specialized knowledge
without a thorough understanding of the intended and potential unintended consequences of
application. History is replete with brilliant, specialized solutions to complex, multidimensional
problems that, when implemented, created larger, more insoluable, and longer-term difficulties.
One need only look at the panoply of environmental, social, and economic issues that beset our
world to know that specialized knowledge is only one part of solving the most complex and
intractable problems. The doctors of philosophy who graduate from CGU are the future problem
solvers and holistic thinkers of our time. CGU thus has a responsibility to provide a context for
the application of specialized knowledge, and the core course is our acknowledgement of this
profound obligation.
I have asked Provost Dreyer to work during the fall term with the deans, the Faculty
Executive Committee, the Academic Standards Committee, and the Kozmetsky Fellows to make
this collective vision a reality. There are many obstacles to realizing this goal, to be sure. When
attained, however, the core course will become an exclusive and distinguishing signature of a
Claremont Graduate University education. It is my hope that the core course will be available in
time for the fall 2004 incoming class of doctoral students.
An Institute Structure for CGU
The second important project has to do with the growth of research at Claremont
Graduate University. Over the past several years, federally sponsored research at CGU has
grown more than fourfold, while contributions to research from private sources have increased
by 20 percent. Outlays for research and development now account for about 12 percent of the
University’s total annual expenditures. This growth reflects the creative energy of the faculty
and staff, as well as the expertise we have assembled in both our Research and Advancement
offices.
A natural outgrowth of this creative energy is the institutionalization of some research
projects through the establishment of research centers and institutes. The Claremont Information
Technology Institute (CITI) and the California Policy Institute in Claremont (CPIC) are just two
examples of this phenomenon. Both of these institutes have been established recently within the
general framework of CGU’s schools (CITI in the School of Information Science and CPIC in
the School of Politics and Economics).
Because of our commitment to transdisciplinary research, however, discussions have
begun about another class of institute that combines the research interests and disciplinary
knowledge from several different schools. These university-wide institutes raise important
questions about revenue sharing, faculty appointments, teaching, degrees, and student support.
How, for example, does a university-wide institute manage indirect cost recovery? What
incentive structure exists for establishing university-wide institutes if faculty effort is diverted
from the schools? Would it be possible for a faculty member to buy out 100 percent of her
teaching responsibilities for a university-wide institute project? What relationship does a student
have with his home department if he is conducting research on a university-wide institute
project?
6
These are difficult questions that strike at the very heart of what it means to be a
transdisciplinary graduate university. Currently, CGU has no framework or mechanisms to deal
with institutes that do not belong to schools. Yet if we are faithful to the transdisciplinary vision,
we must facilitate the creation of such stand-alone, university-wide units. Two preliminary
proposals for university-wide institutes are currently in the early discussion stages. Both such
proposals—one for the Institute for Evaluation Science and one for the Decision Sciences
Institute—show promise and have the potential to create significant new research opportunities
for faculty and students throughout the University.
Because university-wide research institutes hold the promise of providing a web of strong
crosscutting ties through the disciplines, they could become an important component of the
transdisciplinary landscape at CGU. With this in mind, I have asked Provost Dreyer and
Associate Vice President Steiner to draft guidelines for establishing such units that can be
debated and discussed by the Faculty Executive Committee. I am hopeful that these guidelines
will address all of the thorny issues, and that the FEC can hammer out a policy that can then be
voted on by the full faculty. Again, I would like to see this task accomplished during the coming
academic year.
Concluding Thoughts
We are fortunate that CGU’s agenda for the coming year includes such rare and exciting
opportunities. While most other universities in the country are grappling with severe budget
shortfalls, layoffs, and program reductions that threaten their very integrity and identity, CGU
has the opportunity to embed its commitment to transdisciplinarity firmly within its structure. If
our academic community can accomplish this goal, all of us will be participants in a redefinition
of the graduate experience; all of us will be authors of a truly distinctive Claremont style of
graduate education. It is a worthy goal and one that will continue to grow in importance long
after our time at Claremont Graduate University has passed.