Book Review: Designing the New American University, by Michael Crow

I went through this book for the first time back in 2015 after Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University (ASU), published it with William B. Dabbars. Afterwards, when I accepted a job offer to join ASU in June 2021, I went again through some of the highlights that I got out of it and which are presented below:

• Overall, the book is a bold and provocative exploration of the challenges facing higher education in modern times. I would say that the book’s central argument is that the traditional university model must evolve from a focus on exclusive research and prestige towards an emphasis on inclusivity, innovation, and impactful change.
• The authors believe that universities must be at the forefront of solving significant global problems, such as climate change, social injustice and economic inequality and, as such, they provide a detailed roadmap for universities to embrace the concept of “One University, Many Futures,” which is meant to encourage creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration in the pursuit of knowledge and problem-solving.
• The book presents a compelling vision of the role universities should play in the 21st century, and their arguments are well-supported by numerous examples of successful innovations at Arizona State University, President Crow has led since 2002.
• For those of us in the field of higher education, the book serves as an essential read and as an important resource for policymakers and those interested in understanding the potential of higher education to address societal challenges.
• I would say that President Crow’s insights inspire readers to look beyond outdated models of higher education and consider the possibilities presented by an inclusive and innovative approach. Based on my own experience in higher education, and after working in both private and public, exclusive and inclusive higher education institutions, I would say that the book is highly recommended for those of us in the field of higher education, policymakers and individuals who wish to understand the potential of higher education in solving societal challenges.
• The book also presents a detailed roadmap for universities to embrace the concept of “One University, Many Futures,” which is meant to encourage creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration in the pursuit of knowledge and problem-solving. The authors argue that universities must be at the forefront of solving significant global problems, such as climate change, social injustice and economic inequality.
• The contrast between Columbia, which began as one of the elite colonial colleges that would come to constitute the Ivy League, and Arizona State, a burgeoning but then still largely undifferentiated regional public university, epitomized the heterogeneity and diversity in mission and scale of operation of the roughly two hundred institutions in the United States characterized as research universities… ASU is the nation’s youngest major research university and, with an enrollment of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students presently exceeding 76,000, one of the nation’s largest public universities governed by a single administration… an institution that combines accessibility to an academic platform underpinned by discovery and knowledge production, inclusiveness to a broad demographic representative of the socioeconomic diversity of the region and nation, and maximum societal impact – a model they have termed the “New American University.”
• Our society depends increasingly on the educated citizens and ideas, products, and processes these institutions produce as their integrated platforms of teaching and research contribute to our economic and global competitiveness as well as standard of living and quality of life. These institutions represent our best hope for the survival of our species.
• The organizational frameworks we call universities – this thousand-year-old institutional form – have not evolved significantly beyond the configurations assumed in the late nineteenth century, nor have differentiated new designs come to the fore… although institutional reconceptualization is not without its pitfalls given inherent sociocultural barriers, new models offer new ways of shaping and examining problems and advancing questions through cooperation among large numbers of teams, programs, and initiatives… Although the effort to transform a large public university into an adaptive knowledge enterprise in real time and at scale is unusual if not unprecedented, the reconceptualization has allowed the academic community to reassess its priorities.
• … “outrageously expensive” costs at elite private institutions like Stanford and the University of Chicago that for four years potentially exceed a quarter of a million dollars. Is it worth it?… Few communities are more petty and vicious than university faculties and offers the following synopsis of common allegations: “Teaching, we are told, is undervalued in favor of research, while research is less and less in touch with the demands of the real world, or with the comprehension of the ‘common reader.”
• The bachelor’s degree has become a driver of class divisions at the same moment in history when it has become educationally meaningless… our leading institutions have become increasingly exclusive and now define their excellence through admissions practices based on the exclusion of the majority of applicants… and these critiques come at an inflection point in our contemporary society when the significance of knowledge has never been greater.
• The model for a New American University that the authors delineate is intended to complement the set of highly successful major research universities and is only one among many possible models for this institutional type… the implementation of the model represents a reconceptualization of the American research university as a complex and adaptive comprehensive knowledge enterprise committed to discovery, creativity, and innovation, accessible to the broadest possible demographic, socioeconomically as well as intellectually. Each institution, however, must implement the model according to its unique and differentiated profile, determined by its mission and setting; the characteristics of its academic community; the scope of its constituent colleges, schools, and departments; and the extent of its willingness to undertake commitment to public service and community engagement.
• “The university is the most significant creation of the second millennium,” observes Frank Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell University… The New American University represents a reconceptualization of the American research university as a complex and adaptive comprehensive knowledge enterprise committed to discovery, creativity, and innovation, an institution accessible to the broadest possible demographic spectrum, representative of the socioeconomic and intellectual diversity of our nation.
• In the decades ahead, policy makers’ decisions regarding higher education will be major determinants of a given country’s economic competitiveness and ability to enhance the well-being of its citizens… A nation’s present well-being and future destiny are no longer constrained only by its “givens” (its geography, its population, its natural resources). Knowledge has become the prime mover; science and technology represent… Knowledge is a form of capital that is always unevenly distributed, and people who have more knowledge, or greater access to knowledge, enjoy advantages over people who have less.
• Universities are moving too slowly to accommodate the pace of transformation in the structure of knowledge… We mistakenly assume that the intellectual objectives of our institutions, especially in terms of scientific research and technological innovation, are automatically and inevitably aligned with our most important goals as a society… Demographic trends suggest that the United States is becoming a nation divided between a vibrant and dynamic upper class, a static and challenged middle class, and a disadvantaged majority increasingly defined by the working poor and those socially and economically unable to realize the American Dream. And universities are facing a unique opportunity to change that.