President Ryan and Friends Discuss the Future of Education

And that, ASU’s Crow said, is how universities should be: different from one another.

“Not everyone needs the same engineering department and the same political science program, with faculty just moving around for advancement,” said Crow, who co-wrote the 2015 book, “Designing the New American University.” “We need new kinds of universities that aren’t replicas of each other.” 

Institutional diversity, he said, has always been a strength of the America’s education system. The U.S. showcases an array of “successful educational phases of university”: the colonial college, public universities in the South, land grant schools and (historically Black colleges and universities) and the American research university,” he said.

Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, stressed that schools must evolve to prepare students for a changing world. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)

But higher education needs to continue to innovate to meet the most diverse student body, something for which it wasn’t originally designed, he said.

Under Crow’s leadership, ASU is moving toward a more interdisciplinary model, building 40 cross-discipline schools and institutes while eliminating more than 80 of its 800 majors in the process. He argues that the university has strayed away from its goal to produce “master learners” and has become attached to rigid structures that don’t serve students.

Founded less than 70 years ago, Harvey Mudd College was opened during the Cold War-era space race in recognition that there needed to be an institution focused on innovation “for humanity” and at an intersection of STEM with humanities studies, according to Nembhard, who noted that 140 Harvey Mudds could fit into ASU.

It continues to fill the niche purpose it was built for. She boasts 950 “nerds” across 12 STEM majors, with an alumni pool of 8,000. Nembhard is specific about what kind of student she hopes to produce.

“You hear students say they distinguished themselves because they were the engineer who could write,” she said. “Soon, it’ll be the engineer who can talk still to humans.”

In addition to reimagining internal ecosystems, University of Michigan president Santa Ono said universities, especially public institutions, have a responsibility to be part of the larger higher education ecosystem and collaborate with one another.

Harriet Nembhard, president of Harvey Mudd College, discussed how her college was created nearly 70 years ago to train well-rounded STEM thinkers. (Photo by Emily Faith Morgan, University Communications)

He would love, he said, to build partnerships with UVA, a school of similar size and research mission.

“We have an important role to innovation, to job creation and the economy,” he said. 

And, changes should be timely and linked to public impact and value, Crow said. “Society’s becoming increasingly unhappy with us. Our real job is empowering citizens.”

The panel was the first signature event of the Futures Initiative, launched in January under the auspices of the Provost’s Office and spearheaded by Phil Bourne, dean of the School of Data Science; Ken Ono, a math professor and STEM adviser to the provost; and Jason Nabi, project manager.

Members of the Futures Initiative Working Group – a task force made up of representatives from all 12 of UVA’s schools, four of its pan-University institutes, and several of its administrative and academic divisions – have been exploring how to answer Ryan’s charge to reimagine UVA to position it to thrive in an evolving world.  

The panel concluded a day’s worth of activities hosting the visiting presidents, including a tour of the Lawn and Rotunda with Louis Nelson, architectural history professor and the vice provost for academic outreach, and a special roundtable with members of the Futures Initiative Working Group.