The Imperative of Excellence

The Provost's 2003 State of Academics Address

Drexel University
University Assembly
March 11, 2003



On March 11, 2003 at the Spring Meeting of the University Assembly, the Provost of the University, Harvill Eaton, presented the 2003 state of Academics Address. The text of his address follows. The Provost invites your comment on this vision for excellence to be sent to him at provosteaton@drexel.edu.

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     When asked to describe his ideal of higher education, President James A. Garfield described it as then Williams College President Mark Hopkins sitting on one end of a log with his student sitting on the other end. This image of the learned professor imparting the wealth of knowledge of culture and history, arts and science, to his student and protégé evokes images of Aristotle and Plato and the Akademia in Athens. Akademia – to Plato a place, a city park, in ancient Athens. To us a word that describes what we are about, what we do for others and ourselves, and what we can be.

     Our principles as academics are clearly grounded in the ideals that inspired the teacher and the learner in the Akademia. Our customs, ritual, and even organization are derived from the great institutions at Bologna, Cambridge, and Oxford. Indeed, higher education has endured and will endure.

     At that apocryphal moment when Mark Hopkins sat on the log, and invited his student to join him, things were different than they are today. Mark did not provide housing for the student. Nor did he have a graduate assistant who made sure the log was clean in exchange for a stipend and her own turn on the log. Nor did he have to consider the size of the log, and how many students could fit on the log and still enjoy a quality educational moment. Nor did he have to pay a residual to the timber company for the use of the log.

     Mark Hopkins did not negotiate with his dean how many courses he would offer on the log, at what time of day he would offer them, and where he would park. He did not worry about how much he should charge the student, how much he would have to discount his price to keep the student from choosing to study on the log down stream, or whether the student could tackle a 250 pound running back or make a three pointer under the enormous pressure of network TV coverage at the NCAA tournament. Finally, at no point did Mark consider converting his course notes into html served asynchronously through the internet by a for-profit subsidiary of the corporation that owned the log. In President Garfield's mind, Professor Mark Hopkins, his lectures, and the log were not a business. After all, Mark was an educator and a scholar.

     The university of today is an institution defined by contradictions. It is in its greatest moment a vehicle for the transformation of culture and knowledge down through the ages, and a critical element of the continuity and survival of civil society. It is the home of a faculty of scholars who tie their own sense of privileges and prerogatives back to their classical and monastic forbearers. It is also a complex business with a range of intertwined functions and responsibilities that come together to create educational products and services. Over the past quarter century, the world of higher education has changed, and today we must compete for students, for faculty, and for other revenues and resources in an increasingly competitive marketplace.