The American Research University from World War II to World Wide Web: Governments, the Private Sector, and the Emerging Meta-University , Charles M. Vest , U. California Press, Berkeley, 2007. $24.95 (127 pp.). ISBN 978-0-520-25253-0
The American research university is without question one of the most successful institutions of modern civilization. Yet it faces continuing challenges and has undergone substantial changes over the past 50 years. Charles Vest’s The American Research University from World War II to World Wide Web: Governments, the Private Sector, and the Emerging Meta-University sets forth articulately the nature and sources of future change. Although the facts presented in it are generally known, the overview and recommendations bear the authority of a distinguished academic who has been a participant in many of the issues critical to the future role of the research university.
When he delivered the Stafford Little Lectures at Princeton University in 1965, James A. Perkins, then president of Cornell University, said that the role of the university was “to advance knowledge” through three activities: “acquisition, transmittal and application”—that is, through research, teaching, and public service (see Perkins’s The University in Transition, Princeton U. Press, 1966). Vest states the mission differently. He believes the university’s role is “to create opportunity,” which is “what society expects.” But for whom should this opportunity be created? For what purpose? The answers change as society, the economy, and the political trends change. Thus the university must be expected to change with its environment, which is exactly what has happened.
The author covers four topics in four chapters: the role of the public sector, the role of the private sector, issues of openness versus globalization and terrorism, and the emergence of the meta-university that embraces the internet. The period from World War II to about 1965 is when the federal government emerged as the major source of funds for university R&D and as a major influence on its research. That period also witnessed the dramatic increase in industrial R&D, followed by the growing university–industry partnership that continues to mature today. A further growth phase that is taking new forms is the university’s adapting technological tools, particularly the internet, to permit it to operate as a global institution—the meta-university.
To “create opportunity” for individuals and society implies an active partnership between universities and industry. That partnership has required a shift in traditional academic attitudes toward industry, which was forced by World War II and has since then matured to the effective relationships of today. The gradual smoothing of ties between university and industry is a development that Vest’s book does not have space to cover.
For example, cutbacks of federal funding of university R&D in the late 1960s caused great anguish in the scientific community. Lee DuBridge, past president of Caltech, was then science adviser to President Richard Nixon. DuBridge’s office laid out plans to restore much of the university funding. At that time, I was developing cooperation between industry and federal programs on behalf of the Industrial Research Institute (IRI), which was founded in 1938. DuBridge called me and stated his wish that industry would actively support his plans. I suggested that the situation was not that simple and agreed to arrange a small meeting on the subject. Industry R&D executives soon met in Washington, DC, with members of DuBridge’s staff. About eight industry people were there, including Arthur Bueche, senior vice president of General Electric, and N. Bruce Hannay, vice president of Bell Labs.
The executives explained how in the past 25 years, faculty researchers found it easier to obtain large grants from government than from industry for projects related to glamorous areas such as supersonic flight, nuclear energy, exotic materials, and advanced communications. Industry needs were of lower priority and interest. Further, they added, graduate students were trained in an academic climate in which the best students were encouraged to pursue careers at universities. There was little concern about industry relations.
An example of academic naiveté in the early 1970s was a talk given to a small group called the Directors of Industrial Research by the distinguished head of a major research institution in the New York area. The audience of about 30 represented companies that, together, conducted almost 60% of US industrial research. The speaker’s talk of how critical university research was and his plea for industry funding could be summed up roughly as, “With your money and our brains, we can do wonders!” Not a very effective sales pitch to a group that had collectively built the giant industrial research laboratories following World War II.
Many universities, such as MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, did maintain strong industry ties. Research universities generally have continued to develop effective industry relationships based on mutual respect, competence, and understanding, with great benefits to both partners. The chapters on the university’s growing relations with government and the private sector help to explain how the research university functions today.
When Vest became president of MIT in 1990, major public issues began to create pressures that could change the operation of universities in the future. The conflict between openness and security at the time evokes memories of the 1950s and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Classification of federally funded work on campus is again an issue in an era of terror, even as it was during the cold war.
Vest argues persuasively for diversity as a goal and thus a factor in admissions. He describes the continuing struggle to accept students on merit while providing financial aid on the basis of need. The author is realistic about security and classification in particular areas, but he is also eloquent on the issues of open dialogue on campus among students and faculty and on the need for information to flow freely within the global scientific community. In all the discussions he presents, Vest uses examples from MIT experiences to strengthen his views. He offers considerable data on university finances and on the distinctions between public and private universities regarding funding sources, financial aid, and faculty salaries.
Now the American research university, as Vest points out, has become a major component in our nation’s social structure and global economic growth. Thus his final chapter is appropriately on the emergence of the meta-university and the challenges the academic community, policymakers, and the general public must overcome for it to succeed. His thoughtful overview of that process makes the book a valuable contribution to the ongoing debates.
Herbert I. Fusfeld is chairman of the Fusfeld Group Inc, which specializes in strategic development and technology management for corporations and is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. He is also the past director and founder of the center for science and technology policy in the School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
