Brains and Bucks Part 5: The Ivory Tower

[Part 5 of a series on Universities, Research, and Economic Development, based on presentations by Dr. Douglas Knowlton, President of Dakota State University, and Dr. David Chicoine, President of South Dakota State University, at a forum on the role of universities in commercialization, held on the DSU campus Tuesday, July 24, 2007.]

Part 1: South Dakota as Community
Part 2: Audience Statistics
Part 3: Hard Numbers
Part 4: Main Street
Part 5: The Ivory Tower

As yesterday's forum and the preceding posts in this series have made clear, South Dakota's public universities can and do function as engines of economic growth for their home communities and for the entire state.

But is that really the universities' mission? I'm a humanities guy -- or, perhaps in the more common vernacular, I'm one of those artsy-fartsy types. In six-plus years of undergraduate and graduate courses at four different universities, I've always taken courses based on simple curiosity and fascination. Knowledge is good and beautiful in and of itself, regardless of what use it may be put towards, and that principle has guided my entire career as a student and teacher. As a painter, writer, linguist, speech coach, and theater director, I've never worried about the practical application of my knowledge.

Given that background, I have always viewed with suspicion the efforts of government and administrators to turn schools at all levels, university and K-12, into job-training centers. High school, I have frequently argued to students, if for training citizens, not workers. Universities ought to bastions of the highest scholarship, not centers of commerce and profit. Professors and students alike ought to be insulated from the mutable pressures of the market so they may freely pursue more lasting knowledge that interests them in the arts and sciences. The university is supposed to expose students to and expand the universe of knowledge and society, not confine its bright minds within the constraints of what is popular and profitable (we have the corporate media to promote that agenda). What ever happened to the ivory tower, where great minds could gather and toil in their books and musings without concern for such mundane matters as patents and commercialization?

Yet here I am now, self-proclaimed humanities guy, heading to DSU to write a doctoral dissertation on information systems and rural economic development, and nodding my head in sincere agreement with university presidents as they talk about the vital role of South Dakota's public universities in local (read statewide) economic development. What gives?

No, I'm not just brown-nosing the boss, (although I am looking forward to more conversations with Dr. Knowlton about our university's mission and how my research will contribute to it). And I'm definitely not abandoning my firm belief in the mission of the university to promote knowledge for knowledge's sake. Universities are centers of learning, not job-training. I remain disturbed by the increasing number of employers requiring advanced degrees of employees not as a recognition of valuable knowledge but merely a sign of trainability. That trend draws more students to universities who seek nothing more than the diploma, without valuing all the knowledge that diploma should represent.

But let's not get caught in a false dilemma. At yesterday's forum, neither Dr. Knowlton nor Dr. Chicoine presented a choice between ivory-tower academics and commercialization. Within their vision of the modern university, there remains room for both. The repsonsible university, suggested Dr. Chicoine, must do both. He cited the University of Chicago, home of numerous Nobel-laureate economists yet seated in the midst of Hyde Park, an economically depressed urban neighborhood. That such a schism should exist demonstrates a lack of connection between research and economic development, Dr. Chicoine suggested, that a university should not permit in its own community, for its own sake as well as that of its neighbors.

As an audience member pointed out, the University of Chicago did exercise its social responsibility from its founding in 1892. While the school was designed to create "a feeling of insularity and detachment from the surrounding city," University of Chicago faculty were closely involved with community improvement efforts and reformers like Jane Addams (this and more at Robin F. Bachin, "University of Chicago," Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, Chicago Historical Society, 2005). Dr. Chicoine himself acknowledged that the University of Chicago has been making great efforts to connect its research with commercialization. It established the Office of Technology and Intellectual Property (UChicagoTech) in 2001 to manage the ARCH Development Corporation, a non-profit university affiliate that had been handling intellectual property and technology commercialization matters since 1986.

The University of Chicago hasn't had to abandon its high scholarly pursuits to tackle the additional challenge of commercialization. The university's motto, "Crescat scientia; vita excolatur" ("Let knowledge grow from more to more; and so be human life enriched") doesn't exclude the idea of enriching mankind by using that growing knowledge to create inventions, jobs, and business opportunities; as UChicagoTech's mission statement states, commercialization can optimize that enrichment:

When the University accepts funding support for faculty research, it also frequently accepts an obligation to disseminate and manage the results of that research for the benefit of the public. When combined with traditional modes of dissemination, the commercial development of research results may contribute to their achieving the greatest impact, the widest dissemination, and the maximum contribution to the public good. Revenues from commercial development are used to support new and ongoing efforts in basic research and education.

South Dakota's universities can take the same approach. We don't need to kick out the humanities or any other discipline that can't demonstrate clear market potential. We don't have to turn every paper on Shakespeare, rural sociology, or search engines into a start-up company. But we can find ways (e.g. funding, expanded graduate programs, administrative support) that make it possible for those professors who are interested (and there are many) in finding ways to benefit society through the commercialization of their research.

Expanding our research commercialization efforts will increase our public universities' direct impact on local economic development. That's a good thing. At the same time, we must always keep in mind the great value of scholarly research beyond patents and profits. University of Chicago law professor Douglas Baird argues that academics must always come first. "Commercialization of university activities has to take a backseat. It's not a corporation" [Zachary Binney, "Patents Serve as Solid Source of School Funds," Chicago Maroon, online edition, 2005.01.11].

A university where professors and students do nothing but look for ways to make money would be a grim place. It would not be a university in the sense of a community of scholars dedicated to the universe of ideas. It is the interaction of all sorts of intellectuals -- inventors, MBAs, economists, engineers, sociologists, biologists, writers, actors, artists, philosophers -- that creates the truly interesting and vibrant community, both on campus and around town. The combination of intellectual endeavors and commercialization, of pure and applied research, will make all of our lives richer.