FELLOWS IN HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP NOT SHYING AWAY: BILL BOWEN ON LEADERSHIP Fellows AND CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION Currently in n Lessons Learned: Reflections of a University His transformational role in higher education continued Higher Education IPresident (Princeton University Press, 2010), after Dr. Bowen left Princeton in 1988 to head the Leadership William G. Bowen WF ’55 urges presidents “to say Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where he brought his clearly and forcefully what you believe on important legendary drive and breadth of perspective to bear Carmen Twillie Ambar PP ’89 university-related matters. It is unwise to equivocate on a range of new challenges. One Princeton faculty President, Cedar Crest College too much or shy away from controversy.” member told The New York Times in 1987, “I don’t Leon Botstein WF ’61 know how he will turn his new position [at Mellon] Over the course of nearly five decades as a leader President, Bard College into a 20-hour-a-day job, but if anyone can, it’s Bill.” in higher education, Dr. Bowen has not shied away To better inform Mellon’s grant making, he developed Richard H. Brodhead WF ’68 from controversy. Both during his tenure as president a research program that would examine and project President, Duke University of Princeton University and in his subsequent roles, needs in education and the nonprofit world. He also, he has been a bold, even insistent Ronald A. Crutcher WF ’69 with considerable technological leader and commentator on Photos: Courtesy of Princeton University Press President, Wheaton foresight, guided the Mellon some of the toughest challenges College (MA) Foundation’s sponsoring role in the facing higher education, from creation of the searchable JSTOR back to his early work on the economics of higher problem in higher education that no one wants to talk Drew Gilpin Faust WF ’70 coeducation and diversity to and ARTstor archives. education—specifically, to his definition of the about.” Just as not every institution needs a doctoral President, Harvard University the cost of college to digital “cost disease” of higher education. In the 1960s program in every field, Dr. Bowen observes, not Leslie M. Halick WF ’67 education. The last of these is During his Mellon years, Dr. Bowen Dr. Bowen had argued that, unlike many industries, every institution needs to be a producer of online President, Pacific University the subject of his latest book, also produced some of the best- labor-intensive enterprises like higher education or digital content, and some may actually contribute Higher Education in the Digital Age known of his more than 20 books on would always see rising labor costs outstrip any more as skillful consumers and packagers of content. William R. Harvey, AF ’80 (ITHAKA/Princeton University education and policy. With former incremental increases in productivity, the “outputs” The alternative “portfolio” approach, he argues, President, Hampton University Press, 2013). Princeton and Mellon colleague that any one faculty member (for example) could could imply different types of learning and teaching Neil Rudenstine, subsequently Carl Kohrt WF ’69 H Dr. Bowen, an Ohio native and the provide for students. The phenomenon is at the root at different institutions in ways that are cost-effective president of Harvard University, Interim President, Furman first in his family to attend college, of current debates about the rising cost of higher for those institutions and their students. he co-authored In Pursuit of the University received his Woodrow Wilson education and its effect on access for students from Photo: David Lubarsky Ph.D., a definitive study of doctoral His knack both for framing the debate and for Fellowship as a senior at Denison middle- and lower-income backgrounds—along Daniel Little WF ’71 education and its outcomes, as well guiding implementation has made Dr. Bowen one of University. He completed his Ph.D. in economics at with such factors as inefficiency and competitive Chancellor, University of as the effects of shifts in the need for and production the best-known and most widely respected higher Princeton in just three years, joining the Princeton spending on amenities to attract students. Michigan—Dearborn of Ph.D.s. His analysis in the book would support the education leaders of the past half-century. The faculty as a labor economist. His early work included often-contentious notion that some institutions could MOOCs and other digital interventions might, in citation for his 2012 National Humanities Medal Charles R. Middleton WF ’65 a monograph, The Economics of the Major Private and should pare away doctoral programs, given “excess Dr. Bowen’s analysis, offer a true means of changing (see page 13) emphasizes his strengths as both a President, Roosevelt University Universities, that essentially predicted the financial capacity” in the system. With former Harvard president productivity in higher education, enabling one faculty visionary and an administrator: “While his widely crisis higher education would confront in the last three Daniel Porterfield MN ’89 Derek Bok, he wrote The Shape of the River, still one of member to teach more students digitally and, at the discussed publications have scrutinized the effects decades of the 20th century. Appointed the university’s President, Franklin & Marshall the best-known examinations of the impact of affirmative same time, freeing more in-person time for research, of policy, Dr. Bowen has used his leadership to put first provost in 1967, he became president in 1972 and College action on higher education, and one in which he did not writing, and student advising. On the other hand, he theories into practice and strive for new heights of held that post until 1988. shy away from the controversial suggestion that colleges argued in the 2013 Stafford Lecture at Princeton, a academic excellence.” Judy R. Rogers WF ‘65 rush to embrace new digital forms of learning could President, Cottey College It was an eventful two decades at Princeton. As should indeed consider race in admissions, as a means of For all his gifts in analyzing the economic forces that prove counterproductive: provost, Dr. Bowen facilitated the university’s shift to achieving the significant educational benefits of a diverse shape higher education and the economic force Richard R. Rush WF ’70 coeducation, with the first women admitted in 1969, campus. Dr. Bowen’s other books—including Equity and …[T]here is much to be said for an intelligent division that they, in turn, exert on society, Dr. Bowen President, California State an initiative that provoked considerable resistance; Excellence in American Higher Education and Crossing the of labor, with those especially well-positioned to do so ultimately sees colleges and universities as “symbols University, Channel Islands; he also spearheaded efforts to enroll more minority Finish Line, on college access and college completion, constructing sophisticated platforms with feedback loops, of continuity,” he writes in Lessons Learned. “They are Former President, Mankato students. As president, he oversaw the creation of and The Game of Life and Reclaiming the Game, on college and with user campuses demonstrating at least modest long-term creators of knowledge and understanding, State University Princeton’s residential colleges, made a set of strategic athletics and educational values—have staked out clear capacity to customize offerings on the platform(s). We with each generation benefiting from the work of its Haywood Strickland WF ’60 investments in life sciences, and expanded the physical positions on key issues with similar forthrightness. do not need a thousand versions of a basic/customizable predecessors as it, in turn, presents new challenges plant, all amid the fiscal constraints of the 1970s; he President, Wiley College With what seems to be his characteristic prescience, platform; nor should we expect every campus to start and opportunities to the next.” also raised substantial funds, with the endowment Dr. Bowen has written most recently about the from scratch in preparing its own online materials. Some Carl J. Strikwerda CN ’81 more than tripling during his tenure. He wrote Few leaders of the past half-century have done as effects of technology on higher education, and wheels do not need to be re-invented. President, Elizabethtown reports on fiscal management in higher education that, much as Dr. Bowen to advance that generational about its implications for costs, access, and scholarly College circulated by the American Council on Education, And here, he acknowledges, is the sensitive point from transfer of knowledge. production. Higher Education in the Digital Age harks would become models for institutions nationwide. which, as ever, he does not shy away—“a pervasive 8 SPRING 2014 FELLOWSHIP 9 FELLOWS IN HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP NOT SHYING AWAY: BILL BOWEN ON LEADERSHIP Fellows AND CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION Currently in n Lessons Learned: Reflections of a University His transformational role in higher education continued Higher Education IPresident (Princeton University Press, 2010), after Dr. Bowen left Princeton in 1988 to head the Leadership William G. Bowen WF ’55 urges presidents “to say Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where he brought his clearly and forcefully what you believe on important legendary drive and breadth of perspective to bear Carmen Twillie Ambar PP ’89 university-related matters. It is unwise to equivocate on a range of new challenges. One Princeton faculty President, Cedar Crest College too much or shy away from controversy.” member told The New York Times in 1987, “I don’t Leon Botstein WF ’61 know how he will turn his new position [at Mellon] Over the course of nearly five decades as a leader President, Bard College into a 20-hour-a-day job, but if anyone can, it’s Bill.” in higher education, Dr. Bowen has not shied away To better inform Mellon’s grant making, he developed Richard H.