Wood's Words: If Not You.. Who?
Jim F. Wood ‘64
“This is the most important investment of your life,” said the Admissions Officer, “and of ours!”
The parents looked at each other trying to understand the hyperbole. Their daughter was first in her high school class, was expected to give the Valedictorian speech in June, had full scholarships to two larger universities and was a second team High School All-American lacrosse goalie. On what possible pretense could this administration person even question her college credentials, or the notoriety she would bring to the school she selected?
The Admissions Officer stood and stretched. He walked from behind his desk, sat on a corner and bent down slightly looking directly into the student’s eyes. “Your Dad was a terrific student here,” he said. I looked at his transcript yesterday, and read some of the references about him in his class Year Book. Being tapped for Phalanx is the highest leadership award on campus.” Smiling, he stood up and said to the family, “Please come for a walk with me. Let’s tour some parts of the campus you may have missed.”
They left the admissions building and walked by some construction. New dormitories had just been framed and they could see wonderful glass atria facing the south mountains and the river below. The Admissions Officer explained that the unique design and location took full advantage of the campus orientation, including the angle of the sun for most of the year, and would show the seasonal colors in a natural and harmonious way. There were many single rooms, many double rooms and several suites. All had southern views and all were completely wired with state-of-the-art communications, including ingress security. There were substantial numbers of study rooms for singles and groups, and several workout rooms and spas open 24-hours a day. He explained these would replace many older dorms because it was not the intent of the university to grow its student population significantly.
“Why,” said the mother, “I thought all colleges were trying to grow bigger?”
“In 2006,” said the Admissions Officer, “the United States graduated a total of 1.3 million college students. India graduated 3.1 million, and China graduated 3.3 million. In ten years, the number one English speaking country in the world will be…China. Today’s ‘learners’ will have had ten to fourteen jobs by the time they are 38-years old. We are not in a competition for numbers; we are in a competition for knowledge.
We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist…in order to solve problems we don’t even know yet are problems.”
In the hour that followed, they walked through buildings constructed in the 1970’s and early 1980’s designed for courses and subjects that preceded the so-called information technology age. “Looks a lot different,” said the father. “Those new dorms must have cost a mint.”
“Did you know the first commercial text message was sent in December 1992?” said the Admissions Officer. “Today, actually each day, the number of TM’s sent exceeds the population of the planet! Technical information doubles every two years. And, by 2010, we expect technical information to double every 72 hours.
“There are 2.7 billion Google searches each month. I cannot imagine how these searches were even done before Google? Did you know that by the time kids born in 2007 are six years old, the computational capabilities of a super computer will exceed those of the human brain? I have read predictions that by midcentury, a computer costing $1000 will have computational capabilities that exceed those of the entire human race!
“Did you know, more than 50 percent of 21-year-olds in the US have created web content, and have sent/received more than 250,000 emails or IM’s in their lifetimes.”
As they returned to the admissions building, the Admissions Officer asked the father, “ Is this is your first time on campus since graduation?”
“Yes”, he said, “we live in North Carolina and don’t come back to the Northeast much any more. I’ve built a nice construction business near Charlotte and it keeps me plenty busy. The campus looks great, though, especially all the green space, and, of course, the wooded areas.”
“Much of that green space will have buildings in the next decade,” said the Admissions Officer. Here’s a copy of our Master Plan, if you’re interested.”
“How is this all going to be financed?” asked the father.
“Well, let me go back to a comment I made about an hour ago when I said the decision to admit your daughter would be important for both of us. Tuition, room and board charges barely cover operating expenses at this institution. It’s not hand-to-mouth mind you. We still do a lot of important research: We’re very strong in several business subjects, top ten in a few; we’re ahead of the curve in nano-technology, which has a lot of promise in material science and biomedicine. And, we’ve concentrated for several years on trying to organize our curricula in ways that meet the very difficult challenge I mentioned during our walk. I mean, how DO you provide a relevant education for an uncertain future? The combinations of engineering, business, science and liberal arts available to our students are done in such a way, and in a collaborative manner, as to expose our students to thinking methodologies that are much different than your time here and will be effective in the dozen jobs they are likely to have before they are 40- years old.”
“I wondered about that,” said the mother. “It’s not like I remember when I was in school. Much less regimented.”
“Yes, I had my engineering courses pretty much planned after my freshman year,” said the father. “There were a few electives, but a lot of required courses. Even so, it worked well for me.”
The Admissions Officer smiled. “Before I send you over to meet the Women’s lacrosse coach, are there any questions for me?”
“Well, could you, perhaps, complete the thought about the dual importance of this decision?” asked the mother.
“Yes, of course. Let me put it this way. From your perspective, and that of your daughter, this investment needs to prepare her for a world we cannot know. I’ve tried to share that uncertainty with you- at least as we see it. High school students can’t be expected to completely understand this uncertainty. They surely have not seen it in their high school, and probably just being a teenager can be confusing enough. Your daughter has prospered in that environment. We will make her better. We will prepare her for her future options in ways most other schools will not, or cannot, because other schools either haven’t seen the future, or are in denial. But, I must tell you it’s important for us also to consider what kind of an alumna she might be. You asked earlier how all ‘this’ would be financed. I am often asked that question by alumni. The answer is:
‘If not you…who?’
The single most important source of unrestricted funding for a private school like this is its alumni. It is beyond critical; it’s crucial. We depend on it for tuition subsidies, scholarship money, professorship and chair endowments that allow us to hire the best and brightest to teach and do research, and we absolutely depend on it for new buildings and grounds improvements. We compete with other private institutions, as well as public colleges funded by taxpayers. You read every day about very large philanthropic donations from alumni of Princeton and Harvard, whose endowments are larger than the GDP of some countries. Did you know here our largest support has come mostly from non-alumni! So, when I say student selection is important to us, it is in this respect that I am referring. Obviously we cannot fail our students, then as alumni, we depend on them more than I can express. And they cannot fail us.”
The father had been staring out the window for most of the explanationseemingly uninterested. “I haven’t been a big donor,” he said. “If I was to write a check now, would it help the admission’s process for my daughter?”
“Dad!” she screamed. “I haven’t even made up my mind yet!”
Clearly embarrassed, the family stood to leave. “Wait a moment,” said the Admissions Officer. First, I didn’t mean to imply what I think you may have understood to be a comment on your generosity as an alumnus of this school. Of course, any donation you make would be valued by us and by our students, but your daughter’s record is strong and certainly stands on its own merits. I meant only to point out the facts, as they now exist about higher education. They are even worse than I recited because the population of high school students matriculating to college is declining along with the quality. Your daughter obviously is an exception to this trend. She is well qualified. She will get a thorough review by this office, and by me personally. Everyplace she has applied will want her on their campus, I’m sure. Here, we need to seek those special students who can deal with the uncertainty of the future, who seek order out of chaos, who are leaders among followers, and who will value the liftoff we give them by looking at the investment they, and you, make in terms of a lifelong investment, not bounded on one end by the admissions process, and tuition payments, and the other end by graduation. We truly need to select students who will be part of this institution when you and I are long gone. “
“How can I help?” said the father.
“Let’s get you over to meet the lacrosse coach first. It’s one of our stronger teams, you know, and our coach is a terrific leader. If your family is staying over tonight, I’d like you to be my guest for dinner and meet some folks from the Alumni and Institutional Advancement Offices,” said the Admissions Officer. “As Albert Einstein said, ‘we can’t solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’ “