The drive for attention is central to the quest for success as colleges and universities compete for students, faculty, and funding. The branding/marketing mania is reaching into the faculty, too. Many colleagues feel increasing pressure to generate attention and visibility for their work, and they find that intellectual humility has become a hindrance. Academic work has always been based on balancing individual and community interests, and the need for attention is fostering hype, overselling, and the need to publish "sellable" research output. Today's discussion will focus on how a drive for attention is reshaping the purpose of higher education, including academic practice, how contemporary forces are undermining public trust in higher education and science, and what can be done to restore intellectual humility and community balance, both of which are central to the pursuit of knowledge.
ADRIAN LENARDIC teaches modeling & design, skateboard videography, visualizing nature, and planetary science at Rice University. He was born in Zagreb, Croatia (he rarely misses a Croatian soccer match). His undergraduate degree is from UW-Madison, where he started as an art major before switching to physics (he still co-teaches a class in the art department). His Ph.D. is from UCLA, where he was introduced to planetary science (as well as learning to surf). Before coming to Rice, he was a president's postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley (the snowboard days). Adrian's scientific research relates to understanding interactions between the Earth's interior and surface environment, model development and uncertainty assessment, and multiple tangent meanderings. He is part of a first prize-winning art-car team and the recipient of the mayor's award, from the Jamail skate park, for the most improved skateboarder over 30.
Today's forum, sponsored by FutureU at https://futureu.education/, is hosted by Ruben O. Martinez, and the audio was produced by Frank Fear on behalf of FutureU.
