“Hire the best, honor the mission, and measure the results.” The president of my university — the big one in Austin, with tower bathed perpetually in orange — has it right. That way lies academic greatness and prestige, assuming we all agree on the meaning of “best” and “mission,” and the means of measuring results.

The fun begins when disagreement arises — a common component of democratic, First Amendment-based discourse.

President William Powers, delivering his annual assessment of the state of the University of Texas, confesses himself weary of “contentious debate” over the university’s perceived slowness to confront and deal with modern challenges, such as fast-rising costs and ever-lengthening periods necessary for graduation.

So might Texans in general confess the same weariness. When the great majority of onlookers, researchers, and commentators pursue the very same goal — academic excellence, in the present case — unity serves the purpose better than discord.  The latter condition obtains, generally speaking, when insiders fancy themselves under siege by odoriferous yahoos hurling beer bottles instead of bearing constructively framed suggestions for change.

An urgent point for consideration is that no one I know of has ever suggested the University of Texas at Austin is a place of academic degeneracy, ripe for the fate the Romans visited on Carthage. It’s a great place, UT. Hook ‘em! Read More