Publications

by Michael M. Crow, William B. Dabars, and David V. Rosowsky

Issues in Science and Technology, July 2025

Seventy-five years ago this summer, President Truman signed the bill creating the National Science Foundation (NSF), setting in motion an innovation ecosystem that has delivered unrivaled military protection, remarkable economic growth, and countless lifesaving advances. The creation of NSF inaugurated the proposition that universities are responsible for producing a “flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in government, in industry, or elsewhere,” as Vannevar Bush wrote in Science, the Endless Frontier…

April 2025, Not Alone, Elsevier

Universities must figure out how to be strategic and purposeful during a time of chaos and uncertainty.

AGB Trusteeship magazine, Jan/Feb 2025

I am often asked, “What type of budget model works best for universities?” This is the wrong question or at least incorrectly cast. To get to the right questions, and the needed answers for any decision, we first need some history, some present-day context, and some insight into why, when, and how new budget models are designed and implemented at universities. We also need to understand the organizational, operational, and decision-making dynamics that characterize much of higher education in the United States today.

AGB Trusteeship magazine, Nov/Dec 2023

The Council on Higher Education as a Strategic Asset (HESA) will complete their report in the coming year. How are their discussions and final recommendations likely to be informed by past commissions and councils? This article puts this latest group’s work in historic context by looking at the efforts and outcomes of the Truman Commission and the Spellings Commission.

In this op-ed, vice presidents for research at two major land-grant universities, David Rosowsky (Kansas State University) and Peter Dorhout (Iowa State University) discuss the Farm Bill and need for investment in our nation’s agriculture research infrastructure.

AGB Trusteeship magazine, Mar/Apr 2023

As we enter the fourth year of the pandemic or the second year of the post-pandemic era, depending on your perspective, here are four things to look for from higher education in 2023—a refreshed look at what continues to be a critical time with as yet unmet challenges and unrealized opportunities for colleges and universities.

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 7, 2022

When it comes to communicating their value to the public, universities have not been shy. They have hired staff, redirected precious time and resources, and even taken out magazine ads and billboards to toot their horns and tout their feats in important markets. But is their message being heard?

Across partisan lines, citizens agree on one thing—how public universities should spend their money, David V. Rosowsky, E. Gordon Gee and Stephen M. Gavazzi write.

University Business, May 2022

The higher education industry has long been reproached for its slower pace of reform. The pandemic exacerbated this, with the world intently watching and assessing the industry’s ability to quickly pivot—and to not only reflect societal realities, but to drive systemic change going forward.

AGB Trusteeship magazine, Jan/Feb 2022

New strategies will be needed for higher education leaders to successfully respond to the types, magnitudes, and concurrent impacts and mutual amplification of crises they will face in the years ahead, the so-called post-pandemic era. This point was driven home in the 2020 and 2021 academic years as higher education institutions and their leaders faced multiple challenges rising to the level of crises. What made this period so challenging was not the global pandemic on its own (although this was perhaps the single greatest challenge U.S. colleges and universities have faced in history), but the concurrence of multiple crises, more than one of which might even be considered a pandemic.

AACRAO, College and University, Summer 2021

Challenges confronting higher education have led to outcomes-driven approaches such as performance-based funding, forced greater emphasis on student persistence and completion, and spurred campus-wide student success efforts. In examining ways to achieve integrated student success efforts across campus, this article explores issues related to structure and alignment, faculty versus student affairs culture, and risk points to address when implementing institution-wide strategies.