It’s Time for Universities to Redesign Their 75-Year-Old Contract

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

Response to “Don’t Rank Research Universities — Compare Them” by Robert A. Brown

Response by David Rosowsky, In: Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 2025

Robert Brown’s essay reads like the scientific article it is and reflects the kind of thorough analysis expected from such a scholar-researcher. The fact that he was also a president of a large private research university adds both to his understanding of the need for such a study and his desire to offer more than a criticism but an alternative to the current (flawed) rankings system.

What’s the Best Budget Model for Our Institution?

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.

Higher Education as a Strategic Asset: An Emerging National Call to Action

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.

What the People Want

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.

Leadership in Times of Crisis

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.