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How Rankings Distort Institutional Behavior There is a quiet shift that occurs once rankings take hold. At first, they are observed. Then they are discussed. Eventually, they are pursued. And somewhere along that path, something subtle but profound changes: Institutions begin to optimize not for education, but for position. From Measurement to Strategy Once a ranking exists, it does not sit passively. It becomes a target. Administrators begin to ask: How do we move up? What d

The email arrives. Or the press release. Or the carefully worded announcement on the school’s website. Or the piece in the Alumni Newsletter. Or the post on Linkedin or Facebook There it is again. “Ranked #1 in the nation for the 10th consecutive year.” The headline is clean, confident, and irresistible. It signals excellence. It reassures stakeholders. It travels well to alumni newsletters, donor briefings, and prospective student inboxes. And yet, beneath that polished surf

There is a moment when a decision is made without those most affected ever being in the room. In Washington, it is called an Executive Order. In academia, it often arrives through an Executive Committee. Different settings. Different stakes. But the underlying question is strikingly similar: What happens when authority outruns participation? The Nature of Executive Action   An Executive Order, issued by the President of the United States, is designed for decisiveness. It is:

I have never cared for the phrase: “We are the #1 veterinary school in the United States.” Not because excellence should not be celebrated, but because I am not entirely sure what, precisely, is being celebrated. What does #1 veterinary school actually mean? And perhaps more importantly, what does it do for a profession that prides itself on care, diversity of practice, and service? What Are We Really Measuring? Most veterinary school rankings are built less on objective outc

There is a deceptively simple question that sits at the heart of every university: Who is the institution? Is it the leadership? Or is it the people - the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and public - who give it life? In 1867, Charles Sumner stood as what many called the “conscience of a nation,” insisting that governance must reflect the moral will of the people, not merely the authority of those in power. More than a century later, Ronald Reagan captured a similar idea in

There is no single moment when accountability fails. No clear breach. No definitive line crossed. Instead, there is a gradual accumulation of small accommodations, quiet adjustments, and reasonable decisions made in complex circumstances. Each, on its own, may be defensible. Together, they are something else. By now, the pattern is familiar.   In Part 1 , the line between public responsibility and private interest softened.   In Part 2 , we saw how systems exert their own pul

Governance is everywhere. Committees convene. Agendas are circulated. Minutes are recorded. Votes are taken. From the outside, the structure appears intact - reassuringly so. There are layers of oversight, clearly defined processes, and a visible architecture of accountability. And yet, there are moments when a quiet doubt emerges: If governance is present, why does it sometimes feel absent? This is not a question of whether governance exists. It does. The question is whether

A gift is never just a gift. At least, not at this scale. When a public university receives a transformative donation - $120,000,000, for example - the immediate response is predictable.   Gratitude Celebration Headlines   The language of generosity flows easily, and understandably so. Such gifts can fund buildings, programs, scholarships, research. They can accelerate progress that might otherwise take decades. But alongside the gratitude, there is another question - quieter

At a public university, decisions do not derive their legitimacy solely from authority. They derive legitimacy from process. And process, at its best, reflects something deeper than structure - it reflects trust . At institutions like the University of California, and within schools such as the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, that trust is meant to be safeguarded by a principle we invoke often, and interrogate too rarely: Shared governance. But what happens when deci

It is tempting to tell this story as one of individuals. A dean joins a corporate board. A chancellor sits at a table where decisions are made that extend far beyond the university. A senior administrator accepts compensation that quietly exceeds what most faculty will earn in years. From a distance, it is easy - perhaps even satisfying - to frame this as a question of personal choice. But what if that is the wrong lens? What if there is another possibility? What if what we a

Accountability rarely disappears overnight. It erodes quietly, through exceptions, justifications, and the gradual acceptance of what once would have been unthinkable. And nowhere is this more evident today than in the intersection of public universities, corporate boardrooms, and conditional philanthropy. There was a time when the boundary was clear.   A senior academic leader, particularly in a public university, was understood to serve a singular mission:   Education. Rese

In 2013, Lieutenant General David Morrison(1) gave one of the most powerful public statements of modern institutional leadership: The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. That line has enduring force because it reaches beyond the immediate context in which it was spoken. It is not only about misconduct. It is about institutional character . It is about what leaders normalize by failing to confront it. And it applies with unsettling precision to the modern univer

Universities have always depended on patrons. In medieval Europe, wealthy families funded colleges and endowed scholarships. In the United States during the nineteenth century, industrialists such as Stanford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie built entire universities through philanthropy. Generosity and education have long been intertwined. But something subtle has changed in recent decades. Philanthropy has increasingly become intertwined not just with support for universities, bu

Philanthropy has become indispensable to modern higher education. Public universities, squeezed by declining state support and rising costs, now depend increasingly on private gifts to fund buildings, scholarships, endowed chairs, institutes, and research initiatives. In that sense, philanthropy is no longer peripheral. It has become central to how many public universities imagine their future. But the more central philanthropy becomes, the more urgent another question become

Philanthropy has long played an important role in higher education. Public universities, especially in an era of declining state support, increasingly rely on private giving to fund buildings, programs, chairs, scholarships, and research. But there is an important distinction that is too often blurred. A gift is one thing. A conditional gift that reaches into governance is something else. A newer form of philanthropy has emerged in which donors seek not merely to support the

There was a time when the dog catcher knew every street. The dog catcher wasn’t just a man with a truck and a looped pole. He was part of the town’s quiet fabric - half warden, half caretaker. The dog catcher knew which gate didn’t quite latch on Maple Street, which old Labrador wandered only on warm afternoons, which child would come running in tears if their terrier didn’t return by dusk. He caught dogs, yes. But more often, he returned them. The measure of his work was not

Some people need mountains. Some need cities. Some need noise and movement. Others need water. Not simply to drink or bathe or cross in a boat, but to see it, to hear it, to feel its presence nearby. Water has a way of steadying a life that is difficult to explain to someone who does not feel the same pull. The Calm of a Water View There is a particular quiet that comes from looking out over water. A lake in the early morning. The slow tide moving through a harbor. A river be

There is something quietly revealing about how a person treats small acts of order. Making the bed. Hanging a jacket rather than dropping it over a chair. Rinsing a cup before placing it in the sink. These are not grand gestures. They are tiny decisions, almost invisible in the moment, but together they form a kind of daily philosophy. Neatness is rarely about perfection. It is about respect. Respect for one’s surroundings, respect for the people one lives with, and, perhaps

Shared governance  in an academic institution is a foundational partnership where the faculty, administration, and staff, jointly manage the university's academic and operational missions. As a Professor Emeritus at UC Davis, from the time of my first orientation, I was secure in the knowledge that I was part of a system that prioritized shared governance . Slide from a new faculty orientation Shared Governance at UC Davis Shared governance ensures that faculty hold delegated

Almost everyone who has eaten in an Asian restaurant has faced the small, slightly awkward moment. The waiter sets down the food. There are forks and spoons on the table. No chopsticks. You hesitate. Should I ask for chopsticks? Will I embarrass myself if I can’t use them? Does the waiter assume I can’t? Or worse, does asking for them look like cultural posturing? It is a small moment, but like many small social rituals, it carries layers of meaning. The Perennial Question: “