Michael M. Crow - The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education

PRAISE FOR The Fifth Wave

In a perfect world, we would clone Michael Crow, so every university would have the same advantage as Arizona State University. Until that happens, The Fifth Wave is our next best option. Malcolm Gladwell

The modern American university is a fountainhead of knowledge, a privileged gatekeeper, and an exorbitant money sink. Updating this vital institution for the twenty-first century is a major challenge, and no one is better placed to show us the way than Michael Crow and William Dabars. Crow is a magician who exploded conventional tradeoffs and made his university both intellectually stellar and inspiringly inclusive. Steven Pinker , Johnstone Family Professor, Harvard University, and author of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

As social and technological complexity accelerates, progress and adaptation are driven by waves of change in all sectors. The advent of the interconnected estate empowers citizens but has brought the imperative for broad access to scientific and technological literacy. The Fifth Wave envisioned by Michael Crow tackles this challenge and assumes responsibility not only for knowledge production but societal well-being. In this compelling assessment of the prospects for evolution in American higher education, Crow and William Dabars delineate the parameters of a league of colleges and universities that will scale advanced learning to maximize innovation and societal impact. Eric Schmidt , Technical Advisor, Alphabet Inc.

Widely admired, always discussed, Michael Crow is the most radical practitioner in American higher education. To see him lead Arizona State University is to see a pinch of genius and a pound of courage. It is theater and it is purpose. It is, at present, higher educations greatest show on earth. Mikhail Baryshnikov said of Fred Astaire: We are dancing, but he is doing something else. In higher education, this is Michael Crow. In The Fifth Wave, he and William Dabars write a blueprint for building out a research-grade higher education infrastructure proportionate to the task of educating every academically qualified applicant in America. Their ambition is to democratize intelligence. Radically redesigned, these schools would be purpose-built to educate the next generation, by the millions, at socially meaningful scale. An impossible ambition, save Crow already has the working prototype in his own Arizona State University. David G. Bradley , Chairman, Atlantic Media

The Fifth Wave recognizes the urgent need for our public universities to get off the sidelines and engage seriously with the world, from increasing access to the transformative opportunities provided by higher education to taking on the profound challenges our world faces. Michael Crow and William Dabars make a powerful case for the unique and powerful good that universities can accomplish if academia is bold enough to reconsider how its unique strengths can contribute to a more equitable, sustainable, and informed future. Ana Mari Cauce , President, University of Washington

Michael Crow and William Dabars propose a new model for American universities. Their delineation of the history and evolution of American colleges and universities and their discussion of issues facing these institutions highlight the significance and gravity of these issues as well as the substantial contributions that research universities make to society. Robert J. Zimmer , President, University of Chicago

Provocative, encompassing, and groundeda blueprint for learning and creating that is authentic to the twenty-first centuryan age, perhaps, better characterized as the age of entanglement rather than the age of enlightenment. This calls for going beyond transdisciplinarity and Pasteurs Quadrant to create new forms of institutional and disciplinary architectures better attuned to learning in action with others. Unique to this blueprint is the proposition of the Fifth Wave University as a network of practices and institutions not bounded geographically or politically. Reading this incredible book made us think John Dewey would be smiling to see how his ideas, including democracy, have evolved for this new age of entanglement. John Seely Brown , former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corp., and Director of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and Ann Pendleton-Jullian, former director, Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University and professor of design, Pardee RAND Graduate School, coauthors of Design Unbound: Designing for Emergence in a White Water World

Michael Crow and William Dabars argue persuasively that a league of universities committed to broad access to world-class knowledge production can deliver both success for individuals and the economic competitiveness of our nation. This is recommended reading for those interested in preparing for the complexities that lie ahead. Steve Case , Chairman and CEO, Revolution, and author of The Third Wave: An Entrepreneurs Vision of the Future

Michael Crow is redefining the way research universities engage with society. In The Fifth Wave, Crow and William Dabars call upon us to imagine a new era in American higher education where accessible institutions are dedicated to solving global problems through technological innovation, social entrepreneurship, and world-class knowledge production. All those with a stake in the future of higher education would benefit greatly from reading this book. Arthur C. Brooks , Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School, author of The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

Michael M. Crow is one of a handful of the most creative and able presidents of any American university. I consider any new book that he produces to be an important event. The Fifth Wave should be read by academic, business, and governmental leaders, especially those who have a stake in the continued preeminence of the great research universitiesand their future structuresin the United States. Jonathan R. Cole , Columbia University, author of The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected

THE FIFTH WAVE

THE FIFTH WAVE

THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION

MICHAEL M. CROW AND WILLIAM B. DABARS

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS

Baltimore

2020 Johns Hopkins University Press

All rights reserved. Published 2020

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

98765432

Johns Hopkins University Press

2715 North Charles Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363

www.press.jhu.edu

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Crow, Michael M., author. | Dabars, William B., author.

Title: The fifth wave : the evolution of American higher education / Michael M. Crow and William B. Dabars.

Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019036586 | ISBN 9781421438023 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781421438030 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Education, HigherAims and objectivesUnited States. | Universities and collegesUnited StatesAdministration.

Classification: LCC LA227.4 .C76 2020 | DDC 378.73dc23