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Senior Vice-President for Research and Innovation, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Michigan State University

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Manhattan winter wonderland

Actually, it was pretty warm.

President Simon and I did a nice Q&A with the alumni guests in an auditorium at the JP Morgan building on Madison. Some of my buddies were probably upstairs working when the event started at 5:30 pm.









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4 comments:

Bobdisqus said...

Hello Steve

I am looking at your Big Apple & DC trips along with your new VP of Research & Graduate Studies role at MSU and thinking about the spiraling cost of a college education. This combined with a niece well into her second year of unemployment with a MSU Advertising degree has me questioning the value. Beyond the assortive mating benefits it provides, it seems that much of this is wasted expenditure. I have three daughters with paid MET contracts quickly approaching collage age so it is something I spend a lot of thought and worry on.

I recognize the unfairness of putting you on the spot for it, but there it is all the same.

MSU In-State estimated tuition cost $12,674
MSU FY 2012-13 Initial Gross Appropriation.............................. $245,037,000
MSU AGBIO & Ext. FY 2012-13 Initial Gross Appropriation......... $54,204,600
http://www.house.mi.gov/hfa/PDFs/HigherEdAppropsReport2013.pdf
http://admissions.msu.edu/finances/tuition.asp

1:31 PM
steve hsu said...

These activities are for fund raising. The donors we met with in NYC are subsidizing the research and teaching activities at MSU ... I could make much more money in the private sector, and would if I didn't care so much about the mission of research universities.


If being educated at a research university is not a big consideration, you can certainly get a degree at a less expensive university.

2:10 PM
David Coughlin said...

My guess is three years working as a flunkie at an agency followed by a parent-subsidized year developing a portfolio is a better investment for advertising than an undergraduate degree. It would have robbed her of 'the college experience' but it would have been more practically useful.

10:08 PM
Bobdisqus said...

First, let me say Steve Hsu VP of Research & Graduate Studies is I suspect a sign of good things to come for MSU. My guess is you and I will not find common ground on appropriate compensation of administrators at public universities. I have no doubt that entrepreneur can be more lucrative than your current edustocracy position. The former is certainly more valuable to society and the later certainly entails less personal risk for you so I think the forgone compensation is rather beside the point.

That tuition is up because state support is down is highly specious. Show me the data supporting restraint in tuition increases at public universities that have received level or increasing constant dollar funding, and that the phenomena is limited to those with decreased constant dollar funding. I highly doubt the data supports this. Too many dollars into the system and high stakes credentialism is more where I see the problem.

I do not doubt the value of much of the research, yet not all research holds the same value. Look over the list of undergraduate majors offered at MSU and I think you can not make the case equally well for all of them that the research mission of the school adds value to the undergraduate education offered by the school. Some probably do not belong at a research university, and some even have a negative value to society.

http://admissions.msu.edu/academics/majors_list.asp

1:07 AM

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