[81alum]

Having come from the east coast, the great thing about Stanford for me was the iconoclastic culture in the classroom and around campus. The band was an important symbol of the lack of obeisance to the established ways. However, the willingness to do things differently in the classroom was even more important. The drive to destroy the band makes me worry that what made Stanford special is being destroyed in the rest of the University as well, turning Stanford into just another Ivy League school with better weather.

I hope I'm over-reacting.

No, the homogenization of elite education is a real concern, driven by the fact that professional academic administrators move from elite university to elite university and often have no particular roots in the place they reside--no institutional memory.  While Etchemendy has pretty deep Stanford roots,  Tessier-Lavigne has flitted around more than half a dozen elites and a couple of corporations besides, teaching at Stanford during one of his flits.  Greg Boardman has no Stanford roots but is a lifelong academic administrator, moving up from Vermont to Penn State to Tulane to UOP to Stanford about 10 years ago.  I wonder just how many administrators on campus were undergraduates at Stanford?  Precious few.  It has been all the rage for years to seek people from the outside for "new perspectives."  In reality, Presidents know that they can control subordinates who have no deep campus ties much more easily than those who are ensconced in the campus culture. 

I doubt that it is a pure coincidence that the Band has been facing a barrage of criticisms and disciplinary actions since 2012, and only after a change in administration does a truly draconian measure drop.

You know, David Shaw may be the most significant undergraduate alum actually working at Stanford. 

[81alum]

Having come from the east coast, the great thing about Stanford for me was the iconoclastic culture in the classroom and around campus. The band was an important symbol of the lack of obeisance to the established ways. However, the willingness to do things differently in the classroom was even more important. The drive to destroy the band makes me worry that what made Stanford special is being destroyed in the rest of the University as well, turning Stanford into just another Ivy League school with better weather.

I hope I'm over-reacting.

No, the homogenization of elite education is a real concern, driven by the fact that professional academic administrators move from elite university to elite university and often have no particular roots in the place they reside--no institutional memory.  While Etchemendy has pretty deep Stanford roots,  Tessier-Lavigne has flitted around more than half a dozen elites and a couple of corporations besides, teaching at Stanford during one of his flits.  Greg Boardman has no Stanford roots but is a lifelong academic administrator, moving up from Vermont to Penn State to Tulane to UOP to Stanford about 10 years ago.  I wonder just how many administrators on campus were undergraduates at Stanford?  Precious few.  It has been all the rage for years to seek people from the outside for "new perspectives."  In reality, Presidents know that they can control subordinates who have no deep campus ties much more easily than those who are ensconced in the campus culture. 

I doubt that it is a pure coincidence that the Band has been facing a barrage of criticisms and disciplinary actions since 2012, and only after a change in administration does a truly draconian measure drop.

You know, David Shaw may be the most significant undergraduate alum actually working at Stanford.