[Nan3cy]

Rather an easy call really.  The University has a mission to educate.  Not every student that stays 4 years will graduate anyway, so graduation should not be the primary metric or goal.  Once the true goal of education is reaffirmed, then the decision of individual students to depart "early" carries few conflicts.  Also if the goal is to educate, then helping a bright student discover the VC or angel partners in the area of study would be part of that greater mission.

It's actually a dual goal, and every mission statement I ever heard or read out of Stanford included both: teaching AND research. Not just passing along what we know to the future, but expanding the boundaries of what we know. Which is why some really good teachers don't get tenure if their research isn't up to snuff.

[Nan3cy]

Rather an easy call really.  The University has a mission to educate.  Not every student that stays 4 years will graduate anyway, so graduation should not be the primary metric or goal.  Once the true goal of education is reaffirmed, then the decision of individual students to depart "early" carries few conflicts.  Also if the goal is to educate, then helping a bright student discover the VC or angel partners in the area of study would be part of that greater mission.

It's actually a dual goal, and every mission statement I ever heard or read out of Stanford included both: teaching AND research. Not just passing along what we know to the future, but expanding the boundaries of what we know. Which is why some really good teachers don't get tenure if their research isn't up to snuff.