Post written by Guest Editor Casey B. Cox. He is the Student Trustee on the Board of Trustees of Indiana University.
Fellow trustee Bill Cast and I have begun a project aimed at what IU will look like in 2016. Trustee President Steve Ferguson asked Dr. Cast to head-up a task force of the Long Range Planning Committee and develop metrics to gauge issues of the future. As an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, Dr. Cast is a distinguished member of the Fort Wayne community. He was the founding president of Canterbury School and founding chairman of Dupont Hospital.
Dr. Cast asked that I join the task force, and we’re in the process of compiling articles, raw data, contact lists, topics, and themes that will be narrowed down to ten questions that could range from IU's role in the State's economic development efforts to the appropriate size of Bloomington's freshmen class. The questions, which will ask for numerical values and candid thoughts, will be presented to over 150 leaders in government, business, and education. It’s unscientific, but it gives us an outside perspective on where the University is and where it’s going. The results will be matched with previously determined priorities and give the Board a valuable analysis.
Dr. Cast has created a blog to provide background on prominent issues in higher education, as well as to update the public on the progress of our project. At the very least, the blog is a useful research tool for relevant information on IU and the nation’s higher education system. Get to know Bill Cast and you’ll learn that he’s far from a wonk—but he’s never short of information.
Photo of Dr. William Cast courtesy of Indiana University.
Why doesn't this make me feel better about the future of Indiana University?
Posted by: Craig Ladwig | July 13, 2006 at 10:21 AM
I hope that it does.
The data is being gathered using a Delphi survey model that takes advantage of the special knowledge our volunteers have of IU and the State of Indiana with varying degrees of depth. If the outcome of our analysis is far removed from the priorities of the Board, it should certainly give us pause. This, I think, is a responsible approach to gathering credible opinions on the future.
Posted by: Casey Cox | July 13, 2006 at 07:35 PM
I think the IU posts really detract from what is otherwise a strong Fort Wayne oriented news blog. I'm sure if Casey Cox started his own blog it would attract a segment of interested readers but it doesn't belong on FW Observed and its, well frankly, very boring stuff. If one is not an IU student or alumni it's wasted bandwidth and very dry to read.
Also i'm curious why you pulled the item on the Dept. of Homeland security report. IT was at least of local interest.
Posted by: JGW | July 13, 2006 at 07:57 PM
Good luck, Mr. Cox. Freddie Hayek, a university man himself, dedicated his life work to warning us about progress that depends on a roomful of smart people with calculators.
Posted by: Craig Ladwig | July 13, 2006 at 08:36 PM
Curious that posts critical of this content are ignored. I do not think this is material interesting or pertinent to the majority of the readership. It belongs on a seperate blog, and undoubtedly an IU blog would have a seperate readership.
It's also a surprise that the item posted regarding the NY Times article on the Homeland Security report was pulled. It has local interest, and FW Observed was the first local media source to report the story.
Posted by: jgw | July 15, 2006 at 04:47 PM
Not really a curiousity at all, JGW.
The weblog hosting service, Typepad, went haywire on Wednesday, July 12. Some posts were taken down, some comments were lost, and edits to posts were not saved during the period they experienced technical problems.
This was from Typepad's News on Thursday:
TypePad Status Update
Update - July 13, 12 pm PDT
We are currently in the process of recovering data that was unavailable after the service outage on July 12. This includes posts, comments, newly created blogs, etc.
Typepad "deposted" the item on the terrorist list. It was later recovered in draft mode. By the time it became available on Thursday to repost, many other news outlets and blogs had commented on the list and I made the judgement that it wasn't particularly noteworthy to repost.
This is really the first time that I have seen Typepad have this sort of technical problem. It has been very stable since Fort Wayne Observed has moved to it.
As for Mr. Cox's posts about Indiana University - I hope you will give Mr. Cox time to develop a voice and a writing style for the weblog.
I have encouraged him to think about posting on other topics and not just confine himself to Indiana University. However, I think several readers appreciate FWOb having direct contact from an Indiana University Trustee - particularly one from Allen County.
I know Mr. Cox would appreciate comments and question about Indiana University from students, parents, and other citizens. Perhaps some folks will take advantage of that as the next semester begins in a few weeks.
I apologize for two of his items appearing so closely together in time. The post about "IU in 10 Years" was in draft mode. I had inadvertently failed to make note of its presence until Casey had posted the other recent item.
Posted by: Mitch Harper | July 16, 2006 at 01:14 PM