Engaging world-class faculty and staff to generate transformative science and scholarship
Colleagues,
Universities are the longest-lived institutions on Earth, second only to the Catholic Church. The earliest universities emerged during the golden age of Islamic scholarship, with the University of Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 in Morocco, probably the world’s oldest degree-granting university. The oldest continuously operating university, the University of Bologna, was founded in 1088. The University of Oxford was founded between 1096 and 1167. The oldest university in the U.S., Harvard University, was founded in 1636, over 100 years prior to the founding of the United States.
To contribute to a university by building a new school is, then, to be part of an enterprise with near-ancient roots that has endured through many historical periods, flourishing in some, facing challenges in others. It is worth remembering this legacy always, but particularly in times of uncertainty. The School of Public Health we are building at WashU will be of the moment — engaging with cutting-edge technologies and approaches to address issues of contemporary concern — but it is also part of something old, enduring, and essential to the ongoing march of human progress.
As we build a new School of Public Health, we are building what could be said to be a new wing on a very old manor, one that has truly stood the test of time. We want what we build to be consistent with the work that has preceded it, built on the same solid principles, the same values, and filling the same essential role that has kept universities alive and viable for so long. At the same time, we want to incorporate the best of new ideas, new technologies, and the lessons of the past, so we are positioned to create a better future. And that means being alert to the fundamental questions that should motivate us.
At the heart of all we do should be this question: Why do we do what we do?
It is a question that all of us should be continually asking ourselves, and one to which I often return. As I see it, what universities do is generate data, science, and scholarship that become the ideas that advance humanity and that drive progress. Many others have articulated this much more comprehensively. But I think it is important to repeat it because it should be a reminder, always, that our job, first and foremost, is to publish the papers and books that have as much impact as possible, toward advancing science and scholarship that move the field of public health forward. I worry that it is possible sometimes to become disillusioned about this goal, or even to forget it. We publish a paper and perhaps it does not get the number of citations we would like, or we look at the news and see the work of academic researchers diminished, their funding cut. In these moments, we can be susceptible to a questioning of the value of what we do, particularly when the ideas we generate do not change the world overnight — a world that badly needs changing. But the fact is, the world does not change quickly, and the arc of scientific progress is long, with many unintended, unforeseen detours in which important results sometimes emerge from seemingly obscure beginnings.
Penicillin, for example, was discovered in 1928 by accident, and was not seen as a breakthrough when Alexander Fleming published his findings and presented his research. It would take about 10 years before research into Fleming’s discovery began to create a pathway to penicillin’s eventual mass production and world-changing effects. This story is a reminder that we do not always know what our research will lead to, or how long this process of influence will take. Even if few read a study at first, those who do could well be the ones who take our ideas and run with them toward future discoveries. Or sometimes a paper may be widely cited, but its long-term effects prove negligible. We cannot know what the future holds for our work. All we can do is commit to generating world-class science and scholarship, supported by intellectual rigor and a robust climate of ideas. This is our core function. As long as we fulfill this function well, as long as we do what universities have done for 1,000 years, we will continue to deserve our essential place in society, and society will, in turn, recognize and support our efforts, even as we face moments of challenge like what we are seeing now. Society will always need what we produce. Data and ideas are essential to all we do, to where we are and where we go next. They are as important to our world as wings are to birds. Political passions change, but a society that no longer maintains centers of thinking and learning is a society that cannot sustain itself.
And it is critical to remember this and not be distracted by other things we do, but that are not at the very heart of what we do. This is well captured, I think, by a metaphor.
Imagine the symphony. A symphony can do many things. It can serve as a hub for communities to socialize when they come together to hear great music. It can help to educate the community, with members of the symphony going into schools to talk about the history of music. It can attract philanthropy and investment. All of these functions are good and necessary, but they are not the essential function of a symphony. The essential function of a symphony is to make beautiful music. As long as it does this, it will be able to do everything else it may do to help the community. If it ever stops doing this, it can do nothing.
The same is true of universities. In a moment of uncertainty, where there is fear, a questioning of what we do, it is important to be mindful of our core role — generating ideas, science, and data — to keep our heads, and to do what we do as well as we can, remembering, always, that what we do — our own beautiful music — is essential.
And doing this has to emerge through supporting and nurturing excellence in faculty and staff. It is outstanding faculty and staff who support our central purpose. It is faculty and staff who create the ideas that contribute to the societies of which we are a part, and which universities do so much to shape. Without faculty and staff committed to an ideal of excellence, universities would not have had the endurance they have shown over the centuries, nor would they have been able to play the world-changing role they have assumed during their existence. Universities have stood longer than democracies, than countries, than constitutions because society has always valued them. The world will keep investing in us as long as we keep delivering a return on this investment — in knowledge, ideas, and the new horizons they help us to collectively envision.
This mission is central to all we do at WashU School of Public Health. It is why excellence in faculty and staff is a strategic priority of the school. It is why we celebrate the publication of papers and the professors, staff, and administrators who support this process every day. It is why our response to this moment of challenge should not be to doubt our essential mission, but to build, to create a new chapter in a story that long predates what we are seeing now and will long outlast the tempest of this moment. If we can do that, we will have made a contribution indeed.
I write this note both as an honest statement of values I hold dear, and also as part of a series of notes where I have been addressing the four strategies for building an exceptional School of Public Health, outlined in a 4×4 plan. In February, I talked about Public Health Plus, our pursuit of interdisciplinarity. In March, I shared thoughts about our commitment to local and global impact. This note has centered on our commitment to building an outstanding community of faculty and staff, toward the end of generating the science and scholarship that create a better world. Next month, I will talk about the fourth arm of our strategy, achieving distinction in education through nurturing teachers and students.
As I conclude, a reminder that if you would like to receive regular updates on the more procedural side of the work we have been doing to build the School of Public Health, you can sign up for weekly notes here.
Warmly,
Sandro
| Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives Washington University in St. Louis |