Announcements
Stanford distinguished speaker calls on higher ed to renew its mission
Higher education leader Nancy Cantor spoke May 29 on Stanford’s campus, urging that both public and private colleges and universities engage with their communities in meaningful ways.
Cantor, who received a doctorate in psychology from Stanford in 1978, currently serves as the chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark. She asserted that today’s faculty and administrators in higher education must “work with publics, for public purposes, in public.”
Her lecture, “The Looking Glass University: Listening to Strangers and Tending to Democracy,” was the 10th annual Anne and Loren Kieve Distinguished Speaker Series, hosted by the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.
Cantor’s talk in Paul Brest Hall was followed by an open discussion with members of the Stanford community. The segment was moderated by Anthony Lising Antonio, associate professor of education and associate director of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research.
Cantor took aim at the longstanding notion of colleges and universities as “ivory towers,” arguing that they should instead step up as “anchor institutions” that collaborate with private and public enterprises and organizations to strengthen the immediate economy as well as the social mobility of local residents of all ethnicities and economic backgrounds.
