Universities as Institutions of Research

In my daily traipsing across the world of internet news, I came across two articles touching on the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

Article 1: Preston Manning, writing for The CFI's online magazine, shares some thoughts on the National Institute of Nanotechnology at the University of Alberta and what the future of research and innovation funding might look like in Canada.

Article 2: Apparently, today marks the end of funding for the CFI. As the article says: "The key federal program supporting world-class scientific research facilities in Canada will effectively run out of money today, leaving universities worried and the Harper government in a quandary."

Paul Wells points out some of the impressive impact the CFI has had since it was created by the Chretien government in 1997 as part of a national research and innovation strategy. Paul is my Canadian journalist of choice on issues of research, innovation and the knowledge economy. His summary of the end of the CFI:

The possible end of the CFI is not a crisis, but it imposes a mandate on governments to do some serious thinking about what happens next. The Harper government really is doing a re-think of its science and technology policy. Its early steps, revealed in Jim Flaherty's fall economic update, are not entirely discouraging. But getting this policy right will be extraordinarily important.

A couple of thoughts: If you look at how universities spend money, they are not primarily educational institutions. The real focus at major Canadian Universities is engaging in research. One of the things that the Chretien government did in the second half of its mandate (which became a major piece of the legacy), was to take research and innovation seriously and to establish some innovative approaches to supporting it. The CFI and the Canada Research Chairs program are two examples.

Now that the Harper government is being given an opportunity to pick up the baton, it remains to be seen whether the ideological thrust of Harper's caucus will leave the federal government creating a funding void in anticipation of "private sector investment." Harper is a smart enough policy wonk to recognise that abandoning the research sector to corporate sponsors would verge on idiocy and that the preferred ideological solution in this case is a bad one.

In the meantime, I'm still a university student and I care about the education function for our universities. Can we please get around to creating a dedicated federal education transfer and eventually perhaps to establishing national benchmarks negotiated amongst the provinces? It would be nice if Canadian students selecting a university might be encouraged to leave their home province. Perhaps if more Canadians studied in regions of the country they didn't grow up in, when they hit middle age they wouldn't assume that voters in every region of the country should behave exactly like their next door neighbour.

And while I'm at it, perhaps that dedicated educational transfer might contain stipulations regarding and funding for establishing bilingualism at the post-secondary educational level. If some of our bilingual graduates could study outside Quebec, then perhaps thirty years from now idiocy like the "nation" debate of the last 6 weeks could be conducted with some maturity. I know it's a lot to ask, but it would only require some leadership.

So there! Rant finished.

The Confusion on Quebec

I've been watching the debate and vote on the government's "nation" resolution live on CPAC on my laptop for the last little while. My sister has been overhearing bits of it and at one point we had the following conversation:

Me: The House of Commons is voting on a really imporant resolution soon and I have no idea what's going to happen.
My Sister: What are they voting on?
Me: The resolution is that the house of commons recognise the people of quebec as a nation within a united Canada.
My Sister: Really, they're voting on that? They're voting on whether or not Quebec will seperate?

The reason I mention this is that for the average Canadian, particularly in english Canada, the word "nation" means country. This resolution will take some serious explaining.

I'm still collecting my thoughts on everything but as they coalesce, I'll try to post them.

vive le Canada!


Resolution Passed: 266 - 16

An Ode to Barnes & Noble

Confession: I have an addiction to book stores!

I pretty much can't help myself from walking in the front door of nearly any book store I come across. Once I'm in the front door, I'm seldom able to escape without buying at least one more title for my bookshelves at home (now topping 500 titles). It's even worse when I travel. When I'm no longer on home turf, walking into a bookstore and taking a look at the new non-fiction releases helps me get my bearings, helps me get oriented. It makes any city I've been to feel a bit more like home. It even worked in Quebec City last summer and the books were in French. I'm sure most people have these kinds of moments when they travel. For Christina, it's walking into a Starbucks and ordering a remarkably complicated espresso drink.

Back to New York:

That prologue serves to introduce my next post about the trip to New York. Our first couple of hours in New York, we were exhausted. It was raining and our efforts at exploring didn't get us very far. It was a total of two blocks before I spotted my first book store and true to form, I couldn't help myself.

"Do you think we could stop, just for a couple minutes?"

Barnes & Noble is the titan of brick and mortar booksellers in the US. The store that we stopped at was located at Broadway & Columbia in Manhattan and was 6 stories of glorious retail space filled with rows upon rows of bookshelves. I'd never been to Barnes & Noble before this, and must say I was very much overwhelmed.

My friend Jordan, who moved to Vancouver with his wife Sarah, is studying at Regent College. Recently, Jordan and I were talking and he asked me why Chapters was such a "terrible bookstore". Now, with the exception of one or two fantastic independent booksellers (Duthie's or Wells books for instance), my experience of bookstores has been typefied by the downtown Chapters flagship. Jordan however, has experienced both the best Canada had to offer (Chapters) and the best that the US could produce (Barnes & Noble). The fact is that B&N is far superior and he was confused why Chapters was such an abysmal bookstore experience. Having experienced nothing superior to Chapters myself, I had no explanation to offer. I did listen to him tell me about his love for B&N and how the book selection was wider and more intellegent and how the staff had a lot they could teach the attendant customer.

All of his high praise was justified in my first B&N experience. Not only are their staff members deeply informed and remarkably widely read but the store that I walked into in New York carried the widest range of books imaginable. EVERYTHING was there.

To make the point, an example. I've been looking for a copy of Alice Miller's Drama of the Gifted Child (3rd ed. 1995). No less than 18 book stores in Vancouver since September (three of them Chapters Stores), failed to produce a copy when I asked. In fact, they seemed capable only of producing blank stares. In contrast, the first staff person I asked at B&N was familiar with the book and knew where I could find it. He also mentioned a couple of other titles I might find helpful in a similar vein.

Christina and I spent quite some time browsing. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I spent quite some time browsing and Christina spent some time patiently occupying herself while I devoured the back pages of book after book in the psychology and philosophy sections. I could not have been happier. Once I'd purchased my books, we plugged into the coffee shop on the top floor and spent some quiet time enjoying them. This was the best imaginable way to spend my first rainy afternoon in manhattan. It was great.

A Negative Inspiration

Men found that his absorbing egotism was deadly to all other men. It resembled the torpedo, which inflicts a succession of shocks on any one who takes hold of it, producing spasms which contract the muscles of the hand, so that the man can not open his fingers; and the animal inflicts new and more violent shocks, until he paralyzes and kills his victim. So, this exorbitant egotist narrowed, impoverished... those who served him; and the universal cry of France, and of Europe, in 1814, was, “enough of him;” “assez de Bonaparte.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The above quote was originally penned to describe Napoleon Bonaparte, the scourge of Europe and emporer of France and most of the continent. The reason for its position at the head of this post is that it happens to capture my personal feelings for a man who passed away this week at the age of 94.

Milton Friedman, noted nobel prize winning economist and also a staunch opponent of government action, is one of the driving motivations behind my ambition towards the academy. I would not consider my life wasted if it merely served to discredit the "Chicago School" which he founded. If you'd like to here him discuss some of his views, I found him on Google Video (via Andrew Potter). My favourite line: "I have often said that the most anti-negro law on the books of this land is the minimum wage..."

There are more than a couple of people in the media posting their views on his life and his contributions to economics and public policy. If you have nothing better to do with your weekend you could wade into a couple. The best place to start is with Richard Adams at the Guardian: His first post and a follow-up.

A few more posts and articles can be found here, here and here.

Defenses of his contribution from the Acton Institute here and the National Review here. Also for those of you interested in the American Ruling Class, the Council on Foreign Relations here.

Milton Friedman is the highest example of what happens when economists get really good at math and not so good at remembering people. The seduction of the lines on a diagram is always in danger of overwhelming the compassion one feels to the people those lines represent.

Milton Friedman is a deeply polarizing figure and I'm well aware that my visceral and violent reaction to the thought of the man is both unfair and unreasonable. As a technical economist his contribution was significant, yet as a proponent of an economics which has been subverted to ruin lives, I can't help but continue to revile him somewhat.

Whatever your opinions are, his was a significant life. I can't help but feel the world lost a giant, if a not entirely benevolent one.

Getting to NYC: What I didn’t know about Chicago

Now that I've had a week to tell the story to a couple dozen people, the consensus seems to be that "best birthday present ever" doesn't do justice to the magnitude of Christina's gift. Anyone out there with suggestions for a better category to describe the experience, let me know. For context, at this point I think of the trip as slightly less life changing than the birth of a first child.

Back to the Trip:

Now that I knew where I was going and that everything had been taken care of, I turned into a bit of a blubbering idiot. I'm sure the guy at the check-in counter was concerned about my mental health. Once through security, I spent most of the time at the Seattle airport watching a TV tuned to CNN as election results came in (who said the mid-terms don't matter). When we boarded our 757, Christina settled in to sleep. I, however, was too excited to close my eyes so I watched the in-flight movie. We got into Chicago at 4:30 the next morning and were running 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Sadly, this good luck was not to last.

We transferred planes and were just about to take off when the engines died during the usual pre-flight equipment check. The pilot told us he was going to run the test again but got the same troubling result a second time. I didn't know this at the time, but it turns out that O'Hare International is a black hole of delays and equipment failures (avoid at all costs). Not knowing this at the time, and never having experienced a delay on account of a plane that might kill me, Christina and I went looking for options. After five conversations with four different airline staff and getting no less than six different stories, we tried to check in to another flight that would get us there an hour late. Shortly after we were unsuccessful in boarding our replacement flight, we realised that there was no way to get our luggage from our grounded plane and so all we could do was wait.

Don't worry, coffee in hand, we hunkered down to wait for news. On our third lap round the customer service merry-go-round, we were told that all our problems were solved. A replacement plane had been found and thankfully it was capable of flight. Once we taxied away from the gate, the 23 consecutive hours of being awake caught up with me and I was asleep before the wheels left the ground.

This is only the beginning...

She Wasn't Lying: Best Birthday Present Ever

After my epiphany last week about not writing "on the side," I prompty disappeared again. My apologies about that. Hopefully the next couple of posts will explain why I was far too busy enjoying myself to post anything here.

A Bit of Background

The Tuesday before last (Hallowe'en) was my 23rd birthday. I’m one of those people who refuses to make a big deal about my birthday. It has always felt somewhat odd to celebrate myself, particularly when the occasion is that I’ve managed to stay alive for another 365 days. I tend to treat my birthday roughly the way that an ostrich reacts to imminent danger: I see it coming, hide my head in the ground and hope that no one notices how stupid I look with my ass in the air.

However, this year my remarkable girlfriend Christina (knowing of my deep aversion to celebrating my birthday) started talking about the best birthday present ever. Long before my birthday ever arrived, she was telling me how much I was going to love my present. It was going to be the best birthday present ever. However, as my birthday approached, she scaled down the rhetoric.

The week of my birthday, she took me out for a great dinner at a Malaysian Restaurant, bought me some vintage New York postcards and threw what may be the best birthday bash I’ve ever had. (Thanks to everyone who could make it!) When I added all that up in my head, I thought she had spoiled me pretty good and I felt like it had been a pretty remarkable birthday.


A Big Surprise

Unbeknownst to me however, the birthday present she was so excited about was yet to be delivered. We'd arranged to go see a concert in Seattle last Tuesday with a couple of friends of ours. I'd been told about the plan back in September and then I promptly forgot about it. When I was reminded about the plan, I was excited to get a chance to hang out with our friends Chris & Avital. (Woot!)

Christina picked me up early from campus we met our passengers at their house. The drive down to Seattle was great and Chris and 'Tal were hilarious. When we got to the city, I let Chris take over the driving because apparently he knew where we were going. Sitting in the back seat, as we neared our destination, I got into a rant about the imminent apolcaypse in the Canadian Pulp & Paper industry and the structural and economic factors contributing to the decline. (No Joke) This will not surprise those of you who know me very well. One thing about me and pontification is that while I rant, I don't pay much attention to my surroundings. So when I reached the end of my rambling, I was confused to realise that we were at an airport. I assumed Chris had gotten lost somehow.

Rather than pull out a map, Christina (who was sitting beside me) pulled out the tin of postcards she'd given me the week before and opened them. When she passed me the tin it had two tickets to a Concert and on the back of one of the postcards, she'd written:

"I thought that we could write postcards from SoHo the morning after watching Death Cab in New York."

So now I was even more confused. It turns out that while I thought I was coming to Seattle for a concert, Christina had booked us a red eye flight to New York City and we would be staying at a friend of hers at Juilliard in Manhattan for four days. She'd also bought tickets to a "Death Cab for Cutie" concert at Madison Square Gardens. As it sunk in, I came to terms with the fact that I was about to get on a flight destined for the Capital of the World and could not possibly have been more excited. Christina had packed me a suitcase, gotten me some days of work and had included in her conspiracy no less than a dozen accomplices. I've never been as dissoriented and confused as I was in that moment but I don't recall a time that I've felt as loved. My friend Randy put it this way: "You really want to hold on to her."


To which I replied a hearty "Amen!"

Over the next couple of days, I'll be posting thoughts, pictures and stories from the trip. I have to say that the four days I spent in Manhattan were perhaps the best time I can remember having on vacation ever! For the other view with fewer words, Christina has posted some pictures from the trip here.

Back in the Saddle

Earlier this evening, Christina reminded me that I'd left a cliffhanger on this site about a month ago and never made good on my promise. Since I'm sure that by now that no one bothers checking for updates, I expect I'm writing for myself.

As of this precise moment, I've been inspired. Scott McKnight (author, professor, theologian, and deeply pastoral blogger) posted some new thoughts on the "how" and the "why" of his practice of writing. Noting the time of his post (2:32am), I feel it appropriate to consumate my inspiration while it still grips my soul, before I drift off to sleep. As the centrepiece of my renewed blogging, let me quote Professor McKnight:

Writing is not something to do when everything else is cleared off the desk; no, it is something that makes order of the desk. I don’t get up wondering what I will write about, but I write about what I’m wondering. (That’s almost Chestertonian.) In other words, as Augustine spoke of “faith seeking understanding,” so writing is a pen seeking understanding.

When I began this blog, in the midst of a Canadian election I felt like I had something to say. While I wrote almost exclusively on the election and on politics, I thought my commentary might help my friends engage in a more meaningful way. So I wrote. Canada Votes 2006 rolled into the beginnings of the conservative government which rolled into the fledgeling Liberal leadership race. At that point, my life rolled into one big anxiety attack and I stopped blogging.

With my transition from my job back into my role as a student this fall, I hoped to find more time to write. When I announced the imminent return to blogging, and with it a change in focus and subject matter, it was was the intention of doing this "on the side." Much of the lack of execution on these hopes can be explained by Scott's observation:

I don’t write “on the side.” Many take up careers, most often as professors or sometimes editors or pastors, with the plan to write “on the side.” Most editors I know struggle, once they become editors, to write on the side. Not enough time, and the best hours of the day already consumed. And most pastors don’t have time, nor the practice, to write on the side. What might surprise many of you is that the vast majority of professors also don’t write “on the side.” Why?

My explanation is simple: writing can’t be done on the side...

This fall I've been thinking much of writing more and have fondly remembered my early days as a student; I've wished for these days, when I carried my journal everywhere and pondered nearly every subject to which I could pose a question. Unfortunately, I've attempted to restore that passion for writing in the hours left over when the day is finished, when I'm tired and ready to turn in for the night. It should be then no suprise that these attempts have been unsuccessful.

The rejection of writing "on the side" has brought into focus how much I have missed living as a writer lives and seeing the world as words yet unwritten. I plan to start carrying my journal again, to start large question again, to start blogging again. Meanwhile, I wouldn't be suprised if this change might help stave off the sleeplessness I've been struggling with of late.

Scott, thank you for sharing these thoughts, they've spurred at least one more writer back into the saddle of exposition and prose.