Dispatches
Plays Well with Others
UW’s innovative cluster hiring program shows results — but will it continue?
Where Walter Block’s business card lists his faculty title, it should say, “Continued on next card.” Block, a rising star working on medical-imaging technology, is an associate professor of biomedical engineering. And an associate professor of medical physics. And an associate professor of radiology.
“And I’m hoping to get an appointment in electrical engineering soon,” he says.
For Block — and several dozen professors like him — hopping departmental fences isn’t a hobby. It’s a big reason why they’re here. Collectively known as cluster hires, these faculty were brought in under a unique UW program that recruits small groups of faculty who work at the intersection of several different fields.
Created by former Chancellor David Ward MS’62, PhD’63 in 1998, clusters were meant to challenge the academic status quo while helping the university establish expertise in emerging areas of knowledge — fields such as nanotechnology and genomics, which don’t fit neatly into any one academic discipline. The program has funded 140 faculty positions in 49 clusters, which were chosen from more than one hundred proposals during five rounds of competition.
Where Walter Block’s business card lists his faculty title, it should say, “Continued on next card.” Block, a rising star working on medical-imaging technology, is an associate professor of biomedical engineering. And an associate professor of medical physics. And an associate professor of radiology.
“And I’m hoping to get an appointment in electrical engineering soon,” he says.
For Block — and several dozen professors like him — hopping departmental fences isn’t a hobby. It’s a big reason why they’re here. Collectively known as cluster hires, these faculty were brought in under a unique UW program that recruits small groups of faculty who work at the intersection of several different fields.
Created by former Chancellor David Ward MS’62, PhD’63 in 1998, clusters were meant to challenge the academic status quo while helping the university establish expertise in emerging areas of knowledge — fields such as nanotechnology and genomics, which don’t fit neatly into any one academic discipline. The program has funded 140 faculty positions in 49 clusters, which were chosen from more than one hundred proposals during five rounds of competition.
Now, as many of those faculty approach key stages in their careers, the experiment appears as innovative — and as challenging — as promised.
“Clusters were really a brilliant idea to intervene in the smokestack model,” in which academic departments operate mostly independently, says Laurie Beth Clark, assistant vice chancellor for faculty and staff programs. “I think what we’ve shown is that people are finding ways to work across disciplines.”
Faculty hired under the program have generated tens of millions in grant money and sparked new research collaborations in areas such as genomics, computational sciences, and environmental science. They have enabled the creation of new interdisciplinary programs, such as one on entrepreneurship that brings together expertise in business, law, and engineering.
“There are conversations between different departments that if you’d said ‘entrepreneurship’ to them ten years ago, would have said, ‘That has nothing to do with us,’” says Anne Miner, a business professor who helped develop the cluster. “They don’t think that anymore.”
“People are talking with each other, and I think that’s the single most important objective of the clusters,” says Charles Cohen, a history professor who hired four professors as part of a cluster on religious studies. He adds that the cluster program was “absolutely critical” to anchoring the religious studies program, which recently began offering a core curriculum for majors.
“Clusters were really a brilliant idea to intervene in the smokestack model,” in which academic departments operate mostly independently, says Laurie Beth Clark, assistant vice chancellor for faculty and staff programs. “I think what we’ve shown is that people are finding ways to work across disciplines.”
Faculty hired under the program have generated tens of millions in grant money and sparked new research collaborations in areas such as genomics, computational sciences, and environmental science. They have enabled the creation of new interdisciplinary programs, such as one on entrepreneurship that brings together expertise in business, law, and engineering.
“There are conversations between different departments that if you’d said ‘entrepreneurship’ to them ten years ago, would have said, ‘That has nothing to do with us,’” says Anne Miner, a business professor who helped develop the cluster. “They don’t think that anymore.”
“People are talking with each other, and I think that’s the single most important objective of the clusters,” says Charles Cohen, a history professor who hired four professors as part of a cluster on religious studies. He adds that the cluster program was “absolutely critical” to anchoring the religious studies program, which recently began offering a core curriculum for majors.
Perhaps nowhere is the bridge-building potential of clusters more evident than in biomedical engineering, where Block is one of three professors hired to develop new medical technology. An expert in medical imaging, Block has two offices — one in the Engineering Centers building, where he is surrounded by people who know how to build things, and one in the Clinical Sciences Center, where he works alongside the medical professionals who will ultimately use those tools in patient care.
“That makes it very easy to work on projects together,” he says.
Robert Radwin, chair of biomedical engineering, credits the cluster hires for fostering a collaborative atmosphere throughout the unit, which now involves nearly sixty faculty from five colleges. “It wasn’t that we weren’t doing these kinds of things before, but the cluster has helped amplify it,” he says. Clusters played a significant role, he says, in the department landing a $3 million, five-year grant to translate research into marketable technology.
While those results are promising, the cluster-hiring experiment does have some rough edges. Searches that involve multiple departments are often cumbersome and in a handful of cases have dissolved into turf battles. A few clusters have not yet been able to fill their allotted positions, and others have already lost faculty to more lucrative offers elsewhere.
Departments have sometimes fallen victim to the “overly democratic Wisconsin thing,” says environmental studies professor Jonathan Foley ’90, PhD’93, who leads a cluster on emerging environmental threats. Before hiring three professors for his cluster, he set a rule: “Leave your baggage at the door. If it looks like you’re angling for your department, you’re out,” he says. “I was ready to be a jerk about it, but everyone got along great.”
“That makes it very easy to work on projects together,” he says.
Robert Radwin, chair of biomedical engineering, credits the cluster hires for fostering a collaborative atmosphere throughout the unit, which now involves nearly sixty faculty from five colleges. “It wasn’t that we weren’t doing these kinds of things before, but the cluster has helped amplify it,” he says. Clusters played a significant role, he says, in the department landing a $3 million, five-year grant to translate research into marketable technology.
While those results are promising, the cluster-hiring experiment does have some rough edges. Searches that involve multiple departments are often cumbersome and in a handful of cases have dissolved into turf battles. A few clusters have not yet been able to fill their allotted positions, and others have already lost faculty to more lucrative offers elsewhere.
Departments have sometimes fallen victim to the “overly democratic Wisconsin thing,” says environmental studies professor Jonathan Foley ’90, PhD’93, who leads a cluster on emerging environmental threats. Before hiring three professors for his cluster, he set a rule: “Leave your baggage at the door. If it looks like you’re angling for your department, you’re out,” he says. “I was ready to be a jerk about it, but everyone got along great.”
Another potential issue is whether young assistant professors hired under the program are able to get tenure in their home departments, which often favor depth over interdisciplinary breadth in tenure reviews. So far, cluster professors are earning tenure at the same pace as other faculty, but many of the hires are just now approaching their review periods. How well they fare may be a telling sign of whether the program is indeed fostering new respect for expertise that reaches across departmental boundaries.
“Any interdisciplinary faculty pose a particular tenure challenge to institutions that have created discipline-based depth models for research,” says Clark, adding that the university is beginning to encourage departments to “articulate new criteria for how to look at excellence in broad knowledges.”
These obstacles haven’t discouraged other institutions from adopting the cluster model. The University of California, the State University of New York, Purdue, and Virginia Tech are among the universities that have launched similar programs, and Florida State University recently announced plans to fund two hundred new faculty positions via cluster hiring.
At UW-Madison, tight budgets have prevented the university from adding any new clusters since the last round was approved in 2003, which has raised some questions about whether the program will continue. Clark says the administration is committed to continuing with existing clusters, and it will explore opportunities for expanding the program if funding becomes available.
“Any interdisciplinary faculty pose a particular tenure challenge to institutions that have created discipline-based depth models for research,” says Clark, adding that the university is beginning to encourage departments to “articulate new criteria for how to look at excellence in broad knowledges.”
These obstacles haven’t discouraged other institutions from adopting the cluster model. The University of California, the State University of New York, Purdue, and Virginia Tech are among the universities that have launched similar programs, and Florida State University recently announced plans to fund two hundred new faculty positions via cluster hiring.
At UW-Madison, tight budgets have prevented the university from adding any new clusters since the last round was approved in 2003, which has raised some questions about whether the program will continue. Clark says the administration is committed to continuing with existing clusters, and it will explore opportunities for expanding the program if funding becomes available.
Michael Pariza ’67, a food science professor who serves on the UW’s cluster steering committee, hopes that happens, saying that no place may be better suited for a long-term commitment to interdisciplinary clusters than UW-Madison.
“One of the great strong points of this university is the lack of institutional barriers to this kind of thing,” he says. “In some very top-down universities, it’s very hard to collaborate with people outside your department, if not impossible. But here, it’s wide open and has been for a long time.”
“When departments do this right,” adds Foley, “they create a lot of other parallel benefits that can pay off for years to come.”
— Michael Penn
“One of the great strong points of this university is the lack of institutional barriers to this kind of thing,” he says. “In some very top-down universities, it’s very hard to collaborate with people outside your department, if not impossible. But here, it’s wide open and has been for a long time.”
“When departments do this right,” adds Foley, “they create a lot of other parallel benefits that can pay off for years to come.”
— Michael Penn
Face to Face
Students aren’t the only ones logging in to the Facebook.
It’s finals week, and the libraries and computer labs are packed. Some students are ferociously typing, attempting to finish their last papers of the semester, but at about every other computer, students are enthralled by a less academic pursuit. They’re all logged in to the Facebook.
The Facebook is a social directory that allows college students from around the country to create their own Web pages. Students post photos and discuss their interests with “Facebook friends” whom they invite to drop by. For thousands of students at UW-Madison and elsewhere, it’s a virtual hangout where they can post announcements of parties, send messages to friends, and join online chat groups with names such as “All I Want to Do Is Drink on the Terrace.”
What makes the Facebook unique from other networking sites such as MySpace or Friendster is that it is intended eclusively for students. You must have an “.edu” e-mail address to register or access pages, leading many students to believe only their friends will see what they post. But increasingly, faculty, administrators, and even potential employers are finding ways into the Facebook to get a candid look at students’ social lives.
Isabel Owen ‘06, for example, learned that her current employer “Facebooked” her before hiring her. At the time she did not have an account. She does now, but she says she considers carefully what she posts.
It’s finals week, and the libraries and computer labs are packed. Some students are ferociously typing, attempting to finish their last papers of the semester, but at about every other computer, students are enthralled by a less academic pursuit. They’re all logged in to the Facebook.
The Facebook is a social directory that allows college students from around the country to create their own Web pages. Students post photos and discuss their interests with “Facebook friends” whom they invite to drop by. For thousands of students at UW-Madison and elsewhere, it’s a virtual hangout where they can post announcements of parties, send messages to friends, and join online chat groups with names such as “All I Want to Do Is Drink on the Terrace.”
What makes the Facebook unique from other networking sites such as MySpace or Friendster is that it is intended eclusively for students. You must have an “.edu” e-mail address to register or access pages, leading many students to believe only their friends will see what they post. But increasingly, faculty, administrators, and even potential employers are finding ways into the Facebook to get a candid look at students’ social lives.
Isabel Owen ‘06, for example, learned that her current employer “Facebooked” her before hiring her. At the time she did not have an account. She does now, but she says she considers carefully what she posts.
“I see some people’s profiles with photos of them doing beer bongs and acting crazy, and maybe at one time that was fine,” Owen says. “But now, you never know who is looking at the site. You really have to censor yourself.”
Many students now suspect that campus authorities such as police officers lurk on the Facebook to monitor their actions and pick up tips about parties where underage drinking may be going on. Suspicious of that very thing, one group of students at George Washington University advertised a party on the site, hoping the police would take the bait. Police did indeed show up at the party — where they found students with a root beer keg and cookies.
Madison police officer Tony Fiore says his department does not use the Facebook to search for parties, because “there are just too many parties posted.” Nor do campus officials say they monitor the sites without a specific cause.
But the Facebook’s expanding circle can be good for students. Teaching assistants and some faculty are beginning to use the site to get to know their students, and often students invite their professors to join their Facebook friends.
“I have had TAs over the past year Facebook me and it has made our relationship much better,” says Brigid Harvey ‘06. “I never hesitate to send them a message asking about class.”
— Joanna Salmen ‘06
Many students now suspect that campus authorities such as police officers lurk on the Facebook to monitor their actions and pick up tips about parties where underage drinking may be going on. Suspicious of that very thing, one group of students at George Washington University advertised a party on the site, hoping the police would take the bait. Police did indeed show up at the party — where they found students with a root beer keg and cookies.
Madison police officer Tony Fiore says his department does not use the Facebook to search for parties, because “there are just too many parties posted.” Nor do campus officials say they monitor the sites without a specific cause.
But the Facebook’s expanding circle can be good for students. Teaching assistants and some faculty are beginning to use the site to get to know their students, and often students invite their professors to join their Facebook friends.
“I have had TAs over the past year Facebook me and it has made our relationship much better,” says Brigid Harvey ‘06. “I never hesitate to send them a message asking about class.”
— Joanna Salmen ‘06
UW Prof Appears in Time
As Richard Davidson seeks to unravel the mysteries of the brain, he has Time on his side.True, he’s only fifty-four and has a lot of productive career ahead. But more to the point, the magazine Time recently tabbed the UW-Madison psychology professor as one of the one hundred most influential people of the year.
Davidson directs the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, where he is probing how brain mechanisms contribute to emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety. He’s best known for pioneering research on meditation: with the cooperation of the Dalai Lama, he brought Tibetan monks to his lab to observe activity in their brains as they meditated. The magazine credits Davidson for fostering collaborations between East and West that are opening new knowledge on the mind-body connection.
Time’s wide-ranging list of doers and thinkers includes such figures as Pope Benedict XVI, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Condoleezza
Rice, and Katie Couric.
— Staff
Walking on Common Ground
UW’s new provost gets out of the office to define a collective vision.
When Patrick Farrell was named provost, shoe sales people throughout Madison quietly cheered.
That’s because Farrell, a mechanical engineering professor and former executive associate dean of the College of Engineering, vowed to put serious mileage on his loafers as he assumed duties as UW-Madison’s second-ranking official. And true to his word, he spent his first month on the job this spring crisscrossing campus to visit each of the UW’s twelve schools and colleges.
What he got — aside from footsore — was a renewed appreciation for the diversity that makes UW-Madison truly unique among public universities.
“We have a broader array of programs than almost any other institution I know of,” says Farrell, who was named to succeed Peter Spear as provost in March. “That clearly has some challenges in supporting that breadth of activity. On the other hand, that’s a huge asset. If you would like to talk in person to an expert in almost any field you can think of, they’re here. They’re less than a half a mile away.”
Capitalizing on that breadth is among Farrell’s most significant priorities as provost. As the university’s chief academic officer, he will guide the university’s curricular mission during a time when many departments are pressed by budget concerns. He inherits an agenda full of challenges: protect and enhance the quality of UW-Madison’s faculty, promote diversity on campus, and continue to push advances in teaching and learning.
When Patrick Farrell was named provost, shoe sales people throughout Madison quietly cheered.
That’s because Farrell, a mechanical engineering professor and former executive associate dean of the College of Engineering, vowed to put serious mileage on his loafers as he assumed duties as UW-Madison’s second-ranking official. And true to his word, he spent his first month on the job this spring crisscrossing campus to visit each of the UW’s twelve schools and colleges.
What he got — aside from footsore — was a renewed appreciation for the diversity that makes UW-Madison truly unique among public universities.
“We have a broader array of programs than almost any other institution I know of,” says Farrell, who was named to succeed Peter Spear as provost in March. “That clearly has some challenges in supporting that breadth of activity. On the other hand, that’s a huge asset. If you would like to talk in person to an expert in almost any field you can think of, they’re here. They’re less than a half a mile away.”
Capitalizing on that breadth is among Farrell’s most significant priorities as provost. As the university’s chief academic officer, he will guide the university’s curricular mission during a time when many departments are pressed by budget concerns. He inherits an agenda full of challenges: protect and enhance the quality of UW-Madison’s faculty, promote diversity on campus, and continue to push advances in teaching and learning.
In some respects, Farrell is a surprising choice to manage that task. On the engineering faculty since 1982, he became an associate dean in the college in 2001 and was promoted last year to executive associate dean. Yet while he is relatively new to central administration, those who know him say he has built a reputation as a creative, decisive leader.
“He will be an outstanding provost,” says College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy MS’63, PhD’66. “He is a visionary leader, but his style is very participatory. And he brings the perspective of an engineer, which is to solve problems.”
Farrell was a driving force behind the creation of an innovative, hands-on design course for freshman engineers, and he has also been active in UW-Madison’s Teaching Academy, which pursues excellence in the classroom.
Chancellor John Wiley, who selected Farrell from a pool of three finalists, describes him as a “sound decision-maker” who combines “sharp, analytical thinking and consultative decision-making style.” He says the university will benefit from Farrell’s ability to bring people together to pursue common goals.
That is Farrell’s intention in making all those house calls. Recognizing the university’s common values is “more than just a morale issue,” he says. “It’s about acknowledging where the real strengths of this campus are, and saying those are the things we want to use as the basis for taking this campus to the next level.”
— Michael Penn
“He will be an outstanding provost,” says College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy MS’63, PhD’66. “He is a visionary leader, but his style is very participatory. And he brings the perspective of an engineer, which is to solve problems.”
Farrell was a driving force behind the creation of an innovative, hands-on design course for freshman engineers, and he has also been active in UW-Madison’s Teaching Academy, which pursues excellence in the classroom.
Chancellor John Wiley, who selected Farrell from a pool of three finalists, describes him as a “sound decision-maker” who combines “sharp, analytical thinking and consultative decision-making style.” He says the university will benefit from Farrell’s ability to bring people together to pursue common goals.
That is Farrell’s intention in making all those house calls. Recognizing the university’s common values is “more than just a morale issue,” he says. “It’s about acknowledging where the real strengths of this campus are, and saying those are the things we want to use as the basis for taking this campus to the next level.”
— Michael Penn
Q AND A: Liah Hansen '06 and Chloe Britzius '06
Talk about face time: recent grads Liah Hansen, left, and Chloe Britzius are trying to fund a trip around the world by selling their foreheads as advertising space. The two charge companies a fee, beginning at eighty dollars a day, to put a temporary tattoo of the company’s logo on their foreheads. At their Web site (www.youtattoous.com), they’re offering eighty days of head space, and they hope to raise enough money to begin their travels in September.
Q: What is the strangest thing you have had to put on your forehead?
A: We don’t think any of them are “strange.”
Q: Is there anything you would not put on your forehead?
A: We talked a lot about this issue before starting the project. We aren’t willing to wear anything obscene ... we decide on a case-by-case basis.
Q: What is the typical reaction?
A: Double takes ... sometimes triple takes. Some people have been very curious and have asked us about what we are doing, and we explain it to them.
Q: What is the most memorable reaction you have gotten?
A: When we wore the tattoos for Patrick Properties, a girl came up to us and asked us where she could sign up to wear tattoos, too.
Q: Do you wear it to parties or class?
A: We have worn them to class and handed out fliers to people coming into our classes. We wore them to the bars and to the
Memorial Union Terrace.
Q: Do you have the feeling you have something on your face even when you don’t?
A: Actually, it is the opposite. We sometimes forget that we have them on and start to wonder why people keep staring at us.
Q: What is the strangest thing you have had to put on your forehead?
A: We don’t think any of them are “strange.”
Q: Is there anything you would not put on your forehead?
A: We talked a lot about this issue before starting the project. We aren’t willing to wear anything obscene ... we decide on a case-by-case basis.
Q: What is the typical reaction?
A: Double takes ... sometimes triple takes. Some people have been very curious and have asked us about what we are doing, and we explain it to them.
Q: What is the most memorable reaction you have gotten?
A: When we wore the tattoos for Patrick Properties, a girl came up to us and asked us where she could sign up to wear tattoos, too.
Q: Do you wear it to parties or class?
A: We have worn them to class and handed out fliers to people coming into our classes. We wore them to the bars and to the
Memorial Union Terrace.
Q: Do you have the feeling you have something on your face even when you don’t?
A: Actually, it is the opposite. We sometimes forget that we have them on and start to wonder why people keep staring at us.
Catching Up
An academic staff appeals committee ruled that UW-Madison officials did not have sufficient evidence to reprimand Paul Barrows, former vice chancellor for student affairs, for alleged sexual harassment. After two days of testimony, the five-member panel voted unanimously to recommend that the university overturn disciplinary actions taken against Barrows last year, saying that the university failed to show that Barrows’s behavior amounted to sexual harassment. Provost Patrick Farrell is reviewing the case and will make a final decision in the matter.
The Wisconsin Union’s ambitious renovation plan is still alive — thanks to a technicality. The Union is asking students to accept a $192 annual hike in segregated fees for the next thirty years to help underwrite the plan, which includes renovation of Memorial Union and the construction of a new Union South. An April student vote on the referendum was invalidated due to glitches with online balloting, which is good news for the Union, because initial results had students narrowly voting down the measure.
For the first time in decades, UW-Madison got a visit from mumps. The viral disease made a Midwestern comeback late last year, causing some six hundred cases in Iowa, predominantly among college students. It spread to the UW campus in April, and by early May, eight students were confirmed to have the disease. Although most students received mumps vaccines as children, university officials warned students to take precautions to avoid spreading the disease — such as not sharing beer at the annual Mifflin Street block party.
The Wisconsin Union’s ambitious renovation plan is still alive — thanks to a technicality. The Union is asking students to accept a $192 annual hike in segregated fees for the next thirty years to help underwrite the plan, which includes renovation of Memorial Union and the construction of a new Union South. An April student vote on the referendum was invalidated due to glitches with online balloting, which is good news for the Union, because initial results had students narrowly voting down the measure.
For the first time in decades, UW-Madison got a visit from mumps. The viral disease made a Midwestern comeback late last year, causing some six hundred cases in Iowa, predominantly among college students. It spread to the UW campus in April, and by early May, eight students were confirmed to have the disease. Although most students received mumps vaccines as children, university officials warned students to take precautions to avoid spreading the disease — such as not sharing beer at the annual Mifflin Street block party.
