Or so says economic and business guru of everything Michael Porter of Harvard.

Columnist David Brooks writes about his conversation with Porter regarding what the expected economic stimulus package President-elect Obama is working with Congress to put together should contain.

Says Brooks:

Porter wrote that the U.S. economy has historically benefited from several great assets: an unparalleled environment for entrepreneurialism, a tremendous infrastructure for scientific research, the world’s best universities, a strong commitment to competition and free markets, decentralized regional economies, and efficient capital markets.

But, Porter continued, these advantages are starting to erode. The U.S. has an inadequate rate of reinvestment in science and technology. America’s confidence in free markets is waning. Lack of regulatory oversight has undermined capital markets. Universities have not sufficiently increased graduation rates. American workers do not have a credible safety net. Regulations and litigation have inflated the cost of business. Most important, there is no long-term economic strategy to organize responses to these problems.

I asked Porter how this short-term crisis might serve as an opportunity to address those long-term problems. First, he said, the Obama team will have to avoid a few temptations: Don’t just try to throw out money as fast as possible to stimulate demand. Don’t spread the spending around too thinly. Don’t try to save jobs that are going to disappear anyway.

Then he threw out a bunch of ideas that could be part of a stimulus package:

Send federal money to the states, but make sure a lot of it goes to state universities. There’s going to be increased demand for their services at the same time their budgets are cut. We can’t weaken that link in the social mobility chain.

Dear Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and members of the Ohio General Assembly,

Did you happen to see Friday’s New York Times?

Sincerely,

Jon

UT President Lloyd Jacobs discusses how differences and diversity generate creativity, ultimately leading to stronger academic health centers and stronger universities. His interview at the recent Association of Academic Health Centers conference:

Dr. Andrew Solocha, UT associate professor of finance, discusses on Ch 11 the challenges faced by the auto industry.

First a disclosure: I worked at the Independent Collegian my sophomore, junior and senior years (entire current IC staff rolls its eyes). I fought the good fight. I pointed out to the administration how easy it was to run UT if they just did things my way. On occasion I still think I was right.

But while I was there, I also went to Colleen Strayer, manager of the Student Union Bookstore, to listen to her explanations of why charging students exorbitant prices for textbooks was OK, and then to slam her with an editorial.

But as I set down my pitchfork and listened to her, I remember she did something distressing. She agreed with me. Textbook prices are too high she said. The problem doesn’t center on one thing, but blaming publishers still seems most reasonable to me. Change three words, add an appendix, slap a new cover on – Edition 2! That will be $135 dollars.

As today’s IC story correctly points out, professors can help students out by changing editions as rarely as possible and by GETTING THEIR BOOK ORDERS IN ON TIME!!!!! (The student body’s emphasis, not mine.) But as far as the greed that permeates the UT Bookstore that today’s editorial laments, the Bookstore makes more money on used books than it does on new ones. The only folks who lose out in the used book market are the publishers. So I guess if you really want to stick it to the UT Bookstore: Buy New Books! Buy New Books! (It’s a chant.)

It’s not a new story, but it’s one that needs to be covered each year as the student population changes each year. I don’t think the IC is wrong, I just think there’s more to the story. I think the bilking by the UT Bookstore is minimal. I think the bilking by the publishers and the system as a whole is gigundohumgormus (may not actually be pronouncable).

Dr. Andrew Solocha, UT professor of finance will be on Deadline Now, hosted by Blade ombudsman Jack Lessenberry, tonight at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on WGTE (Channel 30).

He’ll join a discussion talking about the dangers to the region if the auto industry crisis continues to grow.

I like to bake. I’ll often bake myself a ham and cheese sandwich, a granola bar or an apple. Incredibly often Occasionally I’ll bake a pizza from Cottage Inn. But as I was reading in the Blade about the $10 million The University of Toledo will set aside to invest in economic development efforts via the newly named Science, Technology, and Innovation Enterprises (formerly the Science and Technology Corridor) I drew in my head a clear and natural line to high school chemistry class.

Mr. Stone, my high school chemistry teacher, liked baking too – though he tended to bake things that too often smelled like sulfite (SO3 – anions rock!). In between holding our noses to avoid sulfur suffocation, Mr. Stone one day explained the role eggs play in baking as emulsifying agents. An emulsifying agent serves two purposes – 1.) Fun to say and 2.) It enables the mixing of two unlike things (i.e. it enables oil and water to mix and when making a cake).

And while Mr. Stone was using this demonstration to talk about creating precipitates, little did he know I would use it 10 (!) years later to take two or three devoted readers (Hi, mom!) on a dizzyingly circular route to the role UT plays in economic development.

In short, UT and STI Enterprises are the eggs. They are mixing University research and the private sector together to help create companies and jobs like those at the now well-known Xunlight as well as at (for the time being) lesser-known companies like Sdudi:

While it need not be so, too often in the past research at universities and commercialization by the private sector have behaved like oil and water. But with UT playing the role of emulsifying agent, hopefully we’ll be baking some economic prosperity – which makes for good eating if you’ve not tried it lately.

Reported in today’s USA Today from the National Survey of Student Engagement:

Nearly one in five college seniors and 25% of freshmen say they frequently come to class without completing readings or assignments, a national survey shows. And many of those students say they mostly still get A’s.

While I have bragged as much as anyone about pulling out a A B+ with less than the maximum effort, I’m guessing the students in this survey, much like myself, probably aren’t mentioning those classes where the “show up and get an A” strategy didn’t quite work out.

I earned my undergrad from UT and there were plenty of professors who were only too happy to help me make sure I didn’t earn it too easily.

Dr. Andy Jorgensen for chemistry, Dr. Renee Heberle for political philosophy, Dr. William O’Neal for Ancient Rome, the Hon. Gene Zmuda and Dr. David Wilson for political science. Dr. Margaret Hopkins for management for my MBA I’m working on now. I worked for the grades I got in each class and they weren’t always A’s.

Can you find a collection of courses at UT where you can show up and get A’s and get a degree? Probably. But you didn’t take courses from any of the people above. And I’m sure there are professors just like these in every department in every college on campus.

I think the more telling stat would be looking at graduates in the working world five years out. How well are those doing who were able to show up in college and get A’s.

This blog is intended to highlight media trends involving UT and higher education and while postings like my first one highlighting UT making it into the New York Times is important, it doesn’t mean I’ll be constantly talking about UT and the national elite main stream media.

Instead, I’d like to talk about UT making it into the New York Times Friday.

There have been a number of stories in national news organizations recently talking about the ways the economy is putting strains on families and on colleges. Particularly at private schools, admissions folks are increasingly seeing their students head to public universities as private tuitions become increasingly prohibitive.

The New York Times’ most recent story on the subject mentions the UT Guarantee as one of several programs aimed at mitigating the costs of higher education.

…
“This fall, more universities are taking steps to increase affordability. Benedictine University, a Roman Catholic institution in Illinois, is freezing tuition; Vanderbilt University will replace loans with grants; Boston University has expanded scholarships for students who graduated from Boston public schools; and the University of Toledo announced free tuition for needy, high-performing graduates of Ohio’s six largest public school systems.”
…

While there are undoubtedly tougher times ahead, it may well be the public universities that are better positioned to handle the economic downturn.

Update: Larry Burns, vp for external affairs, and Kevin Kucera, avp of enrollment services talk about this very public/private university conversation and the future of UT enrollment.

UT sent a test UT Alert message out to the campus at 3 p.m. today. We’re still gathering data but it seems to have went well. Just as important to the system is getting as many people signed up for it as possible. Right now we’re up at more than 11,000, but with some 30,000 students, faculty and staff at UT’s campuses, we still have a ways to go.

Late this afternoon UT send out a follow-up e-mail regarding UT Alert. Everybody – whether you are signed up now or not – needs to follow the directions laid out in that e-mail (and below) to ensure you remain active in the UT Alert system.

In my inbox at 3:51 p.m. Fri. Nov. 7:

University News Update

The University of Toledo conducted a test of the UT Alert emergency notification system at 3 p.m. today.

***For those who did not receive the test text/e-mail message***

If you did not receive a text message or e-mail resulting from the test, you are not currently signed up to receive these important alerts for campus emergencies and weather-related school announcements.

Please visit https://stuweb00.utoledo.edu/redalert/ and sign up for a New Account in the middle of the page.

*** For those who did receive the test text/e-mail message***

All UT Alert accounts will currently expire on Jan. 1 ,2009. Those who received the test text/message today and will still be members of the UT community in January 2009 need to visit https://stuweb00.utoledo.edu/redalert/ and log in to your account at the very bottom of the page. Your log in name is the same as your UTAD log in name and your password is most likely your cell phone number (with no dashes).

Once you have logged in, you will need to click the button to extend your service. The button will turn green and extend your UT Alert service into 2010.

In light of the incident that happened at BGSU this morning that caused them to implement their emergency alert system, UT is going to push back today’s UT Alert test to 3 p.m.

UT sent an e-mail to the campus this morning reading:

UT delays UT Alert test until 3 p.m. today

In light of an implementation of Bowling Green State University’s alert system this morning due to an incident on that campus, and due to inaccurate media reports incorrectly linking the BGSU incident to UT, The University of Toledo is delaying the test of its UT Alert test originally scheduled for 9 a.m. this morning to 3 p.m. this afternoon in order to avoid any confusion or miscommunication.