Abelard to Apples
Rich Kremer, Associate Professor of History
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While participating in Dartmouth’s strategic planning this year, I read Richard A. DeMillo’s Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities. Yet another jeremiad about American higher education, DeMillo worries about the 2,000-plus institutions in “The Middle,” i.e. not the “Elite” top-ranked, wealthy schools (where Dartmouth finds itself) or the “For-Profits” that live solely from student tuition. DeMillo, who served as Hewlett-Packard’s chief IT officer, as dean of computing at Georgia Tech, and now as director of that university’s Center for 21st Century Universities, argues that The Middle must innovate or die. He calls for a renewed focus on teaching undergraduates. And his 10 rules for innovation could provide grist for Dartmouth’s mill of strategic planning. Rule 1: “Forget about who is above you.”