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John Carlos Baez

My friend Joshua Meyers, formerly a math student at U. C. Riverside, is now trying to develop new scholarly institutions: alternatives to universities.

He's gotten money from Jaan Tallinn and the Survival and Flourishing Fund to run "Let Me Think" - a 2-month in-person incubator project.

It'll happen this summer. In a while you can apply to join. Read more about it here:

let-me-think.org/scholarshipwo

Let me show you the schedule, and why he wants to do this.

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"Scholarship Workshop 2023, organized by Let Me Think, is a 2-month in-person incubator for new scholarly institutions, taking place this summer in a rural location not far from New York City, exact details TBD. We will study the history and present of scholarly institutions, and then use our knowledge to found scholarly institution start-ups. The workshop is open to both enrolled and independent students. We are fundraising to pay for food and lodging, so that participants won't have to pay." https://let-me-think.org/scholarshipworkshop.html
Feb 05, 2023, 09:43 PM·Public
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John Carlos Baez

Here are the schedule and goals of this 2-month retreat.

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Schedule Week 1 The participants settle in for the retreat and get to know each other. Weeks 2-3 Intensive study regarding the past of scholarly institutions. We will read about the history of universities and monasteries among other things. Weeks 4-5 Intensive study regarding the present barriers that people experience to scholarly practice. This will include plenty of literary practice (reading and writing), as well as possible experimental research (e.g. surveys, interviews). Week 6 We rest, integrate the preceding month of study, and get ready for the incubator. Weeks 7-8 Under the guidance of business mentors, we write business plans for new scholarly institutions informed by our study, and we set them in motion. Goals Create new scholarly institutions. The workshop should end with several new scholarly institutions underway. Create new research on scholarly institutions, past, present and future. The workshop will serve as a unique vantage point outside the university to think about scholarly institutions. Explore the potential of hybrid study-incubator retreats for envisioning and enacting new futures. That is, the workshop itself is an experiment with scientific value. We plan to issue a report on the workshop to inform future efforts Applications [...] https://let-me-think.org/scholarshipworkshop.html
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John Carlos Baez

Here are some of the reasons Joshua Meyers wants to build new scholarly institutions. A lot of people make these complaints, of course. What's interesting is that he's trying to do something.

For more details on this, go here:

let-me-think.org/index.html

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What's wrong with the university system? The university system does not value students. Tuition is overpriced, classes are overfilled, cafeteria food is unhealthy, and creativity and passion for learning go unrewarded. The students are conceived of as passive recipients of information, rather than active participants in learning. Moreover, many students cannot even access the university for a number of reasons, from financial challenges to family obligations. The university system does not value most professors. More than 75% of professors are off the tenure track, which means that have low wages and large teaching loads with no opportunity for promotion to tenure (source). As New Faculty Majority astutely observes, "Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions". The university system does not value scholarship. Rather, it values false proxies for scholarship, such as grades, quantity of publications, and research grants. When everybody's time is taken up with these proxies, real scholarship suffers. The university system has a monopoly on learning. In spite of all its faults, it is hard to imagine an alternative. https://let-me-think.org/index.html
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R. A. Dehi

@johncarlosbaez Perhaps this is an arrogant thing to say, but seems to me the university system doesn't have a monopoly on learning; just contributes enormously to it. Think I've learned a lot outside universities myself, even discovered new things and taught them to others. My interactions with university researchers have been overwhelmingly positive; on your crackpot index I score zero.

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John Carlos Baez

@radehi - Tell Joshua! It makes sense to me.

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Jeremy Gibbons

@johncarlosbaez He needs to be clear about whether he is critiquing universities in general, or US ones in particular. Many of the problems he cites are universal, but the "tenure track" one is a parochial problem.

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