Saturday, August 6, 2011

Sorry, Steve Jobs

By Turney Stevens, Dean


"The bookstore is dead."

If you live in Nashville, you might be inclined to believe that propaganda.

But, if you live in Oxford, you would most certainly disagree in the
strongest terms. Because, here, the book is very much alive and very
much revered. And Oxford has possibly the greatest bookstore on the
planet.

Over the past year, we've witnessed the closing of an astounding
number of bookstores in Nashville including the best of them all,
Davis Kidd Booksellers.

Life is just not the same. No more haven of escape on a Sunday
afternoon to browse the "New Titles" table and pick up a copy of the
Sunday New York Times. No more slow sipping of a cappuccino while
reading the first few pages of a particularly intriguing new best
seller. No more marathon shopping spree just days before Christmas,
buying every single person on my list their own very special book--
not just any book, a book thoughtfully selected just for each person's
unique interests even if a whole afternoon is required. That was after
all, the year's best afternoon.

Bookstores are about more than just books. They're about everything,
and anything, and all things. They're mystical places, not just shops
selling merchandise.

I can't go to a bookstore anymore in Nashville. Or at least I have to
drive a long way to do so.

But this is Oxford.

And Oxford still has Blackwell's Bookshop, perhaps the greatest
bookstore in the world.



Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford
(Exterior Renovation In Process)


At least that's what my host this week, Dr. F. King Alexander,
president of California State University Long Beach, told me when he
introduced me to Blackwell's for the first time.

He should know because he studied here for two years and returns each
summer for the Oxford Roundtable Programs his father started twenty
years ago.

Four floors of books. Best sellers, slow sellers, esoteric titles,
popular titles. More than 10,000 square feet of space in the basement
level alone, every inch of its 3 miles of shelves packed with 160,000
books. A Rare Books section containing first editions of Milton.
Discipline-specific sections for just about any and every subject
area. And, of course, a cappuccino cafe on the second floor.



Blackwell's Basement



Blackwell's Bookshop was founded in 1879 by Benjamin Henry Blackwell,
son of the town librarian. That first store had just 12 square feet.
Today there are over 60 Blackwell's stores throughout Britain but the
store at 50 Broad Street in Oxford is the flagship.

There is an online bookstore (bookshop.blackwells.co.uk) and the site
does have over 6,000,000 titles, but the allure is just not the same.

I'm writing this on my iPhone (on which I have read several dozen
books). I have an iPad and a MacBook Pro. We're thinking of going
bookless at the College of Business by using only digital texts. I am
as hip to e-books as anybody.

But, walking into Blackwell's was very nearly a spiritual experience.
There is nothing like a real bookstore and, in Oxford, they may have
the world's best.

Sorry, Steve Jobs.

As smart as you are, you can't kill the bookstore.

Because bookstores are about more than just books.


This will conclude Dean Stevens' blogs from Oxford. His conference has concluded and he is returning home this weekend. Thank you for following his posts all week and we hope you have enjoyed his observations on life at the University of Oxford.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit

By Turney Stevens, Dean

Terminology in education is confusing at best.

For example, in the U.S., we refer to "public" and "private" schools.

In the U.K., a "public" school is a private school and "public"
education is provided by state schools.

In our country, we refer to larger, postsecondary institutions as
"universities." Generally, a University will consist of a collection
of "Colleges" which each teach an academic discipline (for example,
business or engineering) and are either very centralized or relatively
independent depending on the culture of the parent university.

Departments, again focusing on specific disciplines, are found in each
college. In our College of Business at Lipscomb, we have departments
of management, marketing, accounting, and finance and economics.

Undergraduate students in the U.S. are usually accepted for admission
by the university. They then elect to take courses and to "major" in
an academic discipline of a college and department. Degrees are
conferred by the university, albeit often in specific academic
disciplines.

Now, for the University of Oxford, throw all of that away and redraw
the blueprint.

The "university" has no "campus." Its 38 Colleges each own property,
have endowments, and have "campuses" usually consisting of residence
halls, a dining hall, a chapel, social areas (often designated as
senior, middle and junior commons), and a residence (usually quite
nice) for the head of the college.



For undergraduates at Oxford, admission is through each college. For
postgraduate students, admission is through the university with
assignment to a specific college following. However, this is not
guaranteed so it could be that a postgraduate student is admitted by
the university and then is not accepted to live and study in a
college.

Colleges are not only residential but also form the core of the
instructional system. Within colleges, faculty (or tutors, once called
"dons") also reside. Literally. They live within the college alongside
the students, as a rule.

Since there are few "classes" at Oxford, a student's weekly meeting
with his tutor is the principal method of instruction. Prior to this
meeting, the student will have read his assignments and usually will
have written an essay which he will then defend in the weekly
meetings.



Colleges are cross-disciplinary and include by design a diverse
mixture of undergraduates and postgraduates, academic disciplines, and
national origin. Last year, students from 140 countries enrolled at
Oxford. It's this diverse and multi-disciplinary, multi-generational
approach that Oxford believes leads to the most effective learning.

The university administers examinations. For undergraduate students,
this comes at the end of the third year of study. Until this point,
students have received no grades. The exams are designed to
demonstrate mastery of the discipline and are taken in traditional
gown and white tie. Undergraduates receive the equivalent of a grade;
graduate students are graded as pass-fail.

The university confers the degree. The university sponsors lectures
which students can attend as they choose. The university sponsors
laboratories and provides a central library (although numerous other
discipline based libraries exist as well.)

The Colleges at Oxford live in lore and. often, in fiction and cinema.
Many of the colleges you may think to name if quizzed may not actually
exist. The best known actual colleges--Christ Church, Balliol,
University, All Souls, and Magdalen--can trace their roots back to the
founding of the university centuries ago.

We're staying and studying this week at Harris Manchester College, one
of the university's smaller with only 150 residents. The college was
founded in 1786 but did not receive landed college status until 1996.
It has one of the smaller endowments at 7.8 million GBP. The largest
college endowment belongs to St. John's College, with over 300 million
GBP. Harris Manchester is unique in that it only accepts full-time
students over age 21.



Ironically, there is a movement afoot in our country to replicate the
experience of living and learning with faculty members. The founder of
the Oxford Roundtable, Kern Alexander, introduced a hybrid concept
during his presidency of Murray State University in Kentucky. Gordon
Gee, former Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, convinced the Board
of Trust to spend more than $100 million on a new residential college
there before he departed to return to Ohio State.

As we in the U.S. increasingly abandon the concept of a "Sage on the
Stage" and move more toward the view of professors being "Guides on
the Side," we find that Oxford had this relationship thing between
students and faculty figured out hundreds of years ago.

Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.

"Everything changes, nothing perishes."

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

A World Class Secret

By Turney Stevens, Dean


Think of the world's great museums...

Most would name the Louvre or perhaps the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. Or
the British Museum or the National Gallery in London. Or the
Smithsonian in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York.

But what about the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford?

The Ashmolean???

It sounds like something that's either a medical condition of the skin
or a secret men's club at an Ivy League school.

Yet, this fabulous museum in the heart of Oxford is the world's oldest
university museum, founded in 1673 when Elias Ashmole gave the
University his collection of antique coins, books, engravings and
specimens.

The present building dates from 1845 with a major renovation completed
in 2009. The museum contains a rarely contested collection of the
world's greatest ancient archaeological specimens, extensive
collections of Greek and Roman sculpture, and perhaps the world's best
collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.



Most think Oxford is a college town and, indeed, it is. But it is also
home to at least five truly great museums, including the little-known
Asmolean and the even less well known Oxford Museum of Natural
History.

Originally built "to glorify the wonders of the Supreme Being's
natural world," the museum was ironically also where, in 1850, Thomas
Huxley debated Bishop Samuel Wilberforce on the hotly contested new
theory of evolution.

It was Wliberforce who famously concluded his remarks with the classic
question: "Tell me, Sir, is it through your grandfather or your
grandmother that you are descended from the monkeys?"

Today the museum is home to a world-class collection of natural
specimens and other artifacts of science, much of which was discovered
or developed at Oxford.

The University's faculty is responsible for the development of
penicillin, the design of the first wireless telegraphy (the first
demonstration of which took place at the Museum), and the discovery of
Halley's Comet from a homemade observatory on the rooftop of a nearby
college just a short walk from the museum.

Oxford is remarkable for many things, including the presence of
perhaps the world's greatest university. But, less well known are
these five outstanding museums, at least two of which are world class.

These two, plus the other major museums in Oxford (the Pitt Rivers
Museum, the Museum of the History of Science, and the Bate Collection
of Musical Instruments), collectively host more than a million
visitors annually.

That number is puny by Louvre standards. But the lines are much
shorter in Oxford. And the collections are very nearly as impressive.

In fact, to my surprise this week was even more impressive.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Soft Summer Evenings

By Turney Stevens, Dean

"To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease..."




When John Keats penned these words in 1819, he was 23 and was less than two years from his death. For him, the "warm days" did cease, in fact all too soon.

In that summer of 1819, he must have been writing his verses somewhere near Oxford because, here, on this 2011 mid-summer day when I'm penning my words, the flowers and trees blossom so spectacularly that one might indeed think summer will never cease.

But, of course, it will end and the seasons will soon change again here at Oxford as they have for the more than 800 summers since the university was founded.

It's the lovely and historic buildings at Oxford that often receive most of the attention by the 1.3 million annual visitors who come here to marvel over such remarkable sites as the medieval chapel where Charles I hid out from the pursuing Oliver Cromwell.

Or the quaint, upper story chamber at Christ Church College where John Wesley formulated the reformation thoughts that he espoused from the pulpit of the church just across the street and which became, literally, the "First" Methodist Church.

All of these historic sights, as impressive as they are, pale against the breathtaking beauty of the flowers. And the blossoming trees. And the emerald green lawns on which cricket and croquet and rugby are played on these spectacular summer afternoons.



The University of Oxford lies in west-central England, in a region of the country known as the Cotswolds. Spreading across an area that lies mainly in two counties, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, the region is relatively small measuring only about 20 miles by 90 miles.

When one thinks of romantic England, it's the Cotswolds that come to mind. When one thinks of the classic English garden, most likely the picture is one taken in a garden in or around Oxford or one of the other Costwold villages.

Shakespeare lived nearby in Stratford, located hard by the Avon River. Percy Bysshe Shelley studied at University College, Oxford, and wrote his first poems in the shade of the university's beautiful summer foliage.



The lovely villages of the Cotswolds, never more beautiful nor more romantic than upon a mid summer's eve, have inspired generations.

And so they have had the same intoxicating effect on this business dean, who spends his days and many of his nights caught up in the world of profits and metrics and strategies.

For just this week, I've walked among the blossoms. And sat quietly in the shade of the groaning oaks. And dreamed of rhymes, and stanzas, and words of inexpressible beauty.

Maybe, if the mood will only survive the long trip home and the return to the world of Blackberrys and iPads, leaving behind this mystical world of "moss'd cottage trees" then maybe, just maybe, I'll turn off "American Idol" this winter and read a little Keats.

And think again of soft summer evenings and afternoon walks along the gentle Thames.

Life, much as summer, will end all too soon.

Monday, August 1, 2011

In the Footsteps of Giants Here At Oxford

By Turney Stevens, Dean


The first student enrolled in what would become the University of
Oxford in 1167.

Today I became the newest. Or at least I am pretending to be a "student"
for a week here on these hallowed grounds.

For one week, I'll be meeting with 44 other educators from around the
world in a program known as the Oxford Roundtable. The participants
will be looking at contemporary issues facing Higher Education,
such as the undue pressure created by the competition for rankings,
the role of community colleges in making learning more accessible
and more affordable, and many other topics, all within the context
of a rapidly changing 21st Century world.

Founded two decades ago by Dr. Kern Alexander, a former president
of Western Kentucky University and of Murray State University and
father of our own College of Business Board of Visitors member,
Klint Alexander, the Roundtable annually calls together scholars from
around the world to spend a week at Oxford's quaint and very proper
Harris Manchester College discussing issues of significance.

Although not formally a part of the University of Oxford, the
Roundtable draws its academic inspiration from the historic surroundings
n which it is housed and it enables its "students" to take a week in
order to gain greater perspective on an "industry" that is changing more
rapidly than most.

The first Roundtable held its meetings at St. Peter's College (another
of Oxford's 39 Colleges) to consider public policy issues bearing on
education in the U.S., the U.K., and other selected countries.
Participants included college and university presidents, ministers of
education from 20 countries, the chair of the National Governor's
Association, and the Chancellor of Oxford University.

Past topics have included human rights, social welfare, economics,
religion, ethics, morals, and the liberal arts and sciences.

Participants must be invited upon nomination by a past participant.
The week is spent listening to paper presentations with both formal
and informal dialogue following each.

Although not a degree granting institution itself, the Roundtable
nevertheless does have a long-standing connection to Oxford (if 20
years can be defined as "long-standing" at an institution that has
educated students for more than 800 years.)

Participants live in the the Harris Manchester College Residence Hall
and dine together (coats and ties required) in the College's
candlelit, gothic Dining Hall.



In the gardens of Harris Manchester College, Oxford. The College's Chapel,
where Christian Prayer services are held daily, can be seen in the background.

Just steps away from Harris Manchester College is The Eagle And The
Child pub, where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S.Lewis met every Tuesday to
break bread and share ideas.

A few steps more brings one to Christ Church College, site of the
Alice in Wonderland adventures as well as Brideshead Revisited and the
largest of Oxford's Colleges with 675 students (out of a total Oxford
enrollment of almost 21,000.) The College was laid out by Sir Thomas
Wolsey and constructed by King Henry VIII.

Walk on and one comes to University College where a young Bill Clinton
studied politics and economics on a Rhodes Scholarship but left early
in order to enroll at Yale Law School. Although he never earned a
degree from Oxford, he does hold the distinction of being the first
U.S. President to study at Oxford (the university counts 26 British
prime ministers among its alumni.)

A few more steps, however, brings one to the site of our own U.S.
Congressman Jim Cooper's Oxford student days, where he also studied on
a Rhodes Scholarship and did earn a joint B.A./M.A. in 1977.

And the history here at Oxford just goes on and on. A lot of it can be
made in 800 years.

It should be a fascinating week of debating the future while being
humbled by the past.

Thank you, Klint. It's truly an honor for Lipscomb University to be
invited to participate.


All this week Dean Stevens will be posting about his experiences at
Oxford University. Check in frequently to hear what he is learning,
and discovering at one of the oldest educational institutions in the world.