Quote:Former Vice President Al Gore, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and business consultant Jim Collins will be part of the board of the Doerr Institute. General Kolditz says the Doerr Institute will be announcing its board next week with these three members confirmed.
i mean i'd rather have this than not, but really wish it could've been some top notch start-up incubator for rice undergrads/grads or a wing of the Baker Institute or ... so many good options.
(08-31-2016 11:38 PM)Bailiff_Lingo_Bingo Wrote: man... this institute... just doesn't seem to fit our existing strengths in any way
I just don't see it either?
Wasn't this one of the the largest donations ever? By the godfather of Silicon Valley who yeah, can get some flashy board members associated with this but I doubt any students or alumni are benefiting much from it.
i mean i'd rather have this than not, but really wish it could've been some top notch start-up incubator for rice undergrads/grads or a wing of the Baker Institute or ... so many good options.
(09-04-2016 02:54 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote: I don't have a problem with it. No objection to teaching leadership skills. I've heard it said those can be useful in many walks of life.
Not trying to say we don't need a leadership focus at Rice just trying to say that with such a big gift ($50 million) and coming from such an awesome alum who has more connections than anyone from Rice, we ought to see some positive impacts as students and alums.
Silicon Valley and SF lead by doing. They're the leader in VC funding by 40X what Houston receives.
We have a big gap to fill as a region.
If you say it isn't a concern than I dare you to ask college students and recent grads whether they would prefer to get an MBA from the school of their choosing or have a start up at a top incubator like Y-combinator (not to mention be on a path to get VC funds from the likes of other SV/SF Funds like Kleiner Perkins).
So point being, kids will go where the money is and that will continue to be Stanford, Harvard, NYC until something changes.
I was previously 95% on the nature side of the argument but have to believe Doerr looked at the data and results of similar but "lesser" programs before throwing $50MM in this direction.
I met with General Kolditz a while back - and was genuinely impressed. After moving from the Leadership Development program at West Point to Yale Management School, he was then was recruited to Rice. As I understand it (from separate conversations with others), Doerr was looking to make a transformational gift and I infer this is intended to be it.
It seems the Leadership institute was created to go hand in hand with recruiting and the other university themes/initiatives - the "Initiative for students" (poorly named as it is) and a multi-disciplinary, real-world approach to education. One of the main premises here is that leadership is coachable and teachable. The follow-on being that it would (not surprisingly) accrue benefits to current and future students as well as the university if we can inspire and develop more and better leaders.
Again, I was definitely on the "born, not taught" side of this but am encouraged to think I might be wrong. Or at least that there's a healthy opportunity. I'm not saying a Houston based incubator wouldn't be interesting, but have to believe this was something that Doerr considered and rejected in favor of this.
Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it that the *most* transformational institutions/training programs are those of "leadership." Again, not saying they're useless, but just don't know of any evidence to suggest they're the *most* useful.
On the other hand, I don't think you have to strain hard to picture how a, say, undergrad-oriented or Houston-facing startup incubator could really impact the city, and heck, it could be bundled with leadership education, if one insisted on such a thing. I do grant what I think was your point, that Doerr may've considered such ideas thoroughly and decided it was already too crowded a space. I'd be surprised though -- I work in tech and I have yet to hear a single person anywhere in the nation mention Houston as being a tech hotspot.
I don't know what Doerr's rationale was in deciding on this gift. I don't disagree that a startup incubator could be a good investment. But donors aren't constrained by considerations of what might be the most useful gift. Is a $35 million EZF the "best" investment of that amount of money? How about the glowing pyramid thing? You could very well be right that a startup incubator is something more useful to Rice or Houston than a leadership institute. But glowing pyramids aren't particularly useful either, but they add character.
Has any on the board members worked in the public sector? Really strange board nembers
(08-31-2016 09:35 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:
Quote:Former Vice President Al Gore, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and business consultant Jim Collins will be part of the board of the Doerr Institute. General Kolditz says the Doerr Institute will be announcing its board next week with these three members confirmed.
(07-18-2018 09:47 PM)OldOwl Wrote: Has any on the board members worked in the public sector? Really strange board nembers
(08-31-2016 09:35 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:
Quote:Former Vice President Al Gore, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and business consultant Jim Collins will be part of the board of the Doerr Institute. General Kolditz says the Doerr Institute will be announcing its board next week with these three members confirmed.
(07-19-2018 09:56 AM)Volente Beach Owl Wrote: I'm very surprised the #Metoo movement hasn't kicked Al Gore out of these types of opportunities, given his past.
Well, he did invent the internet. so without Gore, there would be no #MeToo or hashtags for that matter...
(07-19-2018 09:56 AM)Volente Beach Owl Wrote: I'm very surprised the #Metoo movement hasn't kicked Al Gore out of these types of opportunities, given his past.
Well, he did invent the internet. so without Gore, there would be no #MeToo or hashtags for that matter...
Lucky for us he put the internet into a lockbox when he invented it.
A leadership experience is exactly what most Rice students need. They are always the smartest in their high school classes but that doesn’t translate into the vision and people skills that are necessary for leadership. Having great ideas isn’t enough. You have to be able to sell them.
(07-19-2018 08:56 PM)WeatherfordOwl Wrote: A leadership experience is exactly what most Rice students need. They are always the smartest in their high school classes but that doesn’t translate into the vision and people skills that are necessary for leadership. Having great ideas isn’t enough. You have to be able to sell them.
I'm not sure how many students are able to actually use services at the Institute, but I know a few people who have been able to do some leadership workshops there, and they have said nothing but good things about the experiences.
(07-19-2018 08:56 PM)WeatherfordOwl Wrote: A leadership experience is exactly what most Rice students need. They are always the smartest in their high school classes but that doesn’t translate into the vision and people skills that are necessary for leadership. Having great ideas isn’t enough. You have to be able to sell them.
When I was at Rice, I was impressed by the number of students who were leaders in high school - team captains, student body presidents all sorts of social activity. Not just a bunch of morose bookworms.
I was told that the interview/selection process favored well rounded students.
I hope nothing has changed.
But I think the leadership program is meant to help students expand on leadership qualities and skills they already have, not create leadership in those with no vestige of it.
