Rowan warns the worst outcome for universities would be donor apathy replacing current engagement.
“be more constructive about the prospect of change here. You think there is a better path ahead. I think the worst thing that can happen to these universities is apathy. Right now there's not apathy.”
Rowan says Chicago is outperforming Penn while Vanderbilt, UT Austin, and Florida are ascendant due to the controversy.
“I will tell you that Chicago, who has mostly gotten it right, kicking Penn's ass. And they know it. And Vanderbilt, Ascendant, University of Texas.”
Rowan argues Americans never voted on which identity groups would be valued, outsourcing the decision and forgetting individuals matter.
“We never got a vote in which groups were valued. We outsourced that. And so among the most un American things I'd ever seen happen, we forgot that people are actually individuals.”
Rowan argues universities institutionalized sorting people by group status rather than treating them as individuals.
“We afforded them lack of judgment of any action they had done based on their aggrieved status. And this became institutionalized in our universities.”