Term Limits for Academia
As I begun to review the report “Examining the feasibility of converting New York State’s all-purpose energy infrastructure to one using wind, water, and sunlight” I decided to get to know the authors of the report. To my shock and dismay, none of them has had any experience in the utility industry, much less any industry.
There is no doubt in my mind, Academia represents an important part in society. Many professors have had profound impact on myself Those include Dr. Grant Wilson and the late Dr. David Himmelblau.
Though Dr. Himmelblau spent a majority of his life in Academia, he did serve in the army and a decade in industry. He taught me a very important lesson that I continue to use till this day.
He had a take home final exam. The final exam involved finding the hydrogen values at various points in the process. Many points in the process were easy to identify. However, there were a few points that no matter what, one could not prove conclusively the hydrogen amounts. Many in class were dumbfounded and turned in incomplete test. I spent an all-nighter trying to get it. Finally I decided to write several reasons to support my assumption.
Dr. Himmelblau later told the class there was no way to conclusively get several points, and the key was to make an educated guess based on supporting assumptions. In life there are many unknowns and you will have to make the best guess you can with all the factors you have at your disposal. This advice probably allowed me to be a great forecaster. This advice is so true when you attempt to understand the future. You won’t have all the facts and you can’t always wait for them either. Operating with unknowns is a reality – learn to embrace it. I believe this is something that cannot come from just being in academia.
Dr. Wilson helped me out in many ways. His ability to take things from a theoretical world to real life applications helped bridge my thinking on how to apply school work into life. Dr. Wilson had a very impressive industry experience, which I believed allowed this lesson to be prominent in his teachings.
Back to the issue at hand, my google search on each of the authors show no industry experience. This is not a personal attack. I am sure all of the authors are genuine decent human beings. The fact is they are discussing about something very complicated and real. No matter what you may say about the utility industry, there is one thing everyone should know, there are real hard-working people there who do their job out of true concern. I have not met a planner in any utility who takes their job lightly. They do deserve some credit for keeping the lights on over the past decades.
Yes there have been outages, but when those outages occurred did you think about your bill not being enough and how much more you would spend for those outages not to occur. Utility planning does include some social aspect. Reliability levels are set for the required masses not for those who COULD afford more. There are many dimensions when setting a resource plan. It is not just economic nor is it just a social cause nor is it just wishful thinking but significant applied mathematics with significant engineering calculations. The fact that not one of the authors had SOME utility experience, therefore, in my mind it immediately reduces the value of the study. It would be akin to having someone do surgery on your body without any experience other than from what one read. Perhaps success is quite possible, but it would be beneficial if they actually built up some real experience in the real world where all the dimensions are taken into account.
My quest to evaluate the study content quickly got diverted. My quick author search got me thinking not of the study, but the thought of term limits for academia. Many people point to the fact that a lifelong politician loses sight of reality – is this true for academia? It would seem that more and more professors are taking the lifelong route versus the professors I had who had spent time in the world then came back to academia. I hope institutions think about this as they look to build their staff. Colleges should implement a term limit so that their professors do not lose sight of the real world. This probably should apply with your consultant. Hopefully you don’t have a consultant who has lost track of the real world.
Now back to reading the report…..
A supporter of term limits for politicians, academia, and consultants – Your Energy Consultant,
614-356-0484
