Encouraging People to Do Well and Do Good
UC San Diego is No. 1 in the nation for acting on behalf of the public interest. We earned that designation from the Washington Monthly for the sixth consecutive year this past summer. Then in September, the New York Times’ College Access Index ranked our university No. 4 in economic diversity. By this measure, UC schools are six of the nation’s top seven performers, leading the paper to dub us and our sister campuses an “upward mobility machine.” Here in the Division of Social Sciences we take special pride in these rankings because we take seriously our public mandate. Most academics seek to advance knowledge, as do we. We also strive to advance well-being.
As you read through this issue of e-Connection, you’ll see several examples of how our faculty and students are working to solve social problems – including Bud Mehan, winner of this year’s Revelle Medal, who has spent four decades improving education in San Diego, to more recently launched efforts.
The Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research, for example, is undertaking a two-year project to restore upward mobility in the United States, the promise of the American Dream. There is no shortage of ideas about possible solutions. What we need now is an informed assessment of which of these possibilities will work best. Center director Lane Kenworthy, with the support of founder Dan Yankelovich, is putting together a commission of experts to estimate the probable impact of 25 available strategies and to then point policymakers to the most effective. The Yankelovich Center is one of many centers in the division – the Center for Research on Education Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence (CREATE) and the newly formed Center for California’s Tomorrow to name just two others – that link theory to action and seek to make a real-world impact.
To make a difference, we believe you need the tools of many disciplines. The Division of Social Sciences and the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego have joined forces to launch the Contextual Robotics Institute. In this endeavor, too, we aim to push forward on both science and service. Engineers will work together with social scientists to develop safe and useful robotics systems. By designing more responsive robots that are compatible with humans and in sync with social practices, we can build not just better machines but machines to serve humanity.
Our alumni also exhibit a similar passion for improving lives. Psychology alumnus Joseph Edelman has pledged generously to help college students facing mental health challenges. And Communication alumna Helen Griffith directs e3 Civic High, a charter school in San Diego’s central library, the majority of whose students come from families living below the poverty line and which has just won notice as one of America’s “most innovative.” Again, this is to name just a couple of examples that you can read about in this edition of e-Connection. There are many more like them.
Sociologist Amy Binder’s most recent work shines a light on how universities shape their students’ career choices. She calls out some of the most elite private schools in America for funneling their graduates into a narrow band of lucrative jobs. I hope that what the culture at UC San Diego and its Division of Social Sciences is doing – through our focus on inspired problem-solving – is encouraging people to both do well and do good. We strive for quality in our faculty and our programs, and our commitment to our students is to expose them to a wide variety of potential jobs. In the end, this is what universities should do.