What a momentous and trying year this has been for the world but also for CASBS. The Center did not escape the anxieties and lockdowns created by the pandemic. Covid disrupted everything we do and demanded new thinking if we were to continue to support an engaged fellowship class, run programs and projects, and have meaningful outreach. Although we managed to keep almost all of our staff and at the number of hours that ensures them health coverage, there were some tough decisions about furloughs, hour reductions, and redeployment of staff to different tasks.
Still there is lots of good news. We have developed a strategy to guide us for the years ahead. We are in a good budgetary position, thanks to associate director Sally Schroeder’s stewardship of our finances and staff and thanks to a major gift of $1 million from the Ford Foundation. Our programs and projects, led by Betsy Rajala and our newest staff member, Zack Ugolnik, are exciting and field building. Thanks to communication director Mike Gaetani’s producer skills, our webcast series, Social Science for a World in Crisis, has proved immensely popular while showcasing the best of what CASBS is all about. We managed to host a successful cohort in 2019-20, despite ending virtually, and have enjoyed an engaging beginning to the 2020-21 academic year, despite starting virtually and proceeding without our usual range of face-to-face meetings, lunches, walks, and external speakers. Yet, although mediated by Zoom, there is high fellow attendance and enthusiasm at our research seminars, virtual lunches, and other gatherings.
I am also happy to report that Stanford and Santa Clara County (the relevant government body for Stanford’s health regulations) have allowed us some occupancy of our campus. We now have eleven fellows installed in studies, and we have been authorized to invite the entire class to return in January. There are, of course, numerous restrictions in place to ensure safety. Everyone must wear masks, practice social distancing, and engage in appropriate sanitary practices. For purposes of contact tracing they must sign-up for use of the outside spaces where gatherings are permitted. We cannot use our indoor meeting spaces at the moment, and if permitted to in 2021, it will be with only a few people in rooms that have the capacity for dozens. This means we cannot have in-person seminars or workshops or public symposia. We shall provide box lunches but have limits on collective dining. Only authorized CASBS staff, fellows, visiting scholars, and research affiliates will be allowed on the CASBS campus; we can welcome no external visitors, and our class is not permitted to go to the main campus (unless, of course, they are already connected to Stanford).
In addition, I am pleased to inform you that Stanford, which has fully approved our building plans, is now in negotiation with Santa Clara County with regard to questions of design and historical preservation, issues over which the county has to give final approval. This is an important step in our process that was made possible by the fact that CASBS had raised the money budgeted for the building. I want to publicly thank the CASBS board of directors, in particular, for their leadership, generosity, and for being great champions of this building project.
Unfortunately, the ongoing tension between the university and the county as a result of the failed General Use Permit renegotiation is playing itself out in the discussions over several Stanford building projects, including ours. Still, we are optimistic that this hurdle may soon be overcome. Then we can re-budget in light of the several years delay and in light of county mandated changes in the plan (if there are any). The next step after that is construction. Should the new costs exceed those already raised, we shall have to do a final round of fund-raising. If the costs stay the same, we can raise another glass of champagne once the building is completed.
The new building is only one of several changes occurring at CASBS. A superb committee composed of board members and former fellows and chaired by the vice chair of our board, Roberta Katz, developed a strategic plan, “CASBS in the 21st Century,” which we are in the process of enacting. It builds on and advances the vision the CASBS board had prior to my appointment as director, a vision that was part of what attracted me to the job. Thus, I came in as an agent of change and have tried my best to transform the way CASBS undertakes programs and projects. I am thankful that many fellows bought into what I was trying to create, and many of them became co-creators by heading initiatives. We learned through our experiments over the last six years, and it is now time to take the next step. The strategic plan offers a way to build on what is truly great about the CASBS fellowship program while transforming it to enable true complementarity between fellows and the programs. It will require changes in how we curate the class, and it will allow us to have more flexible fellowships for at least some part of future classes. It also will allow us to make even better use of our former fellows as partners in our improved pursuit of advances on significant societal challenges.
The plan also asks us to rethink our outreach strategy to enhance the influence of our new thinking and ideas on actual problems and policies in the world. The webcast series is one recent example of how we’re evolving our communications. But to push us further, we’ve created a new board committee to help us with our outreach. Mike Gaetani and I already are benefiting from the advice of its members: Xav Briggs, Marcy Carsey, and Salar Kamangar.
The other upcoming change is my retirement as director, which is planned for the end of the 2021-22 academic year. I am announcing this now so that there is adequate time for a search and transition. This was a difficult decision for me to make, given my love of CASBS, but I believe it is the right decision for me and for the Center.
Until then, onward!
