about peers said that “you also look to see who has the best ideas, you look at the ‘big boys,’” and
cited the importance of Cal-Tech and MIT in areas like technology export control law. He also
confirmed the notions of capacity and the variance in the likelihood of developing well researched
tailored policies saying that “well resourced places, tend to have done more thinking and analysis” and
that “large offices are probably more thorough.” Similarly, an attorney at a private university said that
when it comes to issues like scientific research and patents her institution “looks less at research peers
and more at the big guys, those who have dealt with it the most…. We have a much smaller research
program than Stanford or Berkeley but we look at them. Even though we’re a much smaller scale, they
influence us.”
Thus, at times, the industry elite are important bell-weathers and sources of ideas for others, but
only on some issues for some universities. It appears that this may happen more often on issues for
which the elite have some special expertise and really are different and elite (e.g. scientific research)
and less so on more localized issues such as those affecting student life, but this is a very tenuous
claim. Some said that while they look at the super elites, what Harvard does is much less relevant if
there are informative and more similar sources of information available. One large public school
attorney said: “what Harvard does about affirmative action is of course important to us, but not as
much as what Michigan does.”
Presumably this is because this university feels that since Michigan is
more similar to their institution and that it likely has a good policy, it is a better source to learn from
than Harvard. Others indicated that they keep track of what elites do, but are cautious of following
them and adopting ill fitting policies. One said “we won’t just copy what they (industry elites) do
though. They will affect the direction, but we won’t just enact their policies if they are so much
different from us.” Another, an attorney for a small, but selective, liberal arts college said that there is
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In context this was a reference to public status, but the fact that Michigan was involve in the recent affirmative action
cases also makes it a very attractive source of ideas (discussed in detail in a later section)
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Convention