At the medium-size level, one can seek ways to increase support for research entities that provide services to a number of departments simultaneously. However, the campus conversation has also strayed into the Big-Think domain. There is talk once again of towers of excellence, shutting down small graduate programs, finding linkages between the disciplines, and looking for the new disciplines of the future. The problem with Big Think is that it is absolutely necessary, but few know how to do it. Moreover, like lovemaking among porcupines, it must be done very carefully.
Most people enter graduate school for professional training.
A PhD is the best way to gain entrance to professions as diverse as economics and classical archaeology. The students come to acquire a kit of tools for analysis, to learn the subject matter of the discipline, to learn how to do research, to learn the norms and mores of the scholarly profession, and finally to get a job in which this training is used and rewarded. They choose Brown over other institutions because of the reputation of the scholars in its respective disciplines and its reputation as a favorable research environment. This information comes to them from their peers, family, undergraduate advisors, and from reading in their own disciplines. Because the disciplines of the future may not yet exist, they come for what Brown can offer them today.