Steeples of Excellence and How to Achieve Them
Every so often, terms crop up and it seems like no one knows where they came from. One of my favourites is “Steeples of Excellence”. Except that this one actually has a known origin: the Stanford of the 1950s and its provost, Frederick Terman. The term “steeples of excellence” tends to imply some focus on certain fields of study. It’s a handy complement to the oft heard “we can’t be everything to everybody” (possibly the most overused phrase in higher







