On Tuesday January 28, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger Exploded and seven astronauts died. Within the week the formation of a Presidential Commission of inquiry was undertaken and the then head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, William Graham, rang a former teacher of his at Caltech where Graham had been an undergraduate twenty-five years before. Would he be a member of the investigating committee of 12.

My immediate reaction was -- how am I gonna get out of this? I called various friends who explained that it was very important for the nation and that I should do it.

My last chance was to convince my wife. 'Look, anybody could do it. They can get somebody else.'

'No,' said Gweneth. 'If you don't do it, there will be twelve people all in a group, going around from place to place together. But if you join the commission, there will be eleven people -- all in a group, going around from place to place together -- while the twelfth one runs around all over the place, checking all kinds of unusual things. There probably won't be anything, but if there is, you'll find it. There isn't anyone else who can do that like you can.'

Being very immodest, I believed her.

               [Richard Feynman - What do You Care What Other People Think]

Feynman a 1965 physics Nobel Laureate was 68 when he became the commission's self appointed gumshoe, and because of the combination of his brilliance, prestige and notoriety (only Einstein was better known to the general public) his contribution was seminal. The threat of his withholding his name from the final report caused it to be significantly more forthright than the Commission Chairman, William Rogers, initially intended.

So what?

1. The Challenger catastrophe was an acute event that stopped the world. As a result, it had to be dealt with as a matter of urgency; it had to be seen to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. And once the investigation had concluded something decisive would have be done to fix it. Apart from anything else the prestige of the nation was at stake.
    
2. In contrast the demise of our tertiary institutions is a chronic wasting affliction lacking the punch of an acute disaster. Yet it's effect on the nation will be far more devastating than the consequences of the explosion of the Challenger and the loss of seven lives appalling as that was.
    
3. No individual comparable to a Richard Feynman has been appointed to painstakingly investigate the state of our tertiary institutions of learning and who would have the expectation of having recommendations acted upon. As long as we have a government steeped in denial, none will, and nothing of consequence will be done to reverse the decay.

Alex Reisner
The Funneled Web