Sculpting the City, the December 2015 issue of Reed magazine, is an eclectic affair covering topics as diverse as intellectuals working for the CIA, the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683, muckraking journalism, the design of urban spaces (cover story, p. 24), and still more.
Perhaps the most striking essay in all this is a “letter from the editor,” Chris Lydgate ’90, titled Return on Investment. In just eight paragraphs Lydgate describes the life story of one of Reed’s most accomplished graduates and comments on the recent trend to monetize the value of every experience. The graduate in question was the late Ken Koe ’45, whose life spanned Depression-era poverty in Astoria and on Portland’s west side, and the highest level of medicinal chemistry as a co-inventor of the antidepressant Zoloft (see In Memoriam: The Architect of Zoloft below). Koe was able to escape his humble beginnings when Reed awarded him a full scholarship ($250) on the eve of his high school graduation. Koe described his Reed education as an “exhilarating intellectual journey,” but, even with a full scholarship, it was a challenging one: to make Reed’s financial gift stretch as far as possible, Koe arranged his schedule so that he could graduate in just three years, even while commuting across the Willamette each day, and working weekends in a Chinatown restaurant. To be sure, Koe hoped that his Reed degree would lead to a better life, but what that might look like, no one could say. Lydgate offers this comment,“We hear a lot of questions these days about the ‘return on investment’ of a college degree, typically framed in terms of your earning power five or 10 years after graduation. It’s a useful, important discussion. But to my mind, this definition of ‘return’ is far too narrow. The point of getting an education at a place like Reed is not to fatten your wallet but to sharpen your mind and prepare yourself for the intellectual challenges that lie ahead.”
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