When legislators demand "faculty productivity" metrics, they miss what actually creates value in education: connections.

Consider a student research project that current metrics record as simply "1 undergraduate research experience."

A knowledge graph would instead reveal the complete picture: how faculty mentorship connected to community partnerships, developed critical thinking skills, and ultimately transformed a career trajectory.

This networked view illuminates the rich ecosystem of learning instead of reducing it to checkboxes.

It's not about turning universities into factories—it's about creating systems that help us tell our own story before others impose metrics that miss what matters.

I’m starting by mapping these connections at the department level. Not to commodify education, but to make its true complexity visible in an increasingly skeptical political landscape.

How is your institution navigating this tension between accountability and authentic representation?