What Remains Open

The most consequential open question about the founding culture concerns what happens to the culture as the founding community transitions to the broader institution. The founding community's culture is formed in specific relationships, specific places, and specific conditions that will not persist as the institution grows. The question of how the founding culture is transmitted — what practices are translatable to a larger and more diverse participant base and what aspects of the founding culture are necessarily specific to the founding community — is one of the most important and least understood transitions in institutional development.