Through their interviews with faculty and administrators (from
department chairs and deans to provosts and presidents) from a
sample of eight public universities in the Northeast and their own
experiences in both worlds, the authors provide a unique window
into the life experiences and identities of those who struggle to
make universities work. The book examines the culture of academic
institutions and attempts to understand why change in public higher
education is so difficult to accomplish.
Many faculty believe that one of their own who becomes an
administrator has gone over to "the dark side." One provost
recalled going for a beer with a faculty colleague and hearing the
colleague complain about the latest memo "from the administration."
He had to remind his friend of many years that he was the author of
the offending document. Now he was "the administration." He
realized that former colleagues now appeared in his office wearing
suits and ties and referring to him by his title rather than his
first name.
The disciplines serve as the tribes into which individual
scholars are organized; the discipline is where a faculty member
finds his community and identity. Administrators, on the other
hand, identify with each other in trying to get the tribes to work
together. Though most administrators came from the faculty ranks,
their career paths take a different shape, especially in terms of
mobility to another institution. It's not surprising that the two
groups talk past each other.
A chapter is devoted to chairs of departments, who occupy an
interesting middle ground. To their faculty, they can come across
as a nurturing parent or a petty bureaucrat. The authors recommend
training for chairs and administrative internships offered by the
American Council on Education and other organizations.
The men and women on the campuses of the public universities
described in the book make clear the challenges that universities
face in terms of budgets, legislative politics, collective
bargaining, rankings, and control of academic programs. If public
institutions are truly to serve a public purpose, faculty and
administrators must find ways to engage each other in shared
conversation and management and find ways of engaging the
university with the community.
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