Academic Tenure

In this provocative criticism of the contemporary American professoriate, Huer argues that tenure has created a kind of academic stupor in which those who have it no longer live up to the ideals of their profession. In Huer's view, the typical tenured career often degenerates into intellectual boredom, the routine publication of a series of narrowly specialized research papers, a pervasive dissatisfaction, and a search for monetary and other rewards outside the university. Huer proposes that the time has come to reexamine the issues surrounding tenure in an attempt to reinvigorate the professoriate and reestablish a fruitful connection between academic and nonacademic society.

Silverman provides graduate students who intend to pursue a career in academia and tenure-track junior faculty with candid information about developing an adequate publication record. The book also provides graduate students, tenured faculty, and others with information they need to maximize the likelihood of having their articles accepted for publication by peer-reviewed professional, scientific, and scholarly journals. The focus throughout is on how editorial boards and tenure committees function rather than on how they are supposed to function. Anyone dealing with academic publishing will find this book an indispensable resource.

Anyone who teaches in higher education realizes that "the Academy" has significant and pervasive problems in its self-governance, effectiveness, and in according value for soaring costs. Although there is a widespread sense that something is badly wrong, few are well positioned to challenge the system. Lewis has written an honest, spirited account of what, in his view, ails the nation's universities and colleges, making them "wasteful, inefficient, and increasingly unresponsive to the needs of (their) constituencies".

There are many things faculty can do to enhance students' judgments of the quality of their teaching. This book discusses them, along with the ways that tenure committees judge teaching adequacy. Graduate students, junior faculty, and even tenured faculty will find the practical information they need to teach effectively and maximize their student ratings.

Based on new data and new analytical frameworks, this book assesses the forces of change at play in the development of American universities and their prospects for the future. The book begins with a lengthy introduction by Clark Kerr that not only provides an overview of change since the time he coined the phrase "the city of intellect" but also discusses the major changes that will affect American universities over the next thirty years.

Part One examines demographic and economic changes, such as the rise of nearly universal higher education, private gift and corporate sponsorship of research, new labor market opportunities, and increasing inequality among institutions and disciplines. Part Two assesses the profound influence of the Internet and other technologies on teaching and learning. Part Three describes how the various forces of change affect the nature of academic research and the organization of disciplines and the curriculum. Part Four analyzes the consequences of change for university governance and the means by which universities in the future can maintain high levels of achievement while maintaining high levels of autonomy.

In higher education, decisions are made against a complex and often conflicting backdrop of applicable law, ethical questions, and practical considerations. Goonen and Blechman assist academic administrators by providing an overview of the legal parameters, ethical questions, and practical suggestions applicable to the most frequently encountered areas of academic decision making.

This book is a basic treatment of faculty performance appraisal in higher education. It is written for those scholars faced with the need to understand the issues and solutions to the often thorny problems posed by having to judge the performance of their colleagues in teaching, service, research and citizenship. Neophyte administrators, committee members, and those facing evaluation are often perplexed by the range and depth of the questions concerning what constitutes an effective and reasonable performance appraisal system. This book provides answers to the most common of these questions and integrates current thinking from education literature with models of strategic management from business administration.

In this refreshing and original exploration, George Dennis O'Brien looks at higher education in America. O'Brien argues that to debate intelligently the future of education we must stop focusing on its ideals and look instead at its institutions. He does this by addressing nine half-truths, such as whether "low cost public education benefits the least advantaged in society," and goes on to examine how accurately they reflect the true state of higher education. The result is a thought-provoking discussion of the present challenges and future prospects of American higher education. "O'Brien's historical overview of the transition from 19th-century denominational colleges to 20th-century research-driven and largely secular ones is provocative. Cleverly written and well-focused, the book addresses the financial pressures facing higher education and asks vital questions about cutbacks and curricula."--Publishers Weekly "Lively, engaging, and richly suggestive." --Francis Oakley, Commonweal "O'Brien employs calm, powerful reason, without sensationalism. His perspective is illuminating. . . . All the Essential Half-Truths About Higher Education is one of the wisest and most useful treatments of American higher education." --John Attarian, Detroit News