From the Editor: Talk Back
Paula M. Krebs
Academic freedom and faculty governance are under fire all over the United States, in blatant, David-Horowitz-style ways and more subtly, through creeping corporatization and the erosion of the tenure system. On individual campuses, people are fighting back, as George Wolfe and Jeff Livesay describe in their short articles. Please send us your own success stories. Sharing strategies to maintain and build academic freedom and faculty governance is what Academe, and the AAUP, is all about.
With this issue, we’re taking information sharing a step further by introducing “Talk About Academe,” a blog that will let readers respond to the articles in the magazine and interact with each other. Comment on the articles, comment on others’ comments, but keep it civil. I’m hoping that “Talk About Academe” will become a site for genuinely productive exchange. But that’ll be up to you.
Inside this issue, Terri Hasseler and James Andrews contribute different takes on the issue of corporate culture on campus. Andrews provides a checklist to help you decide whether your own college or university might be sliding into a business model that places the educational mission of an institution second to the bottom line. Hasseler, from her perch at a university that specializes in a business curriculum, worries that students are learning to be good consumers and employees at the expense of an education in critical analysis.
Changes in institutional culture are what motivate Greg Dubrow and his co-authors as well. They offer a survival manual for those whose institutions are undergoing “mission creep”—moving from being teaching- and service-centered universities to more research-focused ones.
AAUP general secretary Roger Bowen continues his series of interviews with longtime AAUP members who have made a big impact in the United States and on the international scene by chatting with Nobel-Prizewinning economist Kenneth Arrow about his views on corporations, education, and academic freedom.
Cristina González’s new perspective on faculty mentoring may surprise some—she cites a student who likens it to what went on in the medieval church. In an accompanying article, Darlene Zellers tells us about successful mentoring programs at the University of Pittsburgh.
Cut out Joe Schall’s article about writing recommendation letters and keep it near your keyboard. It’s full of “Why didn’t I think of that?” suggestions for doing a better job at the often-unrewarding task of writing for students.
Susan LaRocco calls to our attention the enormous implications of the shortage in nursing faculty all over the country. The financial rewards of teaching future nurses just can’t compare to those of actually working as a nurse, with the result that applicants are being turned away from nursing schools for lack of faculty to teach them.
Faculty from different departments at Bryn Mawr have been working together over disciplinary boundaries for years now, and they share the secret of their success with us in this issue. We have a lot to learn from each other, across the disciplines and across the country. Share your ideas with colleagues who are concerned about the future of higher education—write for us at Academe, write letters to us, and check out our new blog.
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