The Still Divided Academy : How Competing Visions of Power, Politics, and Diversity Complicate the Mission of Higher Education

"The Still Divided Academy" is a wonderful examination of the academic community that shows their inner workings by addressing a broad range of issues including: academic politics, tenure, perceived and real political imbalance, academic freedom, and diversity. Administrators, professors, and students have very different priorities, values, and expectations and therefore, often have conflicting opinions on these issues. Drawing on data collected in a specially commissioned public opinion survey as well as other recent research on higher education, Rothman, Kelly-Woessner, and Woessner, create an incredibly readable presentation of both the similarities and differences between those running our universities and those attending them. The authors manage to remain impressively neutral; instead they give us a fuller perspective of the people on our college campuses. The table of contents, presents the following information in the order provided by the publisher: Part 1 Acknowledgements; Part 2 Preface; Part 3 Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 4 Previous Studies of the Academy; Chapter 5 The NAASS Survey; Chapter 6 Layout of the Book; Part 7 Chapter 2: Visions of the University Chapter 8 Goals of Education; Chapter 9 Encouraging Cultural Understanding and Minority Perspectives; Chapter 10 Perceptions of Educational Quality; Chapter 11 Problems Facing Higher Education; Chapter 12 Conclusion; Part 13 Chapter 3: Perceptions of Power and Control in the American University; Chapter 14 The Faculty-Administrative Divide; Chapter 15 Varied Perceptions of Influence; Chapter 16 Conflict as a Predictor of Influence; Chapter 17 Collective Bargaining; Chapter 18 Student Demands and Influence; Chapter 19 Conclusion; Part 20 Chapter 4: Politics and Culture Wars; Chapter 21 Political Views of the Faculty; Chapter 22 Politics of the Administration; Chapter 23 Students' Political Values; Chapter 24 Divisions within the Professoriate; Chapter 25 Generational Differences Among Faculty; Chapter 26 Politics and Scholarly Achievement; Chapter 27 Conclusion; Part 28 Chapter 5: Campus Diversity; Chapter 29 The Campus Climate for Diversity; Chapter 30 Personal Experiences with Ongoing Discrimination or Harassment; Chapter 31 Campus Support for Diversity; Chapter 32 Impact of Diversity Chapter 33 Conclusion; Part 34 Chapter 6: Academic Freedom, Tenure, and the Free Exchange of Ideas; Chapter 35 The Politics of Academic Freedom; Chapter 36 Other Sources of Threat; Chapter 37 Perceptions of Academic Freedom; Chapter 38 Support for Tenure; Chapter 39 Free expression on campus; Chapter 40 Spiral of Silence? Chapter 41 Conclusion; Part 42 Chapter 7: Conclusion;Chapter 43 Access and Affordability; Chapter 44 Accountability and Assessment; Chapter 45 Social Change; Chapter 46 Politics and Ideology in American Higher Education; and Chapter 47 Campus Dialogue. Appended are: (1) A List of Questions Used in the NAASS Survey; (2) A Professor's Assessment of Institutional Success in Educating Students; (3) A University Rankings by Tier; (4) A Models of Trust for Students, Faculty and Administrators; (5) The Impact of Varying Exclusion Methods on College Satisfaction Results; and (6) A Why Professors Think Academic Tenure is Important. A bibliography is included Review The report on the major NAASS survey is important and timely. The survey instrument goes in novel directions and yields rich results. The report is clear, thorough, and accessible. The results bring important confirmations, new insights, and surprises that will challenge folks from various quarters. (Daniel Klein ) There is simply no book that does what \*The Still Divided Academy\* does. The authors tackle important matters: conflict over the very purpose of universities, who should (and does) run universities, political imbalance at universities, tenure, academic freedom, and most importantly, the role of diversity. Their work is potentially controversial, but without bias. There is much here that will comfort and annoy both liberals and conservatives, and that is so rare in this area. One cannot have a good understanding of academic freedom and political correctness at universities without reading \*The Still Divided Academy\*. (Maranto, Robert ) As universities hire more administrators from outside the faculty ranks, the gulf between those officials and the faculty widens and professors feel less influence on university governance, says a new book on conflict in higher education. The book, \*The Still Divided Academy: How Competing Visions of Power, Politics, and Diversity Complicate the Mission of Higher Education\*, relied on surveys of about 4,060 administrators, faculty members, and students at four-year institutions. Like \*The Chronicle' s\* own reporting, the surveys found that confidence in the impact of faculty governance is low. (\*Chronicle Of Higher Education\* ) About the Author \*\*Stanley Rothman\*\* is Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of Government Emeritus at Smith College and the director of the Center for the Study of Social and Political Change. \*\*April Kelly-Woessner\*\* is associate professor of political science at Elizabethtown College. \*\*Matthew Woessner\*\* is an associate professor of political science and public policy at Penn State University at Harrisburg. The Still Divided Academy examines the inner workings of the academic community by addressing a broad range of issues including academic politics, tenure, perceived and real political imbalance, academic freedom, and diversity. Administrators, professors, and students have very different priorities, values, and expectations and, therefore, often have conflicting opinions on these issues. Drawing on data from a specially commissioned public-opinion survey as well as other recent research, Rothman, Kelly-Woessner, and Woessner create an incredibly readable presentation of the similarities and the differences between those running our universities and those attending them. The authors manage to remain impressively neutral; instead, they give us a fuller perspective on the people on our college campuses. --Book Jacket