Customer Reviews

All the Essential Half-Truths about Higher Education

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O'Brien's title references what he terms the "half-truth" that the faculty is the university. His answer is, "of course, but ..." Drawing on his presidency at Bucknell, and his Hegel scholarship, O'Brien argues that an institution represents something else more difficult to identify but just as important: an ethos, a culture, a set of binding ideals, all of which are continually (re)created by the interaction of faculty with institutional tradition. While others like Donald Kennedy have also briefly noted the idea of a greater degree of centralized direction, if not control, O'Brien takes the idea much further both theoretically, and practically, by proposing specific faculty positions intended to strengthen in the long-term an institution's intellectual culture. Finally, O'Brien argues, in an academic version of Michael Porter's doctrine of "competitive advantage," that institutions ought to capitalize on their differences rather than accentuate their sameness. All in all, a provocative, insightful and, yes, even funny meditation on the relationship between institutional structure and institutional character.

I highly recommend this book whether you are a student, parent of a soon-to-be college student, are considering a career in academia or are just plain curious. It is very well written, witty and highly informative. I always recommend it to my friends in academia, especially when the subject of tenure comes up, which he discusses at length. He also discusses the history of the university, which I find very fascinating. All in all, an excellent read.