I sent this message a week ago and it didn't get through when the PEN list crashed. I am very eager for response, as there is a faculty meeting here coming up next Thursday. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 25 Aug 1995 16:43:33 -0500 (CDT) From: John B Exdell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: university reform The administration at Kansas State University is asking the faculty to begin a dialogue on major changes in university governance, faculty workloads, post-tenure review, and other matters. The starting point for this discussion is an article by William Plater, dead of faculties at Purdue, entitled "Future Work," published in the May/June issue of _Change_. We're told that this essay is circulating among university administrators around the nation, and having a major influence on their strategic planning. There is much in this essay that is disturbing, and I am asking for help in framing a response. Plater claims: (1) There are major social and technological forces that are putting our universities in crisis, and that major changes in internal organization and mission are now required. (2) University faculty, even though working hard, are not using their time well, and the university is no longer efficiently meeting public needs. (3) Faculty research can no longer determined by the interests of the individual faculty member, but must now be related to the instituional mission and externally determined public purposes. (E.g., "As an English professor, I might prefer to pursue my interests in the application of social theory to the intrpretation of contemporary literature, but my university has the right to ask me to also pursue other topics that better match its misssion.") (4) Post-tenure review is unavoidable. (5) Faculty governance is inconsistent with the efficient use of faculty time to meet the mission of the university. And much more. Not everything in this article is wrong or sinister, but there is a lot to worry about. I need some resources helpful in analyzing this agenda and fashioning a response to it. Specifically, I need some analysis of the social and economic forces that are affecting university budgets and diminishing public support. I also need some good analysis of the interests that are pushing this "reform" agenda. I am not interested in defending the status quo. It would be very helpful therefore to get some references to good progressive critiques of the university that can be used in proposing an alternative vision. I would of course also appreciate commentary on this subject, if this has not already occurred on PEN.
