A Professor at the End of Time

The Work and Future of the Professoriate

By John Best

Rutgers University Press

A Professor at the End of Time tells one professor’s story in the context of the rapid reconfiguration of higher education going on now, and analyzes what the job included before the supernova of technological innovation, the general influx of less-well-prepared students, and the diminution of state and federal support wrought wholesale changes on the profession.

For those wondering what typical professors do, A Professor at the End of Time offers a carefully documented look under the hood. And for those wondering about the road ahead for higher education, it invites us to retain the best of yesterday’s world while harnessing the potential of tomorrow’s digital, cost-conscious world. David G. Myers, Professor of Psychology, Hope College

Best provides a unique perspective of a life in academia in his verbal documentary. His story within a story juxtaposes a faculty career amidst a time of change in higher education. Pamela L. Eddy, Professor of Higher Education, The College of William and Mary

A Professor at the End of Time is an engaging read that should interest current academics as they contemplate the future of their chosen profession. It will also be valuable to historians looking for an archive of data regarding the Golden Age of higher education by providing specific data to analyze. It paints a realistic model of what challenges faced Professor Best in his 34-year career and contains numerous narratives from his teaching. It also serves as a warning to professors everywhere that remaining complacent and believing that academia is monolithic and unchanging in the ivory tower is dangerous. Review of Higher Education

JOHN BEST is professor emeritus of psychology at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. He is the author of Cognitive Psychology.

Preface

Part I Blocking the Action

Chapter 1 Standing at the Edge of Time

Part II A Professor at Work

Chapter 2 The Work of the Teaching College Professor: In (and Out of) the Classroom

Chapter 3 Technology Changing Courses, Changing Students, Changing Professors

Chapter 4 Research: The Barren Victory

Chapter 5 Where Service Leads

Part III The Professoriate’s Imperiled Future

Chapter 6 What Happens after the End of Time?: Vectors on a Collision Course

Chapter 7 Some Time Traveling for Me