Inside Academia

Professors, Politics, and Policies

By Steven M Cahn

Rutgers University Press

Drawing on decades of experience as a renowned teacher, advisor, administrator, and philosopher, Steven M. Cahn diagnoses problems plaguing America’s universities and offers his prescriptions for improvement. He explores numerous aspects of academic life, including the education of graduate students, the quality of teaching, the design of liberal arts curricula, and the procedures for appointing faculty and considering them for tenure.

Inside Academia uses real cases to illustrate how faculty members, deans, and provosts often do not serve the best interests of schools or students. Yet the book also highlights efforts of those who have committed themselves and their institutions to the pursuit of academic excellence.

This will be a great book to read for anyone starting out in academia, and will be illuminating for people on the outside looking in. Funny, enlightening, and a very engaging read! Harry Brighouse, professor of philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Written in a warm, engaging style, Inside Academia provides an 'inside' look at some highs and lows of the academy. Full of personal anecdotes that reflect the author’s long and distinguished career as well as arguments that are invariably well-supported, it is a pleasure to read. Harvey Siegel, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education

Selected New Books on Higher Education' compiled by Ruth Hammond Chronicle of Higher Education

STEVEN M. CAHN is professor emeritus of philosophy at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York, where he served for nearly a decade as provost and vice president for academic affairs, then as acting president. He is the author or editor of sixty books, including Religion Within Reason and Teaching Philosophy: A Guide.

Contents
Preface
1.         How Professors View Academia
2.         Graduate School
3.         Turning Point
4.         How Teachers Succeed
5.         Teaching Graduate Students to Teach
6.         Changing Departmental Culture
7.         The Administration
8.         Choosing Administrators
9.         Curricular Structure
10.       The Case for Liberal Education
11.       Requirements
12.       Distribution Requirements
13.       A Core Curriculum
14.       Departments
15.       Appointments
16.       Tenure and Academic Freedom
17.       A Tenure Case
18.       Autonomy
Index

Related Titles