Description
Book SynopsisTimothy V. Kaufman-Osborn outlines the history of American higher education's formal organization as an incorporated autocracy that is tied to capitalism, arguing that the academy must reconstitute itself in accordance with the principles of democratic republicanism in which members choose who govern and can hold them accountable.
Trade Review"The book is extraordinarily important at precisely this moment when we need to think seriously about how dangerous our institutions’ bylaws are and how devastating it is that we never found a way to give shared governance doctrinal heft or to enshrine faculty control over curricula into law. The path to Commonwealth University—the name Kaufman-Osborn gives to his imaginary member-incorporated institution of higher education—is murky, but we can and should start to renegotiate our governance rules." -- Jennifer Ruth * Academe *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
A Prologue in the Form of a Puzzle 1
I. Nibbling at the Crust of Convention
1. Imperious Regents and Disposable Custodians 11
2. The Neoliberal Corporation Debunked 30
3. Corporate Types 47
II. Contesting the Constitution of College in Early America
4. William & Mary Dispossessed 63
5. “The College of Tyrannus” 82
6. The Marshall Plan 105
III. A Bet Gone Bad
7. Psychasthenia Universitatis (or The Malady of the Academy) 135
8. “Shared Governance” as Placebo 163
IV. When Autocrats Meet Their Makers
9. Outsourcing Self-Governance 197
10. “Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall . . .” 231
Epilogue: Reenvisioning the Corporate Academy 255
Notes 273
Bibliography 307
Index 327
