Failing the Future – A Dean Looks at Higher Education in the Twenty–first Century

"This book should lead to an opening of the American mind. It is possibly the best book on higher education in the last decade. It is full of ideas that one needs to wrestle with, discuss, and chew over in faculty lounges, over e-mail, in journals, and in faculty senates. "Failing the Future" shows us not only what we must do, but explains HOW."--Emily Toth, author of "Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia"

"This is a welcome and outstanding work. Particularly at this time, with the avalanche of right-wing and largely mindless criticism of universities, this book clearly sets forth the actual situation, the real problems, and suggests useful and possible solutions to the complex situation of higher education in our country today."--Carolyn Heilbrun, Avalon Professor in the Humanities Emerita, Columbia University

Acknowledgments ix
A Personal Preface: Reflections on Five Years in a Dean’s Office I
1. Facing the Future: An Introduction 33
2. “60 Minutes” at the University of Arizona: The Polemic against Tenure 53
3. Raising Standards While Lowering Anxieties: Rethinking the Promotion and Tenure Process 81
4. Paying the Price of Antifeminist Intellectual Harassment 98
5. Creating the Family-Friendly Campus 131
6. Teaching and Learning in a World of Cognitive Diversity 159
7. Setting an Agenda for Change 173
8. Failing the Future; or, How to Commit National Suicide at the End of the Twentieth Century 214
A Closing Refrain: Reflections at a Graduation 249
Appendix 1. University of Arizona College of Humanities Promotion and Tenure Procedures 257
Appendix 2. Summary Checklist of Selected Family-Friendly Initiatives and Programs 269
Notes 273
Works Cited 281
Index 291