Princeton Weekly Bulletin, April 13, 1998
Essays assess academic leadership
New book is one of several generated by 250th Conference on Higher Education
By Sally Freedman
Universities and Their Leadership is a recently published book of 10 essays that provide "thoughtful contributions to our better understanding of the evolution of higher education," say the editors, President Harold T. Shapiro and Emeritus President William G. Bowen (now president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation).
These essays were originally presented at the Princeton Conference on Higher Education, a symposium held in March 1996 as part of Princeton's 250th Anniversary. The conference, which was jointly sponsored by the University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has inspired eight or nine books, Shapiro noted, all published by Princeton University Press.
Some of the books contain papers presented at the conference, and some include additional work, but "all are based on material presented at the conference," said Shapiro. "I'm very proud of the fact that the conference has generated so much interest."
Issues of accountability
Though Shapiro and Bowen have written prefaces to all the books generated by the 250th conference, Universities and Their Leadership is the one they chose to "take direct responsibility for," Shapiro said.
The essays in this book "are clustered around the topics of accountability and the nature of the relationships that exist, or should exist, either between the contemporary university and the society it serves or among different elements of the academic community," the editors note.
The book opens with a pair of essays on "The University Overall": one that addresses contemporary criticisms of the American university, written by Frank Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell University, and another that discusses the issue of academic accountability, by Martin Trow of the University of California, Berkeley.
The second section of the book includes reflections on "The Presidency" by Shapiro and by Hanna Gray, president emeritus of the University of Chicago. Shapiro's essay, "University Presidents --Then and Now," is based both on his own experiences as president of the University of Michigan and of Princeton, and on archival records of presidents Francis Wayland of Brown (1827-55), Charles Eliot of Harvard (1869-1909), James Angell of Michigan (1871-1909) and Woodrow Wilson of Princeton (1902-10).
"In this essay," he wrote, "I have attempted an initial characterization of the changing nature of ... the presidency of an American university. On the one hand, this position involves the nurturance, safeguarding and sponsorship of a venerable, even sacred, public trust. ... On the other hand, the position also involves its share of shallow, frivolous, sentimental and occasionally demeaning activity. Whatever else it may be, the presidency of a university is a very human endeavor."
Faculty, science
The third section of Universities and Their Leadership addresses issues related to "The Faculty" in an essay on professional conduct by Henry Rosovsky and Inge-Lise Ameer of Harvard University; a discussion of teaching professional ethics by Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics Amy Gutmann; and an analysis of recent changes in higher education in different European countries by Oliver Fulton of Lancaster University.
The final section assesses "The Planning and Oversight of Science" in essays on the relationship of the U.S. government and academic researchers past and present, by Daniel Kevles of the California Institute of Technology; on shifts in perspective on federal responsibility for research, by Frank Press of the Washington Advisory Group and the Carnegie Institution; and on the future of the U.S. scientific enterprise, by Maxine Singer, president of the Carnegie Institution.
Development of higher ed
Among the other volumes that have come out of the 250th conference, Shapiro says, are Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education, by C. T. Clotfelter; Crafting a Class: College Admissions and Financial Aid, 1955-1994 (E. A. Duffy and I. Goldberg); The Student Aid Game: Meeting Need and Rewarding Talent in American Higher Education (M.S. McPherson and M. O. Schapiro); and What's Happened to the Humanities? (A. K. Kernan). In press are volumes on affirmative action in higher education, edited by former Princeton Dean of Students Eugene Lowe, and on religion in higher education, edited by Dean of the Faculty John Wilson.
"Harold Shapiro has devoted exceptional time and energy to understanding the development of higher education, especially in our recent history," commented Wilson. "Undergraduates who have been in his freshman seminar on education have profited directly. But his interest in these questions has also affected the university. I think that in retrospect these years will be viewed as very special ones in which Princeton rededicated itself to the full mission of universities, that is, to the importance of teaching along with front line research and first rate scholarship."