Politics

SAN DIEGO -- You know the stereotypes -- perhaps even believe them. College administrators these days care only for the bottom line. Professors can't decide anything or ever endorse change. When professors become department chairs or deans, they cross over to the "dark side," and forget their old values and friends.

Does it make economic and public policy sense for professors to spend more time on research? Two scholars review the evidence and find more theories than answers.

As top administrators at Gustavus Adolphus leave positions mysteriously, faculty want review of new president -- and get warned by board chair of possibility of being sued.

As N.C. State chancellor resigns amid controversy, several other besieged college leaders hold on. So how do presidents persevere in scandal or avoid it altogether?

Habib Sadid has made himself an easy target. For many of his 22 years at Idaho State University, the professor of civil engineering has poked and prodded administrators. He’s run to the newspapers when he thought no one else would listen, espousing claims of rampant “corruption” within the university. In frenzied e-mails, he lambastes his dean as an ineffectual "liar." He’s even filed a lawsuit, alleging retaliation for his years in the loyal opposition.

A debate over the teaching of evolution at Seventh-day Adventist college in California draws the attention of church leaders, who say students should be exposed to the theory and then dissuaded from believing it.

The attempt by the University of Illinois to build an online institution was a huge failure. What can it teach us?

At Oakland U., the action isn't just on the picket lines. It's on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

Few think the clock will be turned back to the Berkeley of the 1960s, but the protests planned across the University of California today mark a return to the tactics of another era. This time, however, the cause isn’t free speech or an end to war, but instead a response to the university administration’s budget-cutting proposals.

Want to know what faculty members really think about administrators these days? You may want to check out Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University (University of Chicago Press).