Scaling the Ivory Tower: Merit and Its Limits in Academic Careers

by Lionel S. Lewis

Overview

Following in the tradition of Thorstein Veblen's Higher Learning in America, Lionel S. Lewis has amassed solid evidence to support his conclusions about what leads to success in Scaling the Ivory Tower. As background to his consideration of academic freedom, sexism, merit, tenure, and other such highly charged subjects, Lewis examines the attitudes of those in universities toward academic qualification. The modern rule of thumb has become publish or perish. According to Lewis, however, research and publication may not be such prime considerations after all.

Two thought-provoking chapters are devoted to an examination of letters of recommendation as important factors in hiring and promoting in the academic world. Lewis also scrutinizes academic freedom cases from the archives of the American Association of University Professors. Other intriguing issues examined by Lewis are: how spouses and significant others factor into whether or not a professor gets a promotion; a typical day in the life, both academic and personal, of a professor; how the celebrity syndrome has spread to campus; discrimination against women; and bureaucracy as a contributing factor to campus unrest.

In the new introduction, Lewis affirms that the most apparent changes in higher education since Scaling the Ivory Tower was initially published have actually made the campus less meritocratic, and less a place where quality academic work is recognized and rewarded. One contributing factor is the necessity to consider age, gender, ethnicity, and race in personnel decisions. Because many on campus are convinced that academic life can only be improved when the demographics of faculty reflect those in the larger society, departments are routinely expected to explain why they did not fill an opening with someone from an underrepresented group. While showing some irreverence toward academia, Scaling the Ivory Tower should also provoke sober consideration of where our colleges and universities are headed. This is a significant volume for university administrators, academics, and graduate students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781560009580
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	08/31/1997
Series:	Foundations of Higher Education Series
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lionel S. Lewis is professor emeritus of sociology and adjunct professor of higher education at SUNY/Buffalo. He has written more than one hundred fifty research articles, essays, and reviews. He is the author of Cold War on Campus: A Study of the Politics of Organizational Control and Academic Governance: The Lattimore Case at Johns Hopkins. Lionel S. Lewis is professor emeritus of sociology and adjunct professor of higher education at SUNY/Buffalo. He has written more than one hundred fifty research articles, essays, and reviews. He is the author of Cold War on Campus: A Study of the Politics of Organizational Control and Academic Governance: The Lattimore Case at Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

1: Higher Educationin America and the Principle of Merit; 2: The Evaluation of Teaching and Publication; 3: Professional Evaluation and Letters of Recommendation; 4: The Genesis of the Puritan and Social Ethics; 5: The Appointment Process: on Achievement and Ascription; 6: The Bearing of Merit on Academic Freedom; 7: Bureaucracy and Meritocracy; 8: The Indispensability of Merit