Get How Universities Work Presented By John V. Lombardi Issued As Version

turns out that much of what we suspected is true A history professor teaching a lecture ofstudents is subsidizing the Physics professor with the big grant Grants cost money but they build reputation which is literally capital at universities Filled with excellent and hard won insights One of the things I like best about Lombardi is that he has been fired multiple times for his truth telling Those instances never deterred him incisive analysis of some budgetary issues for university administrations but otherwise kind of an odd book Once over lightly on a wide range of issues mostly trailing off in inconclusive no doubt technology will continue to become a bigger issue in higher education blandness mainly focused on research intensive universities and I guess if you found yourself plunged into the job of president of one without having any previous higher ed background this would be a good uick overview to orient yourself Otherwise skippable Very biased opinion of how universities work The book is very detailed and implies that research universities are the best universities Lombardi speakers from a Higher Education budget and funding perspective rather than a academic based perspective Was an easy straightforward and well organized read Offered a comprehensive overview of the world of higher education with a specified bias toward research universities Seemed to gloss over some important issues ie finances and athletics and brushed over the topic of staff Although fairly comprehensive this book was much drier than I expected given the author who was the President of my university when I was in attendance The author is an extremely charismatic speaker and I was expecting that to cross over to the book There are many interesting insights into the managementleadership of the university but what was missing were the anecdotes and personal stories that would have brought the items discussed in vividly Not bad as a textbook for a seminar class on university management but likewise not for the casual reader An informative overview of the American university system that focuses on what were called Rschools research universities I earned my undergraduate degree from one and just entered a Master's program at another Beginning graduate school was my impetus to read this book and I'm glad I did In fact I wish I had read a book like this when I was coming out of high school The exact in and outs of university hierarchy even rather obvious ones like the tenure track progression escaped me as an undergraduate I was fascinated by the clinical dry prose Lombardi was able to employ and maintain throughout the text It's utterly dead or rather exhumed from thes It's textbook writing colorless Opinion has largely been excised until Lombardi shows you why he's earned a blurb from E Gordon Gee on the front cover he is anti union claiming that Part of the union tradition is an adversarial relationship between management and labor as if before unions management and labor produced and existed in an Arcadian utopia of brotherhood Unions exist because of the adversarial relationship that management has since time immemorial imposed on labor not the other way around He goes on to say that unions incessantly act to stoke self serving tensions to capitalize on I suppose that's one way of looking at it Perhaps that's a minor complaint when viewed in isolation but Lombardi's reactionary impulse though subdued through his soporific styling rears its head once on the subject of Sunshine laws Yes Lombardi has a problem with the media having access to meetings that take place at public institutions like our great state schools Lombardi Through the agency of aggressive public records and public meeting laws the media become participants in the decision process of the public university under the guise of informing the public Lombardi has again tacked on spurious claims of excessive self interest to sectors of society generally understood to be in the public interest He then goes on to say that The public nature of complex discussions in this environment encourages university people to conduct their business off book out of the formal processes and off the public recordsYes that very impulse is why Sunshine laws exist Blaming those laws for that behavior is acausalYou can guess then that Lombardi is unlikely to be first in line to march with student activists He refers to student activism as the behavior as in Even so sometimes the behavior spins out of control and reuires direct action Lombardi's view of the university is that of an apolitical institution that should do its best to not engage social issues Universities are not authorized to serve as agents of social and political change other than through the education and research that is their functionThe rest of the book clearly illustrates just how well Lombardi knows his material if his CV of leadership at four major universities didn't convey that to you already That wealth of knowledge makes it all the disappointing that he has entirely missed the point of his vocation Witty and insightful How Universities Work is destined to be an essential handbook for anyone wanting to understand universities in the United States John V Lombardi gives readers an insiders view of the academy describing the structure logic dynamics and operational styles of both public and private institutions of higher educationLombardi defines and describes all the bits and pieces that compose a university with remarkable economyfrom budgeting systems to tenure from the library to the athletic field Although focused on research universities much of the discussion applies to other types of post secondary institutions Ideal

for students this book will form a solid foundation for courses in higher education but it will also be a welcome addition to faculty and administrators personal libraries.