Office Hours: Activism and Change in the Academy

Universities are in trouble. They face some tough choices about how to survive in our uncompromising times. In a series of stinging analyses this book tackles these issues head on. It argues that it's not enough to blame market forces or the indifference of politicians: academics can often be their own worst enemies. Universities are increasingly profit-driven, and the faculty seems increasingly passive in the face of political and economic pressures. This book examines the current sorry state of higher education and offers 'alternative futures' for the academy, visions that involve academic organizations, public outreach through the internet, faculty unionization, and campus organizing. Office Hours is a roll-up-your-sleeves look at the avoidable disaster facing the modern university. 'Straightforward, unpretentious, immensely readable, and on matters of extreme urgency to a very wide potential readership.' --Bruce Robbins, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University 'Office Hours is always pointed, often poetic and amusing, and never dull. Nelson and Watt accurately diagnose the serious malady that threatens American higher education, and then suggest the cure. Do read this book-it's a tonic.' --Jane Buck, President, American Association of University Professors 'Straightforward, unpretentious, immensely readable, and on matters of extreme urgency to a very wide potential readership' - Bruce Robbins, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University 'Office Hours is always pointed, often poetic and amusing, and never dull. Nelson and Watt accurately diagnose the serious malady that threatens American higher education, and then suggest the cure.