ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the validity of these related propositions in an academic setting. It shows the harmful effects of the imbalance of power between, on the one hand, a mostly vulnerable faculty and, on the other hand, an institution's governing board and administration with the force of law and custom and all of the school's resources on their side. The book begins with the premise that academic administrators, having been given authority by governing boards, hold a great deal more power in institutions of higher learning than faculty. All academic institutions except the most unabashedly tyrannical have some form of faculty government. Such structures are typically charged with determination of curriculum, degree requirements, committee structure, grading, standards of scholarship, and so on. The book also shows that between 1991 and 1997, senior academic administrators earned more than both college and university professors.
