Reviews

The Fall of the Faculty by Benjamin Ginsberg

saintdoormatius's review against another edition

2.0

As a humanities professor at a two-year college, I agree with Ginsberg's central conceit and overview here. However, his binary approach to administration vs. faculty, and demeaning tone (such as the constant use of the terms "deanling" and "deanlet") are dismissive and, ultimately, only reinforce the stereotypes of such positions...and by extension, reinforces the division between the two. I am currently in the throes of watching my own institution fall apart due to administrative overreach and a complete lack of shared governance with faculty, yet I find the approach here far too combative and blithe to be of any help, unfortunately.

arbitrary_convenience's review against another edition

funny informative fast-paced

2.0

I want to start by saying that it has good points. As the book goes on, it falls further away from data-driven appeals (what I had originally started reading it for) and further into a self-righteous, angry rant (which early on was funny and later became exhausting). 

He presents faculty and administrators as warring monoliths. The faculty are idealized and honest, caring only about teaching and research, over the money they might make. The administrators are greedy, focusing on stuffing their pockets, collecting esteemed titles, and taking care of their own supporters. 

He demonstrates a disregard and lack of understanding for the importance of student services and living expectations. This is evident in his criticisms of  prospective student programs which focus on dorms, healthcare, food, student orgs, diversity initiatives, and the like. He believes students should go to college to learn to think (not a bad thing) by interacting with liberal arts classes, rather than receive training for a specific job (also a valid use of education, in my opinion). As a former student whose advisor in undergrad disagreed with this mentality, and a current phd student who wishes I had taken more focused classes (rather than various elective requirements) to prepare me, I cannot respect this take. 

As I mentioned, I was hoping for an overview of the current and prospective states of jobs in academia, but I read instead a a series of anecdotal and emotional appeals with statistics and quotes mixed in. 

He often used flamboyant language to make the opposition (administrators) look silly and wasteful. I’m not saying administrators aren’t wasteful and silly. But the language used to describe their programs and ideals is intentionally diminutive and incendiary. This is a common tactic I usually find in debaters which makes me lose most of my credibility for them as intellectuals.

In conclusion, The Fall of the Faculty has some good information and important things to consider and monitor in the trends of higher education. My problem is that it’s difficult to get to those points through all the whining. 

mikeypitt7's review against another edition

3.0

Ginsberg has no love for administrators! As a member of the faculty, I found this book completely engaging but highly repetitive. The same few points are made in multiple chapters with just a slightly different take. The author's consistent criticism of the army of "deanlings and deanlets" was humorous. I would have liked more strategies for combating the all-administrative university as I accepted this thesis by the end of the first chapter. Five more chapters with slightly different details were not necessary.

jdgcreates's review against another edition

2.0

While I completely agree with the fundamental argument of this book and have seen it in action at a university where I work, his tone is pretty pompous and rude; it's almost like the first angry draft was accepted for publication without adjustments, and while I personally identified with his anger, it seemed overdone and inappropriate here, especially for a scholar.

Some enlightening ideas about strategic plans, tenure, institutional assessment, and endowments were the best parts for me and if you're looking for a rant about the downfall of higher learning in this country, then look no further.

fusaroli's review against another edition

3.0

I wholeheartedly agree with Ginsberg's message and reading the book gave me a visceral unease as the author nailed many of my own experiences. However, I disliked the very aggressive tone and jumping from example to example, instead of giving a more grounded (and quantitative!) analysis of the issues. We all (in academia) heard and experience the anecdotes, now I wanted solid stats and aggregated analyses between universities and countries. Maybe I just wasn't the right audience for this.