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Volume: 6
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ISSN: 1533-7812
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Last Updated: May 30, 2008 - 10:18:01 AM |
Academic Duty by Donald Kennedy
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1997, 310 pages, $16.95 (soft cover)
A review by Cody Arvidson, University of North Texas
The debate regarding
the role of faculty in various aspects of higher education has expanded
throughout the last decade of the twentieth century. Several
publications sought to expose the need for faculty to change, to accept
the mission of their profession as inclusive of teaching, mentoring,
and developing not only their graduate students but also undergraduate
students. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
among others, published several studies and treatises hoping to inspire
national debate and effect change in academia. Perhaps the efforts of
those preceding Kennedy have not fully succeeded in igniting the
revolution because they failed to give character and life to academia
and its faculty. Kennedy depicts academia as a world with richness and
life. Examples and anecdotes enlighten the reader and elicit
understanding about the integrity and duty of academia. Kennedy writes
this intriguing insider dossier to the emerging professoriate, the
contingent of academia most likely to excitedly invigorate faculty with
academic revolution.
Kennedy has written a
series of essays related the theme of academic duty for his classes
about the professoriate taught to doctoral students and aspiring
professors. Those essays have emerged as
Academic Duty,
due to his awareness that the subject matter could be of use to a
broader population. Kennedy states the evolution of this manuscript
best in the Preface: “So what began as a set of notes for a class of
academic aspirants metamorphosed into a book about universities” (p.
vii).
Kennedy takes great
care to consider many elements of the professoriate about which future
faculty need to be aware. The author seems to write for an audience
with which he is very familiar and intimate. His candor and depth are
quite appealing and engrossing to the reader. While reading the text,
one feels invited to be a member of a small and prestigious club. It is
hard to believe that Kennedy is conferring these words of wisdom for
the whole of academia because the content is quite applicable for both
faculty and administration. As state earlier, Kennedy writes about the
complement to academic freedom, academic duty. He argues that academic
freedom garners much press and enthusiasm, but academic duty is
overlooked at best.
Academic Duty
is composed of ten highly readable chapters, each representing an
element of the whole theme. The chapters epitomize the breadth of
knowledge needed by the successful aspirant for the professoriate.
Additionally, the chapters are sandwiched in between the equally
revealing "Preface" and "Acknowledgements."
The first chapter
juxtaposes academic duty with academic freedom. This introduction to
academic duty prepares the reader for the remainder of the book by
providing an overview of the issues and duties faced by faculty. The
importance of public as well as media perceptions of higher education
is introduced in this chapter. The public mistrust of the ivory tower
and the outcries for change exemplify the vulnerability of the
institution and it's credibility. The trend toward more accountability
within higher education has led to openness when problems with
“scientific fraud, racial disharmony, commercial greed, or unacceptable
sexual conduct” (p. 17) arise. The chapter concludes by examining more
fully responsibility and duty, as well as the role of ethics in the
fulfillment of responsibilities.
Chapter two engages the
reader with a brief general overview of the differences in types of
higher education institutions as well as a historically supported
description of the faculty culture of today. The author does portray a
scenario of competition and elitism among faculty. However, he also
encourages "new minted scholars" (p. 51) to pursue jobs in the academic
marketplace, with extended footnotes about the reality of the market
place today. Finally, Kennedy urges institutional honesty both to
prospective doctoral students and new faculty hires.
In chapter three,
Kennedy addresses the very purpose of the faculty, teaching. What being
a teacher (i.e., communicator, coach, mentor, role model) means is
considered. The expectations of the faculty regarding teaching as well
as of the general public are contrasted. Faculty has very different
expectations about its rights versus the public and perhaps
administration's expectations about its responsibilities. Further, an
extended discussion about the inconsistencies in evaluation methods for
faculty teaching enlightens the reader about the faculty's expectations
to evaluate outcomes versus processes. Kennedy calls for faculty to
embrace teaching as a form of scholarship and to actively train
doctoral students to teach, not only information but also transferable
thinking skills. Kennedy discusses the obsolete grading curve, grade
inflation, appropriate testing methods, student centered learning,
academic honesty and honor codes, advisor roles, and the innovative
nature of teaching.
"To Mentor" is a short
chapter. Here, Kennedy emphasizes mentoring as a sub-set of teaching
that is often overlooked, but is nonetheless critical to the future
professoriate. Mentoring is the relationship between the student and
professor that extends beyond classrooms into laboratories and
publications. He argues that appropriate credit, authorship, and
collaboration with students will prepare them for their academic
careers. Awfully real cases are presented to illustrate the necessity
of mentors to critically care for their protégés. Kennedy sums up the
heart of mentoring as "represent[ing] the highest form of academic
duty, but…also embody[ing] the greatest risk of failure" (p. 116).
Chapter five defines
what it means for faculty "To Serve the University." Service ranges
from broad public obligations, such as consulting and legislative
lobbying, to the less visible obligations on campus, such as
departmental governance. Kennedy discusses the dichotomy between the
faculty as mere employee versus managerial decision maker. Ultimately,
faculty controls the vast majority of the decisions about itself, the
institution, the students, and the character of academic culture.
Tenure and its future, which would seem in question, are considered in
depth. A greater understanding of the purpose of tenure as well as its
underbelly is gleaned through the discussion. It seems as though
Kennedy is ultimately encouraging faculty to embrace its range of
service-oriented duties. A poignant example of how service on a campus
committee enabled one professor to contribute significant research to
his specific discipline summed up the holistic nature of service to the
university.
Discovery is the duty
discussed in chapter six. Scholarly production as a requirement of all
disciplines is addressed. Kennedy examines sponsored research funding
and regulation of such funding in exquisite and electrifying detail. To
illustrate the significance of indirect cost estimating and accounting
in government or foundation funded research, Kennedy vividly recounts
the investigation of Stanford led by the Office of Naval Research
beginning in 1990. Stanford was of course vilified in the press and by
the investigating congressional committee, and was in the end
acquitted. Kennedy was president of Stanford during the investigations,
and resigned shortly after their conclusion as a casualty of the
muckraking. It is through this tale that the reader gleans the negative
consequences of too much government and of the inability for even the
most judicious university to manage its grants and research projects
without problems under regulations and guidelines (i.e., pool
accounting) that actually invite trouble. Kennedy notes additionally
that regulations heaped on the universities by not only government but
also corporate sponsors may fail to serve discovery because the
agreements may actually inhibit academic freedom and publication. He
calls, in light of the Stanford investigation, on institutions to
carefully negotiate conditions for sponsorship that advance the
intended discovery and to manage the resources meticulously.
If discovery is
critical to scholarly work, then publishing is the next logical act.
Kennedy adeptly transitions from discovery into publishing. The chapter
is short and clear. Kennedy addresses peer review systems, the growth
of scholarly journals, including proprietary journals, problems with
methods for evaluating publication quality, and issues of authorship.
Kennedy succinctly states, "For better or worse, publication is the
medium by which the scholars work is distributed and judged. Thus much
of a scholar's reputation depends on what, where, and how much he or
she publishes, and on how that work is received publicly by others" (p.
208).
Ultimately, as Kennedy
points out, the university must be truthful if it is to teach and
inspire young minds and to further academic inquiry through discovery
and publication. Academic misconduct is identified as misappropriation
of academic credit, "illegitimate appropriation of the ideas or
expressions of another" (p. 211), and intentional "falsification of
data or experimental results" (p. 211). Kennedy explores academic
misconduct and its influence on higher education's reputation at
length. However, the case scenarios and real life illustrations are
offered in novelistic page-turner fashion.
Chapter nine refers to
reaching beyond the walls as engaging in the transfer of technology.
There is no doubt that the new technology generated by faculty for
purposes of improving any academic discipline will benefit the private
sector. However, Kennedy urges ethical professionalism in part because
of the ambiguous rules governing "a faculty member's time and effort"
(p. 242). The discussion includes intellectual property rights,
consulting privileges, competition clauses, and conflict of interest.
Two very intriguing cases are presented for facilitating the reader's
understanding of the complexity of the dilemma. Kennedy considers
instances that influence a professor's loss of objectivity, such as
financial interest and "commitment to one's own pet theory or favorite
finding" (p. 262). The professoriate is encouraged to regulate its own
conduct as an effort to avoid society stepping in and taking such
regulation opportunities away.
In the final chapter, a
call for change is made. The current structure of the academic
institution was set at the end of the nineteenth century and in order
to fulfill duty higher education must change with the rest of society.
Kennedy predicts that "dramatic and far-reaching" (p. 266) change is on
the horizon because of public outcry and the constant and changing
nature of information and technology in the new economy. A number of
trends and areas of emerging change are listed, including the growing
differentiation between institution types, increasing awareness of duty
to undergraduate students, lifelong learning, and transferability of
course material to the real world. Kennedy calls for strong leadership
and guidance from top administration. Finally, Kennedy closes by
reminding the reader of the fundamental duty to teach, encouraging
change in the preparation of the professoriate, reclamation the central
mission of the university, and passion for responsiveness and
innovation.
Kennedy's chapters
could easily be broken into several independent articles; at the same
time, the chapters also seem so interwoven. For instance, peer review
systems for evaluating grant proposals, tenure applications, and
publication submissions are discussed throughout the text. The reader
becomes familiar in a more than cursory way with the nature of the peer
review in higher education, including its strengths and shortcomings.
The importance of truth in discovery and publishing is inexorably
apparent as Kennedy skillfully weaves them together as separate straws
of the same basket through three different chapters; each of which can
be read independently. Additionally, as teaching and mentoring are also
considered if only minimally in every chapter, it seems clear that
Kennedy truly believes that the fundamental mission of higher education
guides the professoriate, even when its influence is unsuspected.
Finally, underlying each chapter is the duty to role model and to teach
through behavior. A concept that surely any professor as well as
student advisor can embrace.
Kennedy speaks
specifically about research institutions and only briefly mentions that
other types of higher education institutions exist. He speaks only
about the graduate student with no significant comment about the
undergraduate student. All scenarios are about faculty, mostly in
science fields, or their doctoral students. While addressing graduate
students, Kennedy fails to address the student issues of other
professional schools, with the exception of medical school.
Kennedy addresses only
minimally the impact of technology on publishing; however, he also
states that the future and role of technology and the Internet has yet
to be defined. He also gives the reader with the feeling of promise for
the Internet in scholarly pursuits but seems to caution that legalities
about ownership and new peer review rules will eventually define
scholarship by Internet.
Academic Duty
is an extremely valuable text. For the novice faculty, the text
provides the insider information needed to successfully navigate
faculty culture and academic publishing, while considering the
fundamental mission is to teach, to mentor, to educate. For the
administrator and campus leader, the information provided about the
inner workings of the faculty culture can be extremely helpful. Kennedy
calls for leadership from the top regarding issues of academic
misconduct, peer evaluations, and several other issues. It would
behoove even the student affairs professional to learn about the
academic side of higher education by reading Kennedy's essays. Frankly,
as an aspiring academician and as a student affairs professional, I
believe that this text will become a classic and a must-read, as it
defines the values of higher education and is indeed a true page-turner.
© Copyright 2007 by Academic Leadership
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