Review of Derek Bok's book: UNIVERSITIES IN THE MARKETPLACE: The Commercialization of Higher Education
Snide, snotty, supercilious--and fin-de-siecle. Glad I mooch read it and didn't buy it. Anybody who has spent any time in the gentle serfdom of US grad schools is well aware of the commercialization and utter lack of "ideals" (except for public relations purposes) which pervade the system. Bok seems to think that a professor is some sort of special being, too exalted to work for a living and too pure to be soiled by considerations of filthy lucre. In his view, DL is crass and sordid, teddibly blue collar. Harvard ain't a Gelugpa monastery, boys. Like any other school, it's a business. Like any other business exec's exercise in published self-applause, Bok's includes a big blind spot about the "next thing"--DL, in this case. Bok's comments on DL must be self-serving and arrogant; the other explanation is that he is ignorant and ill-disposed to doing his own research--something utterly impossible for so distinguished a leader in American higher education. Kennedy-Eastern, anyone?
