REVIEWS of NO UNIVERSITY IS AN ISLAND
LIBRARY JOURNAL
(March 15, 2010)
Nelson, Cary. No University Is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom. New York
Univ. Mar. 2010. c.300p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-8147-5859-5. $27.95. ED
Nelson (Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Univ. of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign; Manifesto of a Tenured Radical) is passionate about higher
education and convinced that maintaining excellence relies on three core
principles: academic freedom, shared governance, and tenure. He identifies
multiple threats to academic freedom and continued quality, including the
growing number of contingent faculty with part-time or short-term contracts.
The current president of the American Association of University Professors
(AAUP), Nelson argues that the AAUP is important because it defines
principles regarding university governance and the professional
responsibilities of faculty and demonstrates the power of collective action
to protect individuals and university standards. Nelson's descriptions of
the history, goals, and achievements of the AAUP, as well as its sometimes
severe organizational mismanagement, make this an original contribution.
VERDICT: This valuable and lively polemic will be of particular interest to
readers already familiar with campus issues and the political struggle over
faculty rights and responsibilities. Readers who want a more analytical
examination of contemporary challenges facing universities might look at
Frank Donoghue's The Last Professors or James C. Garland's Saving Alma
Mater.—Elizabeth R. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL
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