In this essay, we interrogate the role of academic freedom in the 21st century by describing its historical genesis in the modern university, its association with the concept of tenure, and how it is reinterpreted by different cultural and social contexts. Afterwards, we examine traditional infringements by national governments upon academic…

The authors first survey the factors related to globalization that have stimulated the creation of international branch campuses. They then contend that the viability of an international branch campus should not be solely evaluated from a rational choice perspective oriented toward economic self-interest. Rather, the organizational culture of the…

The construct of time influences student learning in and out of school and consequently pervades educational discourse. Yet the integration of information and communication technologies into contemporary society is changing how people perceive and experience time. Traditional theoretical and methodological approaches to time research no longer…

Increasing postsecondary access depends in large part on enhancing underrepresented students' writing ability, or college writing readiness. However, what exactly constitutes college-level writing is not clear-cut, complicating efforts to improve secondary preparation. This article examines recent efforts to define postsecondary writing,…

Throughout the 20th century, one of the central debates pertaining to postsecondary education has been about the concept of merit. Who deserves to go to college? The answer to that question goes to the heart of various policies that have been developed, changed, and debated. Perhaps no other policy has drawn more prominence and criticism than that…

This guidebook argues that solutions to the many problems that internally plague academic institutions of higher education are best developed when administrators closely examine the values, beliefs, traditions, and histories that organizational members hold. Institutional evaluations should take place within a cultural context in which…

Effective management of time is described from a cultural viewpoint, using examples from four case studies based on a one-year research project on college and university decision-making. Three dimensions of time in colleges and universities are important: formal/informal; historical; and seasonal/ceremonial. The environment, external…

Four strategies that college leaders can use to encourage a sense of community are offered. The strategies, focusing on the campus culture, involve allowing conflict to be heard and examined, emphasizing cultural rather than managerial leadership, honoring differences, and creating awareness of differences in others. (MSE)

The structural aspects of ritual in a modern university and the way that ritual operates through the use of tenure at Stanford University is assessed, based on an ethnohistorical analysis of the firing of a tenured professor, H. Bruce Franklin. Mr. Franklin actively opposed the Vietnam War and Stanford University's alleged involvement with the…

This digest is a brief summary of a longer monograph of the same title on the importance of understanding faculty socialization as a cultural process in the context of the current changes urged on higher education. A section on how faculty socialization is conceptualized adopts a view of culture in which culture shapes and is shaped by social…

This monograph examines the importance of understanding faculty socialization as a cultural process in the context of the current changes urged on higher education. An opening section explores the links between culture and commitment and the importance of understanding such links in light of faculty diversity and other challenges. A second section…