Akeel Bilgrami

Jonathan R. Cole

In these seventeen essays, distinguished senior scholars discuss the conceptual issues surrounding the idea of freedom of inquiry and scrutinize a variety of obstacles to such inquiry that they have encountered in their personal and professional experience. Their discussion of threats to freedom traverses a wide disciplinary and institutional, political and economic range covering specific restrictions linked to speech codes, the interests of donors, institutional review board licensing, political pressure groups, and government policy, as well as phenomena of high generality, such as intellectual orthodoxy, in which coercion is barely visible and often self-imposed. As the editors say in their introduction: "No freedom can be taken for granted, even in the most well-functioning of formal democracies. Exposing the tendencies that undermine freedom of inquiry and their hidden sources and widespread implications is in itself an exercise in and for democracy."

Who's Afraid of Academic Freedom?

Education has been disrupted dramatically by culture, technology and economics. The only certainty about the universities of the future is that they will not thrive if left unchanged. Jonathan Cole, John Mitchell Mason Professor at Columbia University, and its former provost, is one of the country's leading academic researchers into higher education. A fierce champion of the merits and benefits of the great American research university, Cole identifies the potential fault-lines that threaten the future of universities and the strategic changes that successful colleges will have to make in order to preserve their intellectual relevance, economic viability and social mission. In turn he examines: Admissions policies; Examinations; Cost; Undergraduate education; The role of the humanities The place for professional schools; Research campuses of the future; Sports; Leadership and governance; The intellectual and legal threats to academic freedom. Using his deep knowledge of the history and traditions that underpin US higher education, Cole separates the essential from the fashionable. Higher education is a vital national resource, and an economic proving ground. It is the bedrock of American business and society and it must adapt in order to remain globally competitive and intellectually valuable. The culture of the great American universities reflects the moral and social foundations of the republic itself: they are a litmus test of values and philosophies, and their future affects everyone.

Toward a More Perfect University

Americans and people throughout the world have become increasingly dependent on America's great research universities. Yet few of us truly understand to what we owe this extraordinary excellence or what we must do to keep it. From the development of technologies like the laser, the global positioning system, the MRI, radar, and even Viagra, to predicting weather patterns, American research universities are one of our most vital sources of economic growth and social welfare. They have flourished because of a system that has invested public tax dollars in their work and, more importantly, granted substantial autonomy to funding agencies and the universities. This system is now under attack, the university's preeminence endangered by the USA PATRIOT Act and other conservative policies. This revelatory and alarming book will show how this vital institution is at risk of tragically losing its dominant status and why a threat to the university is a threat to the health and wealth of our nation.

Jonathan R. Cole

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